Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel II. Lost Butterfly Anime Movie Review

Major Spoilers are included in this anime movie review. Please read with caution.

This movie was released around March 2019, a follow-up to Heaven’s Feel I. Prestige Flower from 2018. I searched for this movie on-and-off throughout 2019 post theater premieres, but I never managed to find it until February 29 on Leap Day. Oddly enough, I discovered the whole movie (high-definition and English subbed) on Facebook. The movie had a lot of focus on Sakura, the main heroine of this Fate route, which was lacking a bit in the first movie.

The second film picks up where we left off in the first film. Shirou Emiya had lost his Servant Saber during the Fifth Holy Grail War. As a result, he is no longer a Master. It causes him to grow closer to Sakura Matou while still believing in his biggest dream: protecting everyone as “The Hero of Justice”. Throughout this movie, Shirou’s dream begins to conflict with his feelings for Sakura.

Heaven’s Feel Part Two gives a bigger character focus on Sakura Matou, which drives most of the story and her conflicts. The sisterly bond between Sakura and Rin is also revealed and explored in this movie. Being able to call Rin “Nee-san” made Sakura—and fans like me—very happy. While Rin isn’t the main heroine in this route, she still received a good amount of character development.

The action in this film is distinct and beautifully animated. In my personal opinion, Saber Alter vs Hercules Berserker Fight Scene is the greatest battle scene that the Fate franchise has produced so far. Berserker’s animation in particular looked cleaner. Archer Emiya and Assassin fight was also amazing, but these fight scenes happened early on which left not much action until the movie’s conclusion.

The pacing in this movie suffered due to the limited action scenes. The quiet scenes with Sakura were great for the most part—aside from the mature content—but I found them slightly problematic, especially in a second movie. The middle film in trilogies problems where they waste time to hype the third movie.

Speaking of the mature content, the subject matter wasn’t handle properly. They were introduced on a surface level but never explored beyond that. Mature content, but not mature story. It actually made me uncomfortable at times during my watching. I hope the third movie goes purely into stopping Dark Sakura and Old Man Zouken.

Overall, I had fun watching this second movie. The story told was good with ups and downs that I must accept as part of the storytelling. This movie was also very dark at times. Something that will continue into part three no doubt. I’m looking forward to watching the third movie.