Continuing where the original 2Wei left off, an eight card has been discovered beneath the ground, and the girls' mission gets an extension so they can collect it. The problem is that since it's just one card this time, it naturally can't take too much air time to make a season on its own. And that means one thing: fillers. Normally it wouldn't be bad, I mean the ova episode was actually pretty good, so naturally you would think it wouldn't be too tough for the studio to make a few more of them. But the fillers just felt... Lacking. What was missing? FANSERVICE. Oh...What's wrong animation studio? Without mama Manga-chan to back you up you aren't sure what you can get away with? It's Fate Kaleid morons, you got away with 9-year-olds playing very questionable games in the bath, a shot of them in bikinis or underwear won't get you off the air at this point. Others might view it as a minor issue, but I honestly can't get over the fact that we went through AN ENTIRE BEACH EPISODE WITHOUT FANSERVICE. I mean, come on! Are you even trying?!

The annoying part is that in MANY cases throughout the fillers it's clear that they were originally going for fanservice paradise (string bikinis prepared for each of them, Illya's clothes disappearing in the carnival episode etc etc) but at the last moment they backed down. Hell, even Kuro's mana needs were completely ignored during the fillers. And if the entire season went on like that it would be fine, I'd say they turned a new leaf. But right at the first episode we have UNNECESSARY amounts of fanservice, so what the hell?!

Regardless, the animators obviously had to find something else for filler material, so instead we get them hanging around with Illya's classmates whose names you never bothered remembering and whose faces you simply never wanted to see. Especially Tatsuko becomes purely annoying from a point onward, making you sigh in disappointment every time she appears on screen. But hell, even that would be acceptable IF at least the humor was good. But like with the fanservice, all you will see throughout the fillers are wasted chances at things that would actually be really funny, instead replaced by Tatsuko's narcoleptic gags and other uninspired slice-of-life humor.

Luckily the last episodes (main story) save it. Big hard battles, hopeless situations, tear-jerking drama, jaw-dropping animation, etc etc, you know the drill. It's what's Fate Kaleid was and always will be good at. Like a kitten, despite the mess it created earlier, it's hard to stay mad at it when it meowes ever-so-cutely at the last minute. Just keep Tatsuko locked in a box and we'll all be happy again. Preferrably one buried beneath the ground. And with a cross on it.