Fate/stay night: Heaven's feel - 2. Lost Butterfly

This movie is so awesome! Like I said for the first Heaven's Feel movie, this is my most favorite entry in the franchise, and this movie adds to the drama built up by Studio Deen's Fate and Ufotable's UBW. This is really intense!

In the end this anime has what a great anime should have, bloody over the top violence, comedic scenes, amazing soundtrack, great animation, sex, and a very intriguing story.

This is a second part of a three part film, and it does bring up more questions than answers. Despite this, I believe you will enjoy the action scene (unfortunately there i only one action scene in this movie and it takes place in the middle, although it is a good 15 minutes of nothing but fighting), the soundtrack by Aimer is good, the voice work is good (although there is a little bit too much high pitch screaming and yelling), and it has a cool final 15 minutes.

The fighting is ok but there are too many explosions, making it hard to see what is happening. A typical fight scene is like this, a person hits someone, there is a slight pause, then the other person flies off into the distance while there are colors and lights everywhere. The person then flies back and hits the other person, and the same thing happens. I wish we could had seen more of the action instead of a light show.

8/10

The series of films and anime was built on an interactive novel published by TypeMoon. In which through different reading path and interaction the main character Shirou Emiya would end up in a romantic relationship with a different female lead. Each season of anime or film focuses on one route of the ending a novel reader would end up with in one of their read through. This movie is the second part of a three-part film that focuses on the relationship between Shirou Emiya and Sakura.

What is constant in all these parallel universe endings is the endless fight amongst masters and servants in pursuit of the holy grail. The larger questions revolve around why magus chase the holy grail, what undying wish these historical heroic spirits have they want to realise so bad that their ghosts linger in our world, and the ultimate questions what is the holy grail and is it worth it?

In order to really appreciate the delicate story lines this series have woven, in particular this second part of the Sakura story line, viewer is advised to gain prior knowledge of the settings of each character in this fictional universe. Because the way the stories are told is in a way that all characters' retain their history and backgrounds, only in each different alternate universe they interact differently. Basically viewers are watching the same period of time in a universe with different historical event turnout.

Other than that, it must be said, answers to a lot of the major questions the whole Fate/Stay Night franchise has built up are getting slowly revealed. There is a real sense of satisfaction in learning those answers. Comparing to Evangelion series, Fate/Stay Night reveals its plot in a very well thought out and methodical order, with a back drop of philosophical and existential provocation, and not handled heavy handily like EVA does. No preaching, which is always a plus to Japanese anime since their characters usually monologues a lot.

Visual wise, the character design may not be everybody's cup of tea. But the scenes are absolutely stunning and the fighting sequences are edge of the seat style breath taking, because the story makes you care about the characters. It is a must see for the fans. And to anyone wants to get into the series, you won't be disappointed.

I've been a fan of the Fate series for a long time. And these films somewhat rely on the viewers already having knowledge of the series as a whole in order to fully appreciate them. Like the first film, the animation is spectacular. Zero complaints there. The fights, when they happen, are flawless and a true spectacle to see. Where this film suffers though is the pacing. What should have been the climax of the movie ended up happening about halfway through, and the rest of it was a somewhat slow burn until the end credits. The Fate series is known for its Servant battles, but this one didn't give us one to top off the third act like the first one did. Bottom line is, if you're already a fan, you'll enjoy this despite the pacing issues. Could have been better, (Unlimited Blade Works is still the superior rendition of the Stay Night routes so far in my opinion) but it was fun, investing, and left me wanting more.

This is a film that is made for Type-Moon x ufotable fans through and through. You will especially get a lot of out of this film if you have already read the visual novels and have seen all the previous main Fate franchise anime. Ironically, the core hook of this film is its story and characters, which I didn't think was going to be the case because I just simply didn't think they would go in such depth in exploring the themes and characters in a humanistic way.