Friday, December 23, 2016

FIF#30-Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 3wei


Illyasveil von Einzbern has faced many challenges since becoming a Magical Girl: Class Cards, church enforcers, evil twins, even the craziness of her own classmates.  After a death defying battle against a monstrous 8th Class Card, it looks like real peace is finally in sight for Illya, Miyu and Kuro.  But that battle has left their world scarred.  A tear has formed between Illya and Miyu’s worlds and now those Miyu once ran from are coming for her.  These are foes on a different level from anything Illya has ever faced before.  Even with the power of Kuro, Rin, Luvia and Bazzet at her side, this battle for the fate of two worlds may be one she cant win.

It’s the last First Impression Friday of the year (next week I’ll have some special reviews in place).  I watched the first episode of this season a few weeks back but opted to save it for now, just cause of all the shows ive covered on FIF, Prisma Illya is the only series I’ve had one here multiple times, once per season.

I’ve enjoyed this Fate/Stay Night spin off up to this point.  The magical girl elements mixed well with the cute-ification of the cast.  Some of the humor is a little…unsettling to say the least and some of the characters bother me to no end.  However, as long as Illya, Miyu and Rin were around, I was satisfied.  As we head into Season 4, it looks like we’re getting a setup that’s the exact opposite of the start of Season 3.  The time for humor seems to be passed.  It’s time to get to the nitty gritty…ok it’s not totally that serious.  However, after the first half of the episode, dealing once again with Illya’s odd choice of school friends, I get the feeling we’re in for a far different experience this time around.

Ever since the beginning of the series, one huge question has been left unanswered: Where the hell did Miyu come from?  We’ve gotten hints that she might be from another world (a la Reiji from Gundam Build Fighters).  But why she got trapped on Illya’s Earth has never been touched.  Towards the end of Season 3, things seemed to be building towards a big revelation…only to be silenced with a “Friendship is Magic” excuse to keep things quiet until Season 4.  But now it seems that Miyu’s world is coming for her…and they are pissed.  A better question to ask is not why Miyu left, but why her guardians from her world waited so long to come after her.  Yeah, it would have made Servant Card hunting a bit difficult, if not impossible given the skill level of these new fighters.  But still, it’s been quite a bit since Miyu first met Illya and company and became part of their make shift family.  You’d think something would have happened long before now.

I’m a little confused about how Miyu’s world will work.  Is it a “Mirror Mirror” replica of Illya’s world?  Is it a mash of modern and olden day era Japan?  Why is the only person Illya’s seen so far a girl in a high school gym uniform with no memory and a high annoyance factor (hey the humor needs to stick around somehow)?  But it’s only the first episode.  I cant expect a heavy exposition laden answer session right off the bat.  Now that Illya is trapped, having gone after Miyu without any hesitation, I’m sure we’re going to be in Miyu’s world a bit.  I’m more anxious to see these worlds start to bleed into each other.  With the battle against Kid Gilgamesh tearing a huge hole in their “space time continuum” there’s bound to be more repercussions…my money’s on world fusion like Mortal Kombat Annihilation…just…you know…better.

Whatever the case, the action quota is going to be higher than ever I bet.  With any signs of side character humor diversions pushed aside, it looks like we’ll get a battle royale between Miyu’s OP kidnappers and Illya’s crew.  Hopefully Rin, Kuro, Luvia and Bazzet wont be kept out of the action for too long (I watch this a lot for Rin anyway).  But the stakes were definitely raised after that first battle, when Illya and crew got the crap kicked out of them.  Illya’s little Super Saiyan Magical Girl power up at the end of Season 3 might not be able to solve every problem instantly.  So I’m wondering what prep will be involved for the inevitable rematch in the battle to retake Miyu.

Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya remains one of 2016’s biggest surprises for me and I’m glad I’ve stuck with it.  If I had been thinking and planning better, I could probably have caught up completely by now.  As it stands, I’m going to aim to get 3wei finished by the time I head to Katsucon (really all I need to do is sit down and watch an episode or two in a row to build up some momentum, plus there are an extra 2 episodes but that’s no biggie).  Could this be the finest hour of the Magical Girl Fate Stay Night Fantasy or will this be the Gundam Build Fighters Try of the series…aka the season that forgets everything that made the series fun and tries to make it depressing as hell?

I’ll let you know sometime in 2017 I guess.  Thanks for taking a look at this new blog feature.  I might take another short break from these in early 2017 but I’ll have a more final decision about that within a week.  Until then, thanks for checking out the First Impression Fridays of 2016.

Catch ya later everyone.

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