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YMMV / Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA

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  • Adaptation Displacement: Rare example of this happening on a character scale: the Prisma version of Illya has gotten popular enough to lock horns with the stay night version.
  • Arc Fatigue:
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: The Ainsworths, especially Julian. Are they a group of Well-Intentioned Extremists or sociopathic monsters willing to abuse a little girl for a plan that might not even work? While their backstory and explanations point heavily towards the former, some of the actions they do are without a doubt the second. Some fans may sympathize with them, but others share Alternate!Shirou's desire to kill them as slowly and painfully as possible.
  • Awesome Music:
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Chloe. She needs mana to live and isn't fussed about how she gets it, serving as a constant banging reminder that Sex Magic exists even in a parody of the Nasuverse... which wouldn't be so bad if she weren't ten years old, making her the walking incarnation of Fille Fatale. While she isn't the only case of questionable lewdness in the Nasuverse or even PRISMA☆ILLYA itself, she's definitely the worst offender, and her antics have caused a disconnect between viewers who see PRISMA☆ILLYA as "that lolicon fanservice show" and those who see it as the parody/Seinen series it actually is.
    • Miyu's brother. While general opinion is positive compared to his counterparts in Illya's world and the stay night animes (not the original visual novel though), you'll find some folks saying he merely upgraded to Stock Light-Novel Hero given his circumstances.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: If anime pages on social media, Forums, etc. are any indicator, then this series is best known for, among other things, the scene where Illya mounts Miyu with a psychotic smirk on her face (twice), Kuro kissing Miyu during her's and Illya's and Miyu's first fight, Kuro's passionate make-out sessions of questionable consent with Illya, and the stripperific "Beast Mode" outfits of Illya, Kuro, and Miyu.
  • Broken Base:
    • Illya's extremely bratty behavior towards Kuro in Zwei turned quite a few fans against her, even those who didn't like Kuro to begin with. Most of the fans her actions upset will point out that Kuro wasn't really hurting anyone, and pretty much everyone except Illya seems to be okay with her presence, making Illya's frequent physical attacks Disproportionate Retribution (especially since Kuro's curse means she can't fight back). Fortunately, she does get better after narrowly stopping Miyu and Kuro from fighting to the death, and the intervention of her mother also helps a lot.
    • There's quite the large divide over how 3rei was handled, especially over whether the arc's Cerebus Syndrome an improvement or not. Also dips a bit into Old Guard Versus New Blood after the release of the film covering Miyu's arc: those that got in for the drama and the situation surrounding Miyu's brother complain about having to slog through two arcs' worth of magical girl antics and yuri Ship Tease, while those who started from either the beginning or 2wei complain about the sudden shift to a mainline Fate-esque storyline and having yet another lighthearted magical girl series turn dark partways in, not to mention the sub-arc where the titular heroine was not present.
    • Prisma Phantasm was the Affectionate Parody everyone expected. What the fanbase didn't expect was the lion's share of the focus being given to Shinji and Kotomine, a pair of one-off characters that were already not well-liked. While some argue that Shinji's deserved Butt-Monkey status and Kotomine's Troll nature contributed well to the comedy, others were outraged that the regular cast of Prillya got so little screen time, especially with the ongoing Cerebus Syndrome in the proper 3rei manga.
    • Licht - The Nameless Girl is considered as good, if not better than, Vow in the Snow as a film standing on its own, but that distinction disappears for those who have been following the manga. The addition of more drama and fight scenes came at the cost of cutting many humorous scenes out and ending on a brutal Cliffhanger, and as of yet there's no indication of the lost content being redone as bonus material. While it's generally agreed that the fight scenes were fantastic, the loss of the Fanservice serves as a reminder of 3rei's Arc Fatigue and leads some to question if it was a worthy trade-off.
  • Catharsis Factor: One of the minor complaints people who read the original visual novel or watched the anime adaptations back in the day was that Shirou never gave a proper beatdown to Shinji after all the shit he did to him, with Shinji always being finished off by other major villains. However here, the Shirou from the world of Miyu, after installing the Archer class card into himself, gives Shinji one of the biggest trashings he has ever suffered in any Fate adaptation, even getting to punch his smug face (after he killed the Sakura from that world, no less). To make it better, it was beautifully animated in the movie adaptation of Miyuverse Shirou's flashback. To say that fans were incredibly happy would be an understatement, with some even saying it was the best part of the movie.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Illya's magical girl form is a popular depiction even amongst mainstream Fate Fans.
    • Even if some fans believe his arc has overstayed its welcome, it almost unanimously agreed that Alternate Shirou Emiya is made of pure awesomeness. Some have gone as far as to claim him to be one of the best incarnations of the character, rivaling not only the likes of VN Shirou, but even Archer EMIYA himself. The Shirou that was possessed by Sengo Muramasa, however, might rival him in this department.
    • Angelica, full goddamn stop. The fans are already clamoring for her when she first appeared with her awesome Gilgamesh Install, and her following appearances gave her plenty of time to shine, what with The Reveal about this series' background and her awesome fight vs. Kuro and Miyu's brother. After her Heel–Face Turn, she's become even more popular as the fans jokingly said that she embodied "the perfect heroine for TYPE-MOON", with her combining traits of all three of Stay Night's heroines (blonde hair, Girlish Pigtails, big boobs, stoic yet honorable nature, and older sister-like personality).
  • Fandom-Specific Plot:
    • There's a surprisingly high amount of fandom ideas where the Fujimarus get similar powers to Illya and start collecting their own class cards. Strangely, it's male Ritsuka that is treated as the counterpart in these plots, though just as often they'll use Mash as the Illya stand-in.
    • Miyu's brother being thrown in an Alternate Universe right after Oath Under the Snow. Usually he ends up in the world of Fate/stay night, but it's not unheard of to use this setup for crossovers. Sometimes the inverse happens, and FSN Shirou or EMIYA end up in Illya's world.
  • Fanfic Fuel: It's a Magical Girl series and a Fate series rolled into one, heavily featuring sentient embodiments of the Second Magic for dimensional hopping and the Third Magic for ease of use. The fanfic potential is staggering even for a Fate work, and that's without getting into Crossover territory both within the series and without. A good number of those crossovers are even with official IPs, and that number is still growing to this day; the only reason PRISMA☆ILLYA doesn't have the most crossovers of all Nasuverse works is because Fate/stay night itself is an even bigger crossover juggernaut.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Rather than its full title, the series is typically referred to as just "Prisma," "Prisma Illya" or even "Prillya" for convenience. Despite the franchise's traditional naming convention, you'd have trouble finding anyone who just called it "Fate/kaleid."
    • His easygoing life and Moe artstyle has led Illya's brother to be called "Fluffy Shirou" to distinguish him from his Fate/stay night counterpart and his counterpart from the Alternate Universe the Cards came from.
  • Growing the Beard: It starts out as a fairly comedic series about Illya as a Magical Girl. It then steadily becomes more serious. The Character Development and Art Evolution become more apparent in its second season, and the very notable increase of Fanservice and heavier action clearly show it's a Seinen series. This is especially apparent in 3rei.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Do you remember the time when Miyu said "brother" to Shirou when she was at Illya's home? In the universe from which Miyu came Shirou is her brother and Miyu is the vessel of the grail, and he went on a crusade against (very powerful) people who kept her captive, sending Miyu to the universe Illya was from, but ended up getting caught by them and tortured in a dungeon. And she probably remembered about him every time she saw Illya's Shirou. Ouch.
    • There is also a scene at the end of the 6th episode of the anime (not present in the manga) where Rin wants to take unconscious Illya home after the Saber card was captured, only for Miyu to interrupt and say that she will be the one to do it. And she carries Illya home while a music box plays in the background. Truly a heart-warming moment, but if you know that Miyu is her universe's Holy Grail vessel and she suffered quite a lot because of it then you know why she did it and while it still is a heart-warming moment then, the context changes from "for a friend" to "for someone who bears the same burden as me".
    • Played for Laughs. Illya being a lesbian rapist for Maid Miyu who doesn't seem to mind stops being funny when you consider she's an expy for Sakura from Fate/stay night who was conditioned to accept being raped.
    • Really, just about everything with Miyu becomes this when we find about about her world and her life with the Ainsworths. It starts as early as when she asks Illya why she's fighting. She's not happy about Illya treating collecting the cards like a game, probably because of how the cards are used in her world, and by who.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The fact that Illya's series crossed over with Lyrical Nanoha, well-known for being a popular Magical Girl Warrior spinoff of a visual novel, becomes this if you look at how they treated their source material's original players and families: while the Triangle Heart cast remained mundane and were eventually ignored after the series left Earth, the Einzberns and Emiyas almost met the same fate... if it wasn't for them getting actionized alternate universe counterparts that eclipsed their "originals" in popularity, with the sub-arc explaining it even functioning as a pseudo-spinoff of its own. Sounding familiar? Sadly, Miyu's Brother doesn't get a Magical Boy form to complete the circle.
    • Most mythological beings in the Fate multiverse are Servants, so the myth walking around in the present day actually being the real deal was unheard of to characters and readers alike. The funny thing is that PRISMA☆ILLYA wasn't the only Fate series to do it: Fate/Grand Order did the same thing with Akuta Hinako/Yu Mei-ren, her story beats matching Erika Ainsworth/Pandora's almost point-for-point being an undying immortal hated by humanity for existing. What makes it truly amusing is that the PRISMA☆ILLYA and Grand Order chapters featuring these backstories very nearly released the same day*; it's enough to make you wonder if Hiroyama and Nasu coordinated it so as not to step on each other's plot twists.
  • I Knew It!: Many readers familiar with the Nasuverse at large had slated Tanaka as having something to do with the Counter Force within minutes of Illya meeting her. The twist that shocked them was that she was a Counter Guardian of Gaia* rather than Alaya*. Gaia is remembered as an antagonistic force in Angel Notes, but in PRISMA☆ILLYA, Illya's unwavering desire to save both the world and humanity has placed Gaia's avatar firmly on the heroes' side.
  • Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Les Yay:
    • Miyu develops a pretty obvious crush on Illya, who (apparently unintentionally) doesn't do a whole lot to discourage it. Likewise with Illya and Chloe, then again, the yuri subtext mainly comes from Chloe. Crossover appearances featuring the three don't shy away from it, and some of them even double down on it.
    • Miyu gives Illya a day-pass on being a magical girl, and takes on the final card alone, just to spare Illya. This plot unfolds exactly as it always does of course.
    • She's desperately trying to ignore it; like when she accidentally kissed Miyu during a dream of Shirou just as she woke up. Miyu didn't mind.
    • Illya's maid Fetish results in her mounting Miyu (twice!) before she can compose herself. Again, Miyu didn't mind.
    • Chloe, on the other hand, seems to actively encourage this. To the point that apparently, she spent the entire time between Chapters 4 and 5 of the second season just going around town kissing girls (Including Taiga!). Granted, she was doing it to drain their mana, but judging by the one we actually get to see, she also took the time and effort to seduce at least a few of them first.
      • Then comes Chapter 8 of 3rei where The Big Damn Kiss happened between Chloe and Illya.
    • Chloe in general with both Miyu and Illya. In 2wei she managed to make the former unconscious with a French kiss.
    • The tension between Rin and Luvia borders on Belligerent Sexual Tension. This is especially obvious in the manga, and in places like the special where Rin is made to be Luvia's Meido. Also, official art like this.
      Ruby: Those two ingrates are made for each other!
  • Like You Would Really Do It: The death of Chloe? Believable, foreshadowed all over the place, and suitably awesome. The sudden death of Miyu and the abrupt Apocalypse Wow in the very next chapter? The fanbase's Willing Suspension of Disbelief dropped like a lead balloon, which the author predicted and lampshaded in a Twitter post closely following the chapter's release. Sure enough, Set Right What Once Went Wrong was on the table a couple of chapters later.
  • Memetic Badass: Miyu's brother Shirou in case you can't tell.
  • Memetic Mutation: The scene in 2wei! where Rin and Luvia are both laughing hysterically at Kuro having fallen into their bottomless swamp pit trap became a popular meme template in recent years.
  • Questionable Casting: Sentai Filmworks's decision to dub in-house was widely criticized for replacing the standard Bang Zoom dub cast with inferior substitutes. Detractors have noted Illya sounds more like Lina Inverse than a 10 years old little girl.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Shirou is already a major Base-Breaking Character as a whole in Fate/stay night for Broken Base reasons, but a lot of fans consider this version of him to be even worse than his DEEN version, mainly because he's bland and completely superfluous, and don't find the Running Gag of women falling for him to be that funny. In addition, there's Die for Our Ship at play, as most of the Yuri Fans in the fanbase will raise their hackles at any Ship Tease he gets with girls, as he's a possible canon threat to either side of both Fan-Preferred Couples Illya/Miyu and Rin/Luvia. The Shirou from Miyu's world, however, is a Memetic Badass.
    • From 3rei, Tanaka is widely hated for being as stupid as one could possibly get without forgetting how to breathe. It hurts that for her desire to get rid of the Ainsworths, which is the only defining characteristic of her personality, she does almost nothing during the Final Battle, only giving Illya a long distance power-up. The hate simmered down after The Reveal gave a big justification for this behavior, but only slightly.
  • Sophomore Slump: 2wei! is seen as the weakest in the anime adaptation. While Silver Link was faithful in adapting the 2wei! manga, said manga went much harder on the funny moments and fanservice (which, as seen below, is unnerving at best). 3rei!! was better received, but otherwise went too far in the other direction, having a much more serious tone that left less room for silliness.
  • Squick: The fact that Illya and Miyu are 10 years old in this continuity rather than being Older Than They Look — not to mention Chloe — and are regularly shown in some rather adult situations has grossed out a lot of western viewers and reviewers, and even gotten the show banned as child porn in Russia.
  • Tough Act to Follow: Not the anime itself, but Sentai Filmworks's dub cast compared to the Bang Zoom dub cast from Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] on. As just about all veterans have a different dub voice, the new ones' success or failure is greatly influenced by how they compare to the original. It's safe to say that the changes were not for the better. The is especially glaring with Illyasviel von Einzbern, Rin Tohsaka, and Taiga Fujimura who since since the dub of the original Fate/stay night anime have been voiced by Stephanie Sheh, Mela Lee, and Julie Ann Taylor in the English dub of every Fate series they appear except this one.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Shirou. He goes from the primary lead of Fate/stay Night to a disposable side character with no impact on the main plot. Shirou's lack of knowledge about magecraft and the Moonlight World means he's limited to comedic antics. Even if they didn't focus on his mainline self's tragic circumstances or Chronic Hero Syndrome, the series could have at least had him as a support character a la Tuxedo Mask, helping Illya and friends from afar with his limited skills. Considering the deal with both Shirou and Miyu's brother, it's ironic that his role is more fit to have him called "Illya's brother" than by his actual name due to his sidelined status.

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