Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Licht - Namae no Nai Shoujo 5l579

As a fan of this series I am very disappointed in it. I'm writing this review because there doesn't seem to be a negative review here as far as I can see.

The story was strong although it cut out some very important parts from the manga, effectively skipping the nuance in the fights and in the characterisation. There are some great parallels in the characters.

The soundtrack sucked, it was mixed poorly and the songs never matched up with the fights. Often times I would find myself questioning why a song was playing. (or a lack of it) I really wouldn't be surprised if the sound ... director was out of a job after this travesty. The ending song was good though.

The fight animations felt excruciatingly lacklustre: zoomed in CG combat is a cardinal sin, random distant zoom outs to the point where you can hardly see the action, wonky framerates in places. There is a LOT of needless CG animated which was awful to look at. They also overused an awful particle effect with lots of moving black particles which didn't look good the first time they used it, let alone the next 30 times. I have literally no idea who thought it was a good idea.

The voice acting was practically the only saving grace of this floundering failure of an adaptation. Some highlights are Kugimiya Rie who kills it as Beatrice; Kadowaki Mai who does a fantastic job as Illya as per usual; and Hanae Natsuki who really managed to share the pain of being Julian.

In conclusion, this movie is heavily carried by its source material and voice actors. Most of the successes can be attributed to its origin manga which is genuinely good; the only thing the adaptation really feels like it added were the voices which is, however, a shallow victory considering the things that were lost. I really wanted it to be better, but alas, it wasn't.

When the credits finished their roll, my first thought was "Prisma is BACK" (at least from a production standpoint). As a point of reference, I gave Oath Made Under the Snow an 8/10, but upon reexamination, I'd honestly have to knock it down to a 7 due to my woes with the animation. This new film I enjoyed more, and for almost the opposite reason as that one.

While Oath had a the production reach its lowest point, which was already slipping in the TV series of 3rei, the story arc of Shirou was great. On the flip side, this is the point in 3rei ... I feel the plot starts to get away with itself BUT they brought back the hype animation we hadn't seen since season 3, something akin to the battle with corrupt Gilgamesh.

On the story front, this film focuses mainly on Beatrice and Julian's motivations, two characters I've never really cared much for. Their reasons and back story's are fine enough, they're serviceable, but when we already finished a season with a giant battle with Julian at an alter with a giant cube and tentacle esque dodging, if feels so strange to take a break and return to the same scene for another climax. This is something that's always bothered me with 3rei and obviously carries over to the film. Also the decline to almost non-existent fanservice in 3rei (besides costumes) continues. While the drought may turn with BD shorts, you'll find nothing here in the theatrical version. Fingers crossed for the BD!

Moving onto the animation, this is where the film shines and begins to reclaim some of the hype that's felt lost from the last two productions. There's lots of embellished fights, fight animation and facial animation used liberally. They unfortunately also use some 3d models at times but switch it up between the 2 styles that it always stays exciting. They also do a good job of using a cg model but gradually turning it into a 2d model as it comes closer to the screen, an effect I really appreciate. There is a bizarre sequence during the Beatrice/Illya fight where a heavy filter is used which might have been to represent Medusa's eyes, but to me it seemed like a very strange way to obscure the CG models during an extended sequence. Overall the battles are still very excited and pack a ton of oomph we haven't seen in a long time. The climax between Julian and Illya uses a lot of CG similar to the Giant Gil monster fought in season 3 but is offset by great cuts of 2d animation from Illya. This battle is also an excellent example of where the soundtrack hits right, with a humming vocal track that gives the perfect heroic Prisma climax we know and love.

Overall, meh story but fun film for me. I was very excited leaving the theatre as my expectations had dropped significantly after their last two efforts. If this leg of the story had maintained the quality of Oath, it would have been a disaster. Fortunately, they rekindled some of that Prisma magic, bringing in the fun, creative and surprising good fight animation I had so enjoyed from their previous works.

This movie is a proper continuation of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!, and if you wanted more of that story, this movie will scratch that itch.

However, I had problems with the action. The fights themselves had noticeable CGI, and they covered it up with some weird filter. Frankly, I believe that Silver Link tried to emulate Heaven's Feel with all of its complex movements. A noble goal, but it didn't pay off. It looks like trash. However, I don't care much about action. My eyes were on the story.
This movie fleshes out the villains and Illya more than any other part of the series. We learn ... a lot about the villains and their tragic backstories. I've found myself loving the emotional highs and lows and rooting for Illya as she struggles against the villains. These villains are filled with darkness, but tonight, Illya's heart of gold will shine brighter.

Stats:
Screenshots Taken: 347
How long I waited to watch this: The day after it was available for me.
How does it compare to the rest of the series: Among the best. On par with 3rei and Vow in the Snow.
How excited am I for the next part: Very. This story isn't over.
Final score: 9/10

An overall satisfying anime.

The good:

Illyasviel's further development in this series. Not only is she like an Angel of Fire, beautiful on the outside with the prettiest eyes in anime (I love the art style in general here) and a modest and kind heart but she as the story goes, she will continue on her road of being truly heroic, which could be seen partly in 3rei.

The story itself is decent, appropriate for a movie length. It does repeat some patterns we see in other action anime but nothing to complain about.

Character development in relation to every other character is well thought-out as well ... with surprises around the corners.

The bad:

If you are an anime veteran like me, you'll notice the typical tropes and mannerisms that the movie is not free off. If you're quite new to anime, you won't.

Another thing to mention the elephant in the room: this movie is completely sterile in regards to fanservice. For better or worse depending on your point of view but I enjoyed the edginess for which the series has originally become more known (and controversial). Don't expect even any yuri. No "mana transfers". Shame on you. Now I'll be going to watch some Fate based ecchi... I mean to check how the stock markets are doing

I'm going to address the elephant in the room: this show is full of lolis (some scenes do show them wear so few clothes). If such fact bothers you, then I suggest you to stop reading this review and to never watch this movie (or franchise) because you will only get yourself mad. As always, TL;DR is at the very bottom. Now that's out of the way, let's get right into it.

-Story 8/10-
If you haven't watched the anime series Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya and the movie called Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Oath Under Snow, then this movie won't make much sense to you. The story ... picks up right after, I mean, right after the events of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!. Unfortunately enough, even if you have watched all of those, the story in this movie still does not make much sense either.

I'm going to try my best not to give spoilers. This movie has a great story and plot, but fails to deliver. The conversations between characters don't make sense a lot of time because the movie thinks the viewers already know what they're talking about. To give you an example, say you're watching the original Fate series (all routes), but minus the part where they explain the holy grail system and just brush all the important information off. You will be left confused with what's going on. You will be left confused as to why are the characters fighting each other despite claiming to be heroes. The story telling of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Licht - Namae no Nai Shoujo is like that. You've never heard of this information before, but the movie doesn't take the time to explain it slow enough for the viewers to grasp the situation. They treat these new characters and words as if the viewers are already familiar with them; they aren't. You find yourself confused, thinking 'who is that?' or 'why is that a bad thing?' or 'what does this word really mean in this context and why is everyone trying to prevent it from happening?' and so on.

Why did I give this an 8/10, you ask? Well the movie manages to redeem itself later on by 'explaining' almost everything. When it does, everything clicks out. All the questions you had in your head will eventually be answered once the movie reaches a certain part. To be honest, I don't really like that method of conflict solving and would much prefer to have at least some problems solved as the movie progresses; not when the movie reaches a certain point. This is due to the excessive amount of fighting scenes. I kid you not, about 86% of this movie consists of fighting scenes and exchanging blows.

-Art 8/10-
The girls look cute in their magical girl dresses. Other than that, I don't see a huge difference in of quality in the art department compared to the previous movie Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Oath Under Snow. To put it bluntly, I don't see much difference between this movie and Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!. It is by no means bad, not at all. Just don't set your expectations too high because you will be disappointed.

The animation is good most of the time, but there are like 4 scenes which use bad CGI models and animation. The CGI is very noticeable and looks very poorly made when on screen, but thank goodness there aren't many moments which the models are featured in.

-Sound 7/10-
Now I think this is the weakest part of the movie. Soundtracks, amazing. Voice actresses and actors, amazing. Sound effects, not so much. the sound effects they use in this movie are legit bad. No joke. I watched this at the cinema and not a single sound effect amazes me. They are all very mediocre. It seriously feels like they don't think about the sound too much, which I know that isn't the case, but all the explosions, lightning strikes, sword fights effects etc. are just so painfully mediocre. They don't sound clear and are honestly quite hard to hear. To sum it up, 'can't they choose something better than this?'

-Character 9/10-
This is where the movie deserves to be praised. I always like the idea that villains are not the bad guys just because they are evil; instead they were in a certain condition which forced them to be the way they are. Even if their evildoings cannot be justified, the background story makes the viewers able to sympathize and feel for them. This is exactly what this movie offers.

If you hated the villains from the previous movie, then you might change your opinion after watching this one. Even if it doesn't, you might still nod and can't help but to think 'I would've done the same thing'. If you're not interested in the bad guys, don't worry. This movie also tells you more about our Protagonist(s). Either way, I honestly think this movie does a great job explaining its characters; be it the protagonists or the antagonists. For this, the movie deserves a 9/10 for characters.

-Enjoyment 9/10-
Despite my harsh comments on the story and sound part, I enjoyed this movie. Watching this really makes me think, 'ah. I'm watching Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya'. The one Fate series I used to avoid due to its magical girl nature, turns out to be one of the most interesting, well-written Fate series I've watched. There's not much I can say in this section other than I really enjoyed it.

-Overall 8/10-
Nothing I can say here except this is still a great movie in spite of its flaws. I've said this before and I'm going to keep saying it: no movies are without flaws. I can confidently say that Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Licht - Namae no Nai Shoujo is up there with other good Fate adaptations, and that people should watch this AND the series before this.

-TL;DR-
Good story but quite poorly executed, great art but jarring animation in some scenes but accompanied with amazing soundtracks and badly mediocre sound effects with very well-written characters that is enjoyable for either Fate fans or non Fate fans is how I describe this movie in one sentence (or phrase).

Note: Unfortunately, I have not caught up on the manga, therefore my review for the story may be a little biased.
The movie seems to have a decent story continuing from the previous movie, and ends on what seems to be a fairly standard cliffhanger for this movie.
The art quality seemed to be a little low for this franchise(Fate) compared to Heaven's feel. I was a bit annoyed by the 3D blender physics used for some scenes as they felt a bit "off" from the general art style of the movie.
Audio-wise, it's in-line with the Prisma illya franchise and doesn't use the more "weighty" sound ... that HF used.
There was quite a bit of backstory and development (hence the name of the movie) and it was fairly easy to follow through the story.
Overall, the experience was pretty good but being spoiled from the Heaven's Feel series seems to have increased my expectations for this movie a bit lowering my overall rating for this movie.

Well.... I was honestly expecting more. That's why this doesn't get a perfect score. Honestly i dislike this studio. Going as far as using CGI for a 1 on 1 fight ... With normal-sized individuals and such .... Ahhh, i just want to see more ufotable masterpieces, but i doubt they'd do a sort of "remastered" version of this story like they did with stay/night ... But alas, one can hope. Storywise, it's way above the other seasons . Fanservice's gone .. Not that i mind it really, i ain't a really big fan of loli and all. Maybe some longer ova series with the ... more mature side of the cast to deliver on that missed fanservice. A win-win situation if i say so myself.

So yeah, watch it i guess, after you watch everything else that is. This is the last entry in the Kaleid series after all.

Huge, HUGE boner for this movie. Oath Under Snow was great, but the lack of Illya and friends left me wanting. Luckily this movie delivers on everything I expected from a Prisma Illya movie, and brings the themes of the story to new heights.

The transformations are better than ever, the fights are amazingly animated, each of our loli heroes get some great moments to shine, and the message at the end resonated deeply within me.
I love how Illya at her core is just like her original Stay Night counterpart in of what she wants to convey (in Heavens Feel specifically), but this series ... lets her express those things in a new way as her own badass shounen protagonist.

What really pushed this to a 10 out of 10 for me was the message I mentioned earlier. No spoilers, but when the mystery around the antagonist finally untangled I was shocked by how much I felt for him, and I think any depressed Otaku who's come this far into this series would probably feel the same.

Basically, if you like this series unironically, you will LOVE this movie.
Thank GOD they didnt let Shirou steal the MC spot. I mean, I knew they wouldn't really do that but still, I got a little scared after the last movie.

For anime onlies, Definitely a good continuation after watching 3rei and OUS. Fan service is almost not there and irelevant, and they went straight for the plot.
Good art style, character developments, OSTs, and fights, and most of all, great voice acting. If there would be problems to them, it would probably be the CGI and the ending of the movie.

Now for it's adaptation. It's a big problem. It can't even be compared to how great the manga is. I said the character development is good. But it's the fact that it's only good is what makes it not great compared to the manga which ... is top tier. The art, the developments, and the plot. It makes you think:"Am I really reading the same series where there are "lesbian lolis kissing" It's just that good. That's why it kinda disappoints me on what they did.

So yeah I can only give it a 7.5. 8/10 If i'm generous.