Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei! is the fourth season based on the manga. It is a spin-off within the Fate franchise and the season is twelve episodes long. Unlike previous seasons, it forgoes the slice-of-life aspect and immediately throws Illya into a situation involving the class cards. After the ending of the last season, we had learnt of Miyu’s true origins and that comes back in full force. Illya ends up starting from zero with a bunch of new characters being introduced. Several of them are enemies and several of them are friend with Illya befriending them as allies.
The place that Illya finds herself in is unique in terms of what it is and what is signifies. Several characters that appeared in other Fate series show up here but their personalities are changed quite a bit. The season goes for the overly cute angle for Illya, even more so than before. Characters will act serious even though what they are saying or doing is outrageous, with Illya being the straight man. She’ll have an exaggerated response, which is pretty funny and doesn’t get old even after all this time. The sheer absurdity of the situation that Illya finds herself in lends well to heaps of hilarious moments.
At times it could feel like it is going through the same beats as the first season. Illya has to find and steel her resolve before she can even attempt at doing what she wants. Her being weak willed in the beginning only serves to have her beaten by the enemy. Miyu’s true past and purpose comes to light in this season and it is closely tied to the Holy Grail War. It’s not too different to what you would have suspected and this causes yet another crisis for Illya in which she has to pick where she stands in it all. It’s at these points that you do feel Kuro’s relatively straightforwardness and decisiveness as much more refreshing that Illya’s constant middling about.
This season is where it starts to really leverage off the lore of the Fate universe. There are appearances of several alternate versions of characters from Fate/stay night. It gives us the most bad-ass and coolest Emiya Shirou yet and that’s not even the surprising. It twists the role of good and bad so that the side Illya is on may not been the hroine’s side but rather the villainess’s. We also finally get to see Illya use several other class cards and wear costumes inspired by those heroic spirits instead of just defaulting to Rider every time.
Tanaka, one of Illya’s new friends, immediately sets off several flags that highlight her importance. From her amnesia to lack of common knowledge, to her mysterious powers. She rivals Illya in terms of being an airhead. She’s only one of two characters that kind of compete in terms of who is the most childish and their shtick can be tough to accept after a while. When they first appeared, it’s pretty funny but when you realize that is all what their character is about, it’s less acceptable since it’s predictable and annoying at times.
Just when you thought that there wasn’t as many fan service scenes, they start coming frequently from the fourth episode onwards. From the camera angles, to the focus on certain characters in compromising positions, it can be distracting from what’s occurring at that moment. These are not limited to Illya and Kuro, but Tanaka gets her fair share as well. There’ll be excuses for the characters to share a bath and relax.
The ending to the season does not wrap anything up since it’s left for the movie. That’s quite disappointing especially since it makes the final episode feel truncated. While it had a fairly epic and satisfying climax, it felt like it finished abruptly, nothing was resolved and too many mysteries were left out in the open. Overall, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei! takes a different direction to previous seasons. This isn’t a bad thing since the formula was getting too predictable. It completely forgoes the slice-of-life aspect and leans heavily into the lore of the Fate universe.
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