Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
No, you're not hallucinating. It's real.

A Spin-Off manga of a well-known Eroge, which features the Token Loli of said game as a Magical Girl... Wait, where have we heard this before...?

The Ordinary Elementary School Student Illya lives together with her older brother Shirou and her two Guardians. She is a good sprinter and enjoys watching Magical Girl anime. One day while she is bathing, she ponders about being a Magical Girl herself, flying around with magic, seducing her brother, then suddenly...

Her brother comes into the bath... and is knocked out by a talking Magic Wand, which introduces itself as "Magical Ruby-chan". Through a combination of sweet-talking, lies, and brute force, it tricks Illya into signing a contract with it and turns her against her will into a Magical Girl. To make it worse, she is beaten by the former master of Ruby, Rin Tohsaka, who has come to collect the wand, only to find out that Illya's contract cannot be canceled without Ruby's consent. Unable to reclaim Ruby, Rin instead forces Illya to become her servant, who shall help her to collect the 'Class Cards': seven mysterious cards which possess the power to summon the spirits of legendary heroes, and which are currently running wild in Ilya's home town...

It's largely an Affectionate Parody, both of Fate/stay night and magical girl tropes in general, and doesn't take itself very seriously as a result. Except when it does.

An anime deal has recently been green-lit for the series.[when?]

Tropes used in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya include:
  • A-Cup Angst: Her size bothers Sella, just a little - see the Serious Business entry below, when she got rather violent towards the more amply-built Leysritt.
  • Affectionate Parody
  • Alternate Universe: The Einzberns never asked for help from the Tohsaka and the Makiri to create Heaven's Feel, meaning there never WAS a Holy Grail War system as we know it, and eventually vanished, leaving not even a memory of them. The Cards Illya collects are the actual 'templates' used to summon the Servants.
  • Arrow Catch: Performed by Bazett.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: The only way the first chapter isn't (hilarious) soft core porn.
  • Beach Episode: Chapter 18
  • Beam Spam: A popular strategy for the magical girls. Caster, as always, takes it to absurd levels.
  • Biting the Handkerchief: Luvia, when explaining how Sapphire abandoned her for Miyu.
  • Brother-Sister Incest: Ilya's crush on Shirou is alive and well, though she at least has the good sense to realize it's weird. Which does not stop her from contemplating the use of her magic to snare him before one of the other girls does.
    • Kuro, on the other hand...
  • Butt Monkey: Rin and Luvia, mostly during the fights.
    • Shirou has a habit of being beaten up in almost every chapter he appears.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Both the call to become Ruby's master and the call to help Rin gather Class Cards were forced on Ilya against her will. The second season actually begins with Rin and Luvia just straight-up kidnapping Ilya and Miyu in order to force another mission on them.
  • Canon Foreigner: Miyu. Everyone else has an alternate in the Fate/stay night universe, even Luvia.
  • Catgirl: Rin when transformed with Kaleido Ruby. Luvia also becomes a "Dog Girl" when transformed with Kaleido Sapphire.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Magic. Ilya can fly because she thinks she can, and Miyu can't because she keeps getting distracted by the laws of physics.
  • Clingy MacGuffin: A contract with Kaleido Ruby and Kaleido Sapphire cannot be cancelled without their consent. They're all too happy to abandon Rin and Luvia, but in the case of Ilya and Miyu, they absolutely refuse to let them go.
  • Cool Horse: Miyu and probably anyone who fuses with the Rider Class Card.
  • Crossover: Upcoming, with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Because... well, because why not?
    • As a result of the first chapter we get Ilya plus.... Raising Heart?!?
  • Cloning Blues: Kuro is the suppressed memory/destiny of Illya as a Holy Grail Conduit; given form. She's not happy at being abandoned.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: The battle against True Assassin is... well, Ilya unlocks a portion of her sealed power and just nukes him and his fellow assassins (All of them. Every single Assassin ever). You can't even really call it a fight.
    • And now we have what Bazett does to Luvia, Kuro, Illya, and Miyu.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Ilya goes... a little crazy around maids.
    • Nanoha in the crossover also sets her off, though not to the same... extreme.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Averted! It only looks like Miyu Edelfelt is this. She's definitely Ilya's counterpart, and she's working on behaft of Rin's Rival but it turns out she's The Spock.
  • Demoted to Extra: Many Fate/stay night characters, like Shirou and Sakura.
  • Dr. Jerk: Caren Ortensia cameos as the school nurse, where she has a tendency to consider patient's injuries 'boring' and ask they get hurt much more badly next time they come to see her.
    • To add insult to non-injury, the often tells visitors to get lost because "healthy people make her sick."
  • Don't Try This At Home: While Ilya's team was wrapping up their Cloudcuckoolander team member to prevent her from screwing up their cake

Nanami: Kids, be good and don't imitate this please.

Ilya: So-so-so-sorry, Miyu! I mistook you for my brothe... I-I mean not that I...! It's nothing like that! It was a dream! Do-ri-mu!

  • Everyone Is Related: One page indicates that Miyu, Rin and Luvia know who Shirou is (even though they didn't know Ilya.) And he looks like Miyu's brother.
  • Evil Twin: Kuro from the second season, a dark-skinned version of Ilya with Archer's powers. So far, her only defined goals seem to be to kill Ilya... and to put the moves on all of Ilya's suppressed love interests.
    • She's Ilya's suppressed identity as a Mage/Grail Conduit.
  • Fan Service: Some Barbie Doll Anatomy and extremely magical skirts in the first season, and more in the second, of both the girls and Rin and Luviagelita.
  • Genre Savvy: Ilya spent her entire life watching Magical Girl animes, and it shows.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: The Class Cards.
  • Gratuitous German: Rin & Luvia's spells.
  • Hot Mom: Irisviel
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Ilya has a few moments of this, particularly after the powers sealed inside her start acting up.
    • This infuriates Kuro; and Iyla realizes this isn't just a slap in the face to her existence; but to Miyu as well.
  • Imagine Spot: Luvia has one of those when Irisviel invites she, Rin and Miyu to spend some days at the Emiya household since the Edelfelt mansion was destroyed by Bazzet. Her line of thought involves sleeping together with Shirou, having a baby and marrying him.
  • If It's You It's Okay: Kuro needs to be regularly supplied with mana in order to keep from disappearing, and this is essentially her attitude when she explains to Illya that the two of them are the most compatible for the process. Also see Intimate Healing below.
  • Intimate Healing: Kuro Mana-drains Miyu by kissing her. She's not hurt, but the fatigue plus embarassment causes her to collapse.
    • "Thanks for the treat!"
      • She then proceeds to do this to every female in Illya's class.
    • The "other way" from Fate/stay night still exists, as Ilya learns when she asks if there's any other methods.
  • Invisible to Normals: Averted. When some of the girls from school first see Ilya transformed, they recognize her instantly and assume she's doing some bizarre cosplay. Of course, they might have been somewhat distracted by the fact there were two of her...
  • Lampshade Hanging: A side-effect of Ilya's Genre Savvy is that when she spots Magical Girl tropes at work, she tends to point them out. The biggest example, of course, would be Miyu's New Transfer Student status.

Rin: Emiya-kun is one of those people you put in the 'natural disaster' class. I mean, why does he drag us with him every time he randomly trips? What's up with him? Is he some kind of hero from an h-game or what?

  • Les Yay: Miyu develops a pretty obvious crush on Ilya, who (apparently unintentionally) doesn't do a whole lot to discourage it.
    • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Miyu gives Ilya a day-pass on being a magical girl, and takes on the final card alone, just to spare Ilya. This plot unfolds exactly as it always does of course.
    • She's desperately trying to ignore it; like when she accidentally kissed Miyu during a dream of Shirou just as she woke up. Miyu didn't mind.
    • Ilya's Maid Fetish results in her mounting Miyu (Twice!) before she can compose herself. Miyu didn't mind.
    • Kuro, on the other hand, seems to actively encourage this. To the point that apparently, she spent the entire time between chapters 4 and 5 of the second season just going around town kissing girls (Including Taiga!). Granted, she was doing it to drain their mana, but judging by the one we actually get to see, she also took the time and effort to seduce at least a few of them first.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: When Ruby and Sapphire grant "guest" access to Rin and Luvia when they're up against Saber Alter. One would never believe that Magical Girl could be so Badass.
  • Lighter and Softer: So far, nobody has died; Ilya is healthy young girl with a normal lifespan, is enjoying herself immensely when she's not running for her life, and her and Shirou's parents are alive.
    • Which is interesting, because her origins are exactly the same.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Averted, although Rin and Luviagelita tend to wear outfits of the same style as their standard outfits in the visual novels (Luviagelita wears frilly things, Rin tends to show off the Zettai Ryouiki in most of her outfits.
  • Literal Split Personality: Kuro Illya it's born from Illya memories up until she's 8 month old, already gaining ability to understand communication and knowledge. The memories were sealed so that Illya can have normal life.
  • Lucky Charms Title
  • Make a Wish: The Grail Conduit's power. The solution to a Wish Maker who wants to be normal? Wish to be normal!
  • Magic Skirt: In the first season.
  • Mutually Exclusive Magic: Mages have the same limitations that they do in the rest of the Nasuverse. Magical Girls aren't as restricted; they're not quite Sorcerers, but they can easily perform feats that would cripple or kill an ordinary magus, with the catch being they require the approval of their Empathic Weapon. And then there's whatever is sealed inside Ilya; the limits aren't yet apparent, but it's shown the ability to crush Epic Spirits with relative ease, her Magical Girl status seems to be waking it up, and she's not happy.
  • Mysterious Past: There is...something sealed inside Ilya, that her maids know about. A vast power that goes way beyond "Magical Girl" and that the recent nonsense seems to be waking up. When she remembers pieces about it, she tries to go back to forgetting.
    • Miyu also is a "something." It's mentioned that she required an Undead Tax Exemption; and like Illya; she can manifest cards within herself. Kaleido Ruby comments that if Miyu had used her true power in their initial sparring, Illya would have been creamed. It then asks if Illya knows just what Miyu is.
  • Mythology Gag: Several Fate/stay night gags pop up. A few of the more prominent:
    • Rin starts out with the class card for Archer, her Servant from the game. Her rival, Luvia, starts out with Lancer's, Archer's most common rival.
    • Rin and Ilya inverting the famous 'Are you my master?' scene, with the standing figure ordering the sitting one to be her slave.
    • Rider is the first Servant to be defeated on-screen. As usual.
    • The "I will 'go home' from Rin's letter.
    • The "Liner" is a reference to Angel Notes, one of Nasu's early works, which is set After the End of the Nasuverse. It refers there to the evolved human beings that live on After the End. (The rest of the Gratuitous English is just referring to Zelretch's dimensional cheating.)
    • Recent chapters have shown characters from Fate/Zero and HA popping up left and right. Caren Ortensia is the nurse at Illya's school. And in a blink and you'll miss it shout out to her character, when Illya is injured in one chapter, her maids barge into the nurse's office, dragging Shiro along with them. In the very next panel, Shiro is wrapped in a cloth and dangling from the ceiling while Caren scolds the group, wondering "why just me." This is especially funny when you realize that this is the Cloth of Magdala, her primary weapon in HA, which has the power to forcefully bind men.
    • Zelretch is serving as the master of Rin and Luvia, while Waver Velvet is acting as his assistant.
    • Kuro's treatment of Ilya is extremely similar to Archer's treatment of Shirou in the original Fate/Stay Night. Bonus points for the fact that Kuro is essentially the Archer card given form.
      • It goes even further. Archer was future Shirou who overcame his supposed limitations, was given form by the Holy Grail, and required prana to sustain himself; he counted on being erased out of existence by killing his past self. Kuro is Ilya who overcame the supposed limitations of cards (she has the Archer card permanently active) and only came to exist when Ilya's wishes backfired because of her limits, given physical body by Ilya (whose latent magical power comes from the fact that she is the Holy Grail's vessel), and whose existence requires prana not to disappear into nothing; she is also incapable of killing Ilya without supposedly dying herself.
    • Caren's attitude in this series is a Mythology Gag related to her father's identity, and his most important mental problem (said father being Kotomine Kirei, and his problem being the fact that the only way he could feel happiness was through Schadenfreude).
  • New Transfer Student: Ilya is Genre Savvy enough to know that Miyu was going to be attending her class immediately after her mysterious appearance.
    • Her Genre Savvy apparently doesn't extend to murderous clones, however, because she's blindsided when Black Ilya/'Kuroe von Einzbern' does the same thing.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Luvia has one.
  • Nosebleed: Magical Ruby uses this to collect blood from Ilya to form their contract in the first chapter of the manga.
  • Not So Different: Kuro tries to convince Miyu of this; regarding both their origins and their place in a "normal life."
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Irisviel very clearly knows more about her daughter's situation than Illya herself does, yet when asked about it will only smile innocently and pretend she doesn't understand the question. Even when she was giving lengthy discussions on the subject not five seconds earlier.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall: The second season begins with the girls wondering why their outfits have changed, and the only explanation given is something along the lines of 'because a new storyline started'.
  • Panty Shot: Loads in the second season, although it's not the focus of the manga.
  • Parody Sue: Miyu Edelfelt is one of these at first appearance. She is hilariously good at everything in school; confusing the teachers with her advanced mathematics, creating breathtaking masterpieces in art class, and cooking elaborate feasts in Home Ec using only a single frying pan.
    • In gym class, she ran what appeared to be the 100 meter dash in 6.9 seconds. This is faster than the current world record.
    • That is a misunderstanding, it was not 100 m, but the standard 50 m at japanese schools. Keep in mind that this is still world class olympic sprinting.
  • Schmuck Bait: While looking at job ads, Rin gets a little too blinded by one position's absurd pay rate to notice that the job requirements are so specific that really only she could possibly fill them. Congratulations, Rin-san... you are now Luvia's personal maid.
  • Schrödinger's Cat: Ilya's parents Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern are both alive in this continuity, while both have been long dead in the original Fate/stay night and only appeared in person in the prequel.
  • Serious Business: Ilya vs. Kuro in an epic, life-or-death, magically powered... game of dodgeball.
    • Sella gets really intense about weight loss.
    • And now 2Wei Chapter 12 brings us Epic Cake-baking.
    • Epic food judging too.

Shirou (with an ultra serious look on his face): I can't tell a lie about cooking!

  • Shipper on Deck: Yeah, it's safe to say that Ruby just maybe ships Shirou/Ilya.
  • Shout-Out: To a lot of Fate/stay night Doujinshi. Such as "Sword Dancers" (aka "Archerko") and "Unlimited Maid Works".
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: So Miyu has a mental block against flight that she really needs to get over. What's the most sensible way to go about it? Well, if you're Luvia, the obvious answer is 'throw her out of a moving helicopter'!
  • Skinship Grope: Pops up a few times, including one awkward example wherein Illya gets felt up in the bath by her mother.
  • The Spock: Miyu's weakness, a lack of imagination in a world where this powers up your magic.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: A favorite of August, Livia's loyal butler.
  • Sugar and Ice Personality: If not Dandere, the series itself acknowledges this regarding Miyu for Ilya.
    • Illya's classmates note with dismay that Ilya is the only person Miyu is 'dere' for. "You unlocked the Miyu route!"
  • Synchronization: Of the Chained Heat variety. How "Black Ilya"/Kuro is tamed. If Ilya dies, the spell makes her die too.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Rin and Luvia, putting the vitriol into Vitriolic Best Buds.
  • Tsundere: Alternate universe or no, Rin is still Rin. And to make things worse, Ilya is almost completely incapable of bringing out her deredere side.
    • And Sella, although she seems to reserve her 'dere' for Ilya exclusively. Poor Shirou in particular gets an almost unending stream of hostility.
  • Truce Zone: The gang encounters Bazette during the Beach Episode; who is working off the damage she did during their fight as an iced treat vendor.
  • Undead Tax Exemption: Luvia cooks one of these up for Kuro when her presence is revealed to the rest of Ilya's school. Interestingly enough, Luvia comments that they had done the same thing for Miyu...
  • Undying Loyalty: Miyu is loyal to Ilya period.
  • Unwanted Harem: It's looking like Shirou's putting one together, and he isn't even the main character. Ilya, Kuro, Rin, Luvia, and maybe Miyu... that's five, four of them added in the space of one chapter. Dude doesn't even have to try anymore, does he?
    • And then the very next chapter is a flashback explaining how Rin and Luvia fell for him... while also adding Sakura to the harem! He really doesn't have to try anymore!
    • It's Nasuverse, a male lead will always have a harem.
  • Visual Pun: When Mimi watches Illya kiss Kuro in Chapter 17 of 2wei, the scene switches to a bouquet of lilies (i.e. yuri) that their other classmates were discussing.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The 'Archer' class card, when equipped to one of the Kaleidosticks, gives the wielder a bow... or rather, it gives them only a bow, without providing any, y'know, arrows. Ilya is not amused to discover this. Eventually subverted when she uses it by directly integrating it into her own body instead of into Ruby. The result gives her complete access to Archer's projection magic, a much more worthwhile ability.
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