Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note

ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 -魔眼蒐集列車 Grace note- (Lord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note)

7.4(70,920)

MAL Score

Ranked #2708

Popularity #1647

Fantasy
Mystery
Urban Fantasy

Episodes: 13
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Jul 7, 2019 to Sep 29, 2019
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

A decade after his defeat in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Waver Velvet has remade himself as Lord El-Melloi II, lecturing at the Clock Tower—the prestigious hub of magecraft education. His title, however, comes with a condition: until she is old enough to lead the El-Melloi household, he must follow the directives of Reines, the younger sister of the late Kayneth El-Melloi.

Joined by his enigmatic apprentice, Gray, Waver is drawn into a string of investigations handed down by Reines and the Mages Association. As each case grows more intricate, the Clock Tower’s polished façade begins to look less certain, and Reines’s own motives remain an open question.

Otaku Consensus

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note earns its niche by turning Fate lore into a Clock Tower procedural, with TROYCA’s controlled direction, Yuki Kajiura’s occult-ritual score, and the Rail Zeppelin material giving Waver fans a distinctive post-Fate/Zero showcase. Its weakest point is the mystery writing: critics repeatedly note that it imitates detective fiction more convincingly in atmosphere than in deduction, and the adaptation can feel as if connective cases were skipped.

Why You Should Watch

Watch this if you want Fate without another Holy Grail War: less Servant spectacle, more magecraft taxonomy, aristocratic politics, and impossible-case reasoning. It scratches the same itch as The Garden of Sinners for Type-Moon occult texture, but with the classroom-and-case rhythm of a detective series rather than horror tragedy. The best audience is already curious about Waver Velvet after Fate/Zero and wants to see the Clock Tower treated as a living institution, not background lore. TROYCA’s production leans into libraries, train compartments, ritual spaces, and London gloom, while Yuki Kajiura gives the investigations a ceremonial pulse. It is not the sharpest whodunit, but it is one of the franchise’s more unusual detours into how mages think, teach, bargain, and lie.

Key Characters

W
Waver Velvet(VA: Daisuke Namikawa)
As Lord El-Melloi II, Waver is compelling because his authority comes from analysis, teaching, and hard-earned insecurity rather than overwhelming magical power.
G
Gray(VA: Reina Ueda)
Gray gives the series its quiet gothic center, pairing apprentice loyalty with a reserved presence that contrasts sharply with the Clock Tower’s verbal duels.
R
Reines(VA: Inori Minase)
Reines is the kind of aristocratic manipulator fans remember: playful on the surface, politically dangerous underneath, and never merely a quest-giver.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
TROYCA handles the 13-episode TV production, with director Makoto Katou and character designer Jun Nakai shaping it as a polished urban-fantasy mystery rather than a conventional Fate action entry.
2
Yuki Kajiura’s music is a major identity marker, bringing choral, string-heavy tension to scenes built around investigation, ritual, and aristocratic menace.
3
The adaptation’s structure mixes case-based material with the named Rail Zeppelin arc, which gives the anime a more episodic mystery texture than the franchise’s usual tournament-war architecture.
4
AniList’s tag profile is unusually specific for a Fate spinoff: Magic at 92%, Urban Fantasy at 86%, Trains at 84%, Detective at 81%, and Teacher at 80%, accurately signaling its emphasis on method, setting, and institution.
5
The show foregrounds magecraft categories rarely centered in Fate anime adaptations, including necromancy, ghosts, astronomy, and religion, making it a lore-forward watch for viewers invested in the mechanics of the setting.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime is credited to Azuma Tou, Makoto Sanda, and Type-Moon as original creators, with Mineji Sakamoto credited for the original character designs.
Fun fact 2: It aired as a Summer 2019 TV anime from July 7 to September 29, finishing at 13 episodes.
Fun fact 3: The production credits include Ukyou Kodachi on series composition, Mitsutaka Iguchi as CG director, Jin Aketagawa as sound director, and Yuki Kajiura as composer.
Fun fact 4: Its reception sits in solid-but-divisive territory: MAL lists a 7.38 score from 70,920 votes, while AniList lists 73/100 and 795 favourites.
Fun fact 5: Web criticism consistently frames it as most rewarding for Waver or Fate/Zero fans, while also flagging the same weakness: the detective writing and adaptation flow do not always match the strength of the atmosphere.