Last year around Valentine’s Day I did a character dive on a number of anime relationships that I really liked. One of them, and the most popular was the relationship between Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka from Unlimited Blade Works. It was a great post and I loved talking about what still remains one of my favorite couples in all of anime.
But that is just one of three main relationships in the main Fate story. What about the other two? Well another year has passed, so it is time to dig back into this world! After the cut let’s take a character dive into the relationship of Heaven’s Feel’s Shirou Emiya and Sakura Matou!
Welcome back to Don’t @ Me, where each week I ramble off ten of my anime opinions like I’m a lunatic in a insane asylum. Raw, to the point, and bound to piss someone off. Here are fourteen of my opinions about the series Fate Stay Night. Check em out after the cut.
This shallow dive is going to be a bit different because to discuss this movie the way I want to, I have to get into major spoilers of the film itself and overall plot points of the main Fate timeline. So before the cut, I’m going to list off the main points that people will probably want to know about the flick, then get into more spoiler stuff afterward.
This movie is absolutely amazing and Ufotable has done it again. Well worth the wait and is the payoff we needed.
Yes, this movie has a “sex scene” in it and it is done in a tasteful way that strikes a perfect compromise between adaptation and tribute to the original visual novel. I expect a bit more skin in the blue-ray release. I applaud the director for having the courage to acknowledge the O.G Fate visual novel.
Illya’s role in the route has been scaled back significantly so far. Obviously, the director wanted to have the entire focus be on Sakura and Shirou. I (and I’m a huge Illya fan) agree that this was probably the best way to go. I’ll have more to say on this once I’ve read the Heaven’s Feel route.
There is only one real action scene and while it is animated BEAUTIFULLY, it is a bit hard to follow sometimes.
This movie, along with Presage Flower is absolutely not for first time Fate Fans. I said that in the last review, but it goes double here. You need to have at least watched Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works to fully enjoy this film
Alright, after the cut let’s take a dive into the second movie of the Heaven’s Feel trilogy: Fate Stay Night Heaven’s Feel II. Lost Butterfly.
The only time we may ever hear Sasuke say he loves Sakura
I must stress that this is not my review or shallow dive into this movie. While I have seen a version of this film, I have not seen it in the way that I feel I need to do give it a full and fair look. However as I am a die-hard Fate Fan and the internet so warmly provided me a chance to see this movie, I feel I want to get my thoughts out now while the iron is still hot.
I look forward to watching this movie again two more times (one for sub, one for dub) and you can’t expect my fuller more complete thoughts later this year. For now though, my quick thoughts on the Fate Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel II. Lost Butterfly are after the poster.
If this doesn’t come to Canada, I’m going to lose my shit more than Sakura does.
As I stated in my review of the first installment: Presage Flower, I felt that the film was 90% set up for what was going to come next and that I hoped part two would get the ball rolling. I can happily say that Lost Butterflydoes not only get the ball rolling, but it also attaches a rocket to it and doesn’t let go.
Lost Butterflyand all of Heaven’s Feelare movies for Fate fans who are one or two series deep into the franchise and therefore doesn’t waste any time explaining anything about the world. Since this is part two of the story, we jump right back into the story keep things at a brisk, but well-paced speed. Again, that can be difficult for new fans, but it is clear this movie is made for the people who have at least seen Blade Works or Fate/Zero.
In terms of the plot, Sakura’s route is just as dark and foreboding as I hoped it would be, with more than enough differences to separate it from both Fateand Blade Works, which often felt like they were chasing similar overall story beats. Heaven’s Feel, however, is wholly its own story that takes the Fate world and turns it on its head. While all the characters are present, we get to see the magic of the three route structure on full display as different cast members weave in and out of importance as the story unfolds. This is especially true for Gilgamesh and Archer who are so central to the last two routes but play much smaller roles here. The only real constant is Rin Tohsaka who, while very much a supporting character this time, is still tied up greatly with the events of the plot.
Finally, Lost Butterfly is, at last, the Fate route that managed to find the perfect compromise between the original visual novel, and the Realta Nua re-rerelease. I’ll just go ahead and spoil this, but this is the first Fate adaptation that actually kept in a sex scene, but re-tools it to make it fit more into the story and not feel like it’s completely superfluous to it. It’s there, it works extremely well, and it’s done tastefully and respectfully.
I’ll have a lot more to say about this movie when I get a few more views in later in the year. All I can say now is that Ufotable has done it again. They’ve created another beautifully animated, well acted and excellent adaptation of Fate Stay Night. While Lost Butterfly is lighter on the action, the action that is present might even give Dragon Ball Super Brolya run for its money. The characters are excellent, and Shirou and Sakura’s relationship was way more endearing than I hoped, with a cliffhanger ending that just gets you pumped for the final installment.
Yesterday was the Japanese release of the second part of the Heaven’s Feel trilogy: Lost Butterfly. So far reviews have been stellar, with praise to the masterful animation, amazing action and surprising twists and dedication to the original publication of the Fate Stay Nightvisual novel (you know what I mean)
Anyway, it’ll be months until I am able to have a viewing of it but to celebrate the release, I’m giving out this post with links to my previous previews of the trailers, and my review of the first movie. Take a look if you are so interested!
The reasons for that were quite simple: the anime adaptation of the Fate route sucks. Aside from a few clips, I have not watched it but from everything I’ve seen and heard I am not missing much. The Fate route anime, done by Studio Deen in 2006 was made in a time before Fate had really established itself, and before Studio Ufotable’s one-two punch of Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works blew everyone’s mind. It was a different era, and while that can be forgiven, the amount of effort put into the Ufotable adaptations make the 2006 anime look rushed, badly animated, and just…not good. While things have gotten better for Fate fans since then, the Fate Route remains an outlier among the fandom.
With that said, and knowing that I should really look at this vital piece of the franchise I decided to spend the last few weeks slowly reading the visual novel of the route. So after the cut let’s dive into the Fate Route of Fate Stay Night.
This is the final post of Fatevember. It’s been a wild ride and I can’t believe I managed to pull it off. Fate Stay Night is a massive franchise and being able to blog about pretty much all of it, has been a great experience. With all the series done, most of the characters I wanted to examine looked at, and plenty of Illya fanboying, we have at least reached the end. So after a month, I want to wrap all of this up with my final thoughts on Fate Stay Night. Join me after the cut.
Still don’t know why it’s called that, even after 30 days.
Anime’s ability to take any concept or idea and make it a piece of good entertainment is one of the hidden strengths of the art form. Unlike movies, TV, or even books, Anime has somehow cracked that magic formula of taking even the most mundane or insane idea and making it just…work. I said it before when I spoke about Girls und Panzer, but it bears repeating here. When other entertainment forms say “Why?” Anime is the only one that stands up and proudly says “Why not?”
For our final anime of Fatevember, we proudly continue that tradition of saying “Why not” with a cooking spinoff of the main Fate Stay Night universe. So after the cut, let’s dive into Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family.
Fatevember wraps up this week with a look at the two final animations that have been made as of 2018. We’ve gone through the main storylines, the prequel, the spinoffs that are great, and the spinoffs that suck. Now…things get weird and a bit shorter in terms of word count.
I like many others, love parodies of anime. The abridging boom that erupted in the early 2000s worked in many ways because it allowed fans to tell the stories, but also poke fun at all the anime bullshit. However, it is rare that the anime creators themselves get to poke fun at their own worlds. For Fate Stay Night, however, they have and after the cut let’s take a dive into the 2012 OVA Carnival Phantasm.
The other set of characters you see here are from Type-Moons other series. We’ll ignore them for now.
Honestly? I thought I was too. I have looked for an English subtitled of this movie for a while now, but it was only until yesterday that I was able to track one down, and considering the importance of this movie to the overall plot, I just had to watch it.
And watch it I did, so after the cut let’s take a dive back into the world of Fate/Illyawith the 2018 anime film: Fate/kalied liner Prisma Illya: Oath Under Snow.
Took me long enough to find this, let me tell you.
Shallow Dives in Anime 