Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA (Fate/kaleid liner プリズマ☆イリヤ) (caps part of official title) is a Fate/stay night alternate universe spin-off manga by Kalmia (who has previously drawn Fate doujins). There is currently an anime adaptation in production.

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA
A two-volume manga series that introduced the story. Illya von Einzbern is a seemingly ordinary middle school student with no magical powers. When the kaleidostick Magical Ruby selects Illya to become its new master, Illya becomes a Magical Girl who collect Class Card together with another Magical Girl, Miyu.

Rin and Luvia were originally Magical Girls that were supposed to collect the Cards, but after trying to use Class Cards in a quarrel, Kaleidosticks abandoned them (mid-air) and went on to independently search for new masters. Ruby made a contract with Illya, and Sapphire with Miyu.

After a series of battles, Illya and Miyu were able to collect all Cards and became good friends, while Rin and Luvia remained in Japan by the order of Zelretch.

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei!
A second story focuses on a new character, Kuro, who is a girl identical to Illya, except for darker skin. She emerged from Illya after the seal on her prana was unlocked, coupled with her failed attempt to use Archer Class Card. Kuro has been shown to act extremely antagonistic towards Illya but had warm up to her after they had resolved their differences.

Name is probably the word play on “2” and “Zwei”, which is German for “two”.

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 3rei!!
Continues right after 2wei ended, where Miyu is captured to another world.

Name is probably the word play on “3” and “Drei”, which is German for “three”.

Lyrical Nanoha×Prisma☆Illya
A short crossover manga with the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series that has been published in 2010.


 * See also the article at Nanoha Wikia.

Characters

 * Illyasviel von Einzbern
 * Miyu Edelfelt
 * Chloe von Einzbern
 * Rin Tohsaka
 * Luviagelita Edelfelt
 * Magical Ruby
 * Magical Sapphire
 * Bazett Fraga McRemitz
 * Gilgamesh
 * Tanaka
 * Beatrice Flowerchild
 * Angelica

Minor characters

 * Shirou Emiya - Shirou is Illya's brother, and a normal high schooler with no knowledge of magic. He is much more carefree than his Fate/stay night counterpart, and he has the general trait of accidentally running into perverted situations, which makes Rin compare him to an eroge protagonist in reference to Fate/stay night. Illya, Rin, Luvia, and Sakura are openly attracted to him, though he doesn't show any interest to Rin and Luvia's disappointment. Shirou tends to be treated poorly by the people around him, though he admits that he's gotten used to being at the bottom rung of the ladder. He was adopted by Kiritsugu about ten years ago, similar to his Fate/Stay Night origins.


 * Sella and Leysritt - Sella and Leysritt are the maids of the Einzbern household and Illya and Shirou's general caretakers. Sella is very serious and prone to overreacting to minor problems, while Leysritt is more carefree. They wear normal clothing most of the time, but after seeing Miyu in a maid uniform, Sella states that “she has abandoned her duties” and starts wearing the uniform again for a short period of time. They are aware of magic and the power sealed within Illya.


 * Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern - Kiritsugu and Irisviel are Illya and Shirou's parents, who are alive unlike their Fate/stay night counterparts. They are constantly traveling abroad, and at one point Irisviel states that she is fighting to “preserve their daily lives.” Irisviel is very close with Illya and is aware of the power sealed inside of her. Often times she comes off as overly carefree and ditzy, though she does have moments of being very wise and serious. It is revealed in 2wei that she is from a long line of magi who she left shortly after Illya was born and she has enough skill to knock out Kuro with a single blow. She has haphazard driving skills as displayed in Fate/Zero. Kiritsugu has yet to appear directly in the series, though Shirou expresses the wish for him to return, mostly because he feels downtrodden by the overwhelming female presence in his household.


 * Caren Ortensia - Caren takes on the role of the school nurse in Illya's school. She is currently observing the situation with Illya, Miyu, and Kuro, calling Illya, "necessary", Miyu, "accidental", and Kuro, a "miraculous existence." She displays absolutely no interest in the events, and she is rather carefree about her job as a nurse. She is later revealed to be the Church's representative in the affair related to the Class Cards, working as background support as well as supervisor. It is also revealed that she chose to work as a school nurse as it always her to indulge in her interest, which is to observe the sufferings of children close up.


 * Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg - Zelretch has more of a presence in this time line than in others. He is the creator of of Ruby and Sapphire, and he gives them to Rin and Luvia and orders them to collect the Class Cards. He later orders them to use the prana supply from Kaleidosticks to stabilize the local ley line.


 * Kirei Kotomine - Kotomine appears in the parallel world where he, unlike his counterpart, found more of a meaning to his life by owning a ramen shop that only makes mapo tofu. He brings Ilya and the starving Tanaka to his shop to eat his exceptionally spicy mapo tofu.


 * Others - Sakura Matou, who is seemingly not related to Rin, appears briefly to help Shirou after he is injured. Issei Ryuudou appears briefly during the first chapter. Taiga Fujimura teaches Illya's middle school class.

Setting
The series takes place in Fuyuki City in an alternate timeline of Fate/stay night. Kiritsugu and Irisviel helped end the Holy Grail War ritual before it could start, sealing Ilya's memories away and allowing her to grow up as a normal girl. Shirou and Ilya live a peaceful life as brother and sister, without knowledge of magic, under the care of Sella and Leysritt, while their parents are abroad.

The Class Cards, malicious fragments of Heroic Spirits, later appear in Fuyuki, and they are first believed to be remnants of the Holy Grail War. It is later revealed that they were actually brought forth from a parallel world along with Miyu, the completed Holy Grail of that world. Various aspects of the setting and events are a parody of a typical Magical Girl series, and Illya, being a fan of such series, is quick to notice them.

Kaleidosticks
Two sentient wands that can turn their owner into Magical Girls. They were given to Rin and Luvia by Zelretch to aid them in dealing with Class Cards.

First stick, Ruby, is identical in appearance to the one used in Fate/hollow ataraxia by Rin, with a five-pointed star inside a winged ring on its “head”, and small cross on the other end. Second stick, Sapphire, has a six-pointed star on its head, and what looks like a rope ending on its other end. In addition, Sapphire's “wings” resemble a ribbon or Butterfly wings, giving it's head an appearance of a brooch. Both stick will be reduced to only their heads when they are not used by Magical Girls. In this forms, they can freely levitate and use their wings to gesticulate. Ruby refers to Sapphire as her “younger sister”, and is shown to exhibit a protective attitude towards her.

The ritual to sign a contract between a Kaleidostick and its user is fairly simple and includes a small amount of user's blood to be given to Kaleidostick followed by willingly grasping the handle of the stick. As Kaleidostick themselves choose their masters, ritual won't work without their consent, just as the contract can only be terminated from their side. Once the contract has been established, sticks will transform their masters into Magical Girls and provide them with unlimited amount of prana (although at a limited rate) by using Second Magic to connect with alternate realities, similar to how Jeweled Sword works. Transformation and prana supply will be canceled if Kaleidostick is seperated from it's user for more than 50 meters or longer than 30 seconds.

Magical Girls can use this prana to perform high-level Magecraft without formal knowledge of magical theory, such as flying, raising magical and physical shields and enhancing their own physical abilities. It was stated that a Magical Girl's imagination is the only limiting factor in utilizing the prana provided by the Kaleidostick – Illya was able to fly without much effort because she had an image “Magical Girls can fly” in her mind, while Miyu was unable to ignore physical laws, and was only able to fly by imagining a “foothold” and strengthening the air below her feet to form one.

Kaleidostick have shown remarkable amount of endurance, being able to withstand a direct sword slash from Saber and a crushing attack from Berserker (although any accompanying prana had to be blocked by a raised shield, otherwise it would hit their wielder).

Also, Kaleidosticks were shown to have some additional abilities (“24 secret abilities”, as Ruby states) that include an ability to imitate a cellphone when communicating with each other (completed with an ability to establish a videolink and project the video feed on a wall) and an ability to make predictions of future based on statistical extrapolation and print them out. However, these abilities were used solely for comical effect.