Look Tsukihime fans if nothing else Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA remembers you guys exist even if Nasu does not.

Also if you guys stop hating Ciel and Saber I just might lift the curse on you all and let you all have the Tsukihime remake. But only if you start behaving.

While the plot has passed through the filler portion which turned out mostly to be a pleasant scenic route as opposed to a traumatizing detour there is still a little (but expected) downtime before the final battle with the mysterious 8th card. Hold on to your hats because past this point it is nothing but fighting. The last four episodes should be great. Until then it is time for the crew to eat, drink, and be melancholy!

That is usually “and be merry” but all three of our heroines are in a bit of a funk on the night before the battle.

With the construction finished on both the Edelfelt mansion and the excavation site the card capturing team is ready to face their toughest foe. But Chloe still has reservations as Miyu is still hold back some key bit of information. At the same time Irisviel reveals that while she knows more than she lets on she is apparently in the dark about the cards. So with more questions than answers Illya marches into the unknown to find the answers through conflict.

As it is rather hot here in Brooklyn as I am writing this I can really feel a lot of sympathy for the girls of Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA. When it gets to the point where the inside of your house is hotter than the outside it can be hard to motivate yourself to do anything. But if we are honest this is not an attempt by the staff off the anime to show their sympathy for me in my sweltering apartment. Most of this is just a reason to get Irisviel and Leysritt into bathing suits and then soak Chloe and Illya. But since Mama and the Maid were sadly the characters who left out of the trip to the beach this is A-OK!

I have been recently listening to a Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast and boy do people like to stop and feast whenever they have a major victory in that book. They also like to feast when they have have a minor victory.  Or need to form a conspiracy. Or are trying to win someone over to their side. Or want to assassinate someone. In fact as long as they have food and booze there seems to be less reasons of why they won’t throw a feast than there are reasons they would. So in that tradition of ancient China everyone eats up before the conflict.

Don’t be a bad mother Irisviel. Shiro has a hard enough life without you selling pictures of him like you were Nabiki Tendo.

With the last hurrah in the rear view mirror it is time for a strategy meeting. The main takeaway is that they have a lot of unknowns and the most of the things they know are hardly encouraging. They do know that they no longer have all of their cards, the card they do have are strategy cards and not power cards, Bazett will be there at the fight but she will be more of a rival than an ally, and they will be in place where they are at a tactical disadvantage. On top of that their opponent has absorbed an insane amount of energy. That would even make a weak Servant insanely formidable and they all know this last card is not going to be a natural born push over. And that is just what they know. They have no idea what form their opponent will take. Before this point they always knew that the card they were trying to capture had to fill one of seven categories. This time they could be facing anything.

It is almost as if their opponent did not care about the rules.

At this point their only plan is to hit it with high firepower and hope that overwhelming force is a viable strategy. They can’t wait for more information because as time passes whatever lurks beneath the surface only grows more powerful. Better to know what they are dealing with now. If they wait any longer they might not be able to stop the last card no matter what their plan.

In fact that point might have already been passed long ago.

In a way Chloe is suffering because she is so observant. She is the one who knows that Miyu and Irisviel are holding back secrets. Illya and Miyu were clearly not just random girls who were picked by two capricious magical wands. Since Illya’s parents stopped the last Holy Grail War their daughter who was supposed to be the next Grail is clearly been involved with the cards since the moment of her birth. Chloe is just the other side of the coin when it comes to that. The real question is how is Miyu related to all this. She clearly has a mysterious past. As far as anyone knows she is a homeless girl with no past. The problem is that this girl seemingly raised in a Skinner Box knows something that she is not telling everyone. But Chloe knows that Miyu won’t open up to her therefore she has to try another route to get answers.

The problem is when Irisviel is pushed for details they quickly learn that she is just in the dark as everyone else about the 8th card. In fact she is not even aware of the cards existence in the first place. Mama might have many secrets but this is not one of them.

You can really feel Chloe’s vulnerability here. As much of a tough act as she usually puts on she is clearly aware she is still a fragile existence. While Illya has stabilized her for now the 8th card proves that there are still major mechanisms to the cards, her birth, and the Grail that they are totally unaware of. Even if the last card does not kill her something else they don’t know about might make her fade out all the same. Everyone else at the table just has to make sure they don’t lose when the game is done. Chloe is the only one who has to win and everyone else is not telling her rules to the game they are playing they clearly know about.

It is clear to see why she is finally breaking at this point.

Bazett is resting up before the big fight as well. When she pushes Rin on the use of three little girls as magical combat solders the truth of the mater comes to light. Rin and Luvia realize that all three girls are clearly connected to the events surrounding the cards but they just don’t know how. At this point it is far more likely that they are a necessary part of this fight than just convenient allies. They were going to get involved no mater what happened. Better for it to be on their side.

With all that out-of-the-way everyone has not really gained any new answers. They really have just discovered that the people around them know as little as they do. Illya and Luvia have both come to the same conclusion. Miyu will only tell them her secrets when she is good and ready. They know they can trust her so they will just have to hope that she will reveal her secrets when the time is right. Until then all they can do is jump into the maelstrom. It is coming towards them even if they do nothing. At least this way they might have a chance of pulling off their suicide mission.

At this point all they have is Illya’s ganbatte attitude.

But from the preview ganbatte attitude alone is not going to be enough. It seems that Bazett goes in swinging at full power and it is not enough. If the woman they desperately fought to standstill is doing poorly then they are not in for a fun time.

If nothing else at least when she to see some great Bazett action.

– Alain