L-lewd…
Impression
You’re the best, Silver Link. I was hoping this would be as hot as the forced one between Kuro and Miyu was, and it did not disappoint! I thought we were about to be cheated out of it, actually, once they initiated that soundtrack and quickly ended it after switching to a shot of Caren – I guess this is where the half-time commercial break happened when it aired in Japan. I’m pretty sure I said this last time too, but I’d also like to remind you that Prisma Illya is rated PG-13 – and to top it all off, the grand irony is that this spin-off is where the lewdest animated mana transfers have occurred. Kuro set the standard sky-high last season, too. Is it bad that I would have been disappointed had there been no tongue or saliva trails?
So 2wei! returns from a year-long vacation three weeks late, brandishing the loss of Illya’s purity, Mimi’s innocence and Shirou’s balls. Herz! is clearly aiming for another 10-episode run here – another strange production decision, alongside this entire season’s very existence. I know the initial cour ended at an ideal place, resolving conflicts with first Kuro and then Bazett, but a year on, I still strongly believe that it shouldn’t have ended at all. Herz! was announced immediately after the end of the first cour. So it’s not like Silver Link were unsure of whether they wanted to animate the rest of the story, because of issues with turning over a profit or otherwise – they were going to finish it, but decided to hold off on it for an entire year for some incredibly strange reason. Imagine, if they’d completed 2wei! last year, I could be sitting here writing about the first episode of 3rei! instead. I’m really looking forward to doing that, by the way – the one thing that’s changed since last year is that I’m now fully caught up with the manga for 3rei!, and I think it’s fantastic.
It’s also why I’ve already forgiven Silver Link, because this new OP is like a giant neon sign saying, ‘WE’RE SO HYPED FOR 3REI! WE WANT TO ANIMATE IT ALREADY!’
[spoiler title=”Massive Spoilers for 3rei!”]
Is… is that Shirou? As in, Miyu’s, quasi-Archer transformed Shirou locked up in the Ainsworth castle? One of the coolest iterations of Shirou ever seen in the Nasuverse?
Holy shit. Is it just me, or is that a clear indication that 3rei! will be happening a year from now? I mean, there’s no Gilgamesh, but that’s exactly it – in having him appear as just a shadowy blur and focusing on space, swirly magic and Miyu’s suffering, they’re explicitly foreshadowing the whole parallel world thing far more than really is needed, given that it’s supposed to be the ‘shock’ ending to 2wei! and the start of the Miyu arc. They even spoil Illya’s 2wei form – although it looks beautiful, and I’m kind of happy I get to see it so early now that I know what I’m looking at.
For a second or two, I even hoped we’d be moving straight to 3rei! without any sort of break given how spoiler-filled it all is. But… yeah, that’s just wishful thinking. I’ll be back in July 2016.
[/spoiler]
A lot of the episode was slice-of-life antics, and it’s nice to have them while they’re still here. Tatsuko is practically Taiga’s illegitimate daughter, and all the Miyu lines in particular were great (“I don’t ever recall becoming your friend” and “How do you know our names? Who are you?”) In terms of the plot, one of the things I really feel they’re gunning for with Miyu is her relationship with Shirou. I remember her reaction when she first saw Shirou in the previous cour, and we had more of the same here – she’s awfully bashful around him, and it’s clearly something that’s not just a trivial thing, albeit definitely different from what Illya and Kuro feel for him. He really is a lucky bastard. This Shirou is not only a non-magus, he’s as goofy as they get, and he still has multiple lolis all over him? Go get castrated by Irisviel.
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
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Fate/kaleid loli Prisma☆Illya is finally back!! (not that it was that long since the last season)
Prisma Illya is simply the best loli ever!! (actually she’s the only loli I like – she has… something other loli don’t)
I’m sure the manga will end with a flashforward that shows a legal Illya and Shirou as a couple – because this is not yuri, just yuri bait/service – none of the loli are actual lesbians – and I’ll cry as my Illya X Miyu heart will break…
Is it the Kadowaki Mai voice? She’s one of the reasons I like Illya. I don’t remember whether this Shirou is blood-related to Illya or not (or whether they even tell us his origins) but an official sibling couple is probably just as unlikely as an official yuri one!
Illya likes Shirou, but it’s heavily implied that Miyu holds some special feelings for Illya – if her definition of ‘friend’ is anything to go by. Even poor Mimi thought Illya x Miyu was a thing! Despite Illya and Kuro not actually being lesbians, the irony is that the yuri service is far more explicit than what we see in actual yuri anime. I’m thinking Yuri Kuma Arashi,
Hibike! Euphoniumand Sakura Trick. I haven’t finished Sakura Trick though, so I have no idea whether the kisses in that ever get as lewd.Don’t think it’s the voice. I fell for manga Illya long before watching the anime.
Illya tells Ruby in a side-chapter that Shirou was adopted and they are not blood-related. (but why? no war = no fire, or I am missing something?)
I dunno about Miyu. Sure, that’s how she felt at the beginning, but she never acted on her feelings and it seems to me that she is content with just being friends (not by her definition). Even in the latest drei chapter there’s so much fanservice that I’m not sure if I should take Illya “discovering new sides of Miyu” as something that involves romance or just more pandering. I wish I was more optimistic about this, but I just can’t. I guess you’re right about the sibling couple though. Then…open ending with nothing official?
And well, I agree with the last part. Straight or not, Kuro is lewd beyond measure. Have you seen the latest ova? It’s that close to hentai…
Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking, too. The war never happened, and so Iri never died and there was never a fire for Shirou to be rescued from. But at the same time, making Shirou blood-related would mean he would have been born earlier than Illya, which messes even more stuff up. I think we’re supposed to assume he was just adopted under happier conditions.
It was definitely pandering, and a nice change of pace from everything that’s been going on in 3rei so far. Prisma Illya isn’t a romance in the end, so an open ending is likely. And I haven’t been following the OVAs (the last one I watched was the school dance one which gave rise to http://loli.dance) but now that you’ve told me it involves a lewd Kuro, I’m going to go watch it!
You mentioning that making Shirou blood-related would mean he was born earlier than Illya, but I feel I should mention that he WAS born before her, even though he isn’t blood-related to her. Illya in this universe actually is the age she appears to be. Evidence suggests that, despite apparently being prepared to be a grail vessel, she is NOT a homonculus, and neither is Iris.
The latest OVA just came out today, and I haven’t found a translation for it yet. The other special episodes are nice, though.
Okay, that actually solves a fleeting question I had some time ago that I never bothered to voice – that if they were homunculi they would have had limited lifespans, and so everything about Prisma Illya being the ‘true Illya route’ and a good end for Illya would have been a depressing lie. If she’s the age she appears to be, that just makes her a true loli instead of a legal loli! Not that I was one to ever make such distinctions.
The main issue I was trying to get at was that, if Shirou was born first to the Emiya family, it would have been him to which the whole ‘I want to prioritize my child’s safety and happiness, fuck you and your war’ sentiment was expressed for. He would then have become a magical girl and we’d be watching Prisma Shirou instead, a horrifying yet oddly intriguing idea.
Ah yes. This scene, where Illya and Kuro have a perfectly appropriate, completely family-friendly, and 100% normal display of sisterly intimacy. :p
What’s kind of amusing is that Illya and Kuro really have been set up as being rather a bit more sisterly and less antagonistic (in a love/hate sense) towards each other in the anime than they were in the manga. They really feel like sisters here, and I like that a lot.
So completely family-friendly that headphones and privacy are mandatory!
But yeah, it’s nice that they’ve made up 😀 The sparks only really fly when they fight over onii-chan or talk about who’s grown more! (“Hmph. Others probably think you just look easy, anyway!”)
I have a confession to make: this series is about half of the reason I left Oregairu in the dust for so long that I couldn’t comment on the ending. I- I just needed to see little Illya well and alive in some fashion after Unlimited Blade Works torturing me with her appearance in the OP.
A lot of Illya fans (myself included) see this as the true Illya route – the route where she isn’t a homunculus and can live a (relatively) happy life surrounded by her friends and family! I mean, she still gets into battles and risks her life, but at least she’s not, you know… condemned to certain death like she is in all of Fate/stay.