Plenty of action this week as we have faceoffs between Beatrice and Illya with Gil and Angelica firing legendary weapons back and forth. I wish there was a bit more fight animation here as while it was the same in the manga, it’s still a shame to have the scene cut away just when the combatants start to fight. True, they shouldn’t blow the budget just yet but the fights in this episode were essentially two people talking and just when they are about to fight the scene cuts over to the other fight where the combatants have just stopped fighting. Still I can’t say there were not great moments in this episode. For one Gilgamesh getting angry at Angelica for using Enkidu, the chain named after his closest friend. I have no idea why but having Gilgamesh say Mongrel just fills my heart with glee. Funny thing is that I think it only became a signature of him when the Fate/Zero dub came out as before it was regularly translated as bastard or lowlife.
I will admit that Illya just so happening to pull out Ruby from a stack of mystical items out of pure chance was a cheap coincidence. But it’s nice that she finally figured out how to install the cards and now we can see Illya cosplay as heroic spirits. Though she says she learned it from Chloe, though how she remembers when she installed archer and how Chloe knew how to do it is still a bit of a mystery. Bah! It’s the nasuverse. Here it follows the logic of who cares as long as it’s cool. If a gym uniform girl can take a direct hit of lightning from the hammer of the gods then who am I to question validity? Speaking of which that seemed odd even to the characters themselves. Tanaka has proven herself to be a strange anomaly as she seems by all accounts to be invincible. She’s clearly not from that world and can’t seem to remember anything besides her mission to destroy the Ainsworths. Considering the world’s current state and it likely being mainly the Ainsworths fault, I say the chances of Tanaka being a counter Guardian sent by the world is high. Despite her being for the most part comic relief, I prefer her to those classmates of Illya as at least she plays a role in the overall plot and isn’t an existence whose only purpose is the pad out the length. Plus she can be genuinely funny at points but maybe that’s because I relate her and illya’s relationship to Taiga and Illya from the Tiger Dojo. Actually in the manga I was certain that Tanaka was a younger version of Taiga due to not seeing her hair colour. If you dye her hair blond she would bare a striking resemblance.
It may be an odd thing to say but I am rather glad that Prisma Illya’s magical girl transformations are much more reserved than that of usual magical girl anime. A particular awkward thing about watching Nanoha is how the transformation sequences go a bit too far with the nudity. I am sure lolicons rejoice but for me it just makes me fear someone walking in and having a huge misunderstanding about my preferences. Illya may be technically eighteen(I assume she is in this spinoff too considering Shirou’s age.) but she certainly doesn’t look it and I have no interest whatsoever. This is why the heavy fanservice aspects of Zwei were particularly awkward for me. It’s a bit like Bayonetta for me, the thing itself is trying to make her as physically appealing as possible but I just am not into that so it just leaves me blank faced and uncomfortable. Well uncomfortable in Prisma’s case; Bayonetta I more just find somewhat amusing. Looks like Bazzett and Chloe are joining in next episode and I hope Chloe is bringing more than just lesbian lolita antics.
~AidanAK47~
