Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma Illya is a spinoff series of the popular “Fate” visual novel series. This show adopts a satirical take on the popular “Magical Girl” genre of shows with the well known Fate characters thrown into the mix. It aired in the Summer of 2013, adapted from the manga series of the same way.
My first experience with this particular series was a popular clip of two young girls clad in typical magical girl outfits making out, complete with close-ups of spit-swapping as another girl watches along clearly in a daze. Such a titillating scene, contrasted with such young age of the protagonists had me raising my eyebrows for a while. Subsequently, I caught whiffs of controversy surrounding this series, some claiming it to be “lolicon” pandering, specifically trying to attract individuals using subjects who are underaged and may or may not be portrayed in a provocative manner. This controversy surely cannot be left untouched, said, knowingly two years late to this anime, and off into this show I went. I must disclose that I am not a lolicon as previously stated.
What greeted me first was the overly-experienced, overly large and detailed eyes of the main characters. Illya’s eyes were bright pink, common to anime, and drew my attention right away. Yes, one might be quick to point out that eyes have and have been always drawn in ridiculous proportions. Yet, I must emphasize that eyes drawn in such a manner, pupils more than whites, deeply engrossing, was a rather enjoyable aspect of Fate/Kaleid’s visual design, indeed reflective of the saying that one’s eyes are the windows to the soul. Still, it is such a pity that such well designed eyes act as the windows to such a poor and uninspired character, our main protagonist, Illya. But we shall get to the characters later.
To begin with, the story and setting takes place in normal. modern setting (I assume Japanese), and spirals into a cliche magical girl plot. Experienced watchers know, a girl makes a wish for the unexpected, for the excitement in her life, and suddenly a magical stick shows up and forces the girl to become her master without her consent, very much with Illya in disagreement. Here, I must the show pulls a twist that has become rather mainstream to the post-Madoka era of magical girl genre, which has become rather moot by now, I feel. But, for this small twist to an overused trope, I shall give some merit to the show. Then, the girl, imbued with whatever great magical powers goes off to collect cards, fight and make friends along the way. Cue the boss fights, magic visual effects, the power of friendship and so on. Typically, I would have little qualm about these tropes writers adopt for their stories, but for Fate/Kaleid, the distinct lack of polish or refinement to the settings, tropes it borrowed, makes it mediocre, run-of-the mill, filler with Fate glued on. Another show I would like to compare it to would be Yuuki Yuuna is a hero, which implements very much identical tropes of friendship, struggles, but does so more elegantly, more enjoyably. Thus, the story and setting could use a bit more creativity or refining.
On the visual side of things, Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma Illya does have plenty to offer. Studio Link may not be the most popular or well known anime producers, yet, they have experienced staff who are very much capable of providing punchy visuals when it wishes to. Characters are designed with strong presence, very much maintaining the attention of the viewer on whoever is in the scene. One stand out was a particular fight scene I would not name, for fear of spoilers, but this one fight had em sold on the capability of Studio Link. The movement was fluid, every action had substantial impact and gave a very solid feel to the whole sequence. It was as though Link tried to imitate Ufotable’s style, Ufotable being the studio being closely associated with the Fate series. In anycase, it was rather well-done, and future shows could benefit from such effort put into its action scenes here, this sequence exceeding far beyond my expectations. Throw in some light visual humor, regarding Rin parading about in a Magical Girl outfit she’s too old for, and the show comes out with above average for its visual style, with the aforementioned fight scene and the design of the character’s eyes being a standout for me.
The characters, they are another issue for me. I feel they really drag the show down. GOing into the first season the show provides characters with paper thin motivations and generally made the narrative less compelling, to the detriment of the show, to say the least. Each character has the personality of their canonical counterparts with a few quirks thrown in, Luvia’s arrogance to Rin’s inferiority complex, yet lacking anything else. This leaves the show feel hollow. Any form of driving force is hid behind the mysterious “Mage's Association”, a mysterious cabal seemingly directing most of the actions taken in the series. I could go on, but I want to focus on Illya now. She flip-flops around, very truly lacks motives behind her actions apart from the superficial ones that she casually states at a convenient timings, and suffers from doing things “just because”. She could have been more well written to reflect emotional depth, anything to show temperance within the shallow pool of her personality. Apart from that, an airheaded demeanour really does not sell her character for me. Such a shame, she had such pretty eyes.
It might strange to hear this, but this is actually my first experience with the Fate series, spin-off be it may, and yet I still found the portrayals of servants, masters, mages engaging, and found myself recognising the well known characters of the canonical series. Some may scream heresy at my statements, but I feel that for a spin-off, this series still pays homage to the original series, where even an outsider can recognise the parodied portrayals of its characters. That is to be respected, for a series to remain faithful to its source.
In all, this show merely rehashes the same tropes and points from the “Magical Girl” genre, while using Fate characters to carry out the same plot we have seen too many times. Perhaps it is the lack of runtime in its 10 episode length, or it could be a cash-in to milk fans for their money, we will never know, but what we were presented with was far and away the best that such a combination could offer. Turn to this show if you have spare time, or wish to see get more Fate, albeit in a parodied sense. Magical girl fans will not be too satisfied with this show. I know I wasn’t.
Lastly, the “lolicon” accusations. Overall, I found this show to be rather light on the fanservice. Sure there was some provocative scenes, but it was not to the point of being highly contentious or objectionable. These scenes helped to interject some life into the series and made it somewhat engagin even as side gags.
Overall: Not Lolicon/10
