Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower

If you are an anime only kind of person and don't read manga, light novels or visual novels, don't bother watching this if you haven't at least seen Unlimited Blade Works anime first. But even then, you might still struggle to understand what's going on. Heaven's Feel part 1 had amazing visuals, animation, and music, but the story telling was not up to par. The pacing of story related scenes seemed fast and some of the dialogue disjointed. Transitions between scenes were often abrupt and had little explanation for why did they suddenly visit the temple or why were they just strolling around town. I had originally thought about going into the movie "blind" in that I had only seen fate/zero and Unlimited Blade Works anime up that point, but decided to read the visual novel first. I'm glad I did as I'd probable wouldn't have understood anything other than bare bones gist of things. In some cases it is better to show not tell story when it comes to movies or anime, but when the things they are showing are just so fantastical and foreign to anything you can relate to it's not going to have any meaning to viewer. Overall the movie is a good if you already read the novels and know all the lore around it, but as a standalone movie with minimal background knowledge from Unlimited Blade Works or Fate/Zero it's fine.

I've always been a huge fangirl of ufotable and I've loved fate/zero so much. So much, that I began to wonder why didn't I rewatch that instead of wasting my time on this? It's so boring and underwhelming af. I've lost count of how many times Sakura has said, "sEnpAI". Sakura and Shirou are the most boring af characters in this anime lmao. Sakura is just there for the male gaze; emphasized E cups, no personality at all whatsoever other than playing the housewife. And wtf is Shirou for? He's like a wet carpet, there's nothing appealing to him at all and all he's done is whine about his past and go on about being the hero of justice. The pacing is so weird; everyone is just dying randomly. Less epic fights, more szEnpai. I miss my Gilgamesh and Saber. Compared to previous premises, this one is just utterly disappointing. But the last bit with Saber is the one that'll definitely keep me watching the rest, apparently.

'If I become a bad person, would you be able to forgive me?' -- WHEN I become a bad person, would you be able to forgive me? The Holy Grail War: a violent battle between mages in which seven masters and their summoned servants fight for the Holy Grail, a magical artifact that can grant the victor any wish. Nearly 10 years ago, the final battle of the Fourth Holy Grail War wreaked havoc on Fuyuki City and took over 500 lives, leaving the city devastated. Shirou Emiya, a survivor of this tragedy, aspires to become a hero of justice like his rescuer and adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya. Despite only being a student, Shirou is thrown into the Fifth Holy Grail War when he accidentally sees a battle between servants at school and summons his own servant, Saber. When a mysterious shadow begins a murderous spree in Fuyuki City, Shirou aligns himself with Rin Toosaka, a fellow participant in the Holy Grail War, in order to stop the deaths of countless people. However, Shirou's feelings for his close friend Sakura Matou lead him deeper into the dark secrets surrounding the war and the feuding families involved. - Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower was the anime I had been warning everyone to wait for. Everyone is happily fawning over their favourite girls in Fate and Unlimited Blade Works that they forgot the last one, Sakura. Yes, after all that's what the anime wants you to do. They purposely excluded Sakura from all other routes, saving the 'best' for last. You don't actually see Sakura playing any main roles in UBW or Fate. Heck, she had less screen time in Fate/Zero than the other MCs as kids... But now she's finally making her debut. The shy girl with all her feelings hidden inside the deep debts of despair. She resisted it for years When I said 'best', I obviously didn't mean best girl because that would be Rin Tohsaka. When i said best, I meant the MOST FUCKED UP AND DARKEST PART in the entirety of FATE/STAY NIGHT. Yes, Heaven's Feel is the darker side of the three routes and the first season already explains why. Appearances of the most dreadful characters come in to rile things up. First movie and 1/4 of the cast is dead There is nothing 'casual' in Heaven's Feel as compared to the other routes. Gore, phenomenon, murder that is the essence of Fate/Stay Night. The first movie will definitely leave you with many questions, that goes without saying that you actually need to have a proper understanding of Fate/Stay Night first. Meaning that if you haven't watched Unlimited Blade Works (2014 Remake), don't bother watching this. Heaven's Feel is where the darkest pasts are dugged up, horrific events that terrify our main characters are brought into Heaven's Feel. It is the darkest, uncensored and F***ed up of all the routes again I stress. - Among all three routes where the main plot is clearly revealed, Heaven's Feel is the more subtle route. If you haven't read the VN then you probably won't know what to expect, you'll probably be like WTF IS THAT, WHAT IS THAT THING DOING I advice you to just watch the perfectly animated fight scenes and remember what you don't understand. Don't spoil yourself, the explanations you desire are soon to come. - Spoilers Below You seriously cannot watch this if you don't have a great deal of knowledge of Fate/Stay Night. There will be MANY things unexplained in this movie in which some of it is explained in the UBW route or Fate/Zero while the rest are exclusive to Heaven's Feel only Your Kirei scene got added guys, yorokobe. Sakura is outwardly shy, soft-spoken and eager to please, she possesses a great inner strength. As noted by Shirou, she can also be openly stubborn at times. However, she is also prone to feelings of resentment towards others. Despite the cruelty she endures living with the Matou family, she is given a brief reprieve in Kariya, her adoptive uncle and the only person who genuinely loved her. When he dies in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Sakura mistakes Kariya's last attempt to free her from the Matou house as a warning from Zouken as the fate of those who disobey him. The incident cements Sakura's despair and resignation towards her own suffering. However, her own resolve is strengthened after she falls in love with Shirou Emiya and becomes closer to him by helping him with domestic tasks to express how she cares about him. During Fate/stay-night, she begins to feel isolated when she believes that Shirou is beyond her reach. These experiences have made Sakura a troubled person. Under certain manipulation, Sakura becomes someone dreadful. You know guys, this first episode is nothing compared to whats to come. Well... over here u only see some unexplained things that did some not very sightful things But everyone should know that this is not even 1/4 of the dark horrors of Heaven's Feel You thought Kotomine was fucked up? You thought the Einzberns were fucked up? Haha. MISETE, take a good look at the Matous that were never featured before and see their true FORM. Even Archer can’t deal with his personal affairs (kill Shirou) with a bigger situation at hand Presage II airs in my country in a few days and I am hyped up. This review was written on 03-31-19 and may be outdated. I may have changed my rating due to various reasons.

While playing the visual novel I can honestly say that Heaven's Feel was the route that played out the best out of the 3 available paths in the legendary Fate/Stay Night Visual novel. In this route you find out the most about the background characters and not just this war but the previous war as well, also the side characters have the most fulfilling endings. Attempting to condense what should have been at least 2, preferably 3, full seasons of anime into 3 movies resulted in a complete trainwreck. So much important content was left out of this first movie I don't see how the final 2 movies could possibly fill in the gaps. Overall I give it a 5/10. Perhaps if you haven't played the Heaven's Feel route of the vn you won't know what you are missing but the feelings I'm left with are best summed up as: Disgust, disappointment, and sadness.

Not great for newbies to the Fate series. I want to explain my scores to help anyone like me who has not played the games or watched Unlimited Blade Works anime or beyond. I LOVED the anime prequel Fate/Zero with a big pounding heart and was psyched this movie was coming out. I had started Unlimited Bladeworks when I heard the movie was coming so I stopped after a few episodes. Having seen those was key though I didn't know it. The movie has a very long set up of Shirou then when it's about to get exciting with him discovering things about himself the movie cuts to a title credit sequence that runs through great stuff I saw in the anime in stills but DOES NOT EXPLAIN. My friend who had only seen Fate/Zero was completely confused. It's hard to understand some of the servants we see or be curious who their masters are and while the few battle scenes look very cool, the passion for the Holy Grail is not adequately explained in a way that makes these characters feel like they're fighting for something, anything. Motivation is not well established. And it felt like we would jump from one sequence to another with completely different characters with just cuts to black in between. I didn't feel the flow-through of story. The audience laughed when a character was eating and my friend and I were just mystified. The art is beautiful and I especially loved the sound design but for someone newer to the franchise character motivation was not well established, neither was the relationship between mages and servants and story is just downright confusing. I did not feel emotional stakes in ANY of the fights and there was no meaningful dialogue interplay between the servants which I loved in the Fate/Zero anime series. I wish there had been a warning like this before I bought tickets.

Having finished reading the VN not too long, I had some very high expectations of this routes adaptation as I thought UBW's was great, not perfect, but entirely servicable to the original material. I can only really call it a mess. Started off strong with the anime original scenes of Sakura and Shirou's past until it devolved into a rushed empty, yet flashy, blur. I started tuning out halfway through, conversations would leave out so many details from the VN and then just end and quickly move onto the next scene. Just a lot of flashy animation without any of the VN's substance. I'll just watch a few of the fight scenes and move on because that's all this adaptation really gets right.

This review comes from the heart: the Heaven's Feel VN is one of my favorite pieces of Japanese media of all time. The writing is amazing, the characters are absolutely spectacular and the action is gripping and exciting in almost every way that something of its medium can give. It's the reason to read Fate/Stay Night, the reason to get to know all of these characters, and one of the reasons why I think this franchise stands out above all others. The first Heaven's Feel movie has none of that. Sure, you can say that the animation is intense and dramatic, some scenes in this movie are amazingly animated and the voice acting is stellar as always, with sounds and feelings that have you on the edge of your seat. However, that's not the reason why this story is good at all. Most of all, it's a story about characters and how they deal with everything going wrong and their entire world's falling apart. This is more in what would be the future movies, but the groundwork has to be here, or else the rest of the story will feel weaker and less impactful. Let's talk characters, or more so the lack of the characters I feel are strongest to the plot. Kotomine Kirei has his impactful scenes in the movie, as you get the most infamous scene in the story (you'll see it) and snippets of scenes that are done in the VN. However, the reasons why those scenes are good EXCEPT for that infamous scene are mostly removed. There is many scenes in particular with a legitimate emotional impact that would hit hard, especially to Fate/Zero fans in one specific part. The fact that the reasons why these scenes are good are removed is beyond me. Then there's Illya. She's not here. She shows up for a good 5 minutes and never appears again, while in the VN she would have an active and important role in the story. She is the heart of the story and allows for a more wholesome side to shine through. Removing that and only having her appear at two not super significant times makes this story seem a lot more depressing than it does, and removes the opportunity to make some aspects of it endearing. You also lose on a large reveal in the story that makes things very, very odd as it plays on the back of your mind. The Matous, with both our main heroine and main antagonist, are also under-represented within the story, and it all is about Shirou's prologue. Different from all routes, there are two specific scenes in the moments before our hero summons Saber. One scene with Sakura loses a lot of its particular beauty and impact at the start, and another scene is butchered all together, while Matou Zouken's reveal takes away his old grandpa type and only does his most ominous line without any good buildup, causing him to just seem like a generic, creepy villain. This was possibly my favorite part of the route, and it is basically ruined and squished was part of the reasons I heavily disliked this movie. To touch on the story quickly, because it doesn't take much to realize my point now, I feel the story is squished together and is more a "best moment" compilation that takes away the reasons why the action and story are greater in the VN. There is two scenes I feel do it kinda right: Shirou's first meeting with Shinji and Shirou's first fight against Zouken. To add, there is one positive addition with the story that I feel is worthwhile: there is a good five minutes at the start of the movie that speaks to how Sakura became accustomed to the Emiya household. This is something that should've been in the VN, and I feel that it was my favorite part of a movie that I could not love. To conclude, Heaven's Feel: Presage Flower strips what I feel is one of the greatest and most epic stories in all of media to a barebones and almost laughable level. The action is fine, but that is far from the reason this route is good in the end. Some characters are weakened, some don't even make an impact at all when they should. The story is ripped and spliced and it should ripple for any person who is anime-only to have a worse perception of this route. TL;DR - Read the VN for all that is good and holy.

Glad to see the adaptation of the most popular route from the original Fate/Stay Night VN is off to a rocking start. I should state this first, DO NOT WATCH THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE FROM THE OTHER 2 ROUTE'S (Fate and UBW). This movie assumes the audience already knows the inner working of the Holy Grail War, who the characters are, etc. Pretty much the same way the original Visual Novel handled this route. I don't want to spoil any parts of the story for those who have yet to see it, just letting you know this is the most popular route for a reason. All I will say about Heaven's Feel storywise is that It is much darker than the other 2 route's and there will be parts later on that you may need a bit stronger of a stomach for.

I should clarify that I had to evaluate this movie a bit differently, because it’s actually the first act of the trilogy, an introductory arc. If I judged it as a fully self-contained film, its writing would fall apart. However, to be fair, Presage Flower was never meant to stand on its own. It’s also necessary to have at least watched Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, and it’s recommended to have seen the Fate route and Fate/Zero as well. This film also has a much more seinen and sober tone. Note: Some readers may consider parts of this review to contain light spoilers, but no major plot points are revealed. 1. Narrative (30%) I have to take this part carefully, because this is just the introductory arc. It is not a standalone movie. There are strong points: the film does not waste time explaining what you are already supposed to know. It assumes you have seen Unlimited Blade Works and even Zero. This is positive for viewers like me, who are watching this beginning for the third time. However, as an introduction, it does feel somewhat disconnected, almost like a compilation of character introductions. This gives me mixed feelings. For example, I really liked Sakura’s introduction and the mysterious villain, although that villain does feel a bit “out of nowhere.” The tension is stronger than in UBW, and it’s clear that this work has a much more adult tone compared to other routes Score:7/10 (21%) 2. Main Characters (20%) There is no deep development yet, because this movie mainly sets things up. What we do see is the establishment of Sakura and Shirou’s relationship, and it is very well done. In my opinion, it’s the best romance among the three routes. You can clearly feel that Sakura is the heart of the story, which makes sense since she’s the protagonist of this route. Here I only consider Sakura and Shirou as the main characters, unlike the “Fate” or “Unlimited Blade Works” routes where there are more protagonists. Everything here centers on Sakura. Score:8/10 (16%) 3. Supporting Characters (10%) Surprisingly, Illya, Rin, Archer, and Saber (my favorite character) act as the supporting cast. This makes sense, since the relationship between Shirou and Rin is distant in this route, meaning Archer is not the focus. Saber, sadly, is shown almost exclusively in her role as Shirou’s protector; I expected more, but nothing in this saga can match Zero in terms of developing so many characters at once. On the other hand, I liked Illya’s twist: instead of her usual tragic role, here she feels more villainous, which was interesting. Score:7/10 (7%) 4. Direction (20%) This part actually surprised me. The direction is quite strong, with a more cinematic and sober tone. It feels like a more seinen-oriented film rather than a youthful one. Of course, it still carries the issue of feeling a bit disjointed because it’s an introductory act, but overall, I think the direction is very good. Socore: 9/10 (18%) 5. Animation / Art (10%) Same as Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works: it’s Ufotable. Nothing more needs to be said. Score:10/10 (10%) 6. Soundtrack (10%) The soundtrack reminded me of Fate/Zero — epic, orchestral, full of strings and emotional weight. In two words: epic and tragic. Score:10/10 (10%) My final score is 8.2/10, but since MyAnimeList doesn’t allow decimals, I round it to 8/10. As a first act, it’s a very strong introduction, though a bit disconnected. Of course, it can’t be compared to Zero, but it’s still very good.

It should also be noted that this review is for just the first movie. Being merely the first part of an overall trilogy, I can see why separating it would seem weird. But having written three separate reviews, I think gauging the interest level across 6 hours ended up being worthwhile. If you want my thoughts on the trilogy as a whole, I came to the conclusion that I would skip it. The caveat is that I imagine people who have already gone through Heaven’s Feel in the visual novel will get a kick out of it being in movie form. I wouldn’t be surprised if my lack of enjoyment here merely came from details being cut to fit the movie format. But as it stands, I’m keeping my initial thoughts and ratings for each individual part intact. With that said, here’s my review of Heaven’s Feel I: There are three important things to know about Heaven’s Feel before going into it: 1. As mentioned, this movie is merely the first part of three. The other two Heaven’s Feel movies being the next two parts. 2. This is an alternate telling of the story from Fate stay/night and Unlimited Blade Works. 3. Despite that, you’re expected to have watched Fate stay/night or Unlimited Blade Works first (and Fate/Zero while you’re at it). I recommend Unlimited Blade Works. The problem with Heaven’s Feel I is that it accelerates and decelerates very quickly very often. For example, it starts by carefully showing you Shirou’s life and goings on, then shows scenes from Fate stay/night to skim past him meeting Saber since that’s all the same, then goes back to slowing down to show things that differ this go around, then speeds through a fight. My recommendation is to watch this ASAP after watching Fate stay/night so you retain as much of the skipped scenes as possible. I waited quite a while and, while I still generally remember what happened, not remembering everything made Shirou’s relationships with Saber and Rin feel shallow here. Speaking of relationships, several chunks of the movie focus on Shirou’s new, deeper relationship with Sakura. Rin isn’t nearly as much of a deal this time. The problem is that Unlimited Blade Works showed A LOT more of Shirou and Rin’s relationship developing into something that seemed real. Shirou obviously has less time with Sakura thanks to the movie format. Yet at the same time, scenes with Sakura felt sluggish. I think the big issue is that most of the scenes devoted to her and Shirou didn’t spend their time effectively. Perhaps it’s explored to a much greater extent in the second and third movies, but for the first third I simply can’t help but think of Sakura as a worse alternative to Rin. As for the fights, all of them were very curt. It felt as if they had to make space for the story sections, so speeding to the results of the fights was prioritized over making them interesting. While the story sections aren’t bad, I do miss the much more grandiose Servant-on-Servant fights from the episodic anime. I want to say that Heaven’s Feel I felt like a movie to setup the other two and not much more, but I can’t entirely. Without spoiling anything, a lot of things do still happen. The Holy Grail War does make some serious progress within the first movie. But some of that progress is too fast — so fast that I was believing each movie was going to be its own separate route until the end! I think Heaven’s Feel I is still a competent start to a movie trilogy, but it’s rough. I would temper your expectations for these starting two hours.

Based off the Fate visual novel, Fate Stay Night: Heaven's Feel is the third route of the VN focusing on Sakura Matou. The route is adapted through three movies. This review is for all three movies. It is highly recommended from other Fate fans to read the visual novel before watching. I did not do this. I watched Fate Zero before Heaven's Feel and still enjoyed both immensely. I was extremely disappointed going back and watching the original Fate Stay Night anime and UBW. I did not enjoy either entry and cannot recommend either one to anyone. Story: Continuing the Fate Stay Night story of a battle royale between legendary historical figures to win a wish granting holy grail. Fate Stay Night Heaven's Feel adds in more romantic elements mixed with horror aspects and some of the most amazing action scenes in all of anime. The story is not focused on action in the beginning. It is character driven with the characters interactions being more important than the battle royale plot. They weave together seamlessly through all three films. The third film has more plot driven elements than the first two with less focus on romance and more on the action. The first two films are about the character moments between Shirou and Sakura. The third film is about ending the battle royale action and seeing the fates of all the characters. Art: Ufotable takes over the Fate series again with incredible visuals and animation. The backgrounds are some of the best I've seen. The action scenes are some of the most well animated in the entire medium of anime. Enough said, the art and animation are top notch. Sound: The OST is incredible along with the ending credit songs. The voice actors do a great job as well. All of it fits the tone of the movies and works incredibly well together. Characters: Sakura Matou is the star of the series, she is extremely interesting and broken yet at the same time she's the most endearing of the cast. This series has the best version of Shirou in all of Fate. He isn't a well liked protagonist in the other iterations, but in this one, his flaws aren't as noticeable. The romance between them is done very well and the decisions they have to make are very interesting with them creating some major consequences. The other characters get more prominent roles in the 3rd film. Rin, Ilya and Kirei get more time to shine. Many of the holes in the other Fate series are resolved as well, but with the fast pacing, many scenes in the visual novel are skipped. Enjoyment: I enjoyed this more than Fate Zero and other work Ufotable has done. The music, art, story and characters were all done extremely well. I cant recommend this enough. Sometimes it can be too explicit and it can be too much but it adds to the mature tone of the movies. Overall: I believe this to be the greatest piece of art that Ufotable and Fate have provided so far. I look forward to the work Ufotable does in the future. The Fate series is one of the best looking, most interesting series in all of anime. With this said, I can only recommend Fate Zero and Fate Stay Night Heaven's Feel as the must watch anime of the series.

As someone who has seen Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night, and Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works and is currently rewatching all three of them, I can say firmly that the first installment, PRESAGE FLOWER, of the third and final route of Fate, HEAVEN’S FEEL, is awesome. Of the three routes it is undeniably the darkest, most complex, most lore-intensive. Servants die, suddenly. Yuki Kajiura delivers yet again with an OST that isn’t quite as symphonically heavy as Fate/Zero but is certainly apt in its own right, with light notes sporadically scattered throughout with sweeping, somber orchestrals accompanied by the identifiable haunting vocals. And, of course, ufotable. I honestly didn’t expect anything better than what they did with UBW, but they surpassed even that standard (which had surpassed Fate/Zero) -- right from the first scene at the archery dojo, the presentation of chiaroscuro on a starkly sunny day laid behind the calm Shirou knocking, aiming, and releasing an arrow -- like, Holy Mothers of Gods, I was fanboying for the visuals, without a doubt the best I’ve seen yet from ufotable and perhaps even the best I’ve seen in any anime film (in close contention with Kotonoha no Niwa). The first route, Fate, is distinguished by the focus on Saber and her budding romance with Shirou. The second route, Unlimited Blade Works, focuses on Rin but also on Shirou’s ideals as challenged by Archer. The third route, Heaven’s Feel, focuses on Sakura who should certainly be interesting, not just for the romance with Shirou but also for the role she will play in the Holy Grail War. I guess I was a bit discomfited (or drawn to) her constantly calling Shirou “senpai” but whatever. Oh, and the fights. Dude. Bruh. My boi. There are some INSANE fights in this film. ufotable exceeded my expectations based on what we’ve seen in UBW -- the camera work, dramatic overplay of Servant tensions (LANCER), that oh so holy light we’ve seen so often from ufotable, whether it comes from Caster’s Magecraft or Lancer’s Gae Bolg or other Noble Phantasms. More like ufotable eyegasms, I mean these fights are EPIC. Heaven’s Feel is one of those rare anime titles that you’ll want to see again immediately after finishing, or even as you watch you’ll want to rewatch certain scenes, due to the sheer god-tier quality of its visuals and animation. I started rewatching it just before writing this reaction and got 5 minutes in before stopping myself -- I saw it for the first time yesterday and was, as you can tell, blown away. Like honestly the plot is not what’s important, most of it so far is already known from the first two routes anyway, it’s the production values that make Presage Flower a standout and a must-watch for any fans of Fate. Kind of like how for certain characters like C.C. their personality is irrelevant, you’re just staring at them on screen and paying deep attention to whatever words come out of their mouth. Lelouch, you lucky bastard. My Composite Score: 87 Final Evaluation: “Visually, a heavenly feeling”

Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel from 2004, with the main storyline being adapted into and anime in 2006, a much better prequel series being released in 2011 and another anime adaptation of the original visual novel, this time of a different route, being released in 2015, by the same studio that made the prequel series. I’m sorry if this sudden bombardment of information confuses anyone that might be new to the Fate franchise but I bring this up because quite honestly, all of this information is necessary. Heaven’s feel is the third major storyline from the original visual novel, and seeing as how by the time the first film was released, the second storyline’s adaptation, Unlimited Budget Works, had basically just finished. Heaven’s Feel assumes that you at least have that basic knowledge of the franchise when going into this film, and it does very little to guide any newcomer. Character’s will die without having been introduced, so any context into who these people are, and why you should care, needs to come from the other instalments. Instead of rehashing old material to help newcomers catch up, Heaven’s feel instead chooses to use its time showing what about this storyline is different from the last, to the point where the film completely glosses over the introduction of Saber, which is arguably where the plot actually begins. If anyone is wondering weather or not they should watch this movie, the answer is simple.; if you’re a Fate fan, yes, if not stay the fuck away, at least until you’ve seen one of the 2 20+ episode anime that tells the other storyline’s so you can at least have some basic concept of what the fuck is going on. That being said, as somebody who has seen those shows, was this good. Eeeeehhhhh, kind of. Heaven’s feel spends a lot of time developing the relationship of Sakura and Shinji with Emiya, but my only problem with that is I don’t particularly like either character. Shinji is an edgy faggot, and Sakura is such a visual novel waifu that I found how perfect she was more repulsive than endearing. They can lead to the occasional fun moment, and despite those harsh descriptions, I never actually hated the characters, but I also didn’t particularly like them in any way. The biggest problem with Heaven’s Feel is that it wastes too much time trying to convince me to care about something I don’t care about, and virtually no time at all developing the moment’s that are actually interesting (assassin vs lancer). I had a pleasant enough time and I’m kind of curious to find out more, but I don’t think I’ll ever be bored enough to actually finish this trilogy. 6/10 This Review is actually the script to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvnLkGfo0S4 Check that out and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more reviews like it.

How do you compress a well written episodic series into a few short films? You can't! The original series had very little fillers or fan-service, and it made for a fantastic well paced story. Having watched all the Fate series, these movies lacks the character development and therefore fails to explain why characters are the way they way. Naturally, a season series has more time to build characters which is impossible in a compressed movies. For example, it's obvious why our protagonist wants to be the Hero of Justice and why Archer so wants to demolish and demoralize him. In the movies, not so much. As a result, the movie feels slower paced, and a few mindless deaths, mindless servants and mages who just want to win a trophy. Personally, I would have been happier if they simply removed all the start and ending credits and left it practically as is. That said, these movie versions make for delicious Ufotable production eye-candy.

I've watched both the fate zero and fate UBW anime which is highly recommended before you see this movie. Just on a visual level I am reminded again of how animation being used is far superior than anything that can be reproduced in a live action film. That is to indirectly say the scenes are incredibly beautiful especially those snow scenes, wow. To match the jaw dropping scenes the sound effects and music are equally great, and are very much Fate series -esque. From the powerful thuds to the sound of chains you will feel the impact of the weapons. The story requires previous knowledge going in as events are just portrayed really quickly or are very sudden. So far its a typical fate story, we follow the main character Shirou who by being the main character is in the right with what he does. The added mystery is nice but I am hopeful to get more morally gray conflicts. Shirou unfortunately is a very shounen character with unwavering ideals and the ability to evade mortal wounds. Shinji is also an odd character that despite going to school has no regard to anyone for unknown reasons. Shirou really is likeable when interacting with the sweetest girl ever Sakara who is Shinjis complete opposite. The quiet/subdued moments between characters is really enjoyable to me but could drag on for some. Character interactions have been a strength in this series and shows here. The fight scenes are great although there can be a lot of in between time until they happen. The amazing art and sound will give you a great fight when they do happen. Each character is unique in how they fight and really give the fights personality. In typical fate battles though, you will be surprised by some of the outcomes. Can't wait for the following parts to come :)

The film is almost perfect. Actually, all it done is perfect. The major issue is that it rush the begin of the story, making him not comprehensible for someone who not remember the begin of the story, as 25 minute are summarized in the opening. Either the character are interresting, Emiya is the most interresting emiya, and the vilain is also extremely nice. It is impossible not enjoy the two hour, intense but short fight. The realisation is good, mostly in the running and figthing scene. The song are sadly not rememberable, mainly because they are calm and discret, but it make sense as, as underlign, there is only a few fight, so few epic OST. It will be really hard to wait the release of the second movie.

(Spoilers Incoming) Story: 8/10. Do not go into this movie without having a good deal of knowledge on the Fate series; at minimum, you should have seen UBW or Deen's adaptation (I'd recommend UBW's since the movie directly relies on your knowledge of the events within it). Seeing Fate/Zero would be smart as well, considering Kotomine Kirei and the Matous are expanded on and going into Heaven's Feel knowing their backgrounds enhances the experience. If you walk in without knowing anything about Fate, you'll probably consider the movie a horrible, shoddily written series of events that make no logical sense; the movie (perhaps to its detriment) relies on the audience's prior knowledge of the universe and delves right into events relatively early, as opposed to building up the details. You should treat this as a sequel within a series of other pieces of media, and it wouldn't make sense to jump the shark and start here when you really need to start two stories back. Now, I think there are essentially two ways to perceive this movie: as an extension of the prior Fate series and as an actual movie for general consumption. I think in the former perception, the movie does a great job acting as a supplement to our preexisting schema of the universe while giving us a new narrative to complement what we already know. It does have its flaws, but as a movie that sets up the conflict for the 2nd and 3rd, it does so in an intriguing way. If we take on the latter perception, the movie is noticeably lacking. It relies heavily on events in the prior series, so much so that most of the events will make no sense if you aren't aware of their significance. You'll ask yourself: why did Shirou get healed after getting his organs ripped out? Why did Caster use that jagged dagger on herself? What is the Holy Grail? Who are these people? What is this all for? The movie superficially explains events like the end of Fate/Zero and certain characters like Kiritsugu, but actually having that knowledge is pivotal here to understand what's really going on. Events will seem disjointed; you'll probably be unable to follow the significance of events like the gas leaks or the murders around town in the context of what's explicitly happening on screen, which on surface level to a non-Fate viewer just seems like a bunch of needless dialogue interspersed with impressive action sequences. It's important to realize the film is one of three, and isn't made to establish a story with a conflict, climax and resolution all in one go such that a general audience can comprehend it. To put it simply, this movie is just meant to establish the conflict, and trying to analyze it outside of this context wouldn't be fair; moreover, this movie wasn't made with the intent that a non-Fate viewer would watch, so going in having no knowledge of the series is like walking into a 3rd year college class when you're only in your first year. Art: 10+/10. What else did you expect? Ufotable is legendary; you can pause anytime while watching this movie and use that image as a wallpaper. The fight scenes are amazingly choreographed. In particular, the fight between Assassin and Lancer is jaw-dropping, there were times where the scenery looked like it had been taking from real life. Sound: 9/10. Great OST, although not much variety. Particularly, I found the LACK of sound in certain scenes very well-done (case in point, Lancer finding Assassin in the pond). It created an ominous, unsettling tone that went well with the direction the movie was taking. Character: 6/10. This is a tough one. On the surface, the movie doesn't really present the characters in a deep sort of way at all; everything is relatively surface level, save for Shirou's infamous inner turmoil with becoming a hero of justice. I can partially excuse this because Heaven's Feel is a sequel of sorts and the prior series have explored the characters somewhat, but it still holds that the characters in this movie are rather...unfeeling, as if they're acting to move on the plot rather than reacting to the events at hand in an organic way. I expect we'll see more emotion and development in the second and third movies, as this movie merely set up the stage for the main conflict. Yet whenever a tense moment occurs, it felt like the characters walked away not having learned anything or having changed in any way. Even if this movie is only setting up the stage for the events to come, I felt the characters were rather static from start to finish. However, the dynamics between characters were well done and set up nicely for movies 2 and 3. For example, the movie does a great job of showing us how much Shirou and Sakura care for one another, and the emotional bond between them is something the film establishes well. Also as an aside, Kirei is fantastic in the movie, despite his little screen time. There's one particular scene that fans of the VN (or any Kotomine Kirei fans in general) will love to see. Also, the dynamic between Kirei and Shirou, albeit somewhat underdeveloped, is still interesting to see unfold, and I hope the 2nd and 3rd movies REALLY focuses on this, since I think this is one area where Heaven's Feel can offer something great while giving Fate/Zero fans the conclusion of the Emiya vs Kirei storyline they've been waiting for. Enjoyment: 9/10. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the show was a beauty to look at. Ufotable really outdid themselves, which is saying alot considering how well animated Fate/Zero and UBW were. Every fight scene, as usual, was done well, although there is way more dialogue than actual fighting/action throughout the show. I also felt that, even though the characters were somewhat static throughout the film, they were handled better than in UBW. Ironically, the lack of personality in some characters made them more likeable: for me, this was the case with Shirou. I personally felt UBW did a poor job of establishing Shirou's character as intrinsically as the VN did, which is understandable; however, Shirou would come off as stupid and as a nuisance in the events of UBW. Here, we don't really get a lot of this type of Shirou; he seems more reserved and hesitant, and whenever he does act rashly, it's not necessarily illogical so much as it is a heat-of-the-moment attempt to help. I think this is a rare moment where less time for exploration of the character lends itself to a better portrayal of the character. Overall: 8/10. It's hard to reconcile this movie as an extension of the current Fate media and an actual film, which is why I think people should consider it the former. As a new component to be added to our knowledge of Fate and its characters, Presage Flower does a great job in introducing a new conflict that will test characters in new ways while making use of ones that were basically irrelevant in the past. Granted, we do this at the expense of other characters, but I think the characters we do explore in Heaven's Feel are way more thematically interesting than those who were explored in UBW, so it's a trade-off I can stand behind. Key points I want to emphasize: If you've seen Fate/Zero and UBW, Presage Flower will be an interesting ride for you. It does alot of things well and portrays characters who were rather irrelevant in UBW in a new, interesting light. As of now, I think the movie does a fine job in setting up the potential for the 2nd and 3rd while being enjoyable in its own right. I cannot stress enough that you SHOULD NOT watch this movie without at least having seen UBW; you will be lost, confused and frustrated with how disjointed the movie seems to be.

Seems i am proven right again by the masses that i should form my own opinion by watching it myself,as im shocked by the quite low score of this movie compared to the quality. And so should you really. As for a more objective opinion, i slugged through even the biggest slops anime has to offer, im proud to say i've only dropped 1 anime to date, and my portofolio is way bigger then what i registered on this site. One hand is more then enough to count the anime that raise to the quality of this piece of art,itself included. The quality in sound and animation alone is equal to none. The story itself doesn't fall far behind. If there ever was one series that deserved an actual perfect score is this one. Plenty of people from what i was able to gather mostly dislike this movie series also because it's the sakura route... Non-sense. There's no bad route when it comes to this series. All in all, a must watch, although i'd recommend you watch Fate/Zero and Fate/stay Night Unlimited Blade works before.

Very tough movie to love and digest since it (faithfully) adapts very specific and in my opinion the best route in Fate Stay Night series - Heaven's Feel aka Sakura Matou Route. Knowing damn well this is just the beginning of PEAK route, many fans (who're not familiar with it) will be disappointed to see how some of their faves end. Other than that, it's easily the worst out of three films, but still very faithful. Just a bit too boring. Story often strays away and it is very weird and odd to follow considering the fact that it literally adapts everything left out of the other routes. Some servants meet their grisly demises and Lancer gets one of the best anime fights in recent history. The only problem, like I said before, is that the first movie is just too long and sometimes it drags out for the sake of it.

Look at you! You ended up here in a round about way after starting the Fate series anime. You probably took some time to research how you should even start this anime since there are probably 5 ways to go about it. Let me help you! Do not start here first. You will get some spoilers, but start at Zero. Really. The best way to look at this would be like a series of games you enjoyed. You played the first one, and want to keep going with the other 4 to follow some sort of linear path forward. Unfortunately for you, it's more like a "choose your ending" storybook type game that you can play from different angles with the same main character. Stay Night, UBW movie, UBW series, and these movies are all about the 5th Holy Grail war. Each one is different in its own way, and has a lot of what the other ones have. Some side characters get much more screen time. Animation gets updated. Some characters die instantly or change how they get to the end. Honestly, it is a bit of a time investment and I can't recommend that anyone watch every part of this series, let alone these movies. BUT If you have made it this far, then you are like the main character Shirou and there isn't anything that is going to stop you. You will appreciate the changes they made, the very stylish and updated animation, and the fact that it's 2 more movies after this one. Go into it with an open mind if you are binging it like I am. Think of it like the same game you enjoyed at the start, with a different side quests and endings depending on choices made.