Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! – Final Impressions

This particular season of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya was something I was looking forward to. Somewhat-different-but-still-best-girl, it premiered on my birthday month, for one, and I honestly couldn’t wait to see Ko-Gil in action coming off from the manga.

Unfortunately, as enjoyable as it still was for me on its own, Silver Link did a mediocre adaptation job here compared to previous seasons. A lot of it isn’t their fault, but at the very end they kind of wrote themselves into a wall, terribly so, especially compared to how the manga version of 2wei flew seamlessly into 3rei.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works Epilogue & Sunny Day

This makes it the fourth time I’ve seen this shot

Okay, so I’m back to wrap up the Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works post I started ages ago.

Instead of squeezing in the VN’s original epilogue at the end of the previous episode, Ufotable did a great thing by producing an entire extra episode with new material depicting what happens after the original route, alongside the remaining source material. As a result, I think episode 25 in itself is worth watching for readers of the visual novel regardless if you think the rest of the show is a bad adaptation or not (I personally thought it was great, but it was certainly a bit shaky here and there).

Anime Blog CPR

Alright… uh, well then. Seems this blog has been dead for a few months now. I’ve been caught up in finishing up the last of my junior college education, handling work, and family responsibilities, so much that video games and watching anime have been my priorities for downtime activity rather than writing about anime. Sorry guys.

Though, with this school quarter giving me plenty of free time to myself, I think I’ll find more time to write about weeb shit every now-and-then (I only have one physical class + work two days a week; online class is ezpz and my Japanese club is inconsequential, so I essentially have the rest of the days off). I’m going to start off by finishing up my UBW blog posts now that the Blu-rays are out (I never got around to doing a post about the anime-original epilogue; plus, the good ending is animated as a bonus on the BD, all hail Seibah) and I’ll probably write about the last half of the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei adaptation (heads-up: mostly my views on it as an adaptation… and I know much the anime fandom loves primaries lololol hahaahaha fuck you).

It’s great to be back. Remainder that if I ever disappear (again), you can always catch me on Twitter.

[Interesting reads this week: The Trans-Pacific Partnership – The Trade Agreement that will Destroy the Anime Fandom as We Know It – Chikorita157’s Anime Blog

The TPP is heretical and is an affront to the common good. On the smaller side of things, it also affects anime and video games negatively. Don’t let it happen.]

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 24 – 「武器の貯蔵は充分か」

-I am the bone of my sword-
体は剣で出来ている。
-Steel is my body and fire is my blood-
血潮は鉄で心は硝子。
-I have created over a thousand blades-
幾たびの戦場を越えて不敗。
-Unaware of Loss-
ただの一度の敗走もなく、
-Nor aware of Gain-
ただの一度の勝利もなし。
-Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one’s arrival-
担い手はここに孤り 剣の丘で鉄を鍛つ。
-I have no regrets. This is the only path-
ならば、わが生涯に意味は不要ず
-My whole life was UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS-
この体は、無限の剣で出来ていた。

We’ve arrived at the “final” episode of Unlimited Blade Works, and thus, the real battle begins. Two owners, two “one-trick ponies”, one Faker. Was it able to satisfy me as a reader of the original visual novel? Find out after the jump.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 23

Fake Assassin’s battle with Saber here is pretty damn disappointing, with how quickly it all went down. We didn’t even get to hear an anime rendition of Shippu no Kenshi, “Sasaki Kojirou”‘s own theme, in the anime. Dammit Ufotable.

It’s sad because this is the only route where Fake Assassin feels remotely relevant to the plot. He gets killed off-screen (most likely by Gilgamesh) in Fate and gets superseded by True Assassin (Hassan) in Heaven’s Feel. It’s a shame Ufotable didn’t give him much of a bangin’ exit.

It was cool seeing Shirou actually tracing a rain of swords in animation. I absolutely hated how DEEN screwed this up by not having him do that at all in their version of Unlimited Blade Works.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 22 – 「 Dolphins」

Or rather, uh, sperm whales.

Losing the sex scene from the original visual novel isn’t much of a loss, in my opinion. With Realta Nua, Type-Moon likes pretending that the H-scenes in the original PC version never happened. And they honestly aren’t that necessary in Fate and Unlimited Blade Works. They only ever have a “significant” presence in Heaven’s Feel.

I just wished it was more… romantic though. Not that jackhammerin’ is very romantic, but just saying. For the record, Nasu did not write the sex scenes in Tsukihime (oysters!) or Fate/stay night. I cannot stress how annoying that misconception is. (Okay, it is kind of funny.)

Speaking of romance, love how they added Rin’s reason for falling for Shirou directly from Heaven’s Feel.

(P.S. I am being titillated by Shinji’s suffering)

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works 21 – 「 My dream is not wrong」

And here marks the anime’s ending of Shirou’s epic therapy session. There were bumpy moments before this episode that made me doubt how they were going to handle the most emotional fight of Unlimited Blade Works, but in the end, Ufotable managed to pull through.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 20 – 「 I am the bone of my sword」

Back-to-back EMIYA

Looks like it’s time for Shirou’s epic therapy session. Arguably the most entertaining episode yet in terms of presentation. Although I have my gripes, it was… pretty dope.

Fanime 2015 – Overall Experience (including MangaGamer nonsense)

Anime conventions are something I look forward to every year now. I might go to Anime Expo someday, but for now, Fanime is the best local alternative and I honestly never regret it.

I was extra pumped this year ever since FanimeCon 2015 announced that Nonaka Ai would be attending the con as a guest. Holy heck, first time since 2012 that a Japanese voice actor/actress attended this convention! I missed out on Aizawa Mai the first time I went to FanimeCon, and Momoi Haruko stopped going to the convention before I even started attending the con as a full-weekend member (I forgot why she stopped going…). No offense to the English voice actors, but unless you’re Kenvin Conroy (who does not do voices in anime) or Steve Blum, I’m only going to care about meeting the vocal talents that hail from the country where Japanese entertainment originates from. Where my Sawashiro Miyuki at?!

Well, anyway, here are some highlights of my experiences at FanimeCon 2015: the good, the bad, and the weird.

Fanime 2015 Cosplay

Image Credit: みつき

Last year, I didn’t take any cosplay photos because the con was overrun with Kek la Kek and Shingeki no Kyoujin cosplayers. Fortunately for this year, the amount of Ryuuko and Giants died down and I was able to witness a lot more variety of cosplays. Still, I was usually rushing around with my friends elsewhere so didn’t get too many chances to take snapshots of amazing costume work, but I did manage to squeeze in some photography.