Recap: Illya and Miyu need to claim the Caster Class Card, but Miyu can’t fly.

Iro’s Thoughts:
Wait, this episode wasn’t complete shit? What bizarro world have I stumbled into?

Ilya and Miyu have to fight Caster from Fate/Stay Night this time, which means that they can’t just sling magic in every direction and hope for it to work. Also, Caster floats, so they have to fly. A couple decent jokes are milked out of the fact that Ilya can fly because she’s seen a bunch of magical girl anime and thus believes it’s natural, while Miyu is “logical” and therefore sees flying as an impossibility and has to ask Ilya for some tips. Once the battle rolls around, she “flies” by making platforms under her feet and jumping between them. There’s a bit of character stemming from these moments, but it still all follows the same old magical girl mold of the rival warming up to the heroine.

Speaking of the fight, there’s plenty of visual flair to all of the lasers being tossed around and the magical girls flying about, plus some try-fail cycles to not make things too simple. They also actually bothered to use the twisty visual effect we normally associate with Gae Bolg this time, which is a detail I can appreciate. All-in-all it’s a decent blast-fest, but it only stands out because it’s the first interesting thing to happen so far. With the promise of Saber next week, I can only hope we’ll get a decent fight; I’m still a hair’s breadth from dropping this show.