It seems that the new trend in Fate related series is ending a season with some naked Gilgamesh. Apparently they are really desperate to try and court that Kate market. They have to give that up. It is an honest effort but Kate is not going to watch a Fate series no mater how many times you undress the King of Heroes. She is definitely not going to watch anything Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya related. Maybe JUST maybe if you adapt Fate/Strange Fake but that is distinctly a Hail Mary pass.

On a completely unrelated note I did have a revelation about the various Fate universes in general that was only fully solidified with this episode. The various Fate stories are all subject to the Anna Karenina principle. The Anna Karenina principle states that, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Every Holy Grail War that we see is broken in its own special way. Therefore the strange rules and odd restrictions in one version of the Holy Grail War do not necessarily carry over to a different version. That is why that state that only iterations of Hassan-i-Sabbah can truly be summoned by the Fuyuki Holy Grail War and any other Assassin is a fake but other Holy Grail Wars ignore that rule.

The best way to picture it is via a Table Top RPG analogy. Given the origin of the series that is the perfect tool. Overall the Holy Grail War idea in the generic RPG Core Book. It has the standardized rules, themes, and mechanics but nothing more than that. Each version of the Fate Universe is its own setting on top of the Core Book rules. They add all the characters, details, and flavor specific to that setting are in the supplemental setting. That also means that any rules that the individual setting introduces can alter, change, or contradict rules in the vanilla Core Book or other settings. They only have to be internally logically consistent. The rules laid down in Fate/Apocrypha are different that what is seen in Fate/Zero or Fate/Extra. Most of the rules are the same but each of version that is not a direct sequel or prequel exists in its own timeline where the rules broke (because they always break) it their own special ways.

Hopefully that helps both the Fate universe in general and this episode in particular make more sense.
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My roommate is often curious if he should watch certain episodes of Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA or not. He sees the potential for awesome episodes in the series but reading my reviews proves to him that the promotional material does not misrepresent what the show is about like say a show like Kamichu! does. While the series has some of Type-Moon’s amazing signature fight scenes all of that is sadly held in check from being as awesome as it could be with some squicky fanservice around Illya, Miyu, and Chole. It is definitely an anime that you either need to like the fanservice, be able to ignore the icky parts, or just read a guide to skip to the parts that have the battling with Servants.

Well this was an episode my roommate could watch without reservation. After a season of a half of hype the 8th card finally appears. You can’t build up an opponent like that and then have it fall down like it was a simple jobber. (Technically you can do that but you better either have the twist of the “real villain” prepared with adequate set up or just be prepared to utterly disappoint your audience.) That means that their one hit knock out plan is probably not going to work. Actually considering who the 8th card is the thought that this might be a cake walk battle is actually unthinkable.
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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.
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