It is safe to say that to get the most out of this series, you have got to be a Fate fan. There are numerous little easter eggs calling back to it, even Kirei’s signature “Rejoice” line. However I say even casual fans could get something out of this series as well. Provided they made it through the less tasteful parts of Zwei. I actually only recently finished Prisma Illya 2wei in preparation for the new season and I can certainly say it has serious problems. There are parts of it which are good, mainly the action scenes but that’s in a minority when you take into account the massive amount of time wasting that goes on in those two seasons. There was no real plot as the first part focused on the addition of Kuro/Chloe whose contribution to the plot seems to be just to make the best scene of the first season into a pointless character and to provide a brown skinned Illya for those interested. Then came Bazzett who while a great character seems to be shoved in as a conflict for the sole purpose of adding her to the cast and padding out Zwei. The rest was just a waiting game for when they would all go to retrieve the eighth card. Taking all this into account I am fairly certain we could have cut down Zwei into one season and lessened the pain of it’s existence. I understand if there are those who simply disregard this series as loli porn as it certainly has done things to earn that contempt. However I can promise this season of the show will be very different from it’s predecessors and already it’s looking promising.
With the introduction of the Ainsworths we now have a antagonist and a pretty good one at that. Plus we have two introductions of well loved fate characters. Kotomine Kirei is here displaying his love for spicy Mapo tofu for the first time. Here’s some fun little trivia about that. Kirei is a man that never takes pleasure in anything, not even eating. So the act of eating was much like refueling a car to him. However that changed when he tried super spicy Mapo Tofu for the first time and felt that it provoked a reaction in him that he never felt before. Henceforth it became his favorite food. What makes this most amusing is that it’s unclear if he genuinely likes it or if he misinterpreted the way the spicy food caused him to tremble and sweat profusely him as “enjoyment”. So having him in the middle of a dead city tormenting whatever travelers that pass by super expensive ridiculously spicy Mapo Tofu just brings a smile to my face.
We also have Ko-Gil(AKA, Shota Gilgamesh) who is actually a canon part of the nasuverse. This may be somewhat attributed to Narita’s explanation in Fate/Strange fake but apparently Gilgamesh has a youth potion in his treasury which he drinks when he can’t be bothered to deal which the situation around him. His younger self is a lot more tolerant of people and less arrogant than his older counterpart but he still holds Gilgamesh’s talent for manipulation and thirst for entertainment. The Gilgamesh in this episode generally feels like a good kid but with hints of a hidden agenda, in this case wanting back his full power from the card one of the Ainsworths uses. The kid certain has a way with words having been able to charmed Illya by calling her “Onee-chan”. Some people are even shipping the two now which is awkward when you consider that Gilgamesh did happen to steal her heart before in a manner of speaking.
In terms of action we didn’t get much this week as it was mainly for getting to grips with who they were fighting and an idea of what happened in the past. Though a number of hints have been dropped. Tanaka is a welcome addition to the case namely because he’s comic relief with a purpose. Her insistence with destroying the Ainsworths despite having no memory seems to suggest she might be some kind of counter guardian. I also think it’s fairly obvious who happens to be in that jail cell at the end of the episode but just in case I won’t go into detail. Animation and art look great so far and it seems like Sliver link knows this is going be a season worth putting effort into. Next episode looking to be pretty good as we have Gilgamesh vs Gilgamesh and Thor vs Illya. If Silver Link plans to cover up to what I think they will then they may need to speed up a bit. Lets hope the action scenes are not sacrificed to gain momentum.
~AidanAK47~
