Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel is another installment of the Fate/stay night visual novel series. The visual novel encompassed three parts, Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. As you can already see (looking up the series on MAL), we have already received adaptations of the first two routes of the game. This film adapts the beginning 8 or so hours of the Heaven's Feel route and I have to say, it's quite the package.
Going into this film I had knowledge of the material it was going to adapt. I have played the Heaven's Feel route up to the point that the film ended at. I did this in order to see what the studio would change and/or add in order to make the film flow better. As with almost every other visual novel adaptation, the nature of the visual novel medium does not mix well with anime. However, like with Unlimited Blade Works (the tv series; not the films), Ufotable has striked a very good balance between the anime and the visual novel. You do miss out on some of Shirou's characterization due to the lack of inner monologues but the studio manages to show Shirou's feelings visually instead of spelling everything out. In Heaven's Feel, this is especially true. Shirou really speaks through action rather than self-contemplation. You would think that because of this, he would feel fundamentally different than in the visual novel. I'm glad to say that this is not true and I quite enjoyed this version of Shirou.
From here on out, I'm going to attempt to not bring up the visual novel. What needs to be reviewed is the film and not the visual novel. How does the film hold up on its own?
I was surprised to see that Ufotable found it important enough to dedicate 10 or so minutes of the opening to show material before the start of the Holy Grail War. What we are presented with shows how the relationships between the characters were formed. This includes the chemistry (or lack of) between Shirou and Shinji. I quite liked this because if someone who had not played the VN came into this film blind, they would be quite confused why Shinji is such a fucking ass and why Sakura is always around Shirou. Another surprise right up front was the fast-forwarding of some important scenes. They still show you what is going on (you can probably guess what part I am talking about) but they use this time to show the opening title segment with the footage in the background. This part might confuse some newcomers but I think they included enough visuals to get the point across.
As we venture further into the film, I really start to embrace how fucking beautiful it is. The backgrounds and characters in this film are absolutely stunning. Ufotable has always been able to really shine in the static elements in their shows. This coupled with their special effects department makes for some truly eyegasmic moments. However, Ufotable has a weakness; static character models. Like with the majority of their tv shows (including Fate/Zero and UBW), this film has a lot of moments where a character or characters are completely frozen. It's a little abrasive on the eyes because humans cannot remain that still. There are always some miscellaneous movements and without these movements, the characters look very unworldly. Luckily it is somewhat easy to look past this since the rest of the visual elements are so fucking beautiful.
We reach the midpoint of the film and I noticed that I have just yawned. Unfortunately even though the studio tried their best to scurry through as much of the beginning as possible, the film still retains a lot of the plot building that the VN route had. Yes there are fights in this beginning half (and honestly they stepped up the timeline of one of them in order to keep the fast pacing going) but what happens between those moments was a little boresome. This might not be an issue for a fresh watcher who doesn't know what is coming up but I found it a little mundane. The second half of the film however really had me on my toes. Seeing on screen what I remember from the VN was truly a treat to behold. The creative decisions the studio decided to make in order to make the film stand on its own were 100% on point. They also picked an amazing spot to end the film. Yes it is a cliffhanger but it is a very suitable stopping point.
As with any other VN, the real important element in this story is the characters. This route focuses on Sakura, Shinji's younger sister who takes a liking to Shirou. This whole route is essentially a story about Shirou and Sakura and how they deal with the proceeding events during the Holy Grail War. Leading up to this film, even after playing a bit of the route in the VN, I considered myself a huge Rin fan. Rin plays a big role in this film since she is still Shirou's partner in the War. She's also a major focus in the VN. One of the creative choices in the film however is to sideline her quite a bit. She still has a major role but it really felt like they toned down her presence in the film (other than a particular dream sequence...mamma mia). Because of this, our main girl Sakura really shines. I have to say that after leaving this film, I'm quite smitten by Sakura. Her clumsy, cute, and affectionate nature is honestly too much for me to handle. I wanted to stay true to Rin...but this film has me seriously pondering my life decisions.
An important thing that I want to bring up is how raw the action feels in this film. One big gripe that I have had with all the previous Fate adaptations is that they don't feel like a war is going on. Fate/Zero and UBW upped the action elements compared to the other Fate adaptions but that merciless, true grit nature of war and destruction has been absent. This film does not hold your hands. When there are fights, there are body parts falling off, internal organs spilling out, and serious deformation of characters. I finally felt like I was watching a real war going on. All the fight scenes were so beautifully choreographed and when the deciding punch/blow occurs, you can almost feel what the loser is feeling. There is real weight to the fights due to how great the animation and artstyle are conveying the conflicts. This was a real stand out feature for me. If anything, watch the fights in this film.
One thing that I cannot comment on with certainy is the music and general sound elements. I saw this film at The Theater at Ace Hotel in downtown LA and the sound setup was not very ideal. It seemed to be a stereo setup with really powerful bass. Because of this, everything sounded pretty muddied. In some situations, I couldn't hear the dialogue over the bass rumbling of an impact. Hopefully I'll be able to see the film again once it gets released in a more wide-spread manner.
So I sit here now, taking one last minute to think back at everything I experienced during the film. In terms of how well the studio did adapting the route from the VN, I'd say they did a phenomenal job. Even though I thought the beginning was pretty meh pacing wise, there wasn't a lot that they could have done to make it better. They had already skipped over a lot of the scenes and kept what was vital. The film was super enjoyable to watch and it has me wanting to go back to the VN and play through the rest of the route instead of waiting until next year for the next film (the credits said the next film is coming in 2018). I'd say that this is my most favorite Fate adaptation largely due to how raw the fights felt. I honestly want UBW, Fate, and Fate/Zero to get the multi-film treatment so that I can see those conflicts in full raw form. There were so many brutal moments in this film; Nathan Explosion would be proud.
You 100% need to know what happens in both the Fate and UBW routes of the VN. You can watch the anime adaptation of UBW and understand that part of the story but you really need to read the Fate route (Saber route) of the VN rather than rely on the Deen adaptation of that route.
They barely scratch the surface with this film but the conflicts will keep you interested. The flow towards the final moments start to paint the characters for who they really are. I'll stand by this statement; this is probably the best Fate adaptation I have seen so far...and I really loved Zero and UBW.
Enjoyment: 9.3/10
Overall: 8.2/10
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Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer
