Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] I. presage flower

I watched this film the first day it screened nationwide in North America. I found this film to be very entertaining, as a fan of the Fate series. The prequel to this series, Fate/ Zero has garnered a huge hype for future Fate adaptations by ufotable. When its sequal, Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works came out, I was very disappointed. The entire series was a mess, pacing wise, the characters were very boring and overall the transition from VN to an animation on screen was incredibly underwhelming and executed badly. With these elements in mind, I was a bit hopeless on how this adaption would turn out.

I was wrong. This film exceeded my expectations by A LOT (they were pretty low considering UBW). Ufotable turned the scales up to an 11 with their animation. Many of the fight scenes were very fluid and well animated, and the designs were improved, as a different director took the spotlight in the trilogy. And thankfully so.

The sound designs, and the soundtrack is memorable and complemented the scenes and animation very well. It's also good to mention that the composer for "Fate/ Zero" came back to Fate to compose for this trilogy, so there are traces of Zero themes to be heard throughout the movie.

Some of the story elements were changed to fit the movie slightly better than if it were a carbon copy of the VN, and those changes I can appreciate a bit more. This allows some anime original content to be put in, and a better understanding of the characters.

This movie is NOT for people who haven't read the VN or have at least seen UBW, as this movie skip some elements already explained in UBW.

To all the people who know nothing about Fate and want to get into the series now I suggest you guys watch Unlimited Blade Works first and not Heaven's Feel because this is the anime adaptation of the third route from the original visual novel that dedicated solely to Sakura Matou a major character which mean for the beginner the introduction of the cast and the basic premise of the Holy Grail Wars gonna be very rushed to make way for the new story so for the beginners it can be a rough start even for me a fan of the series. Of all the character in the OG Fate series Sakura stick out for me as the most boring and bland character when she often just there to be a cute and loveable potential romantic partner to Emiya Shirou the main character even though in FZ and UBW I can guess what kind of life she live under the god forsaken place that is The Matou household but not until Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower that I finally get some answer and because there still 2 more movies so it still too soon to compared which route is the best but I can already tell that Sakura gonna win the "most tragic backstory" of the Fate series. The animation and the fight scenes that Ufotable pull out is at god tier level that worthy the title "Unlimited Budget Works" although some of my favorite character get limited screen time but I'm happy that the anime introduce me to my new favorite servant "True Assassin" because that guy (for the time being) is the true MVP of this anime.

This is truly amazing, the story is far better than unlimited blade works.

The third route of the Fate series, Heaven's Feel Presage Flower does not waste time covering those scenes that it would have shared with the other two routes, FSN and UBW. Presage Flower fast forwards through those scenes during the intro and cuts straight to the action-filled plot. (So you need to watch FSN or UBW before seeing this version). Excellently animated fight scenes and a plot that keeps you wondering about the characters' fate. Some humor too. But overall, a much darker feel to FSN and UBW. A must-watch for fans of the Fate series.

This was confusing at first and up till now i don't have any idea, maybe 2 I'll be able to understand better cause this is really making me want it more.