Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Prisma☆Phantasm

Prisma Phantasm is less a film, and more an hour long Fate/Kaleid Liner themed acid trip.

It's basically a series of OVAs piled on top of each other until they collectively reach a sixty minute runtime. That sounds like a waste of time, but it really isn’t. I’d even say this is the best part of Prisma Illya (well, other than Sekka no Chikai let’s be real). That claim needs some justification… alright, stick with me for a bit.

Depending on your tastes, either the plot heavy portions or the slice of life heavy portions of Prisma Illya work for you. Or both work, or neither ... work (but if that’s the case you’re definitely not going to make it to this movie). These parts exist largely separate from one another, at least in the first three seasons. We spend the first half of each cour watching Illya and company just kinda hang out, then everything gets serious, a big fight ensues, etc.

To me, that uneventful first half is most interesting. Prisma Illya is at its best when the characters are allowed to fuck around doing nothing all day. The most potent doses of that (aside from this film) are the OVAs, and while I do enjoy those, they’re short, and spend a ton of time on fanservice.

Given this film’s OVAness you’d expect it to have a ton of fanservice, but, to my shock, it doesn't. There’s hardly any fanservice in this thing, what there is exists mostly for the purpose of jokes. I'm not particularly offended by fanservice in most contexts, but the lack of it here leaves more room for wacky plots and comedic character interactions.

This film is front to back characters fucking around doing nothing, with minimal distractions; I love it for that.

Over the course of the film we jump from story to story, some of which are long enough to warrant being split into separate scenes. Those longer ones are: Ruby and Sapphire make Illya’s friends into magical girls, Shinji tries different jobs, and different characters try Kirei’s ramen. The gags in these can get repetitive, but never get boring. They can be pretty funny too… which I’ll explain later. These longer bits are fun. Not hilarious, not bold. But fun.

Where this does break new ground is in one of the shorter bits, which comes about forty minutes into the runtime. I’d try to explain the plot, but I genuinely could not tell you what the fuck is going on in this scene. Illya and company are playing a game I’ve never heard of (kick the can), and the rules aren’t explained (though I doubt explaining them would make the scene any less confusing). Random side characters show up every couple minutes, the rules and team compositions change out of nowhere, the magic sticks give nonsensical commentary over the whole thing, the scene ends with Illya randomly committing a murder. Nothing makes any sense, it feels like a dream. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Absolute cinema.

Shinji just cums over and over again for the entire length of the movie, just sprays it everywhere. He probably gets the most screentime of any character (for some reason Illya doesn’t appear until minute forty). That could be a problem, but he’s voiced by the GOAT Kamiya Hiroshi, so it works. His whole arc is super fun, we even get a Mimi fujoshi joke in the middle of it. And he just straight 💦💦💦s over and over again, just sprays it everywhere.

Then worst magical stick Ruby gets brutally tortured to death, that was satisfying 😊😊😊😊😊.

The only complaint I have is with the animation. It’s not film quality, though it looks marginally better than the OVAs. It's serviceable at best. Y’know, whatever though. Who cares when Illya’s stabbing people and Shinji is just blasting sperm everywhere like crazy.

You should watch this. Even if you’ve never seen a Fate show, fuck it. Everyone on Earth should watch this. On drugs too. Break out the crack pipes for this one boys. Fuck it man, fucking send it. Watch it over and over until you pass out or die or cum a million times.

🥛

Just a dumb comedy spinoff. It made me chuckle a few times at its ridiculousness but I think this had to be much funnier to a Japanese audience that it is to us in the West. You can totally skip this OVA and not be missing much. It's pretty to look at and it can make you chuckle a little; you just have to accept it is what it is and move on. It's a side story that adds nothing to the main plot....it's repetitive and not all that funny. Sentai didn't even bother trying to dub this...just slapped on ... some subtitles and said "ok hoss, have at it."
Ilya and Kuro don't really put in an appearance until like the final 30 minutes or so. I watched it mainly to be a completionist for the Prisma side story. Can't wait to actually watch the final capper movie, Vow in the Snow. This OVA very much breaks the 4th wall by mentioning the final movie in passing.

Coming from a fan that is infatuated with both the original Fate series, Fate Kaleid and enjoyed even Carnival Phantasm (which should not be confused with this title), I have to say: this is either something someone wrote when drunk or straight up laughing in people's face.

There's literally no plot here, worse, there's so much "artistic freedom" in this that the whole thing feels both cringe and pointless. By cringe I don't mean fanservice that I like as well but you shaking your head and wondering "why, just why".

When my beloved Illya finally appeared, for which I managed to watch it to the end, ... another letdown. The girl who has a hilarious personality, tough character and a heart of gold is... drugged or something?

Not that it matters much as at that point the third wall has been needlessly and unceremoniously broken for no practical purpose and the 3-year-old creators went wild playing in their sandbox, and not in a good way.

The only reasons I'm not giving this a 1 is some people that like very bad slapstick humor might enjoy it and the art style still seems to be like in the original Fate Kaleid series (the artist should've demanded 100 mil yet for animating this horror show).

If there are mistakes in this review, I'm sorry, it's still better thought-out than this anime.