Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma✫Illya 2wei Herz! – 9eunte

It’s always about friendship and magic…

Nice pacing this episode. It covered both the 26 page Golden Boy, and the 36 page Black Fate chapters…so, without any further ado, let’s get down to the bare facts….

Shouta Warning

…Gate of Creative Blocking..

We start off with everyone trying to get back on their collective feet. Events have been flying this way and that, and so far precious little facts are available to Team Illya. But even with a split party, both sides have their exposition characters with them. Caren-sensei with Kuro, Rin, and Luvia. Shouta!Gil with Illya and Miyu. Neither one of them are bringing the best of news. So, that means it’s time for a tiny bit of a Fate warm-up.

…Gil might need some warming up…(click for larger images)

The long and short of it is…whoever, or whatever, powered up this particular ritual is going to remain on the mysterious side for now. But it is confirmed that this isn’t a continuation of the Einzbern ritual from the Fate/Zero or F/SN-UBW route. This is a brand new ball of wax, with, perhaps, different rules, different operators, and maybe even different goals. All for an omnipotent wish granting magic machine. Suffice it to say, those in control are probably the typical shitlords we’ve seen so far. I mean some of them are OK, pretty much what UBW was trying to be. But as F/Z points out, most are just plain vile.

When it all comes tumbling down…

The initiation of a Grail War has come to be, more or less, an orderly process, but this current one is breaking the known rules. It’s appearing out of nowhere, and as far as the landscape is concerned it’s hungry. Around and about three months prior (roughly when Rin and Luvia were fighting over Fuyuki City way back at the start of this franchise) a big chunk of Mt. Endou’s forest were wiped away. Caren-sensei, in her capacity as observer saw a few things that didn’t add up after that event. The magic circuit there is supposed to be dead, but it was getting attention anyway. People were going into and out of the mountains Great Cavern, their comings and goings bringing fewer people out than in. She couldn’t recognize them, except for one…

There Really is Something About Miyu

…never easy being a wish granting cup…

It seems that Shouta!Gil cannot keep secrets to himself, despite his protest to the contrary. Is it to ultimately divide Miyu from Illya? Or is it that he just can’t wait to see this emerging plan come to fruition and there is no used keeping cats in bags? For me it’s probably both. Regardless, he spills the beans about Miyu’s past for all to see. She’s not an amnesia victim, nor is she some plant from another magical family. She’s from a parallel world!

Good to know she got stronger with that restraining spell…

Now, one would assume, given that she is versed in her own Grail lore and that is always horrible, that she wasn’t quite happy there. None of her flashbacks so far have reflected happiness in any regard. She has been happy lately, hasn’t she? That’s pretty important…the festival, the birthday party, the fireworks, the antics. Small things, really. But they do add up…

Desperate and frightened, but still fighting….

But the revealing of this secret breaks what resolve she has been able to build up so far. She starts to resign herself to her fate. Now, folks that are also versed in Grail lore assumed she was, like Illya, the heart of a cup herself, and all that jazz. Created for the sake of the War itself. But, as Shouta!Gil explains, the War was created for her sake. In most cases, completing a Grail is like using stages of a rocket to get higher and higher, closer and closer to the goal. But Miyu was created as a complete Grail from square one, as close to the original as possible. Is she a human that has all the functions of that cup, or is she the cup given human form? Shouta!Gil himself see’s her as “defective irregularity”. But methinks Gil is pretty split on the issue in more than the obvious physical way we see. Regardless, he set’s fate in motion and swallows Miyu up to meet hers…

Kaleid Liner Zweiform!

Oh, this is so going to kick so much ass! (click for full size image)

But, all of that is academic. It’s not the least bit important to our Main Girl. Illya is mad as heck, and she is not going to take this any longer! Time to lay down the beats, Magical Girl style! And darn, if she doesn’t try her hardest. She may not have some of the raw skill, but she displays a ton of nerve, and the capacity to think on her feet, and to think big. It saved the day in the crunch the last series, and it looks like it’s going to shift the odds this time around.

I have to admire her plan of attack. Just slap the heck out of these selfish people. One up on Shouta!Gil for being such a daft moron, and one for Miyu for underestimating their friendship. It wasn’t the prettiest of plans, but it got the job done. Of course, Bazett and Kuro got their fair share of action, with Kuro suffering as much pain as Illya. Nice of them to run interferace, and nice on Kuro for finally formalizing Illya’s anger and frustration to smash it all down and go for the Magical Girl Level Up!

More Kicking Around…

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Well that certainly brought us to the right place, as far as the tone is concerned. So, with a big secret dropped in the penultimate chapter in the Herz! anime, what do they have in store for the finale? Goodness, that would be telling. But it’s going to be large and surprising, and should set the state for 3rei. Speaking of which, there is quite a bit to discuss from this episode as it pertains to the next series, so please be mindful of all your references and use the spoiler tag. I’ll see you back here….

Illya is going to give it her all!

About skylion

All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion