Please note

This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the anime I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. Also please note that I will be talking about the Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya series as a whole. I also have not watched this series since about two months ago or so, so my recollection of the series is not perfect. This review will be relatively spoiler free, but I will hide potential spoilers. TL;DR will be at the bottom.

Introduction

First off, I should give you some idea on what Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya is. Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya is yet another spin off of the widely popular Fate franchise. This anime takes place in an alternative timeline to Fate/Stay Night where the fourth holy grail war does not happen. There are more details I could go into, but for simplicity's sake, I will not in this review. This image here is a timeline of the extended Fate universe, so have a look if you are interested in seeing how Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya fits in the timeline.

Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya starts off fairly, shall I say normal. I have not watched any other Mahou Shoujo anime so I am not sure if this is the norm in the genre. But anyway, it starts off with Illya going about her day, going to school, talking with her friends. You know, the usual. And then, Luviagelita and Rin get into a fight using magical sticks and then said sticks run away, per se. I am being pretty broad here but please bear with me. One of these magical sticks happens to find Illya... whilst she is in the bath of course. This sets the scene for what is Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya.

Plot

The overarching plot for the first season is essentially that Illya is tasked by Rin to collect the 'seven legendary class cards', something Fate fans should be well familiar with. She is not the only one searching for these cards though, and Illya has to deal with the many obstacles that come her way. The plot is simple and easy enough to follow, which is a good point of the anime. The other Fate's can get quite complicated at times and can make one really scratch their head at what is going on, but I never felt that too much whilst watching this series in my personal experience. This mostly applies to all of the other seasons and the movie. I will say though, as the series reaches its later seasons (and the movie), the plot becomes more interesting, in my opinion. I never felt too bored by the plot of the series, but it is certainly not the best I have seen. Please note that the movie does take place before the first season, but I would not recommending watching it until you are done with the other seasons.

Characters

This anime is full of familiar faces for those well versed in the Fate franchise. The characters in this series are decent, at least the main ones. Illya is not a bad character herself, she is not terribly annoying albeit she is a little naïve. Illya is her usual, cheerful self. Miyu, one of the other main characters, is calm, serious, and collected. She is probably one of my more liked characters in the series. However, Miyu and Illya both shine the most when it comes to their relationship. Their relationship was fascinating to watch, seeing how their friendship, and them, evolved over time. I would say it is one of the better parts of the show. Rin is well... Rin, so if you are a fan of her you will enjoy seeing her here, she is pretty much her usual self I would say. Luviagelita is not bad herself, although she is annoying at times. The supporting characters are not bad, they are not worth going into too much detail for the sake of this review.

Animation and the action

The animation gets the job done. The action and fight scenes are animated well, they were fun enough to watch. The animation never felt too off nor poor quality. This was my first time seeing fight scenes in a Mahou Shoujo, and I was not disappointed. It was intriguing to watching Mahou Shoujo fights for the first time. I cannot think of too much else to say.

Music

The opening and credit themes of the series are pretty good, I listen to them from time to time on Spotify. Alas, I cannot remember enough of the anime to know what the music was like in it, so I am unfortunately not able to give a proper review on the music of this series.

So this sounds all good, right? I have just described a decent Fate spin off, with not too many glaring issues thus far. But I cannot finish this review without talking about the most glaring issue I had with Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya. Which is...

The ecchi

Oh boy. I stay away from ecchi anime for a reason. I have not watched many ecchi's and I dislike the genre. But this... this was surely something. Ecchi scenes are abundant throughout the entire series (except the movie, which is part of what makes it great), right from episode one. Remember how at the start I mentioned that one of the magical sticks finds Illya whilst she is in the bath? Yep, it is what I call the start of an ecchi scene.

Spoiler, click to view

The cliché moment of someone walking in whilst someone having a bath happens of course... which ruined the viewing experience. This gives you an idea of what is in store.

In fact, pretty much all of the ecchi scenes just ruined the viewing experience and left a bad taste in my mouth. One should keep in mind that most of the main characters are ten-year old's... and yes, they are in the ecchi scenes. It really felt unnecessary to be in the anime, and yet it is there. Sometimes I wonder myself if ten year old's speak the way they do in the anime sometimes, some just make blatant sexual references that feel quite off. I am not sure if it is much different in the manga, but it is pretty bad nevertheless. I felt as though the ecchi scenes were just put in for the sake of fanservice, which I myself am not a fan of. This anime really could have gone without the ecchi scenes, it would have been much better without it. The later seasons do have a little less ecchi, making them more bearable. If you are going to watch Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya, prepare yourself, and hope someone does not walk in during the worst moments.

Some other bad things

Some of the seasons get quite filler heavy, I remember this being the case the most with the second part of season two. Some of the episodes just felt really unnecessary, and they were not exactly a joy to watch either. From what I remember, not much development happens in these fillers making them skippable. Another thing to mention is that season two introduces a new antagonist, which I just found to be obnoxious. She does get better as the series goes on, as she appears in the rest of the series.

Conclusion and TL;DR

Is this anime series good? That is the question you have to ask yourself. Opinions can vary greatly, I have come across some that enjoyed the series far more than I did. But to sum up this review:

• Plot is simple and easy enough to understand.
• The main characters are good, especially the relationship between the main two.
• The animation is alright, it gets the job done.
• Music is decent.
• There is so much ecchi in the series, it is unbearable at times. The ecchi is what really brought this anime down for me.
• The series gets better as it goes on.

Would I recommend this anime? If you are a fan of Fate and can get past the ecchi, then I would. Otherwise, I would not other than the movie. There is nothing especially spectacular about Fate/Kaelid Prisma Illya and the ecchi just ruins the experience.

Thank you to those who took the time to read this review. This is my first review so please be understanding of any shortcomings present in it. If you did not like this review, then I apologise for wasting your time.