On the outside, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya just seems to be a magical girl parody of the Fate series, and in many ways it is. Though, it manages to stand on its own with a story I can take seriously. The story starts off as a monster of the week show, but like any good magical girl show, it deviates from the formula. With focus on the internal conflict with Illya and external conflict with a new character Miyu. Though, I found the two conflicts to be cliche and predictable (Rehash of MGLN). The whole conflicts between rival magical girls and personal motivation, has been done else where and done better. Although, thanks to the direction of Shin Oonuma, the drama and conflicts were actually enjoyable. With Oonuma directing many drama series before, he knows how to make the viewer care for what's actually happening on screen. I felt emotion for what was happening, whenever the show was being heartwarming, chilling, etc. And I have to give credit for that. Also, the throw backs to Fate lore was very much enjoyed and appreciated. Overall, while nothing new, the story was highly enjoyable.
CHARACTERS *This section contains spoilers*
The cast consists of mostly alternative versions of their Fate/ counterparts, with there only being two new characters. The magical stick sapphire, and its master Miyu. With Miyu being the only new character worth talking about. Miyu is that typical cold isolated girl you see in a lot of magical girl shows. And, she also goes through the typical development that comes with the cliche. Not saying that's a bad thing, it's just predictable. She grows from a cold person to our main character, then to a nice one. It's that simple. Speaking of our main character, we have Illya. Illya is a character from the original series, and is the only one that has a dramatic personality change. In Fate/Stay Night, she's a cold killer, but is somewhat mischievous to the people she trusts. In this show however, she's a normal girl. Illya a normal magical girl protagonist, but what also comes with this is the typical development. Like Miyu, Illya also goes through a typical magical girl character's development. She's been given a duty she knows nothing of, then she begins to doubt her position in that duty, but in the end she grows to be stronger to protect what she loves. Although, unlike Miyu, Illya's development was refreshing. Illya's internal conflict takes up a lot more time than the average magical girl protagonist. The show made an effort to give her internal conflict real meaning. Illya actually gets inner monologues on her how she really feels about the duty she has been given. And, while I've seen better magical girl protagonists, seeing things done this way was refreshing.
*End of spoilers*
As for the rest of the cast, none of them really get any development, but are just throw backs at the Type-Moon universe. They're most there for comedy relief, and they do their job. While the comedy isn't Carnival Phantasm funny, it got a few laughs out of me. All in all, with there only being 2 stand out characters, and both only having slightly above average development, the overall characters are passable.
ANIMATION
Animated by Silver Link, the animation is pretty good. With decent use of lighting, the tone the art gives off is a fun lighthearted feeling, with dark undertones. The character designs of the original characters, stay faithful, but they have a bit more cartoon style than their original's. I also like Miyu's out of costume design, for some reason. Though, I notice the character designs aren't always consistent. There's a few times a character would go off model, although that can be forgiven. As for the actually animation, the regular scenes are standard fare. Though, the action scenes are particularly impressive. The movements are fluid, and combined with the really good directing, makes the action look even more impressive than Fate/Zero's. (Fate/Zero had crappy fight direction, in the first season at least.) Overall, while there were some small dips, the animation is well above average.
SOUND
Composed by Tatsuya Katou, the music isn't standard magical girl music. The style is more of a mix between F/SN's and magical girl OSTs. This results in some calm slice of life music, and epic battle music. While the slice of life ones aren't anything special, the epic battle ones, are pretty good. I particularly like the Illya version of the EMIYA theme. It's probably my favorite version of it. (Maybe) As, for the OP and ED, I liked them, but I admit they weren't that special. Catchy and that's it.
As for the dub.... It was a a big meh. It's one of sentai's better dubs, but it's not that hard to be one of the "better" sentai dubs. While the acting is okay, the a few of the voices don't match the characters. Illya sounds too old in my opinion and Rin doesn't really have that charm to her voice. I kind of wish they went to bang zoom for this dub, but I understand that they wouldn't make as much of a profit on this show, compared to the F/SN UBW movie.
OVERALL
I've always liked Type-moon, particularly the Fate/ series. With Fate/Zero being my favorite anime. So, when Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya got announced, I was a bit "ehh" about it. I mean, Fate and magical girls? One part of me was expecting for it to be bad, and another was being optimistic. So, when it actually turned out to not half bad, I was honestly pleased. I seriously enjoyed Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, and I'm looking forward to where ever this sub-series will go in the future
