Welcome to Anime Rants! What follows is a brief recap of the last two episodes of Lord El-Melloi II, with a few of my thoughts included. I’ll have more to say about the anime overall in my series review. (It may be a few months before it’s ready.) Anyway, let’s rant!
Episode 12: Lightning and Shooting Star
Caules did it. Except not. The perpetrator was just mimicking Caules’ appearance and personality. His real identity is some mage briefly mentioned in a previous episode as the man without a heart, Dr. Heartless. That’s the stupidest name I’ve heard in anime to date. Anyway, the real Caules, along with Reines, used magic to fly to the Rail Zeppelin and prove this. So what the fuck did this Heartless dude want to achieve? He wanted to create a Holy Grail. And he did it by fucking with the leylines in a certain way. What he created is a Holy Grail “variant” which does not grant wishes but which allows for the summoning of Heroic Spirit Servants.
This little Heartless shit killed all those people seven years ago to steal their Mystic Eyes and thereby block other mages from finding out that his Holy Grail variant is not, in fact, the Greater Grail. The Heartless dude just wanted a Heroic Spirit to serve him because IDK that sounds fun? The final steps were securing the Mystic Eyes of Karabo and Trisha. Now that we’re done talking about Who-dun-wut-how-and-why, Heartless calls Hephaestion and escapes with her. But it turns out she’s not Hephaestion but a magical body double for Iskandar. Gray and Waver pursue the villains and fight them on top of the train. Karabo helps out since he got his Eyes back.
I am/was having hardest time giving a shit about this show anymore, and it’s hard to pay a shred of attention. But it looks like something like this happened. Olga-Marie used magic and made Heartless’ Grail materialize. Then, surprise! The front car of the Rail Zeppelin transforms into a weird transforming train… with a face? Anyway, it uses the power of some Mystic Eyes to shoot powerful magic at the monstrous Grail. And it does that several times. Once the Grail is destroyed, Hephaestion puts up a final fight but gets killed by Karabo, Gray, and Waver. Oh wait, no, somehow, she magically still alive. Waver’s worn out. But Gray uses the lance of Arturia to finally kill both Hephaestion and Heartless.
Episode 13: The Clock Tower, Usual Days,
and the First Step Forward to the Future
Apparently, Karabo Frampton died. I must have missed that little detail. I’m having sooo much fucking trouble paying any attention. I swear, at this point, my enjoyment level is like nonexistent. I’m only finishing covering this series because if I don’t it means I fucking failed. All those kids that Waver teaches hassle him while he’s in the hospital, but finally, he and gray get discharged. They meet Adashino who says that Heartless is her older brother-in-law and her goal was to lure him out. Still don’t know why. To reunite like family? To kill each other? IDK. (Note: also, apparently, Heartless isn’t dead.)
Later, Gray runs into Melvin. They talk about some shit, like how Waver used his own Magic Crest as collateral for the loans to pay off the debt of Reines. After that, we see Svin graduating to the third rank in the Clock Tower, called Pride. Apparently several more of Waver’s students have done the same. Waver seems a little down so he gets drunk I mean a little tipsy in his study. Gray is with him and tells him she respects and so on. Waver tells her that he has stepped down as a mage candidate for the Fifth Holy Grail War.
Why? Hasn’t Waver been fixated on the chance to see Iskandar again, for 13 episodes? Yes, but he’s simply switched to a new fixation: hunting down Heartless and Faker (Hephaestion) and bringing them to justice. Because, after all, Heartless is abusing the power of Iskandar and he still has the shred of Iskandar’s Mantle. Oh yeah, and when Gray finally, finally gives him the gift she got in episode 6, Waver accepts it readily and with a handsome smile. WTF? Waver can be handsome? Well, this is magical world after all, haha.
Waver goes to sleep on the couch and in his dream he is standing in the shallows of the sea and can see Iskandar just a little bit ahead of him. Even though it’s only a dream, Waver gets to enjoy a few wonderful minutes talking with the Heroic Spirit that we all know love, Rider. Waver clarifies that his own battle must be in reality and not chasing after the past or dwelling on dreams. It didn’t make me cry, this scene, but it came really fucking close. It’s just I’m in a rotten mood. Or was. Actually, the end of the episode sort of made me happy.
There are a number of issues that bugged me with this series, but I am certainly glad I watched it, and it was great to see so much of Waver, who I really like in Fate/Zero. More of my thoughts on this anime will be included in the series review. (I’m estimating I’ll have it out before the end of the year.) Thank you for reading my episode review, and I hope you enjoyed my takes on Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files.
Previous Posts About This Series
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Episode 1 Review
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Episodes 2 and 3 Review
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Episodes 4 and 5 Review
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Episodes 6 and 7 Review
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Episodes 8 and 9 Review
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Episodes 10 and 11 Review
Images from: Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files Rail Zeppelin Grace Note. Dir. M Katou. TROYCA. 2019.
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