Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel I-Presage Flower

A decade has passed since Fuyuki City was engulfed in a sea of fire, the end result of a secret war with no victor.  Shiro Emiya is the adopted son of one of that wars participants and has lived a peaceful life since his life was saved.  But now The Holy Grail War is about to pick up where it left off and Shiro will not be the only unfortunate soul dragged into it.  A girl he holds very close to his heart, the lovely Sakura Matou, will become a focal point of a battle that will drive all participants to the brink of insanity and despair and back again.  It might seem like the Fate/Stay Night tale you know…but there’s one version yet to be told, the darkest route of them all.
 
Well we had to reach this point eventually.  For those unaware, the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel consists of three separate yet slightly interconnected routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel.  The first two of these three routes have already been adapted into Anime: Fate in 2006 with Studio Deen’s Fate/Stay Night; and UBW twice, once as a movie by Deen in 2010 and later in 2014 as a TV Series by Ufotable, the same studio that also did the prequel Fate/Zero in 2011.  We were bound to get to Heaven’s Feel, the final unadapted route, eventually.  And now the reigns of that undertaking have again fallen to the supremely amazing Studio Ufotable, which has decided to skip another TV Series approach and instead adapt Heaven’s Feel into trilogy of films.  It’s not the worst approach to make and I’m kind of surprised to be saying this, but unlike Fate and UBW, from the get go I think we might be in for the best Fate/Stay Night story ever told if the latter two films can match the majesty and WOW of Part 1.
 
I guess the obvious should be pointed out first: this is definitely the best looking Fate/Stay Night ever put to Anime.  No real shock there.  As I constantly say about Ufotable, they somehow manage to give their TV Series a feature film like feel with their production values.  So there’s no reason their actual feature films would look any worse but they bring their A++ game to Heaven’s Feel’s first chapter.  Adding more icing to this delicious cake is the return of Yuki Kaijura, who did the scores for both Zero and UBW and man is she definitely the equal of Anime OST Queen Yoko Kanno.  Because Heaven’s Feel is focusing more on an, until now, relatively unexplored character, she’s delivering more quiet and beautiful melodies, both inspiring and saddening.  That doesn’t mean Kaijura isn’t slacking on the action sequences though.  This woman knows how to make even small skirmishes the most epic of affairs with her OSTs.  Production wise, what worked for Zero and UBW is definitely working here, if not better than before.
 
Things do start off kind of slow and more serene but there’s a reason for that.  Seeing the actual peaceful lives of Shiro and Sakura before the war begins is necessary, enough for a good 20 minute intro.  It isn’t bad stuff either.  Beautifully animated, nicely paced, I wasn’t bored at all.  In fact I was very happy we were getting to finally get to what is essentially Sakura’s story (though Shiro dominates much of the plot…and is actually bearable for a change, go figure).  I was disappointed that Sakura’s role in the other routes was so little after the set up for her in Fate/Zero (she’s barely in UBW).  Heaven’s Feel takes a good long look at Sakura and Shiro’s bond and spends more time with it as the film goes on.  We also get to see the rest of the Matou Clan play a more proactive role in the Holy Grail War this time around, further exploring their sinister plans first seen in Fate/Zero (but never further explored in other routes).  Sakura may get shuffled off to the side from time to time but the moments she spends with Shiro are some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful moments in the whole franchise.  Things are going to go to hell for both characters if this film is any indication of the rest of the trilogies offerings.  So it’s good and smart to get the important moments that tether these two together explored quickly cause they will be important.  Also, while it looks like Heaven’s Feel will see Sakura as the main love interest for Shiro (compared to Saber in Fate and Rin in UBW), it does still look like the series is going to further tease Shiro and Rin (and why not, it’s Rin, you’re going to fall for her no matter who else is involved even if youre not ending up with her…ahem ok moving on.)
 
I was surprised by how deceitful Heaven’s Feel began.  It may look like it has the makings of all that came before it but holy crap is this a whole new ball game of a Holy Grail War.  For once, I felt like I was watching a conflict that seemed to rival Fate/Zero’s in terms of intensity and overall enjoyment.  Yes, some characters are either on screen too little or taken out of play wayyyyy to quickly.  Also, some events we’ve seen in other routes that are still important are either sped up or glossed over, compilation movie style.  But circumventing expectations (and trying something new) seems to be Heaven’s Feels true goal.  In my mind, Fate and UBW had very similar plotlines though they both had different outcomes.  Heaven’s Feel tears the rug out from under that notion and asserts itself as a beast all its own.  And the viciousness speaks for itself.  Coming from a guy who watched Gilgamesh tear out Illya’s heart in UBW, Heaven’s Feel is still the bloodiest and most violent story in the Fate franchise so far (God only knows how much more is in store later on).  One character even literally bursts from anothers chest and we get to see the bloody aftermath as well.  This aint a film, or probably a series for that matter, for the squeamish.
 
Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel I-Presage Flower is the Fate story I truly wanted to see after Fate/Zero.  The story’s intensity is extreme and matches the stakes from that prequel and sometimes surpasses it.  New surprises and new (full pun intended) fates await pretty much everyone in addition to beautiful storytelling and spellbinding visual quality.  All of your favorites are back, even if the time for some is far too brief and some are even given some major character upgrades and fans of the English Dub will be happy to know that many long time Fate voice actors are back as well including Cristina Vee as Sakura, Mela Lee as Rin, Bryce Papenbrook as Shiro and Kari Wahlgren as Saber.  Sakura fans will rejoice that she finally gets the time to shine she deserves and will be a driving force going forward.  To be honest im kind of freaking out over how much im freaking out over how much I enjoyed this movie.  And this is just the opening salvo.  There are still two films left (Lost Butterfly was released in Japan earlier this year and the final chapter, Spring Song, is due out in 2020) and I really hope they take all the good that came from this film and run with it full speed ahead.  This is the Fate/Stay Night ive wanted to see for years, better late than never huh?
 
9/10
 

No comments:

Post a Comment