Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel I. presage flower Anime Movie Review
I'm making my way through the Fate franchise and managed to find this movie online. This is part one of the adapted visual novel trilogy, with part two premiering sometime next year. I would not recommend watching this movie though without prior knowledge of Unlimited Blade Works and Fate/Zero at the very least.
The movie is fast-paced otherwise. After the slow introduction of Sakura, the main heroine of this Fate route, and the over-repeated Shirou background. It goes off!
They run through the intro rather quickly with Shirou and Rin getting their servants Saber and Archer respectively. Then they fly through the fight against Lancer and Berserker. Newcomers will easily get lost in all the nonsense.
The movie doesn't really start until Shirou and Shinji run into each other. This version of events has Shinji losing Rider after the confrontation and the introduction of his grandfather, Zouken, who had been absent from the series since Fate/Zero. His return is very much welcomed.
He is the Master of True Assassin, a servant who was not present in the previous two routes. There is also another shadow entity running amok in this Holy Grail War. Its identity or motives have not been revealed in this movie, but it manages to corrupt Saber into darkness.
Shirou and his relationship with Sakura is developed further in this route. She starts worrying about him and confesses when she first fell for him. Shirou is also more protective of her and willingly gives up the war to spend time with her, after he believes he lost Saber and his status as Master.
Rin and Sakura's sisterhood is heavily hinted at in this movie. Rin is devastated to learn what happened to Sakura when she was adopted into the Matou family. It is a powerful scene if one had seen Fate/Zero and seen Sakura's torment in the mage worm room.
Other characters like Fake Assassin and Caster were quickly discarded to make room for these new events and characters. Kirei has a bigger role and the dinner scene with Shirou was both tense and entertaining. Kirei is always intriguing in all the routes.
Overall, I think I would've enjoyed this better as a series rather than a movie. But we get what we get. I approve only if you have knowledge of the Fate series I mentioned at the beginning of my review. Otherwise, you'd cringe and hate it. This was designed for fans.