Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel Movie 1
Finally got to watch this - the film didn't come out in theater where I'm from so I had to wait for the physical release. I've been following this franchise since the days of DEEN's first FSN adaption, so you could say I've been looking forward to this quite a bit. But all in all, I'm not sure if I really like it.
Sure, there's a lot to like here - in the visual department, ufotable animation is top-notch as usual: all the fancy camera movements during the fights (the Lancer vs. Assassin being the obvious highlight) are nothing sort of delicious eye candy, and they incorporate the 2D characters pretty seamlessly into the 3D environment that even someone who hates seeing CGI in anime like me has not much to complain about. The character designs fortunately have avoided the cutesy detail-lacking rhino-face approach that plagued the UBW series and are more in line with the designs from those OPs ufotable did for the PS Vita version of the FSN/FHA game (I guess Sudou is to thank for this), and the 2D background art is simply breathtaking. The sound design really makes me wish I had been able to see this in a good theater, and the Kajiura soundtrack, while not as memorable as the one in Fate/Zero, has some nice callbacks that, along with some story beats, make it look like they're trying to sell this as the sequel to FZ.
The thing I'm not so sure about is the approach this adaption takes regarding the story. The first 30 minutes or so is great - the anime-original scenes give some needed context to the relationship between Shirou and the Matous, and I would even say build the eerie, suspenseful atmosphere quite well at the end, just before shit goes down. But once that credit montage rolls the cohesion starts to fail - characters appear and freaking die without any introduction, lots of rushed or missing exposition, and the whole thing feels like one big Heaven's Feel greatest hits montage. Now I already know the Fate lore like the back of my hand so I had no problem understanding any of this, and I get that the filmmakers have to condense some established stuff in order to fit the runtime (it would probably be groan-inducing for the fans to see Lancer vs. Archer and Saber summoning for like the 4th time), but I still wonder if the film would have flowed better had we got a more complete introduction.
Other than that it's a good introductory film (for the route, not the franchise) that sets up some mysteries and relationships to be explored in the sequels. True Assassin is a delight, and there's even a slight horror vibe with the Shadow which I enjoyed. I think a few scenes that fleshes out important characters got skipped over, but the trailer for the second film does show some of them so maybe the filmmakers are just withholding their cards for a more opportune moment.
kViN just posted some production notes about the film too, which is a nice read for anyone interested in the behind-the-scene stuff:
https://blog.sakugabooru.com/2018/0...avens-feel-i-presage-flower-production-notes/
