I finished both seasons of Prisma Illya a few days ago. My earlier verdict on Prisma Illya is that it's 'Really Good'. Having watched both seasons, I think Prisma Illya is a top contender for anime of the year. Both seasons of Prisma Illya were absolutely superb. Maybe I'm biased. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of both yuri and magical girls and putting the two things together makes me go crazy. But Prisma Illya is just that good. As a supposed 'parody', it has become much, much better than your run-of-the-mill magical girl series. Prisma Illya has done an almost perfect job satisfying the desires of twisted magical girl fans - such as myself.

I say 'twisted' because magical girl series, despite their cuteness and all, are usually filled with a surprising amount of violence and trauma. Madoka is the most well-known example. But other prominent series such as Nanoha A`s, Princess Tutu, and even the occasional PreCure episode have all featured heart-wrenching drama and moments where little girls get beaten to a pulp. The concept is sort of sadistic, really. You start off with a young girl, who's completely innocent and cute and whatnot. Then all sorts of horrible things happen. She gets smashed by a big bad monster. She gets abandoned by her mother. Her best friend only has a few weeks to live. And so forth. 

And if you're like me - a moderately attractive young man in his early twenties without much of a love life - you'll probably start to feel sorry. You'll wonder why this girl - Fate-chan, Yayoi-chan, or (in this case) Illya-chan - has been exposed to so much suffering. You might even lament the fact that if she knew how much you care about her, she might have f-f-feelings for you. In short, the magical girl formula lives off contrast. It lives off pain and suffering, juxtaposed against a façade of easygoing school-life, teas and cakes, and that smile you always wanted to protect. 

Alright, so maybe I'm going a bit off-topic here. But my point still stands: Prisma Illya has done a magnificent job bringing out the best (or should I say, 'worst') from its twisted fans. Prisma Illya is extremely good at making its girls cute then bashing them into the ground, provoking a compassionate cry of 'Doushite?' from its viewers. Miyu got slammed so hard that blood gushed out of her mouth (and her heart nearly got pierced). Illya almost had her hand crushed. Chloe was thrown repeatedly at blocks of shattered concrete. But when the fight is over, everything goes back to normal. The maid costumes, the fanservice, the collective gasp of 'Eh?!' followed by a panning shot to the sky. Rinse and repeat.

I think what really made Prisma Illya as good as it is, however, is that it crammed just about every otaku fetish into the space of twenty episodes without overdoing it. I think their scriptwriting process probably involved a spinning wheel, with the fetishes written around the circle. Of course there's 'Meido', 'Loli' and 'Pantsu' on there somewhere. But there'd also be less obvious ones, like 'T-tsundere', 'GAR', 'Oppai', 'Yuri Kissu', 'Onii-chan, daisuki!', 'Gym uniform', 'Onsen' , 'Delicious Flat Chest', 'China dress', and so forth. Then before writing commences they'd spin the wheel a few times to determine which fetish is going to get featured. 

Well, that's my wild guess of how the show was written. My point is: Prisma Illya is absolutely, unabashedly direct in pandering to its twisted and slightly perverted audience. But the show does have other redeeming qualities. For instance, I really feel that Chloe made the show at least 120% better. Not just because she has the same name as I do, not just because she's looks like an exotic succubus, but she actually made Shirou an interesting character. If season one was all about Illya x Miyu, season two is about Illya x Shirou x Chloe. Some of the funniest moments in the entire series (like how Illya slapped herself out of jealousy) came from the trio. Not to mention all the kissing and the hand-holding that got me into this whole mess in the first place.

In all, Prisma Illya would probably be regarded as garbage by anyone outside its intended audience. And I won't be surprised if Prisma Illya is, in fact, regarded in that way. After all, Prisma Illya is really just pure entertainment at its finest - and it really delivered just about everything it promised. As I said before, if you like it as it is, you'll probably regard Prisma Illya as a de-facto masterpiece. 20 episodes of Prisma Illya has definitely given me something of an emotional attachment to those girls, giving me the faint hope that one day, I too can be one of their 'tomodachi'. On a more serious note, Prisma Illya's story is far from over and season three will air in about a month's time. I cannot wait to be entertained.