Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - III. Spring Song

Studio Ufotable’s finale to the last Fate/stay night arc is a mind-meltingly impressive piece of animation. The last couple of scenes don’t feel completely earned, and there are one or two other story beats that are a tad rushed or aren’t fleshed out enough, but I had a hard time being bothered by any of that because I was so utterly enraptured by how incredible it all looked. Ufotable’s movies and shows have always looked stunning, particularly their work with the Fate franchise, and that trend doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. I was constantly wowed by Spring Song’s extraordinary imagery, and Saber’s big battle is one of the most jaw-droppingly intense action sequences in the history of anime itself. Honestly, that duel alone almost earned it a spot here. All in all though, Spring Song – and the Heaven’s Feel entire trilogy – is worth the time of any Fate fan, or those looking for the best visuals that the anime medium has to offer.

This is the most beautiful yet disgusting movie I've ever seen. As soon as the movie ended, I knew I had to express these feelings into words because I am so amazed at how beautiful this movie was. After watching the movie, my body was numb and was itching to do something that'll make these chills go away, so I decided to write a review. As my brain is still processing all the insane information and details that I have seen, let's start by reminiscing on how awesome this expedition was. I began my journey 4 days ago starting with Fate/Stay night (2006), Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, leading here to Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - III. Spring Song. The thought of plunging into the Fate series was really intimidating at first, the idea of being confused and lost in details scared me. Good thing I had a mal friend who guided me and gave me the correct watch order. Tbh, watching the first few series was boring but as soon as I came across Fate/Zero, I started to invest in the story. The story writing was magnificent, it was truly outstanding than the rest of the Fate series. Also, all the characters have important roles to play. I suggest that you skip watching Fate/Stay night (2006) and start at Fate/Zero because watching it is a waste of time. Now let’s get back to the movie. Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel III Final Movie is a total masterpiece. Knowing that the animation is godly, I still got fascinated by the other things like its art, soundtrack, and story writing of course. I was very impressed that everything I expected and didn't expect was shown in this movie. The thoughts I created in my mind while watching the past movies began appearing as I watch this movie. One of the things that impressed me is that everything that you need to know in the story was provided and answered clearly. All the details are connected to each other. And I am very happy with the conclusion it provided, who guessed that it will soothe my feelings. For me, this is the best adaptation of the Fate series that really explained the contents of the Holy Grail War. The enjoyment I felt on this show is still lingering as I write this. The fact that all the fight scenes were alluring and beautifully animated gave me goosebumps. The amount of detail to each moment of the fight was portrayed very well. It is very action-packed and stunning which made me enjoy watching it until the end. The characters are well-written and their development was awesome, especially for Emiya Shirou who fought hard until the end. The art style and quality are as outstanding as ever. I swear that the Fate fans who've been waiting for this in years are crying tears of joy as they gaze upon the movie. Now I know why it is called Fate Unlimited Budget Works LOL. As time passes when I watch this movie again, I know that this will still be beautiful and will still give me goosebumps. To sum up my thoughts because I don’t want to spoil the details, this is the best trilogy adaptation of the Fate/Stay Night visual novel. We can't have any other movies like this. If you have seen the past series, you’ll definitely be amazed by this movie. It is on a whole different level from the other ones. Watching this is more like a reward from all the Fate series you have seen. If you haven’t heard or seen it, go start watching and exploring the Fate series now. I'm telling you that the journey is totally worth it. Also, amazing work and production by Ufotable, this studio never fail to amaze me. Also, a good ending song from Aimer. It is very delightful to the ears. Thanks for the treat! I would definitely give this an 11/10 if there is one!

Heavens Feel, the visual novel, is my favorite part in the entire Fate series. But sadly, they decided to adapt it as just three movies, which definitely were not enough to fully develop the story. I knew there was literally no way three movies would be able to adapt well over 30 hours of text. And at first I was fine with that. What really disappointed me about this is that Ufotable decided to swing their animation dick WAY TOO MUCH this time. They went and spend more time on epic fight scenes instead of developing the plot further. A lot of story and dialogue was sacrificed for the sake of cool flashing battles that were never even like that in the original visual novel. I admit that the visuals and animation were beautifully done, but Fate is not just fight scenes. Sadly Ufotable did not respect that, therefore this was a disappointing adaptation.

Oh boy, Heaven's Feel 3. As someone who has actually read the visual novel, I'm gonna sound biased and mean, but I think that these films were supposed to adapt the source material into a bite-sized packaged that could be enjoyed by everyone. So did the finale of the trilogy deliver? Well... **SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIES AND THE VISUAL NOVEL AHEAD** The first two movies while pretty and all, didn't have that same feel the VN did. In the VN, every character had a purpose, a reason for everything they did while in the movie, every character feels like a shell of their former self, and this goes especially well for HF3. This movie was supposed to make you love Illya, Kirei, and Sakura, but they really didn't. So much was cut out for the sake of either making Shirou look badass or for meaningless cameos like Touko from Kara no Kyoukai appearing in the end. And speaking of the ending, if you didn't read the VN, good luck making sense of it, because nothing gets explained. No really, NOTHING gets explained. Ufotable's animation as always is top notch and Yuki Kaijura's score is phenomenal, but that doesn't make up for how rushed NLBW and Shirou vs. Kirei was. NLBW, fine, in the VN it happens over the span of 3 seconds, but in the movie, it actually takes 3 seconds. Where's the testicle aiming, dammit? As for the latter fight, Jesus, Kirei literally punches Shirou in the head and doesn't use the bajiquan. In the VN, it wasn't a fair fight, Shirou's body was on its last legs and he did everything in his power to not get hit in the head. Also, that fight is loved in the VN for the OST of "Yami to Hikari", a song that perfectly incapsulates the struggle between Shirou and Kirei. That song isn't in the film. Oof. Fate anime are nice to watch, but with the knowledge of the source material, typically fail to deliver. HF3 is no different. It'll leave an anime watcher with more questions than answers even though they likely have so many questions already. If you want a true, definitive Fate experience, I implore you, read the original visual novel of Fate/Stay Night. Yes, its over 70 hours, but if you tackle it slowly, it'll go by quickly. I can't even recommend anime watchers to watch this movie since I know it'll make them confused just like the other Fate anime. If the directors knew what to keep and what to cut out, things could've been different, but in this timeline, Heaven's Feel 3 gets a 5/10 from me.

If you are a Fate fan I don't have to tell how much we have been waiting for this final movie of the trilogy to come. Disclaimer: Anyone who watches this movie can enjoy the visuals and the actions to the fullest. But to understand the plot and the characters YOU MUST WATCH THE FATE/STAY NIGHT: ULTIMATE BLADE WORKS, FATE: ZERO AND FATE/STAY NIGHT + The previous two Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel movies. I truly enjoyed the whole trilogy of heavens feels and this 3rd one was a perfect ending for the trilogy. We can say this trilogy can go down in history as the masterpiece trilogy in anime history. [like Lord of the Rings]. STORY - the continuation of the whole story from where they stopped in the Heavens Feels 2: lost butterfly where how Sakura is corrupted and a little back story on Toosaka. Within Heaven's feels 3 the stories on characters backstories are concise. But given good touchpoints with the origin of the Holy grail and the Berserker backstory as Hercules. But again people who straight come to watch this will be so confusing as in the last battle between Tosaka Rin and Sakura Matou, Tosaka mentions the name "Zelretch" as in Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, this name hasn't been mentioned in any of the fate anime series. Also, the ending was a bit confusing at first and I'm not going to spoil it here but you might need to watch the ending 8 min few times and some youtube reviews to understand how Emiya Shirou came back to life. The ending was very beautiful and touching how they ended Illiya story With also how Sakura and Shirou embark forward into a Sakura filled park was very touching and ended perfectly giving the audience a message in a semiotic form. CHARACTER - in this movie there aren't many characters development as we got in Heaven's feels 1 and 2, but there were few moments that was very subtle and did justice to the character as well. First I must take Raider, Her character development is exponentially much more in the movies than in the series where she had more screen time also how she bonded with Shirou even though she is Sakura's servant. Her face reveals in a normal outfit was so touching and it shows how she adapted to Shirou's Household as well. When it comes to Saber she was converted by sakura in the previous movie and she fights against Shirou and the rest of his team. Even tho Saber was in team Sakura she was still concerned about Shirou's life. Also the same story with Berserker where in his last moment he is still the dearest servant of Illyasviel and told Shirou to protect her and that moment was so moving. A touching moment that we cant see in the anime was the sisterly bond between Tosaka and Sakura. That few minutes must have hit the audience, With the music and the direction of the whole scene it was at that point Sakura regrets her decision on evil doing. In the movie Interaction between Archer and Shirou were only one point. And the Destruction of Matou, Zouken was articulated in an astonishing way where it also gives how Sakura is freed from his grip. SOUND AND ART - When it comes to sound Fate series has always kept its benchmark at a whole level with the ost and the endings. With Aimer 春はゆく (Haru Wa Yuku) was a major plus point for the movie. As Aimers voice is one of the most recognized in the Fate universe. And in this movie Haru Wa Yuku instrumental was a great ost, as well as the song in the ending, was most stunning and Emotion evoking as well. With the deep meaning of the song, it suited the ending excellently. The Ost that has been used in the action-packed scene was really tense and suits it flawlessly. When it comes to the ART Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel movies were astonishing and breathtaking. with the environmental design and the ambience design. Also, the action animation was also done excellently by Ufotable. We all know when Ufotable Does any work becomes Supreme in art quality and animation [ Demon slayer Animation ] I truly enjoyed the whole movie and this trilogy will be in every anime fan and fate fans mind for being the best trilogy that concluded in anime history. Thank you.

THE LOST CAUSE (Spoiler Review) As a Visual Novel reader i expected this outcome but i’m also not too upset... Watching Heavens Feel 3 let me down a bit as most emotional/key moments were cut short for the sake of time/budget & it really took away the impact the original story once had. For example, the anime adaptation neglects to show the consequences shirou had for using archer’s arm (such as extreme memory loss, struggling to move/fight etc) until the very end of the movie. UFOTABLE also shortened both Berserker & Kirei’s fights against shirou which like previously stated, took out a lot of impact there would’ve been, treating berserker like he was a minuscule obstacle to get to sakura when in fact he was much more, & turning Kirei & Shirou’s fight of ideals into a sakuga fest. The last 2 big things that bothered me were the fact that Shirou & Saber’s confrontation with each other at the end of their fight was cut abruptly, which held no weight whatsoever & even made me ask myself “was that really it?”, & the fact that Shirou’s homunculus has little to NO exposition at the end of the movie, which may’ve left some anime only fans wonder wtf just happened. Despite all of these faults i still enjoyed the movie very much as it was beautifully animated, some of if not THE BEST animation i’ve seen in anime, the music was great with it aswell. I didn’t find the adaptation to be to bad since i know the context from the original story/VN, just a bit disappointed.

Non Spoiler Review! The culmination of 16 years worth of Fate's main story comes to a close a little later than Spring arrived... Fate/Stay Night Movie: Heaven's Feel III Spring Song has a daunting task of completing and answering every important character and narrative thread left hanging from the several Fate/Stay Night adaptations and Fate/Zero. To the films credit, it does handle this task well enough while also creating the perfect balancing act satisfying VN readers and Anime Only viewers alike.. However, this can be seen as a slight detriment to the movie's direction. This film accurately depicts the core themes and values present in Heaven's Feel while also feeding the viewer with important to know exposition. Most actions in this movie are explained and others that are more subtle are fairly noticeable with visual cues. The story really does its best to provide the viewer with this comfort prior to the ending. The characters themselves are also fleshed out. Their motivations and weaknesses... The physical and mental fatigue the war has taken on them... Everything is there but the pieces can flash by too quickly. This brings me to my minor criticisms. Nothing of major detriment is cut in this film and it does explain its story and characters competently. That also means it has to do so quickly and in rapid succession. You feel what is happening on screen but many scenes don't allow you to linger for too long on that feeling and this is a glaring direction flaw. The biggest example is the ending. It's somewhat easy to infer what has happened but the film itself has a priority to end it before it's out of runtime. The self satisfaction doesn't last quite as long as some would like. With all that said, I do believe this film performs well as a finale to a mostly well received trilogy and provides enough to both readers of the source and first time viewers. Anyone who has seen any of the Fate/Stay Night adaptations and Fate/Zero most certainly should watch the Trilogy and specifically this movie for a full complete story of the 5th Holy Grail War!

Spoilers contained. Somewhat broad overview and thoughts. Failure to subvert expectations. Adaption of source material with a lack of originality. Heavy reliance on cgi. A small glimpse into a new more mature franchise. A riveting yet lacking movie. Continuing the trilogy 'Spring Song' continued the upward trend in quality of the previous movies. Like many others I am no big fan of UFO, however throughout Spring Song the production team managed to learn and improve from the mistakes they made in their earlier movies. However that is not to say the movie is without its flaws. Fate fans are unlikely to walk away from the movie disappointed, however a feeling of discontent may still be apparent. The first half of Spring Song was to be blunt boring. Nothing of interest happened and the stakes were lacking. What defined Fate/Zero as an almost unbeatable Fate to many was the watchers connection to every character. Every character in Zero could be killed, and every character had a powerful reason for the holy grail. Spring Song's focus on a single character was both its greatest boon and malus as such. Other characters lives throughout Spring Song were held in lesser importance to the watcher and the stakes as such decreased. The prosperity of ambiguity of the winner and the journey of learning each contestants wish was not a component of Spring Song. Spring Song was an exception to this rule. Calling the third movie a battle royal would be nothing less than a lie. With multiple characters having the same goal Spring Song diverged from the very concept Fate is based on. This is not necessarily a bad change, however the first half of Spring Song failed to accommodate enough emotion to create stakes that riveted the watcher in the same way. Overacting throughout the first half and important characters all getting fatally injured then failing to die reduced the stakes in the first half to rubble. As Sakura go's full Yandare, berserker gets killed with ease, and Saber attacks with massive power but never really hurts anyone. There lacks any motivation to strike fear in the watcher . On the other-hand the second half of Spring Song was etched with intricacy and subtlety. Burst into the movie the intertwinement of complexity and character. Rider and Kirei are what make the film. Rider shows a human complexity devolving and built upon the complexity of conflicting orders. Riders constant character building passes the realms of a classic Fate servant hatching from the nest. On the other-hand Kirei brings elements of philosophy, love and human emotion into the movie. As the move continues the exceptional osts clash with noble phantasm animations. As the movie reaches its climax the long extended final scene seems less about saving Sakura and more about truth and morality. What differentiates prejudice and denial, or more importantly how they are intertwined within one's personal morality is explored. As the holy grail finally comes to an end the watcher is forced to question whether familial and personal bonds extend beyond one's own beliefs. Fate for the first time in quite a while seems to exude a sense of maturity. Of course great action is intertwined admits such thoughts, stopping appropriately, and engaging where necessary. To me Spring Song is not a traditional Fate, rather it is a Fate that subverts expectations clashing with what we expect, failing at times, but eventually coming out on top. It is both easy to love and hate.

--- note: this is a review of the entire Heaven's Feel trilogy. I won't be going out of my way to spoil this specific movie but HF movies 1 and 2 are fair game for me imo --- I was pretty harsh to UBW. I was not a very huge fan and I just kind of assumed this super clean, polished, uber-animated Ufotable style wasn't going to fit Fate as well as the Deen one did imo. After watching the Heaven's Feel trilogy... to be honest, maybe UBW just kinda sucked because this was even better than Deen, let alone UBW. It's generally speaking about as well animated as UBW in most shots. There are some different/"shinier" lighting choices and the fights definitely benefit from a cinematic perspective but for a jump from TV to movie, it's not, like, huge imo. The fights do look amazing, I was blown away by the Berserker fight in the second movie. In general, I think the fights look less "cutsceney" than they did in UBW. Obviously, you can tell they poured a lot of budget into it and maybe it's just because I liked Heaven's Feel more in general, but I didn't get that big of a "cutscene"/"budgetslop" impression in this trilogy (which, considering I never had a problem with it in Demon Slayer either to my recollection, it might just genuinely be that I didn't like UBW to begin with). That being said, I thought the third movie started dipping back into that, especially the fight in the cave. It was kind of disorienting and eventually, I was kind of like "okay, where even ARE we in this cave anymore?" I think the Aimer EDs for the first and second movies are pretty great, the third one is... okay. Some of the songs though are really good in the OST. There were some thumping beats which kinda rocked. Before I get into the characters, I wanna talk a bit about how HF sets itself apart from Deen and UBW tone-wise. UBW felt like an... alternate path from Deen, so to speak. They both kind of followed a giant death game where Shirou summons Saber, Shinji's a jackass, Caster is Castering and trying to summon her own Holy Grail, we've got the Saber/Assassin fight at the gate, Gilgamesh makes his appearance and everything pivots to stopping him, so on and so forth. I felt very underwhelmed by, given how much time UBW got (because keep in mind, UBW is longer than Deen by 2 episodes/5 episodes depending on how you count the double-lengths and HF is roughly the length of 1 cour total), how many of the characters I didn't care as much about compared to Deen. But HF circumvents that by being an entirely different thing. It is technically still about the Holy Grail War, but it feels more like a "horror" movie distorted Holy Grail War. A lot of the characters have completely different roles in the story, the atmosphere is darker, and people can get murdered at the snap of a finger. Instead of someone who can be human or reasoned with like Gilgamesh, they're facing off against this shadow that just CANNOT, you know? It was a really compelling way to avoid being the third retelling of the same old story. Speaking of which, for better or for worse, it pretty much assumes you've seen UBW and just kinda skips over retelling the common story threads again which works for me since I've been watching Fate basically all month so I kinda rolled my eyes when they started doing it a little bit in the first movie but they come off it pretty quickly. So how are those characters? I liked Shirou a lot more here. He does face actual consequences for being the way he is and I really liked his dynamic with Sakura here. Unlike Deen and UBW, he didn't really do anything here that annoyed me per se. Saber is one of those characters that has a weird, distorted role in the story. I can't say I liked her as much in this one compared to Deen but it was an intriguing take on her and it contributed to the helpless feeling of the story since Shirou didn't have his pet knight to rely on but she gets some new stuff to chew on in place of that. For the role she has in the story, I can't say I really cared about Rin all that much. She's not a rival like in Deen and she's not a love interest like in UBW and while she DOES have her place in the story, she took a backseat compared to a surprising character for me. Illya... was not my favorite character this route. She does get significantly more to do compared to UBW but she's another character like Saber I think is done better in Deen. We do get some nice scenes with her and Shirou but idk, she felt a lot like a plot device, especially since she gets the honorable role of shounensplaining some things that I don't know if they needed to be explained to me personally. I'll talk a bit more about this when I discuss the ending. Shinji... I called him a sniveling jackass in this story and he sure is but that feels a bit light considering the subject matter. I guess in that sense, he's a good antagonist, but he feeds more into a character I like more than he is a character I liked. Kotomine is actually kinda cool in this route. I didn't like him in Deen and he didn't really do much for me to have an opinion on him in UBW but he gets to play a sort of "anti-hero" role in HF which I thought was a fresh, exciting take. It's really what I wanted from Kotomine in Deen since Deen Kotomine went from 0 to 100 really quick and I liked his more natural progression in this trilogy. We actually get a new character that matters in Zouken Matou. Similar to Shinji, he sure is a jackass. He's just kind of a less sniveling, more imposing and gross version of Shinji, he gets to play a significant part in the story and he sure is very hateable. I didn't like him but he also made me look at CGI anime bugs and thank you Zouken, you dick. Zouken also has a Servant and he was cool for the part he played in the story but I don't really have much of an opinion on his character. However, you may have noticed (among other characters) I skipped over one. That's because my favorite character in this route was actually, of all people (although I guess it's not that shocking considering it was her route) Sakura. I was a little put off by the fact that she had her own route considering she was bland as lukewarm oatmeal in both Deen AND UBW, to the point where she wasn't even in UBW S2 until the very end, but the egg has been placed upon my face because yup, she kinda rules here. I feel like Saber and especially Rin didn't really have that much personal trauma going on. Saber's whole deal felt kinda tacky and Rin literally gets called out by Sakura for how little hardship she comparatively had but Sakura had her shit fucked UP. Watching her cling to the one person who ever unflinchingly treated her nicely and fought for her only for that same desire to be corrupted was really compelling to the point where she steals the whole show and becomes arguably the best character in all 3 routes. It makes you feel bad for the poor girl but then she snaps and... yup. Can't really say much else because of spoilers but great character. Also, Rider is here. I wouldn't say she gets as big of a glow-up but she does get a good deal of screen time and time to show off her stuff so this is still her best route. I did say, however, I had a bit of a problem with the ending. I do like a little bit of the lore they share with a certain Zoroastrian spirit and the Holy Grail, for all the Holy Grail stuff I didn't want to know, that part was cool. Kinda felt like it came out of nowhere but whatever. My bigger issue is that the third movie uses a decent amount of the film to explain the origins of the Holy Grail and maybe it's better in the VN but other than the mission Shirou needed to carry out, it didn't do much for me. The fuck is the Root? I thought the actual ending was kind of confusing too. I had to look up what happened on Wikipedia after the fact (idk if that's a me issue or that's because I didn't ~consume~ Garden of Sinners yet but the object they found in the shop... that did not exactly come a…

This review covers for the entire trilogy, not just Spring Song. The Heaven's Feel trilogy served as the "True Ending" of Fate/Stay Night, and I think this is the best version I've watched (I haven't watched the original Studio Deen Fate/Stay Night, but I don't think I'll like it as much as I liked this one), as it felt like the most complex and completed ending. The first part Presage Flower I think was solid, but Lost Butterfly and Spring Song completely surpassed my expectations both in terms. The animation of Heaven's Feel was insane, and goes to show how much Ufotable can truly cook. Like this might just be in terms of raw animation talent one of, if not the best I've ever seen. I think this is the arc that truly filled in the gaps of Shirou as a character, Heaven's Feel made him such a well-rounded character, no longer blindly trusting his own justice that he believed in and felt more mature, as well as having some incredible scenes. It's also great to see other characters like Rider and Illya fully shine. One of the Fate Series' best traits have always been its incredible casts of characters, and this series pushed this even further. Overall score: Presage Flower: 8/10 Lost Butterfly: 9/10 Spring Song: 9.5/10

*Will contain spoilers.* Now, where do i start and how? Its nearly impossible to review anything in the fate series as far as i see because there's both an amazing amount of depth to it, and possibly things lost in translation and not properly explained and adapted into the shows, but also a certain shallowness to a lot of the writing, near limitless amount of freedoms the writer takes with magic, timelines and universes as well as their intersections, dubious mechanisms that work differently at every turn, and nearly inexistent moral and philosophical compass... Which is a HORRIBLE thing because its unrestrained by logic, fact, internal logic, or any kind of common sense you could apply to it to analyze, make any sort of sense out of, nor learn any lesson from. Examples? Sakura somehow feels sorry for her brother and grandpa that she killed, and somehow tries to make it sound as a bad thing, which makes NO sense after all the shit they've put her through. Those monologs make absolutely no sense. Shirou who wants to protect everyone and be a hero of justice or some shit but bends like a wet noodle at Sakura's (the love interest of this 'what if' universe/setting) murders and seemingly ignores it, goes along with it at some point without any hesitation or moral judgment, tells her to atone for it at some point... How do you atone for murdering thousands, if not more? By living on as a normal useless girl/woman? Cuz that's all she seems to do at the end. Show her do some charity and volunteer work at least, jeez. Another thing is how the ally of justice Shirou keeps ignoring clear signs of abuse and mental trauma on Sakura, hit marks like both a complete idiot, a weakling, and being about as moral about it as a cockroach. Same goes for Rin, Sakura's sister, who seems to be fully aware what her sister is going through but DOES. NOT. DO. ANYTHING. "Oh, hey, my sister's being used as some sacrificial pawn, tortured, getting infused with and EATEN BY BUGS, raped... I should WORK HARDER~!"... Because that'll help her, yes-yes. It doesn't fall in line with her behavior either, because even as a KID in fate zero she goes to try and help and save people, now she's more stupid and/or cowardly? Does any of this make ANY sense? No. And if you can and SHOULD ignore most, or all various world building, mechanics and plot devices that make no sense and work through magic because this is what the sci fi and magic genre is all about, how, HOW on earth does this kind of idiotic logic and monologues/dialogues make sense by any sort of standard? There's not a single setting where the phrase "My sister is getting eaten and raped by bugs so i should work harder" sounds anything but idiotically and morbidly comical. The original fate, and UBW made SOME sense, it was somewhat consistent, and even if the logic, plot and morals might have been shaky at times (which i wouldn't say is the case really, it doesn't seem more nonsensical than most anime), Heaven's feel comes across as one of the epitomes of moral relativism and esoteric, post modernist nonsensical nightmare messes i've come across. "Can we rid the world of evil if we blame/channel all the evil into one person and seal it away?" ... What is this 'evil' anyway, aren't people just acting on their free will..? And if you really can 'extract' evil out of them and change their behavior, well, there goes people's agency and free will as a fucking concept, GJ! "I wanna be a hero/ally of justice! I want to save EVERYONE!" says the guy that does nothing but fix old electronical shit and bend over backwards to fulfil other people's requests, doesn't see nor do anything about abuse right in front of him. It all makes NO sense. It CAN'T make sense. Nor is it even supposed to, its supposed to SOUND nice, and hook your FEELINGS instead with what's, in its root cheap and shitty writing with nothing behind it. And hey, guess it does for people that are lost enough, of which, sadly there is plenty these days, if not to say the majority. So to put it simply, everything that includes the plot and dialogues is pretty damn bad. What about other things? Well, the art is good, or even great, as expected of unlimited budget works. The sound is great too. Delving a bit into Shirou's relationship or thoughts about his adoptive dad was interesting i guess... Same for Sakura and Rin's relationship, although both of those themes don't seem too well explored. The ONE thing i can say is really good about this anime is the rider vs corrupted saber fight. But sadly i have to say everything else in this movie set is weak or mediocre at best. There's very few proper and lasting fights, and the few that there is, aside the one i mentioned, are very non impressive, and well, aren't the epic fights supposed to be one of, if not THE major selling point/visit card of this series? The protagonist's role in the fights in this one is also extremely weak, unlike UBW. Illiya and saber seem to be pretty much just there as plot devices and have nearly no character nor use. Final thoughts - total 5.6/10, would not recommend anyone to watch this. Would however recommend to see a clip of the rider vs saber fight.

Touko Aozaki, One of my favorite characters, from kara no kyoukai got a cameo in this. 10/10 upvote if you think, like me, that touko deserves her own puppet maker detective agency ufotable spinoff series. MORE TOUKO! mal wants me to write a longer review oh right the movie after the UBW, which was very pretty to look at, but so very hollow. this is actually great. great characters, great meta plot, great animations. I have some minor gripes with character actions no always making all the sense. but overall this is the best anime I've seen in such a long time and if this doesn't deserve a 10 barely anything does. I think from a meta point of view, the story sacrifices some logic for consistency and thematic reasons. and I'm ok with that, because of the genre.

This movie is not perfect. Why? Well... The story itself, as a whole, is something many may have seen before; a save-the-world combined with save-the-girl storyline with a satisfying ending to many. It does manage to add its unique spin to it though, mostly through the characters and their motivations. I would, however, have preferred seeing the "normal end" rather than the "true end" from the VN, but that's just me nitpicking. What isn't nitpicking, though, is the fact that they failed to properly explain several important scenes, undoubtedly causing confusion among anime-only watchers. At the same time, it added to the story by showing us more than the VN did during certain scenes. The art and animation were outstanding. The motions were fluid and the camera angles, lightning and colour palettes were pure eye candy. I really don't have anything else to say other than that I believe it's pure perfection. The sound fit the scenes phenomenally well, and added to the emotions and hype. I admit I even started crying when a certain theme song started playing because I was simply way too happy seeing all of it animated. Needless to say, the sound was perfect as well because of how it complemented each scene. The characters are all great ones. However, here's when the movies' short runtime causes them to suffer from it by cutting some well-needed explanations of character motivations. While 80% of the VN's inner monologues or explanations can't be adapted to a TV series, much less to a movie trilogy, I felt that at least some extra lines of dialogue or inner monologue would have gone a long way to make up for it. I'd even argue that Shirou's condition is one of the largest and most important plot points, but it felt rushed, and the character characterisation suffered as a result. Overall, the enjoyment I felt while watching this movie was immense, and I'd even say it's my all-time favourite. As someone who's been obsessed with the franchise for several years now, this movie was pretty much perfect to me despite my criticism of it. I feel as if Ufotable knows their own strength, and thus went all-out when it came to the animation, camera and sound composition. It's not perfect, but it sure as hell is worth watching.

This film is a masterpiece, I love it heaven's feel, ShirouxSakura !! I am simply fascinated by everything that can be seen in this great movie, as a person who played the vn I can say that I am really satisfied, although there are points that could be adapted a little more, but it is true that seeing it animated and with the ost they make a great combination for the important moments and also the fight between shirou and rider vs saber was wonderful. Illya's scene was really sad like in the visual novel, but it was necessary to protect Shirou's life and future. and the ending I was very happy when they decided to adapt the true ending, it is a perfect ending and introduces the concept of another of my favorite series like kara no kyokai, introducing the character of Touko Aozaki maybe for some it made them a bit confusing, but in The wiki you can find information about it and thus be able to better complement the development of the ending. Without a doubt, this film, or rather this trilogy of films, is to enjoy watching them several times and feeling excited as if you were seeing it for the first time, I am really fascinated.

Intro Ill start this quite bluntly, I'm hugely bias for this series and everything about it mostly I love the visual novel and the anime adaptions we have gotten throughout the years so keep that in mind when I'm ranting about things I just love fate so much, so lets begin(also imma do my best to not spoil anything) Quick Summary Of Story This takes place a few minutes right where Lost Butterfly ends (another piece of peak fiction from fate they don't miss) and we go straight into the madness as Shirou test both his body and his ideals to the max in order to save Sakura from herself and a new evil force (won't spoil but hopefully they make hollow axtaria to explain more). Characters Shirou, Rin, Illya, Kirie, and Rider all get their moments to shine and I think they did a good job showing off everyone's motivations and ideals within this story especially Kirie's which I think he's a VASTLY underrated character in fate. Sakura struggling with her dark emotions while also trying to prove herself was very well done and I think she is the best out of the three main routes romances. Rin finally having that heart to heart moment with her younger sister was amazing and shows more personality then she did in Unlimited Blade Works. Shirou being Shirou however this is the most interesting and deep he gets in all three adaptions as well in the routes with only wanting to be a hero for those he loves as well as going to the lengths he does to save those around him due to him finally embracing the selfish side of his character. RIder's connection to Sakura on an emotional standpoint and feeling like she failed her due to her becoming Dark Sakura plus she's hot. Finally Kirie which I gotta admit this dude has got me STUMPED, his character can come as I just want to be evil for evil's sake but I think it runs a little deeper than that, this is due to while he still is quite and evil character it always seems like he's praying before he goes into a fight as if he's hoping sum higher existence will punish his actions and himself emotionally due to not being able to find happiness in pleasant things but in horrific acts. Animation Dude it's ufotable of course they gonna go crazy, yes this is the best production value I've seen for an anime ever, that's a fact Saber vs Rider will most likely go down in most people's top 10 anime fights, however every fight shines so much Kirie vs Assassin, Shirou vs Berserker, Saber vs Rider, and RIn vs Sakura. Now I didn't mention Shirou vs Kirie for a reason and that's because I think this is the best fight in the movie their battle of ideals and just shear brutality of two broken people duking it out in a desperate struggle to win for their ideals was just amazing and while Saber vs Rider has eye jizzing candy of animation, this one has a special place in my heart. Everything Else I could go on and on about everything else and I haven't really shown everything I had to say about the previous subjects. Music is wonderful and really brings an heavenly feel (no pun intended but lol) to everything it makes the fights feel like they are Heaven vs Hell. Direction and pacing they all made the story and character moments as good as they are. Camera work is fantastic as always since Ufotable were the first to really show off their skill with it back in the late 2000's with Kara No Kyoukai so here it's just mind blowing oh it works. Final thoughts Listen everything not everything can be touched in my review of this cause then I'll just be ranting and detailing every little moment of the movie but this is fantastic, and while I've read the visual novel and know they left out things I still think this is the ultimate way to consume this series, Visual Novel readers most likely will still hate the anime and while that's fine give this a chance on it's own and just appreciate what Ufotable has made I think it's gorgeous, bleak, tragic, but in the end beautiful. Fate/Stay Night Heavens Feel: Spring song is one of my favorite anime movies and just plain movies now, it combines everything that the previous movies built up too, and made this wonderful finale to Heavens Feel as well to Fate/Stay Night.

Only mild spoilers, but still! Probably shouldn't read this one until finishing the movie. I'm only rating this from the perspective of it being very superficial extra material for a VN reader like myself. Most of my overly positive ratings to Fate anime is purely on emotion but objectively speaking the novel readers will understand that the best part of the Heaven's Feel route (which is the ending portion) was pretty much disappointing as well as the overall character development in the whole trilogy with cutting most of it to nothing (like those sacred Illya scenes, for example) and even having the balls to make the ending so rushed as to require people to see Kara no Kyoukai up to 5th movie beforehand to even guess what had happened there but still barely understand it anyway without reading the VN (there's also an attempt on expanding on things in cd drama but it's just hitting different). And yet, I thought the ending had enough merit with the combination of the two endings from the VN (and seeing the smallest of KnK stuff here was pretty exciting and the people should've seen KnK movies at the minimum beforehand anyway since it's mostly good stuff, very important for Type-Moon fans and is also pretty much the reason why ufotable is so successful in the first place). Anyway, I'm still going to rate it this high (or even higher on my personal score out of this review) because I came to terms with it being the way it was and was enjoying myself enough even until that Rider fight blew me out of my pants and made me so ready and hyped for one of the most satisfying moments in the VN and that being the final confrontation between you-know-who (because the Rin / Sakura scenes weren't expected to be hitting me emotionally as in the novel anyway) which didn't deliver at all, being okay-ish at most. But that Rider fight was so unexpectedly done so much justice and wasn't unimportant to extend it this much like the Berserker fight in the second movie was (the movie which maybe even cut out the most of the character development and yet some people keep thinking it's the best one for some reason). While that fight was going down I just had to stop and take a breather not caring about anything and giving this movie a 10 in the middle of watching. Whatever I just said aside, everyone knew they couldn't do the longest route justice with just 3 movies, but the first one (despite the fattest spoiler at the end for anime-only people) and this third one were plenty enjoyable for me anyway. Feel free to get possessed by the first half of the movie along with the Rider fight and give this as high as a 10 or be overly judgemental about things and the anime-only experience like I myself was for most of the ufotable's Fate adaptations and lower your rating down to as low as 1 for all I care. Anything goes!

I just keep it simple and short (SPOILERS): STORY 9: When you watch Fate this Order: Fate Route (DEEN), Zero, UBW, HF. Then you gonna understand the great story behind it and yes the only thing that bothered me is they could explain WHY they summoned Avenger in the 3. Grail War, and how tf did Kirei get into the Grail Cave before Shriou even tho he was outside before against Sakura. Just some small changes I would have gave a 10, but 9 still VERY GOOD all in all. SOUND / ART: thats obvious, 10. CHARACTERS: 10, Imo the best characters ever, the development, writing and complexity and screentime of most characters are top notch, especially per Route but also Side Characters like Illya and Kirei. Alot of screentime also. ENJOYMENT: 10, the dark atmosphere like Zero and epic fighting (especially Rider vs Saber Alter), was just pure enjoyment, so many 1v1 it was beautiful packed with alot of strategy and intensitiy and backlore. Overall I would like to give a 9.5, but too many people are just giving a 1 so imma give a 10 ofcourse. People need to understand with the right watch order and some motivation to understand it, this series is one of the best (my favorite).

Maybe Heaven's Feel shouldn't have received an adaptation whatsoever. Typemoon, in most of their anime, have been careful to provide the casual viewer with sufficient information to understand the single show and become "introduced" to Nasuverse. Until Heaven's Feel movies started coming around, I genuinely found the question "where do I start the Fate series" often asked by potential new viewers dumb. You could start literally anywhere (except the Last Encore adaptation, that was failed at too many things tbh) and just get going with the rest. Even Prisma Illya works, to some degree. And the majority of these shows (SN, UBW, Zero, Apocrypha, even the GO adaptations) would be mindful to (re-)establish the world and setting for casual viewers and just leave some minor-ish references for the oldies and nerds. HF sucked at that. If you're not a die-hard fan with the focus, memory and attentionspan on some celestial level, to you this adaptation tells an incredibly short and simple narrative over 3 long movies with edgy confusing dialogue and cool fight scenes. The work's immense contribution to the lore will just go unnoticed. That is to say, I have been acquainted with the Fate universe for a while (GO, anime, manga, not the VNs) and still felt awfully lost in some moments. It is therefore essentially a bad adaptation for a casual viewer and doesn't even provide enough memory refreshment in terms of the lore and characters to the established fanbase. And the problem is, with the complexity of the plot, the terrifying abundance of references and easter eggs, it couldn't have been done better. Most likely, even as a show. Heaven's Feel's narrative is perfect in doing what it has to, yet what it has to is too much for most to handle. And most definitely, I am not serious about saying the adaptation would have been better of not existing, because it brings the decade-and-a-half-awaited close to the original F/SN route trinity and is made with Ufotable's breath-taking animation, Yuki Kajiura's brilliant scoring, all extraordinarily directed, and having the characters be voiced by amazing, renowned seiyuus. But, the emotion I felt the most of upon finishing the last movie was confusion, regardless ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This movie is truly a masterpiece and concludes the epic trilogy! It is the epitome of a passion project! Fate Heaven's Feel 1 - Presage Flower 8/10 Fate Heaven's Feel 2 - Lost Butterfly 8/10 Fate Heaven's Feel 3 - Spring Song 11/10 *Spoiler Free Review* But in order to fully enjoy it, you would need to be relatively well versed with the Fate lore~ Why? There are so much scenes that "show" and don't explicitly tell you or fill you in on what is actually happening! And the payoff is only appreciated by fans in the know! If you come into this movie without consuming any previous fate media, you would probably rate this movie 1/10 story with 10/10 animation. But if you come into this movie with background knowledge about the Fate lore, then you would rate this movie 10/10 story with 10/10 animation! Information before embarking on this trilogy is having background knowledge about; 1) Fate/Stay night is a visual novel and has 3 routes (alternate timelines in which events play out differently based on Shirou Emiya's decisions on his ideals) (You do not need to play the VN) 2) Watch ufotable's Fate/Zero (What the previous generation did) 3) Watch Deen;s Fate/Stay Night (Emiya's altruistic ideals of becoming a hero of justice) 3) Watch ufotable's Fate/Unlimited Bladeworks (Emiya's ideals of "just because I cannot save everyone doesn't mean I don't try") You can skip the following; Fate/Grand Order Fate/Apocrypha Fate/Extra Carnival Phantasm Prisma Illya This is like the Endgame of Marvel's Avengers! It is the culmination of story-telling since F/SN VN was released in 2004! Therefore, my recommendation is YES! WATCH THIS TRILOGY! But PLEASE watch the previous Fate media to FULLY appreciate the experience!

[Spoiler-FREE Review] As the third and final act to the trilogy, the movie scores a 10/10 in all departments. Ufotable truly has blessed us during this global pandemic with this magnum opus. A perfect parting gift for what appears to be the last adaptation they will be doing for the Fate Stay Night franchise, as they move towards grander projects with titles such as Demon Slayer (Kimetsu No Yaiba) and the Tsukihimi Remake. [STORY] The story, being adapted from the Visual Novel, is adapted well and faithfully, outdoing even the novel's depiction of some fan favorite scenes going beyond plus ultra. For someone who has kept up with the franchise, the way this movie ends the trilogy will leave you satisfied and fulfilled, having seen the Fate Stay Night trilogy to its climatic and thematic end. It ties together all the themes and character development/profiles built up in Fate Zero and Fate UBW, paying homage to them all. This is the one route where I can faithfully say that each and every character had a satisfying conclusion to their arc. [ART] We all know that Ufotable is godly with their animation team and budget. We have all seen Unlimited Budget Works and Demon Slayer. But this movie blows both shows' art out of the water with its blockbuster budget. If you were lucky enough to see this movie in theaters, then you have been blessed by God. For those who have watched the movie already, I only have to mention one scene: KYRIE ELEISON. [SOUND] The Music and VFX team did a SPLENDID job. The lead composer is a GENIUS. The EMIYA THEME REMIX IS PERFECT ENCASPULATION OF THE FRANCHISE, paying respects to the original rendition with a musical call and response while also being a representation of Shirou and Archer together. The rest of the soundtrack is also just as good. The composer uses many elements and samples from the soundtracks from the previous shows, incorporating elements and musical motifs from Fate Zero and UBW, paying homage to artists like Kalafina. This in turn, adds to the feeling of the movie being a true finale to the Fate Stay Night series, going full circle and expanding upon all the musical themes of Zero and UBW while also introducing new sounds and instrumentals to truly embody the theme of Heaven's Feel. [CHARACTER] I already chimed in on how each side character had a satisfying conclusion to their arcs so I'll talk a bit about the protagonist. The heroism and humanity of Shirou Emiya undoubtedly shines the most in this movie, building upon all the previous routes adapted by Ufotable, as well as himself in the previous two movies. He goes from a flawed, weak individual to a heroic figure who surpasses his own limits to become an unlikely hero for those he love and cares for. The trilogy follows his dynamic character development, with this movie capping it all off and showing the viewers what the end result of his development leads to. People may not have liked Shirou's stale development and Shounen-tard personality in UBW, but in Heaven's Feels, he truly is a tragic character that has evolved to become someone beautiful. He has surpassed his father and his rivals, eclipsing both of them and overcoming his limitations that bounded him to his father's flawed ideals while incorporating elements of his own desires into it. He evolved his own ideals and beliefs using his father's as the base, and is now showing how he applies them into his reality. He has shaped his own path and is applying maximum determination to see his desires to the end. [Final Words] If you made it this far and you still haven't watched the movie yet, go and watch it. For anyone new to Fate, watch Fate Zero and Fate Unlimited Blade Works (UBW) first. You will appreciate this movie trilogy much more that way as you will appreciate how much the trilogy builds upon both shows thematically. Think of it like watching movies in the MCU. If you skipped all the movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or Captain America and Iron Man, and just watched Avengers Endgame right off the bat, you wouldn't have the same level of enjoyment or understanding of what just happened in the movie as the fans who did.