Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel III-Spring Song

After a lifetime of abuse, torture and heartbreak, Sakura Matou has embraced the Monster within, becoming the single greatest threat in this chaotic Holy Grail War.  Her sister, Rin, stands ready to end her sisters suffering in order to protect the world.  But the love of Sakrua’s life, Shirou Emiya, stands more resolved than ever to save her.  Now infused with the power of a long lost Servant, however, Sakura is ready to lash out against the world that has oppressed her and commands a nearly unstoppable legion of Dark Servants to do her bidding.  Shirou has risked and lost so much for Sakura.  Will his love be enough to save her soul…or will it take his life as well?

To think, it’s been three long, long years since I went to the movie theater to see the second chapter of the Heaven’s Feel Trilogy.  That’s a long time to wait for a chance to see the resolution to what has consistently been, so far, the very best Fate/Stay Night entry in existence.  It’s held the most gut wrenching moments, the best payoffs to setup established in Fate/Zero, offered the best version of Shirou Emoiya, and best of all, delivered a truly engrossing and heartbreaking tale for Sakura Matou, a character who has hardly had any proper role in any Fate project til now.  Much like Evangelion 3.0+1.0, that’s a lot of pressure to think about going into the grand finale.  Probably doesn’t help matter on my part that I’ve selecting this movie to be my celebratory Anniversary Review here at the Anime Corner.  But here we are: Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel III-Spring Song…how is it?
 
It’s funny to think that much of Heaven’s Feel has worked without delving too much into the heady and somewhat confusing lore of the Holy Grail War.  The series has seen its best by focusing on the core relationship between Sakura and Shirou and the darkness that has engulfed them during this very unusual version of the occasional magical conflict.  Yet Spring Song decides now, when emotions are high and interest is at its pique to dive into the very beginnings of the Holy Grail War and it’s here where Heaven’s Feel makes its first real misstep.  The history of the Grail War is seriously overcomplicated and almost begs for its own Anime prequel of its own.  The decision to explore it now and tie it into present day affairs just doesn’t work for me.  I know where my main source of investment is and it isn’t here.  Same goes for one of the final battles of the film.  It’s a literally hard hitting battle I wont lie, but it’s missing a core component that has been vital to the overall success of this story.  It removes one half of an important equation to settle a matter that kind of didn’t need much resolution, or if it did, it needed to be handled much earlier in the film…maybe even replacing the Grail history heavy segments.  It’s like Fate wanted to throw in some extra lore expansions that might please die hard fans but briefly alienate the core audience from what theyre here to see and finish watching.
 
That said, Spring Song reminds us why the Heaven’s Feel saga has always belonged to Sakura Matou.  We’ve watched this beautiful girl go through the wringer: from shy bystander to tortured soul and now to chaotic force of nature that cannot and will not be stopped.  Seeing Sakura embrace the inner darkness and speak so chillingly evil almost makes you want to cry because you want to see her saved.  Whether she’s acting like a truly evil menace or breaking down because she’s fighting herself on multiple levels, Sakura always shines.  I have to give a special shoutout to her English Voice Actress, Cristina Vee.  I don’t think I’ve ever said this about an Anime Voice Actor or Actress before but give this woman a freaking Academy Award or something for this applause worthy performance.  Cristina effortlessly runs through every inch of Sakura’s emotional spectrum with total commitment and gravitas: moving from soulless, monstrous menace to tortured and conflicted and heartbroken girl at the drop of a pin.  Love, hate, self loathing, deepest desires, maniacal force of nature, kind hearted school girl, Sakura’s final resolution is the high point of Spring Song and I don’t think it would ever work without Cristina Vee behind her voice.  Just wow…her performance all on its own is a 10/10 as is Sakura’s journey. 

Naturally, while much of the focus is on the character drama from Shirou’s resolve to save the woman he loves to Rin’s total commitment to stopping the little sister who’s become her enemy, Fate/Stay Night has garnered a rep for it’s next level action sequences, courtesy of Studio Ufotable.  Spring Song might not have as many action scenes as the previous two chapters but it has saved some of the best for last.  I often think of Ufotable fight scenes as what Anime fights have been building up to for me since I started watching Dragon Ball Z.  Large, loud, chaotic and absolutely gorgeous, Ufotable holds nothing back with its action heavy second half of this movie.  Much like Sakura’s overall expanded role, Rider too has been given an upgrade and gets to show what she’s truly capable of in this finale.  It’s enough to make you realize just how criminally underutilized she’s been in Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works.  Just seeing her run and leap around is like watching a dancer who has the power of Superman with the grace of Wonder Woman and every hit feels like a planetary clash, particularly since her main opponent is Fate/Stay Nights Poster Girl, Saber.  That might be arguably the main action centerpiece but Shirou, Rin, Sakura and Kirei all get one last epic battle or battles. Trust me, if theyre a character that’s made it this far and are still capable of fighting, they get a fight scene to show off and look so damn good doing so.
 
As if the visuals weren’t doing enough of a job bringing all the spellbinding action and character drama to their full potential, there’s also Yuki Kaijura’s score to consider.  The woman I consider to be the successor, if not a straight up equal, to Yoko Kanno has been composing the scores for pretty much all of Ufotable’s Fate projects beginning with Fate/Zero.  Her penchant for choir infused fight music is nothing short of jaw dropping.  Kaijura knows how to masterfully blend action and music together like a freaking legend and it gets your heart pumping when its all put together.  But she’s also a master of the serene and insightful, crafting gentle tracks for the most emotional moments with Sakura and Shirou.  Her music in the finale is part of what made me feel that, in spite of some first half issues, Spring Song is ending on a pretty good note.  Yuki Kaijura’s work on all three of the Heaven’s Feel films has been some of her best work and deserve a spot in any Film Soundtrack fans collection.  She’s also brought her talents to Sword Art Online, Gundam, Demon Slayer and Madoka Magica to name a few…her legend is only getting bigger and better with each new project she takes on.
 
Overall, the first half of this movie has it’s problems.  Stepping away from the core conflict to take a history lesson and tie it all together feels unnecessary, as do some elements of the films climax.  As far as a conclusion to one of Fate/Stay Night’s most hardest hitting and well handled projects, Spring Song is a good finale when it comes to closing out Sakura and Shirou’s tragic tale of love, tragedy and sacrifice.  Personally, I don’t think any Fate story has a perfect ending (Apocrypha might come closest I think).  Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero, Unlimited Blade Works, each of them had trip ups near the finish line.  Heaven Feel though, it stumbles yeah, but it makes it across the same line in a better state.  It’s everything Ufotable has been working on with the franchise leading to this.  It made me actually like Shirou and root to see Sakura saved.  It’s a near perfect sequel to Fate/Zero and…yeah, I liked this whole saga a lot.  Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel III-Spring Song, might be the weakest of the trilogy…as far as endings go though, just like all of Heaven’s Feel, it’s a thing of beauty from start to finish and I’d still call this iteration my absolute favorite of all of Fate/Stay Night.
 
8/10

(Side Note: WHEW I’m glad that worked out.  I’d be pretty miffed if I chose a title for Anniversary and it turned out to suck just like the live action Ghost in the Shell and Fullmetal Alchemist movies.  This is the second WIN in a row after Weathering with You.  Here’s hoping the title I choose for my Year 9 Anniversary can continue the streak (I’ve already got some ideas but we’ll see when the time comes).