Until the end of the season, Lord El-Melloi II will be adapting its fourth and fifth volume of Rail Zeppelin storyline. I can see why the director went with an anime original content for the first half as the first three volume would have worked better as movies rather than weekly episodes. It’s all builds up to a magical train where are Mystic Eyes up for auction, murders and Gray not backing down from a servant fight.
The case for this El-Melloi II starts out very simple with Waver and his gang boarding the Rail Zeppelin to find the culprit who stole his periocus Iskandar relic. From that point on, it spirals out of control as the story pulls stuff from all over the nasuverse with Olga-Marie Animusphere (Director of Chaldea in Fate/Grand Order) tagging along, Black Apostles/Child of Einnashe Forest (Tsukihime), the Holy Church sending a representative of their own and the mystic eyes themselves. Each episode only up the stakes as the Rail Zeppelin literally derails and more questions keep popping up like who is actually behind the theft and summoning of Hephaestion. Is it the former head of Modern Magecraft or someone else behind these elaborate schemes? Considering the episode nine ended on a sinister note with Adashino from the Policies department cornering Mrs. Animusphere in her own room, I’m not so sure myself.
What I like is that it continues to be its own story in spite of everything by revealing character instead of relying off their tropes in their appearances in other shows. As for the Holy Church’s Karabo, it’s nice to see a member of the Executor branch not be an antagonist like Keith in the Holy Grail War or being tasked with wiping out the entire ghoul infested population of an island like in Fate/Zero. Instead, he is actually quite the older gentleman and, despite the preexisting animosity between the two organizations, teams up with other mages to bring down the Einnashe Forest. He is a welcome mature addition to Waver’s more juvenile students like the Waver-obsessed Yvette or the Svin/Flatt pair. Of course, not all the main characters can be on the train at the same time and I’m glad they made space for a parallel storyline with Luvia and Shishigoui going around to find who would be behind the scheme in luring Waver onto the Rail Zeppelin. It’s a lot of power and effort to manifest a servant without the Grail and suggest that someone very skilled and talented is out to get at Waver.
Being a canon Fate series, it was only a matter of time before it will inevitably come down to a servant appearing onstage. Hephaestion, being one of Isandker’s closest friends, makes the encounter seems personal as she perceives that Waver has taken her position at the side of him. I guess this answers the question why this servant never showed up in Fate/Zero’s reality marble as I don’t recall a women in the entourage of his companions. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see how a non-servent Grey fares against a real servant especially when she has the body of Saber and that morphing powerhouse of a Noble Phantasm.
