Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya

Do you like loli?

Do you like spin-off anime of excellent series that have nothing to do with said excellent series?

Do you like a show that can’t decide what the hell it wants to be?

Then sit down and watch Fate/Kaleid, a ten episode anime that is full of everything you love about Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night, such as hilarious comedy, underaged lesbians, and magical girls. You know, the kind of things fans asked for after watching the main series.

If you are a fan of the series, I’m sure you’re going to pass Kaleid up based upon the fact it is a cutesy magical girl anime. I ... went into it thinking such, which is why I was so scared after the first episode. I was already debating how a show based on a series that’s pretty adult in tone could appeal to little girls. I went into the series assuming I was going to see a little girl anime. Twenty-seven minutes later, I walked away wondering just who the hell Kaleid was made for. And after ten episodes and the five DVD specials, I’m still scratching my head.

Kaleid is about Illyasviel, a young girl who lives in Japan with some adopted family while her mother and father are out doing…whatever. She watches magical girl anime and dreams of becoming one. Luckily, a magical wand/stick/what-have-you hears her and takes her as its master, making her dream come true. But the wand used to belong to Rin Tohsaka, a tsundere who, along with her partner, lost their wands because all they did was fight with each other. The teenaged girls were tasked with collecting seven cards by the Mage’s Guild if they wanted to be taken under the wing of a master magus. So, through the series, the duo of teenagers use a duo of ten year olds to attain their goals.

Sounds like it could a kids show, right? Nope! One episode and there’s a gag about penis’s! A few episodes in and the violence is a little more intense than a kids show usually is.

And then the realization:

Oh God…this show is supposed to appeal to people my age.

Okay, loli porn aside, I can’t fault the series for having Rin Tohsaka. Because seriously, I watched this for Rin. She’s one of the best damn tsundere’s in anime. Her companion, Luvia, whom she always fights with, is less exciting. Exceptionally less exciting. She’s the rich bitch stereotype. She has that “OH HO HO HO HO” laugh and makes fun of Rin for being poor.

Illya is a decent character but her development can be filed under “Basic Hero”. Wishful thinking to “No, I don’t want this” to acceptance to throwing aside her weapons after something bad happens to taking them back when she realizes she’s the hero the city deserves.

Miyu is another stereotype. Quiet and badass entrance to nothing-to-do-with-hero attitude to learning friendship and working together is a good thing to hurting the hero to finally realizing friendship is magic.

Another gripe, the biggest gripe. What the hell is it? Magical girl, fan service, comedy? It does all three pretty decently, but the problem with the series becomes tonal shifts so fast you’ll get whiplash. One episode will spend half the time making tit jokes and focusing on side characters that have absolutely nothing to do with anything, while the other half will be an intense fight. It has Sword Art Online syndrome. It’s juggling way too many genres and tropes at once and because of that, it’s failing to carve itself a distinctive identity. What we get is a muddled mess.

One overarching theme seems to be exploiting the female characters. This is an anime for lolicons a la Kodomo no Jikan. It’s pretty shameless in how over-sexualized the characters are. The worst offenses come with the DVD extras that includes a whole portion where Illya is dressed up like a cat and being forced into poses that are…not appropriate for a girl her age. And the magic wand (these things talk by the way) tells us that she’s responding to the desires of the audience.

Oh come on! The writer, director, and animators want to blame the viewers for this? We all know it’s a joint venture! The studio’s getting off just as much.

And the DVD extras are bad. Except for Rin in a maid outfit. But otherwise, they’re all useless and more excuses for nudity and sexuality. There’s one where they play strip-Life. The board game. Turned into a stripping game. Eh?

And also, there’s a pervasive sense of lesbianism between Illya and Miyu, just to help that image of underaged fap-bait.

I’m bitching a lot about this show, but I did find some decent aspects to it. It’s watchable and less painful than a lot of shows I’ve seen, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s got so many faults. There are a couple awesome fights within, good animation, and great music. It’s begging for fans of the Fate series to watch it but it’s begging for a lot more besides. It’s…to put it bluntly, fap-bait. If you’re into loli, here you go. If you’re not, well, I wouldn’t even touch this series with a stick. Even if you’re a hardcore fan of the franchise, just don’t. You’ll be a lot happier that way.

[This review will not contain spoilers]

Well, for starters I must say I did not enjoy this anime but I will give credit where credit is due.
I don’t the the whole idea of sexualizing some little girls into this extend (so many lower angle shots and other stuff that made me cringe) or the whole magic girl idea that Japan seems to like for whatever reason. I must say that I watched this because some Fate/ fans friends told me that 3Rei was good and was worth watching the previous seasons first (I’m still to check that for myself).

[ Story | 6 ]
The story, for me, ... is boring. Plain and simple. I don’t find joy in watching some “magical girls” over moe-fied to funny stuff while fighting the evils of the world. Leaving that aside, the plot is WELL CONSTRUCTED. Why do I say with this? The mechanics are based of facts already used in the main Fate/ franchise, like the origin of the Kaleido sticks, servants, dimensions od, mana, prana, and some other things. Those resources were used to create this universe and this story that while I find boring and not in my taste at all, I won’t deny the author did a good research and documented well before writing, and that’s always a good thing. You know, to keep consistency even if we are talking about an Alternate Universe (AU).

[ Art | 7 ]
The Animation is good. It has some flaws in some frames that do not move smoothly but overall is a good animation. I do not like the art-style tho, at all.
The use of FX is great, you know there’s a lot of lights and explosions going around.

[ Music | 7 ]
The best part of it, the music. Good OST, the music used for fights was really good. And inclusion of classic tracks like EMIYA make the music get a better rating, even when they are from FSN originally. I don’t say the same for the OP and ED that I didn’t like at all. (Would give it a 6)

[ Character | 3 ]
Yeah… this is weird… I like Illya, Rin and who else but in the real Fate/ franchise. This “Illya” tho… I don’t consider her Illya, but a character that looks like her in this AU. She doesn't have the qualities that made me like Illya in the first place, in fact, I highly dislike this Illya and almost all the characters. Same goes with Rin, just a shell of what she really is, I only see a over acted tsundere shell.

[ Enjoyment | 4-5 ]
Too much stuff that I didn't like, while the animations are pretty is not enough for me to enjoy an anime. I can understand and accept that people may like anime like this but, this doesn’t seem to be something of my taste. Random power ups, sometimes ignoring principles already stated, lack of real character development.. fanservice on little girls…

[ Overall | 4 ]
For me, my rating is 4 (Bad) to 3 (Very bad). While I said that the plot has bases and the author documented to write its story, I still didn’t enjoy those 10 episodes. There were episodes better than others but for the most part I watched each episode with cringe or a serious expression. It was not something I would rate with 5 (average) or more since I didn’t enjoy the anime.

Reviewer's note: This series is my 4th entry into the franchise (F/Z>F/S>UBW).


✪ Genre: action (swordplay), contemporary fantasy, comedy, magic (circles, summoning, spellcasting, magic weapons), mahou shoujo, school life, seinen, superpower (emotions awaken superpowers) with some loli and yuri elements


✔Positive Aspects✔

◧ Animation: adequately distinct characters, based on colors of moderate to low saturation/medium to high lumination, with the urban environment and the urban landscapes being a little more muted in comparison. Very cool are the various 'light' and 'spark' effects during the action sequences, with the characters swinging around & clashing their melee weapons and casting their magical spells. The protagonists' various metamorphoses are not ... that bad either.

◧ Comedic sequences: probably my favorite part of this series are the comedic scenes, usually revolving the protagonistic duo of elementary students, Ilya & Miyu, having fun with their fellow students/friends and their hilarious teacher, Mrs. Fujimura.

◧ Action scenes: generally, decently choreographed sequences, though at times felt somewhat shounen-ish. They are escalating quickly and ending abruptly while alternating between different levels of the third-person perspective coupled with some good slow-motion work. Unfortunately, Silver Link is not able to deliver the incredibly polished, live-action like results that Ufotable was able to deliver in UBW (check my review → t.ly/qU71).


✘Negative Aspects✘

◧ Concept: formulaic, somewhat Sailor Moon-ish - one day, an ordinary elementary student is chosen by a magical item to perform some incredibly difficult, possibly life-threatening, magic-related tasks.

◧ Character development: simply, there is none to speak of. Besides some sporadic insights (mostly, during the last 2 episodes) into our protagonistic duo's intentions, emotions, and thought processes, without any attention into their personal histories, the audience does not get to understand anyone else. We have no idea who Rin Tohsaka & Luviagelita Edelfelt are and the history of their relationship. We have no idea why Ilya gets to have servants, while her parents are conspicuously absent from her life (her mother appears in one episode).

◧ Plot: if one were to start with this spin-off series, without having watched beforehand anything else from this universe (e.g. F/Z, F/S, UBW), he/she would not have a clue about anything. We have no idea about the extent of the magicians' powers in this fictional world. We have no idea what this mysterious organization named 'Clock Tower' is all about. We have no idea what these magical sticks actually are and why they abandoned their original owners at the drop of a hat. We have no idea what those cards are, what those summoned spirits are used for, and why seemingly unexceptional, adolescent students of magic are sent after such powerful magical entities in the first place.

◧ Soundtrack: various pieces of music are used, ranging from j-pop and electronic music to new age piano and orchestral works, that are virtually unimpactful and unengaging.


Overall: As a spin-off series to F/Z, F/S, and UBW, I have no idea what are the ideas that the creators sought to independently develop. As a standalone series, it does not seem to offer anything novel, let alone in an intelligible manner.


P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.

I finally started to watch a Fate/whatever anime for the first time from chrono order... and this was there as well... I won't lie i had my doubts, but still gave it a shot.

Ugh...

Whoever find this "deep" or any other nonsense like this is just fcked up in the head... The only episode i watched longer than 5mins (i think i actually watch almost whole deal) was no7, other is just pedo garbage (and i'm so glad in a way that i had this on my disk, because i could fast forward it till the end).

Do yourself a favor and DO judge this sh*t ... by the cover, it deserves nothing better.