Schnee117
Too Majestic for Gender
Joker and Society Joker
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Social NintenZone Social 6.0 - L'Arachel Edition, Apparently?
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Ivander
Smash Legend
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Female Joker. I mean, it worked for Marth and Female Marth.
Chrono.
...
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You joke but I wish we had another FeMC for Persona already.Female Joker. I mean, it worked for Marth and Female Marth.
Ivander
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I guess time will tell on whether or not the supposed Persona 5 port will have a FeMC and if it connects to that possible ponytail Alt connected to Joker.
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Idon
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Okay, hear me out here...
Raidou Kuzunoha as an echo, with Yo****sune as the persona stand-in.
Gun? Check.
Blade? Check
Black coat? Check
Teenage boys? Check
Suave silent protag? Check.
Cat sidekick? Check
Multiple personal monsters to switch from? Check.
Acrobatic and flashy fighting style? Check
Banging Main Theme Song? ****IN' CHECK.
Don't believe me? Joker already stole his look.
Pyra
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Wario Bros.
Smash Obsessed
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Expecting all those slots to be filled up is dangerous thinking in my book.
Ramen Tengoku
Meiniac
Z25
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No, none of the alts take up a slot in wol.
Ramen Tengoku
Meiniac
Potato_
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PIEstons
You know what? They tried and I can respect that.
As for the extra slots in WoL and the regular game, I don't think they mean much one way or the other. Not necessarily indicative proof that we're getting more characters, but it does show that they at least considered the possibility and planned in case.
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I'm five minutes late and the tweet is dead. What was it lol.
Chrono.
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Kaiba in Jump Force.
Bandai just posted it again so I guess there was a typo or something.
Potato_
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The entire reveal season of that game was weird as hell. Not even surprised that they decided to reveal the first dlc character with no fanfare on a twitter post.
Also I guess this means the datamine is legit. Interested in seeing Bakugo and Hitsugaya/Grimmjow.
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The man also pulled this very-illegal comically-dumb BS to make $100 million in a single day. Truly, a hero for the ages.
Wow, I really hope one day I can use the phrase, "Fail, and it's back to the orphanage with you!"
Chrono.
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They posted the DLC roadmap too.
Get ready to unite with more manga characters on new stages & with new avatar costumes! Here's the road map for updates in #JUMPFORCE 2019.
— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) March 15, 2019
Schedule is subject to change. Exact release dates will be posted as we get close to each release and more updates to come, so stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/8snMsS730D
Feel like this is another MvC: Infinite effect. Like, "D-don't worry we're still supporting the game! We promise!"
Ura
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Capitalism at it's finest.
And as an aside, the 4Kids dub of YGO sounds a lot more "reading off a script" then I remember it being. I mean their Pokemon dub felt like it had more life in it.
Chrono.
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They definitely planned for at least one year of post release support all along. They said as much pre release and dummied out stuff kinda proves it.
Doubt it'll be anything more after that though.
Idon
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All that money they used making Jump Force they could've given to Arcsys for more DBFZ characters, smh.
Give me DBS Future Trunks dammit. I want to Sword of Hope people.
Give me DBS Future Trunks dammit. I want to Sword of Hope people.
Ivander
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IIRC, the $100 million from one company in a single day was dub only. In the original version, he apparently did this to multiple companies until he had the required amount as the original request from the father was to turn 1 billion yen into 100 billion yen. Regardless, still illegal.
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D
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I thought the stages were all real life locations, why's Valley of the End gonna be added?
Will
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yknow after some thought
girls with scottish accents hit different
girls with scottish accents hit different
Cutie Gwen
Lovely warrior
Ok but Kaiba WOULD demand you pay money to get the right to play as him
Erureido
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Ivander
@Shishœ
The Stoopid Unikorn
Dr. Jojo Phantasma
DarkAuraful
and all the other Fate fans here that are on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember at the moment:I just came back from the second Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel movie, lost butterfly, that was shown at my local theater a few hours earlier.
I thought I'd give you all a spoiler-free review for all those that did not watch the movie yet or didn't read the VN prior, as well as provide a bit of synopsis regarding some of the highlights and issues I had with the movie for those that read the VN route prior or also happened to watch the movie today.
Starting things off with the spoiler-free review:
Comparing this to the first Heaven's Feel movie, I had just about equal enjoyment value to it if not perhaps more. The movie was simply fantastic! All the characters were portrayed perfectly true to who they are, and ufotable knocked it out of the park with their facial expressions and animating the fight scenes and other key moments they were featured in. In fact, one of the fight scenes shown in this movie may just be the contender for the best fight ever animated in a Fate anime by ufotable! The cinematography throughout all he scenes and the music were also top notch, and there was even some damn good symbolism in some of the shots!
The pacing for the movie was pretty good, and it captured most of the important scenes that went on during the middle of the Heaven's Feel route. In fact, I'd say the movie does a much better job getting you engaged right away; it gets right into the nit and gritty within the first five minutes compared to the first movie where it took quite some longer time for the movie to keep you entranced into what's going on.
The main issues as a movie will mainly come down to whether or not you are a VN reader and your attachment for certain characters. As a VN reader, I couldn't help but feel there were some important scenes that were just sidelined, particularly for two characters. It wasn't too serious of an issue, but I remember I felt much more for them in the VN then I did in the movie because the VN had a bit more "oomph" to them.
That aside, this movie was still a fantastic watch, and with it, ufotable's Heaven's Feel is still cemented as my second favorite Fate anime adaptation. Honestly, I'd say this movie may just be even better than the last one.
Now to get into the spoilers-abound synopsis-like review:
Don't read this next part if either you haven't watched the movie/haven't read the VN and thus do not want to be spoiled about what really happens in the movie.
But if you have read the Heaven's Feel VN and would still like to know what happens in the movie in regards to how ufotable adapted the middle of the route (or if you watched the movie today like I did and would like to see how my thoughts compare to your own), fill free to give it a read!
The movie begins right where the last one left off: Shirou has returned to the Ryuudou Temple to look for Saber following her demise from losing to the Cursed Arm Hassan and the Shadow tag team. He sees Saber walking through the halls of the temple and follows her until she reaches the lake nearby, but then she fades away as the tentacles of the shadow come out from the lake. Shirou abruptly wakes up, revealing it was only a nightmare. The scene mainly establishes Shirou's continued trauma and grief following Saber's death, which is appreciated considering the loss of his servant hit him hard in the last movie.
Sakura walks in and the two then proceed to have breakfast. During it, Sakura expresses her relief that Shirou won't have to go out every night from now on (Sakura being shady, huh), but Shirou replies that he didn't go out every night because of Saber: he did so out of his own volition, and he admits that now that Saber is gone, he will probably be heading out every night more frequently. Sakura is shocked hearing this.
After the opening sequence, we see Shirou looking at a map as he identifies the landmarks where the Shadow attacked and thus Zouken's possible whereabouts. He then receives some thrown snowballs to the face, where it is revealed that Illya was responsible for them. The two then sit on a picnic table as we see Illya make some small snowmen. Shirou seems confused and thus acts in a way to show cooperating with her is a bad idea since they are both technically enemies, but Illya doesn't seem to mind. She even inquires for a name and tackles Shirou in a cute way (they even adapted that particular cutesy moment of Illya "flying in the air" for that moment; it looked awkward, but it fits well for a short little comedic moment). No, seriously, Illya is just really cute thoughout this entire scene! Ufotable captured her charming cuteness quite well in her appearance and her playful attitude to Shirou here, as well as her giggling as she tackles him on the bench.
The two eventually casually sit next to each other as they do some friendly talk. Illya quietly leaves once Shirou asks her if she knew someone named Kiritsugu. Triggered, lllya? Can't blame you.
Shirou is eventually invited by Rin over at her place for tea and to strategize for what's coming next. When Shirou arrives at Rin's room, Rin tells Archer to prepare tea from outside. While that is going on, Shirou notices the picture of child Rin: strangely, child Rin's face looks practically identical to Sakura's but with blue eyes. I thought maybe that could've been child Sakura from an earlier time where she grew out her hair and wore pigtails like Rin, but when I look back at it, it could've easily been Rin after all her face proportioned better to give the close resemblance to Sakura to hint that eventual plot twist.
When Rin walks in with the tea and Shirou tries to compare the Rin he currently sees with the Rin from the picture, we cut to child Sakura sitting in a train at dusk. Here, Sakura looks exactly like she did in Fate/Zero. The train starts moving, and we see another train behind her with child Rin and her parents (Tokiomi's face is shadowed, while Rin and her mother are viewed from behind). Rin seems to be jumping and trying to talk to her mother, and while we can't see her face, she looks rather distressed. I initially interpreted this as the moment Tokiomi left Sakura behind for the Matous, but as it turns out, it's another dream sequence. Sakura tries to run after her sisters and parents as the two trains start moving apart from each other, but she eventually falls and sees ants carrying a dead butterfly before the train she is in becomes infested with the Matou worms. Then, Sakura wakes up, revealing it was a nightmare she had.
I really liked this scene for the metaphors that were present. Child Sakura sitting on the train opposite to her biological family as it moved in the opposite direction does a nice job symbolizing the moment her life changed for the worse, and her despair as she tried to run after the opposing train only highlights how much of negative impact it had on her. I interpreted the ants carrying the dead butterfly as symbolic of the Matous taking Sakura away from her biological family: the ants are the Matous, and Sakura is the dead butterfly. The beautiful butterfly not turned into a lifeless, dull corpse represents Sakura well as a bright and happy girl now turned gloomy as she is taken away by the Matous. It's like "lost butterfly" from the title could be referring to it!
Sakura then leaves the house. Shirou and Rin return to his place, and he gets a call. Shirou runs out of the house in a hurry while a perplexed Rin watches him. By this point, it's only been about 5-7 minutes into the movie, and the writers know it is time to get the audience entranced!
As it turns out, Shirou ran to the school where he sees Shinji holding Sakura hostage with a knife at her throat (he lured Sakura into the school and called Shirou to tell him that he has Sakura). This is where the entire sequence of Rider vs Shirou, and eventually, Archer vs Rider takes place. Shinji tells Rider to give Shirou "a little pain." Before proceeding to beat the tar out of Shirou, Rider warns him that it wouldn't be wise for him to go up against her now that he has no servant. Shirou disregards the warning and proceeds to take the beatings from Rider while trying to hide behind the book shelfs as Sakura watches in despair (and Shinji watches in amusement). Once Rider locates Shirou after knocking over a large book shelf, Shinji orders her to kill him. Rider holds Shirou up and tells him that he won the fight for being able to endure so long, so she knees him in the gut one more time.
As Shirou flies through the air, the sequence from the trailer kicks in where the camera slows down as Shirou turns to Shinji with an angry expression, and then he lunges onto him. We eventually see that he knocked Shinji away and bloodily grasps the knife on his right hand. Sakura is horrified seeing Shirou in this state, but Shirou tells her not to worry as he will protect her. Angered to see how attached Sakura is to Shirou, he then orders Rider to kill Shirou using his Command Spell book. As Rider goes in for the kill, Archer and Rin arrive on the scene b breaking through the window. The way how the two are portrayed in their arrival is akin to the UBW scene where Archer and Rin jump through the skyscrapers after Rin breaks her alliance with Shirou halfway into the route, and so here, it just looks badass! The camera even slows down the moment the two characters break through the glass!
What follows is Archer bodying Rider as if the latter is a noob while Shinji watches in disbelief. The audience had a pretty good laugh the moment Shinji turned around in shock (and so did I), which reminded me of a similar scene from the first movie where Saber bodied Rider very quickly in their first duel together. Shinji then angrily orders Rider to get up using his Command Spell book as Rider screams in pain. Sakura screams as well, begging her brother to stop. It is around this moment that Shinji's book burns up, and what follows is a BRUTAL and SATISFYING roast by Rin regarding how the Matou bloodline has lost the ability to produce magecraft and hence why they needed to find other people to do their work for them, hence revealing the shocking twist: that Sakura is Rider's real master!
Shinji has a breakdown that Hiroshi Kamiya nails very nicely! You can really feel the pain and frustration Shinji is going through as he is hammered by that fact regarding the Matous' downfall and how Sakura is fit to be Rider's master because she has the aptitude for magecraft and not him. Of course, he is not out of tricks just yet. He pulls out a gem that he breaks with a pinch, causing that same gem that Sakura wears as an earring to break and thus triggering some strange dark explosions as she collapses to the ground and begins to panic. Shinji casually walks out, as if to leave our heroes to deal with this mess themselves.
Archer and Rider then duel with each other once more. Archer comments how Rider continues to be twisted for continuing to fight on like this, but Rider retorts that she is only protecting Sakura. What follows is one of the most epic scenes in the movie: Rider activating her Eye of Gorgon Noble Phantasm to era the school in a Reality Marble and immobilize Shirou and Rin. The way how the NP was activated was just astounding: it's way better portrayed here then in the UBW anime, going all out in giving that dramatic "oomph" as the red barrier permeates throughout the school until the eye awakens in the sky above. I really felt just how powerful the Eye of Goron is here compared to how it played out in the UBW anime, but I guess part of the reason could be the movie quality (and perhaps the fact Rider's full power is delivered in HF compared to UBW).
Sakura begs for Rider to stop because she doesn't want her Senpai to be hurt, but Rider still persists regardless. She then takes off her eyeband and uses her Mystic Eyes of Petrification! If you thought the Eye of Gorgon scene was intense, wait until you see how ufotable adapted Rider's Mystic Eyes! The lighting captures her silver eyes quite nicely as we see Archer turning to stone from the feet up in a pretty disturbing fashion. Even Shirou and Rin start to turn to stone starting from their hands and feet!
What follows is a chilling scene of Rider's eyes glowing purple, her hair flowing up and moving in a fashion similar to snakes, and her entire body shadowed. You are standing in the presence of the great Medusa from Greek mythology, and this moment is portrayed so beautifully yet so perfectly it really feels like you encountered Medusa in person! Shirou's POV perspective of his hands and feet turning to stone only heighten that feeling!
One of the dark explosions is about to hit Rin, but Shirou manages to move with every once of strength to to get the blunt of the attack on his gut. Sakura is horrified seeing this, and consequently uses the subsequent dark explosions to pine her instead.
There is a dramatic cut in to black as Sakura is pierced, with the next scene abruptly cutting to Shirou waking up in the Church to notice that he is still alive but still has blood on his shirt and a bandage around his stomach where he got the blunt of the attack. Rin calls to him when Kirei appears. Kirei then tells him how he (Kirei) had to use all of his Arm Crests to restore Sakura to full health, and he tells Shirou about the Matou warms that violate Sakura. Shirou feels so disturbed hearing about what the worms do to Sakura that he eventually gives an angry shout to stop (can't blame considering that's some pretty dark stuff that's happening to Sakura). Rin then talks about her truce to Shirou to Kirei, to which Kirei understands as he eventually drops the bombshell that Sakura is her biological sister, so it's natural for her to feel that way.
The three notice that Sakura has fled from her bed, and remembering Kirei's words about how they'll have to make sure Sakura can't be on her own, Shirou pursues her. He runs into Illya on the way where he asks her about who he wants to protect. As Shirou stands confused and somewhat upset, Illya pats her on the hand and drops the "Shirou no mikata" line to profess her allegiance to Shirou's cause . She also tells him that it's only natural for him to chase after the one he loves to protect her. What follows is the eventual Shirou-running-into-Sakura scene from the VN where he states his "Sakura no mikata" line as he hugs Sakura and tells her that he understands Sakura is a bad person and he completely accepts her. The two are then scene holding hands as they walk by Rin and Archer. Archer then states his line questioning Shirou's ideals and whether or not he will chose to stick with them.
So here's the thing about the sequence of those three scenes: they were re-ordered. In the VN, first came Archer questioning Shirou, then was Illya professing her allegiance to Shirou, and then came the Sakura hug scene. Archer's questioning rattles Shirou in a way that causes him to snap and break down in tears when Illya runs into him, and seeing Shirou in grief is what leads to her head-patting him and telling him she'll support no matter what he does. Shirou then gains the courage to confront Sakura.
To be honest, I like how the VN ordered these events better. When Archer questioned Shirou, it was in quite a critical way that made Shirou realize he's going to become quite different rom the person he strived to be for so long, and so Illya being kind and understanding to him (and how it contradicts the way he expected her to react considering that it seemed like the whole world was against him after hearing Archer's words) was what made him snap and burst into tears. In fact, that particular moment in the VN made me very emotional the first time I read it, and it was sold me on Illya being best girl of Fate/Stay Night (not counting Saber) and the Heaven's Feel route. Seeing Shirou cry and Illya reaching out to him like that delivered the feels really well! Here in the movie, I didn't feel the same way because Shirou doesn't snap and breakdown the way that he did in the VN, and I think the Archer scene being moved to the end of this particular sequence is the reason why. This, to me, is one example of my issue regarding how the VN seems to shaft a certain character's moment hard: in this case, Illya's defining moment when she aligns with Shirou.
On the bright side, I LOVED the cinematography during the Sakura hug scene. As Shirou gets closer to Sakura, the camera slows down and uses CG really well to capture's Shirou's movement quite nicely as he professes of Sakura for who she is, even going as far as making the CG flow with the puddle in a way that makes the moment the splash following from Shirou stepping on it look realistic. The music was also fantastic during this moment, as a slow and emotional Yuki Kaji song played throughout the entirety. Sakura's VA also portrayed her Sakura quite well here, with Sakura behaving in a way that fits her personality as a victim of sexual assault.
What follows is a scene where Shirou and Sakura are back at Shirou's place as Sakura seemingly requests him to do the "big act" as the audience giggled to think of what it implied, but instead, we see Shirou cutting his finger to have blood drip. Sakura then proceeds to lick the blood off of Shirou's finger in a way that made the audience surprisingly laugh (looks like everyone in the audience had a dirty mind).
The next morning, Shirou and Sakura make breakfast together, behaving in a matter akin to a cute couple living together shortly after getting married. The two then sit down and eat their meal. They ask the person across from them if they are going to eat: said person turns out to be Rider sitting directly across from them in a dignified manner. There is an awkward silence when we learn Rider is the person they are talking to, and that gave the audience a good laugh since they didn't expect Rider of all people to be eating with them. Rider tells our two heroes that servants gain energy differently from humans, but Shirou retorts that Saber absolutely LOVED to eat food. Rider then asks Shirou who will he collaborate with now if he wants to defeat Zouken and the Shadow, but she does this while eating her breakfast in a very dignified manner fitting for her personality. Shirou ponders and realizes he can strike an alliance with Illya.
As Shirou departs later that evening to meet Illya, Sakura looks worried seeing him leave. Rider appears before her, and Sakura tells her that she (Sakura) will need to intervene in a way that will prevent Shirou from leaving outside. Sakura has a creepy smile as she states this, fitting for the yandere that she is. Rider then leaves, and what follows is an adaptation of one of the hentai scenes from the original VN: to word it in a way that hints to it without explicitly stating, let's just say it was when Sakura imagined Shirou's bare chest. The ufotable adaptation doesn't explicitly show it to its entirety, but Sakura acts in a way that implies it (mainly the beginning of it).
The next scene shows even more of Sakura being a yandere, once again professing how she will make sure her Senpai won't escape the house again as she stares into a mirror. This time, her eyes look much like a typical yandere's complete with the same creepy smile from a few minutes earlier.
We then see Shirou navigating the winding forrest leading to Einzbern Castle in the evening. He follows one of Illya's alchemy birds briefly, only for it to be knocked down and exploded to reveal one of Zouken's worms. He walks further down until he sees Zouken confronting Illya, with their servants behind them. Illya calls out Zouken for leaving the path their ancestors once strived for when the Holy Grail was first created. Zouken states his goal for achieving eternal life as he temporarily lets his worms escape his body for a bit to rot in front of Illya before bringing the worms back to return to his previous state. It's a pretty disturbing scene, but it communicates quite well how creepy and sinister Zouken is.
The Shadow from the lake then intensifies into full force as Zouken tells Illya that he will take the Holy Grail from the Einzbern now: Saber Alter then appears from the lake, and Berserker does a dramatic jump/lunge toward the Shadow: Saber Alter vs Berserker begins!
First, we had Lancer vs Assassin that made our jaw drop as a high speed chase and clinging blades ensued. Then, we had Archer vs Rider as we saw how chilling Medusa is when she demonstrates her petrifying and haunting powers. Now, we have Saber Alter and Berserker clashing in a way that resembles two Superman-like figures duking it out in battle. Sounds intense, right? Now, imagine ufotable animating that scene for the big screen! What do you get? The best animated fight sequence out of all the Fate anime adaptations released so far!
The explosions, the clashing blades, the shadow clenching Heracles like tomorrow when it ensnares him, I could go on and on. The choreography of this battle was absolutely on point (and so is the music)! Perhaps my favorite of the aspect about the fight is that it shows just how strong Heracles really is! Honestly, I think it does a much better job showing just how powerful Heracles's Thirteen Labors NP looks like!
Ever wondered how it would look like when Heracles was fried by Goetia's NP in FGO, only to come back thanks to his personal Craft Essence? Well, you get the perfect visual here! We see Heracles's body getting burned to the bone, his body getting a deep and heavy sword wound over most of his chest that looked more brutal than a similar wound in UBW, his body getting melted, you get the point. You can name just about every grizzly corpse that just screams "There's no way he is coming back from this!" Each of those times, we see Heracles getting resurrected from such brutal deaths inflicted by Saber Alter's deaths thanks to his Thirteen Labors, and it's just just shocking yet amazing to watch!
Of course, with each time he is resurrected, we see how he breaks the odds and demonstrates just how strong he really is. He isn't just swaying his giant axe at Saber at every opportunity. He is also grabbing her face and throwing her great distances and even escaping the binds of the Shadow when it tries to capture him. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment we see of Heracles is when he hurls a massive chunk of the castle tower and Saber Alter with incredible force, and he even manages to carry said tower with just one arm. Saber Alter survives this, showing just how overpowered she is as well. The way how ufotable portrayed that entire scene of Heracles using the castle tower against her was absolutely amazing! Even the explosions were well portrayed in a way that were flashy without being too distracting and delivering just the right awe to make your jaw-drop seeing two of the strongest servants in Fate/Stay Night duking it out against each other.
The fight eventually culminates with Saber Alter firing her Excalibur Morgan NP at Heracles to finish him off. As she prepares the attack, her voice is muted as she utters the phrase, perhaps to not heighten the mystery and suspense regarding who Saber Alter is (though it is obvious she is Artoria). When Heracles gets the main blunt of Excalibur Morgan, the screen turns to white in a way that resembles the famous Siegfried vs Karna fight from Fate/Apocrypha when Karna was about to execute his ultimate NP. We eventually see Heracles fried and mangled body half-submerged into the lake, indicating his defeat upon receiving Saber Alter's ultimate attack.
Of course, while this is going on, the fight between Archer and Assassin also takes place. It was another very well animated fight. We have a beautiful shot of Archer firing multiple arrows at Hassan while flying through the air until eventually pining him down to the ground only for the Shadow's tentacles to come to Hassan's aid and distract Archer. Another major highlight of the highlight of the fight was when Archer managed to cut Hassan's mask. Hassan's dialogue was also nice, mainly that he know sounded more like he does in FGO rather than talking high pitched for most of the first movie, indicating he is getting more and more human-like traits with each victim he devours.
The movie also replicates this famous moment from the VN quite perfectly, but with Saber's mask over her face. The mask cracks, and we see fall to pieces (it cracked from one of Heracles's attacks). Shirou reacts with horror as we get another shot of Saber Alter, this time revealing her eyes and thus revealing she is a corrupted Artoria. Artoria then departs, telling Hassan to take care of the rest.
Once Hassan is defeated, Archer, Rin, Ilya, and Shirou are left to confront the Shadow, which begins to mess up Archer in ways that are unspeakable and heartbreaking. He even tries to use the Rho Aias shield, but even that can't stop the attack. The explosion ends up knocking out Rin and blowing off Shirou's left arm. What follows is Emiya giving Rin his goodbye and approaching Shirou to give him his arm as Illy starts to grieve.
The ufotable adaptation ended up giving Archer's demise quite a glorified scene; that is, the VN never really gave much focus to Archer dying compared to here. We see Archer's hairstyle returning to that of Shirou's following the big explosion with most of his red cloak torn up. He rolls up a sleeve as he approaches Shirou and tells Rin that it's farewell. Rider appears to discourage Archer from doing it, but he continues walking. We see Archer dig his blade into left arm before fading to black.
We then see Shirou waking up, and Rin telling him about it. Turns out they cut out that entire scene from the VN where Shirou wakes up in the Church to find Emiya's arm has replaced his arm, Kirei then telling him about the operation, and Illya crying out in relief that Shirou is fine. Cutting out more Kirei and Illya moments? Kinda hurts to be honest.
We still see Shirou struggle with the arm, most notably in one scene where he is taking a bath and thinks about taking off the bandages, only to receive an overwhelming magic circuit that shocks him and causes the water in the bath to overflow. Pretty intense stuff!
Prior to this, there's also a scene where Rin checks on Shirou's arm, and then she tells him about how she first saw him. Sakura hears all of this from the outside, and she begins to cry realizing that Rin also saw Shirou that same fateful day. There's even a nice scene transition where Sakura is shown crying from the memory of how she first seen Shirou despite the truth that she didn't; her grief is stemmed from her belief that Rin is taking away her most precious memory of first seeing Shirou, thus fueling her (Sakura's) yandere nature even further.
Following the scene where Shirou tries to take off the bandages on his arm, he is confronted by Rider on the way to his room. This is ufotable's adaptaiton of the scene where Rider asks him why he wants to protect Sakura, only here, it's just Rider telling him that she cares a lot for Sakura. Shirou then does some tool searching in his room, only for Sakura to walk in, undress herself to the point she only wears her bra and underpants, and then hugs Shirou from behind. It isn't long before the two proceed to make love and profess their love for each other.
Yep, you heard that right: ufotable adapted one of the hentai scenes from the original VN, albeit with anything explicit shown. To be honest, I was surprised to see the audience being respectful and not laughing when "that" scene unfolded, especially considering they laughed seeing Sakura seductively suck the blood off Shirou's finger earlier into the movie. Well, it's two characters expressing their love and affection for each other from the bond they developed over the course of the two movies, so I'm glad to see some maturity from the audience for that particular moment.
The next morning, Shirou and Sakura give each other a cute glance and blush while talking awkwardly during breakfast, fitting considering what they did the night prior. Shirou also helps Sakura gain the courage to interact with Rin by helping her with breakfast, and what follows is Rin being a tsundere and acting awkward as Sakura volunteers to help. Afterwards, Sakura thanks Shirou for helping her being able to confidently address Rin as her older sister again. Cute stuff!
We soon see Kirei opening the Church doors, talking about how he must now make a blessing. Sitting at one of the Church pews, Gilgamesh inquires Kirei about the blessing, to which he tells them the Holy Grail will emerge soon and that he must prepare for it.
This is about it for the Kirei and Gilgamesh dialogue we get here, very sadly. We don't even have the dialogue where Kirei discusses his backstory and his past with his wife. Yet again, it feels like Kirei got shafted in this adaptation despite the fact HF is considered to be where he has most of his spotlight. At least a little bit regarding Kirei's backstory would have been nice. Well, maybe they will incorporate that for the third movie, but we'll see.
We eventually see Sakura traveling through some kind of fantasy-like land interacting with characters and creatures that look they come from a fairy tale. She's also dressed like a princess. As it turns out, it's the dream sequence Sakura has later into the route, but unlike the VN where it depicted with horror and terror, the dream looks a lot happier. Sakura even talks about what's going on in a manner like she is quoting a children's poem. The visuals were rather nice for that scene. I was even reminded of the glowing mushroom-like forrest similar to something out of a fairy book that appears in the Galar region and is supposedly where the probable Fairy gym/stadium will be located (I even joked to myself that maybe Sakura will be the Gym Leader for that Galar region in the Sword and Shield games as I watched that).
The dream abruptly transitions to Gilgamesh standing in the middle of a dark alleyway as he questions Sakura's childish behavior. The candy that Sakura was eating from the dream turns out to be a human finger n real-life, which she drops as the Shadow proceeds to devour it. Sakura also has yandere-like eyes as she stares at Gilgamesh, and she reaches out as if she is still in the dream... only to have Gilgamesh cut her arm off. He then proceeds to pelt Sakura's body over and over until she is on the ground, dead and bloodied. As he approaches Sakura, he leans forward... only to learn his left leg has been cut off from his body! Gil angrily berates Sakura for making "a king like him kneel" and proceeds to unleash his Gate of Babylon. The NP does nothing as the Shadow releases holes that nullify the swords.
Sakura then comes back to life, and the Shadow reveals itself from the wall behind her. Gilgamesh is awestruck. As he comments on the sight, the scene abruptly changes to Sakura doing a chomping motion with her mouth as the camera zooms out to reveal all of Gilgamesh has been devoured except for his other leg (which melts into the Shadow underneath). The Shadow expands behind Sakura and it eventually reveals throughout places in the city, causes blackouts in the areas it shows up in. The entire scene of Sakura vs Gilgamesh following the Shadow's appearances throughout the city was also a highlight of the movie for me, as it captures the moment Sakura is revealed to be the Shadow quite perfectly in a way that delivers shivers!
Shirou and Rin eventually find Sakura all bloodied by the doorstep, so they take her in for her to recover. Shirou begins to have dreams that night where he sees his Hero of Justice version about to execute Sakura, once again serving to question the path he is taking.
The scene where Shirou and Illya walk down the street together is shown shortly after, but it is only shown without dialogue as music plays over it. Kinda hurts having another really cute Illya scene from the VN shafted. Her German singing was quite cute from what I remember!
On the bright side (regarding nice character moments), we also have a scene where Shinji angrily knocks down Sakura's books in her room as he expresses his frustration over Shirou taking Sakura away from him, even going as laughing like a madman. Whether h was laughing as a coping mechanism or because he really is that sadistic, ufotable has done quite a good job showing his descent into detestable territory from everything that has happened to him up until this point, preparing for his most despicable act to come.
Back to our heroes, Illya walks into Sakura's room to ask her regarding what she sees with those that she holds dear. Fujimura eventually walks in, forcing Illya to hide from behind the door. Fujimura ends up being the one to give Sakura that wisdom, telling her about how Kiritsugu often left his home and traveled abroad as if to meet someone important (complete with flashbacks of young Fujimaru interacting with Kiritsugu as he left for those trips) until the day he no longer had the ability to move freely. Illya hears all of this and has quite the surprised face; it's as if she has learned her father really did love her even after betraying the Einzberns at the end of the Holy Grail War, not like what her grandfather manipulated her to think. Her change of heart is even more clear now.
Later on, Shirou eventually has a nightmare where he sees his Hero of Justice self behead Sakura (which is uncensored) on top of a hill as he is powerless to stop it. It serves to bring the moral dilemma that trying to save Sakura means that he will sacrifice everyone else and thus cause the end of the world, which goes against what Kiritsugu raised him to believe and act. He wakes up to find Cursed Arm Hassan standing outside his bedroom door to inform him that Zouken would like to speak with him. Thus, Shirou goes to the Matou mansion in the middle of the night to meet with Zouken in a greenroom. To his surprise, Zouken asks him to eliminate the Shadow, but he goes on to enforce the notion that Sakura must die after a certain number of days if he doesn't want doom and gloom to really come about.
The next morning, Shirou asks Sakura where would she like to take him once the Holy Grail War ends, to which she says she'd like to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. The two pinky-swear.
It all culminates that night where Shirou tucks Sakura into bed that night, then proceeds to grab a knife so that he can murder her in her sleep. He struggles to drive the blade downward though. A montage of every meaningful interaction the two characters had starts playing while Sakura's dialogue from those scenes play. Bits and pieces of Shirou's memories of Kiritsugu also play during the montage, and Sakura's dialogue eventually drones out to just repeated "Senpais."
We now see tears beginning to trickle down Shirou's face as he slowly lowers the blade towards himself. He can't kill Sakura. She has become the most precious person to him. The high amount of his memories of her flooding over his memories of Kiritsugu indicates this. It even indicates that he has become more willing to do everything to protect the woman that he loves than to stick with his Hero of Justice philosophy. Ufotable simply nailed Shirou's characterization here, from his painful reaction to the choreography with how his grief comes about. Even Shirou's VA captures Shirou's grief perfectly! Definitely the most emotional moment in the movie that really makes you feel for our protagonist.
The next morning, Sakura leaves the Emiya household, leaving behind the keys to the place while having an inner monologue expression his gratitude to Shirou and Fujimura. As she leaves, Rider questions her decision, but Sakura then uses her final Command Spell to have Rider not harm Shirou and protect him at all costs. She then moves back to the Matou household, which Shirou horrifyingly learns soon after and begins to run there.
As Sakura moves back into her room inside the Matou household, Shinji confronts her for how she left him in Shirou's favor, and what follows is that infamous scene from the VN. Most of Shinji's extent to what he is doing to her is shown off screen (as in, the groping and the clothe- tearing is not shown screenn), but you can see their leg movement and hear Sakura's screams plus Shinji's laughter as Sakura struggles to free herself. Of course, there's also the moment where Shinji threatens he will tell Shirou about all the intercourses he has had with Sakura to really grind her gears.
For the entirety of the scene, we see Sakura's portrayal as a sexual assault portrayed quite fittingly by ufotable, from her dead silence following Shinji slapping her in the face to her traumatized facial expression as Shinji knocks her onto the bed. Even the way Sakura's VA delivers Sakura's monologue while this is going on communicated her character quite well.
It all culminates with the scene where Sakura uses the Shadow to kill Shinji. Instead of being a poke to the forehead like in the VN, it's more like a small spear going through Shinji's head from temple to temple. A satisfying moment to see the monster that is Shinji killed, but it still doesn't top Heracles bludgeoning Shinji to death like what happened in the Fate route.
What ultimately follows is the scene where Dark Sakura awakens, and it's there the movie ends. The way how those shadow figures (I forgot their name, but they appear during the final battle in HF) first appear as they dance around Shinji's dead was rather unsettling, and their paper-like appearance as they pranced helps with that feeling (it looked jarring the first time I watched it, but awkward animation is often utilized to create unsettling feelings for the viewers if it is done well, which I think ufotable is going for).
So in all:
Pros:
-Ufotable at it again with that awesome animation
-Yuki Kajiura's music adding perfectly to the emotions from what is going on.
-Some great symbolism and metaphors during the first Sakura dream sequence.
-Awesome cinematography and choreography that heightened the deliver of key scenes, from action scenes like Archer vs Rider to emotional moments like Shirou's dilemma regarding whether or not he should kill Sakura
-Shirou continuing to be a great protagonist here, with some great scenes that really communicate his struggle and reactions to the events going on
-Sakura's portrayal in this movie was quite good overall, even if I'm neutral about her character
-Shinji's portrayal that only made me feel even stronger hatred toward him in a good way that fits his role as a love to hate villain
-Illya being very cute that fits her quite well
-Archer vs Rider, particularly the Eye of Goron and Mystic Eyes of Petrification scenes that PERFECTLY demonstrate just what Medusa is capable of!
-Arguably the best fight sequence out of any Fate anime ever in the form of Saber Alter vs Berserker
Cons:
-Kirei and Illya getting shafted hard by having their scenes either briefly shown or having some of their key scenes removed entirely (or in one of Illya's cases, reordering the events surrounding Shirou accepting Sakura for who she is that removes the emotional impact of arguably her biggest scene).
-Zouken being Zouken (still feels shallow as a villain, but in terms of the creepiness factor, the scene of him rotting in front of Illya was great in communicating that).
I'd give this movie somewhere between a 9/10 to a 10/10. I enjoyed it that much
Sakura walks in and the two then proceed to have breakfast. During it, Sakura expresses her relief that Shirou won't have to go out every night from now on (Sakura being shady, huh), but Shirou replies that he didn't go out every night because of Saber: he did so out of his own volition, and he admits that now that Saber is gone, he will probably be heading out every night more frequently. Sakura is shocked hearing this.
After the opening sequence, we see Shirou looking at a map as he identifies the landmarks where the Shadow attacked and thus Zouken's possible whereabouts. He then receives some thrown snowballs to the face, where it is revealed that Illya was responsible for them. The two then sit on a picnic table as we see Illya make some small snowmen. Shirou seems confused and thus acts in a way to show cooperating with her is a bad idea since they are both technically enemies, but Illya doesn't seem to mind. She even inquires for a name and tackles Shirou in a cute way (they even adapted that particular cutesy moment of Illya "flying in the air" for that moment; it looked awkward, but it fits well for a short little comedic moment). No, seriously, Illya is just really cute thoughout this entire scene! Ufotable captured her charming cuteness quite well in her appearance and her playful attitude to Shirou here, as well as her giggling as she tackles him on the bench.
The two eventually casually sit next to each other as they do some friendly talk. Illya quietly leaves once Shirou asks her if she knew someone named Kiritsugu. Triggered, lllya? Can't blame you.
Shirou is eventually invited by Rin over at her place for tea and to strategize for what's coming next. When Shirou arrives at Rin's room, Rin tells Archer to prepare tea from outside. While that is going on, Shirou notices the picture of child Rin: strangely, child Rin's face looks practically identical to Sakura's but with blue eyes. I thought maybe that could've been child Sakura from an earlier time where she grew out her hair and wore pigtails like Rin, but when I look back at it, it could've easily been Rin after all her face proportioned better to give the close resemblance to Sakura to hint that eventual plot twist.
When Rin walks in with the tea and Shirou tries to compare the Rin he currently sees with the Rin from the picture, we cut to child Sakura sitting in a train at dusk. Here, Sakura looks exactly like she did in Fate/Zero. The train starts moving, and we see another train behind her with child Rin and her parents (Tokiomi's face is shadowed, while Rin and her mother are viewed from behind). Rin seems to be jumping and trying to talk to her mother, and while we can't see her face, she looks rather distressed. I initially interpreted this as the moment Tokiomi left Sakura behind for the Matous, but as it turns out, it's another dream sequence. Sakura tries to run after her sisters and parents as the two trains start moving apart from each other, but she eventually falls and sees ants carrying a dead butterfly before the train she is in becomes infested with the Matou worms. Then, Sakura wakes up, revealing it was a nightmare she had.
I really liked this scene for the metaphors that were present. Child Sakura sitting on the train opposite to her biological family as it moved in the opposite direction does a nice job symbolizing the moment her life changed for the worse, and her despair as she tried to run after the opposing train only highlights how much of negative impact it had on her. I interpreted the ants carrying the dead butterfly as symbolic of the Matous taking Sakura away from her biological family: the ants are the Matous, and Sakura is the dead butterfly. The beautiful butterfly not turned into a lifeless, dull corpse represents Sakura well as a bright and happy girl now turned gloomy as she is taken away by the Matous. It's like "lost butterfly" from the title could be referring to it!
Sakura then leaves the house. Shirou and Rin return to his place, and he gets a call. Shirou runs out of the house in a hurry while a perplexed Rin watches him. By this point, it's only been about 5-7 minutes into the movie, and the writers know it is time to get the audience entranced!
As it turns out, Shirou ran to the school where he sees Shinji holding Sakura hostage with a knife at her throat (he lured Sakura into the school and called Shirou to tell him that he has Sakura). This is where the entire sequence of Rider vs Shirou, and eventually, Archer vs Rider takes place. Shinji tells Rider to give Shirou "a little pain." Before proceeding to beat the tar out of Shirou, Rider warns him that it wouldn't be wise for him to go up against her now that he has no servant. Shirou disregards the warning and proceeds to take the beatings from Rider while trying to hide behind the book shelfs as Sakura watches in despair (and Shinji watches in amusement). Once Rider locates Shirou after knocking over a large book shelf, Shinji orders her to kill him. Rider holds Shirou up and tells him that he won the fight for being able to endure so long, so she knees him in the gut one more time.
As Shirou flies through the air, the sequence from the trailer kicks in where the camera slows down as Shirou turns to Shinji with an angry expression, and then he lunges onto him. We eventually see that he knocked Shinji away and bloodily grasps the knife on his right hand. Sakura is horrified seeing Shirou in this state, but Shirou tells her not to worry as he will protect her. Angered to see how attached Sakura is to Shirou, he then orders Rider to kill Shirou using his Command Spell book. As Rider goes in for the kill, Archer and Rin arrive on the scene b breaking through the window. The way how the two are portrayed in their arrival is akin to the UBW scene where Archer and Rin jump through the skyscrapers after Rin breaks her alliance with Shirou halfway into the route, and so here, it just looks badass! The camera even slows down the moment the two characters break through the glass!
What follows is Archer bodying Rider as if the latter is a noob while Shinji watches in disbelief. The audience had a pretty good laugh the moment Shinji turned around in shock (and so did I), which reminded me of a similar scene from the first movie where Saber bodied Rider very quickly in their first duel together. Shinji then angrily orders Rider to get up using his Command Spell book as Rider screams in pain. Sakura screams as well, begging her brother to stop. It is around this moment that Shinji's book burns up, and what follows is a BRUTAL and SATISFYING roast by Rin regarding how the Matou bloodline has lost the ability to produce magecraft and hence why they needed to find other people to do their work for them, hence revealing the shocking twist: that Sakura is Rider's real master!
Shinji has a breakdown that Hiroshi Kamiya nails very nicely! You can really feel the pain and frustration Shinji is going through as he is hammered by that fact regarding the Matous' downfall and how Sakura is fit to be Rider's master because she has the aptitude for magecraft and not him. Of course, he is not out of tricks just yet. He pulls out a gem that he breaks with a pinch, causing that same gem that Sakura wears as an earring to break and thus triggering some strange dark explosions as she collapses to the ground and begins to panic. Shinji casually walks out, as if to leave our heroes to deal with this mess themselves.
Archer and Rider then duel with each other once more. Archer comments how Rider continues to be twisted for continuing to fight on like this, but Rider retorts that she is only protecting Sakura. What follows is one of the most epic scenes in the movie: Rider activating her Eye of Gorgon Noble Phantasm to era the school in a Reality Marble and immobilize Shirou and Rin. The way how the NP was activated was just astounding: it's way better portrayed here then in the UBW anime, going all out in giving that dramatic "oomph" as the red barrier permeates throughout the school until the eye awakens in the sky above. I really felt just how powerful the Eye of Goron is here compared to how it played out in the UBW anime, but I guess part of the reason could be the movie quality (and perhaps the fact Rider's full power is delivered in HF compared to UBW).
Sakura begs for Rider to stop because she doesn't want her Senpai to be hurt, but Rider still persists regardless. She then takes off her eyeband and uses her Mystic Eyes of Petrification! If you thought the Eye of Gorgon scene was intense, wait until you see how ufotable adapted Rider's Mystic Eyes! The lighting captures her silver eyes quite nicely as we see Archer turning to stone from the feet up in a pretty disturbing fashion. Even Shirou and Rin start to turn to stone starting from their hands and feet!
What follows is a chilling scene of Rider's eyes glowing purple, her hair flowing up and moving in a fashion similar to snakes, and her entire body shadowed. You are standing in the presence of the great Medusa from Greek mythology, and this moment is portrayed so beautifully yet so perfectly it really feels like you encountered Medusa in person! Shirou's POV perspective of his hands and feet turning to stone only heighten that feeling!
One of the dark explosions is about to hit Rin, but Shirou manages to move with every once of strength to to get the blunt of the attack on his gut. Sakura is horrified seeing this, and consequently uses the subsequent dark explosions to pine her instead.
There is a dramatic cut in to black as Sakura is pierced, with the next scene abruptly cutting to Shirou waking up in the Church to notice that he is still alive but still has blood on his shirt and a bandage around his stomach where he got the blunt of the attack. Rin calls to him when Kirei appears. Kirei then tells him how he (Kirei) had to use all of his Arm Crests to restore Sakura to full health, and he tells Shirou about the Matou warms that violate Sakura. Shirou feels so disturbed hearing about what the worms do to Sakura that he eventually gives an angry shout to stop (can't blame considering that's some pretty dark stuff that's happening to Sakura). Rin then talks about her truce to Shirou to Kirei, to which Kirei understands as he eventually drops the bombshell that Sakura is her biological sister, so it's natural for her to feel that way.
The three notice that Sakura has fled from her bed, and remembering Kirei's words about how they'll have to make sure Sakura can't be on her own, Shirou pursues her. He runs into Illya on the way where he asks her about who he wants to protect. As Shirou stands confused and somewhat upset, Illya pats her on the hand and drops the "Shirou no mikata" line to profess her allegiance to Shirou's cause . She also tells him that it's only natural for him to chase after the one he loves to protect her. What follows is the eventual Shirou-running-into-Sakura scene from the VN where he states his "Sakura no mikata" line as he hugs Sakura and tells her that he understands Sakura is a bad person and he completely accepts her. The two are then scene holding hands as they walk by Rin and Archer. Archer then states his line questioning Shirou's ideals and whether or not he will chose to stick with them.
So here's the thing about the sequence of those three scenes: they were re-ordered. In the VN, first came Archer questioning Shirou, then was Illya professing her allegiance to Shirou, and then came the Sakura hug scene. Archer's questioning rattles Shirou in a way that causes him to snap and break down in tears when Illya runs into him, and seeing Shirou in grief is what leads to her head-patting him and telling him she'll support no matter what he does. Shirou then gains the courage to confront Sakura.
To be honest, I like how the VN ordered these events better. When Archer questioned Shirou, it was in quite a critical way that made Shirou realize he's going to become quite different rom the person he strived to be for so long, and so Illya being kind and understanding to him (and how it contradicts the way he expected her to react considering that it seemed like the whole world was against him after hearing Archer's words) was what made him snap and burst into tears. In fact, that particular moment in the VN made me very emotional the first time I read it, and it was sold me on Illya being best girl of Fate/Stay Night (not counting Saber) and the Heaven's Feel route. Seeing Shirou cry and Illya reaching out to him like that delivered the feels really well! Here in the movie, I didn't feel the same way because Shirou doesn't snap and breakdown the way that he did in the VN, and I think the Archer scene being moved to the end of this particular sequence is the reason why. This, to me, is one example of my issue regarding how the VN seems to shaft a certain character's moment hard: in this case, Illya's defining moment when she aligns with Shirou.
On the bright side, I LOVED the cinematography during the Sakura hug scene. As Shirou gets closer to Sakura, the camera slows down and uses CG really well to capture's Shirou's movement quite nicely as he professes of Sakura for who she is, even going as far as making the CG flow with the puddle in a way that makes the moment the splash following from Shirou stepping on it look realistic. The music was also fantastic during this moment, as a slow and emotional Yuki Kaji song played throughout the entirety. Sakura's VA also portrayed her Sakura quite well here, with Sakura behaving in a way that fits her personality as a victim of sexual assault.
What follows is a scene where Shirou and Sakura are back at Shirou's place as Sakura seemingly requests him to do the "big act" as the audience giggled to think of what it implied, but instead, we see Shirou cutting his finger to have blood drip. Sakura then proceeds to lick the blood off of Shirou's finger in a way that made the audience surprisingly laugh (looks like everyone in the audience had a dirty mind).
The next morning, Shirou and Sakura make breakfast together, behaving in a matter akin to a cute couple living together shortly after getting married. The two then sit down and eat their meal. They ask the person across from them if they are going to eat: said person turns out to be Rider sitting directly across from them in a dignified manner. There is an awkward silence when we learn Rider is the person they are talking to, and that gave the audience a good laugh since they didn't expect Rider of all people to be eating with them. Rider tells our two heroes that servants gain energy differently from humans, but Shirou retorts that Saber absolutely LOVED to eat food. Rider then asks Shirou who will he collaborate with now if he wants to defeat Zouken and the Shadow, but she does this while eating her breakfast in a very dignified manner fitting for her personality. Shirou ponders and realizes he can strike an alliance with Illya.
As Shirou departs later that evening to meet Illya, Sakura looks worried seeing him leave. Rider appears before her, and Sakura tells her that she (Sakura) will need to intervene in a way that will prevent Shirou from leaving outside. Sakura has a creepy smile as she states this, fitting for the yandere that she is. Rider then leaves, and what follows is an adaptation of one of the hentai scenes from the original VN: to word it in a way that hints to it without explicitly stating, let's just say it was when Sakura imagined Shirou's bare chest. The ufotable adaptation doesn't explicitly show it to its entirety, but Sakura acts in a way that implies it (mainly the beginning of it).
The next scene shows even more of Sakura being a yandere, once again professing how she will make sure her Senpai won't escape the house again as she stares into a mirror. This time, her eyes look much like a typical yandere's complete with the same creepy smile from a few minutes earlier.
We then see Shirou navigating the winding forrest leading to Einzbern Castle in the evening. He follows one of Illya's alchemy birds briefly, only for it to be knocked down and exploded to reveal one of Zouken's worms. He walks further down until he sees Zouken confronting Illya, with their servants behind them. Illya calls out Zouken for leaving the path their ancestors once strived for when the Holy Grail was first created. Zouken states his goal for achieving eternal life as he temporarily lets his worms escape his body for a bit to rot in front of Illya before bringing the worms back to return to his previous state. It's a pretty disturbing scene, but it communicates quite well how creepy and sinister Zouken is.
The Shadow from the lake then intensifies into full force as Zouken tells Illya that he will take the Holy Grail from the Einzbern now: Saber Alter then appears from the lake, and Berserker does a dramatic jump/lunge toward the Shadow: Saber Alter vs Berserker begins!
First, we had Lancer vs Assassin that made our jaw drop as a high speed chase and clinging blades ensued. Then, we had Archer vs Rider as we saw how chilling Medusa is when she demonstrates her petrifying and haunting powers. Now, we have Saber Alter and Berserker clashing in a way that resembles two Superman-like figures duking it out in battle. Sounds intense, right? Now, imagine ufotable animating that scene for the big screen! What do you get? The best animated fight sequence out of all the Fate anime adaptations released so far!
The explosions, the clashing blades, the shadow clenching Heracles like tomorrow when it ensnares him, I could go on and on. The choreography of this battle was absolutely on point (and so is the music)! Perhaps my favorite of the aspect about the fight is that it shows just how strong Heracles really is! Honestly, I think it does a much better job showing just how powerful Heracles's Thirteen Labors NP looks like!
Ever wondered how it would look like when Heracles was fried by Goetia's NP in FGO, only to come back thanks to his personal Craft Essence? Well, you get the perfect visual here! We see Heracles's body getting burned to the bone, his body getting a deep and heavy sword wound over most of his chest that looked more brutal than a similar wound in UBW, his body getting melted, you get the point. You can name just about every grizzly corpse that just screams "There's no way he is coming back from this!" Each of those times, we see Heracles getting resurrected from such brutal deaths inflicted by Saber Alter's deaths thanks to his Thirteen Labors, and it's just just shocking yet amazing to watch!
Of course, with each time he is resurrected, we see how he breaks the odds and demonstrates just how strong he really is. He isn't just swaying his giant axe at Saber at every opportunity. He is also grabbing her face and throwing her great distances and even escaping the binds of the Shadow when it tries to capture him. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment we see of Heracles is when he hurls a massive chunk of the castle tower and Saber Alter with incredible force, and he even manages to carry said tower with just one arm. Saber Alter survives this, showing just how overpowered she is as well. The way how ufotable portrayed that entire scene of Heracles using the castle tower against her was absolutely amazing! Even the explosions were well portrayed in a way that were flashy without being too distracting and delivering just the right awe to make your jaw-drop seeing two of the strongest servants in Fate/Stay Night duking it out against each other.
The fight eventually culminates with Saber Alter firing her Excalibur Morgan NP at Heracles to finish him off. As she prepares the attack, her voice is muted as she utters the phrase, perhaps to not heighten the mystery and suspense regarding who Saber Alter is (though it is obvious she is Artoria). When Heracles gets the main blunt of Excalibur Morgan, the screen turns to white in a way that resembles the famous Siegfried vs Karna fight from Fate/Apocrypha when Karna was about to execute his ultimate NP. We eventually see Heracles fried and mangled body half-submerged into the lake, indicating his defeat upon receiving Saber Alter's ultimate attack.
Of course, while this is going on, the fight between Archer and Assassin also takes place. It was another very well animated fight. We have a beautiful shot of Archer firing multiple arrows at Hassan while flying through the air until eventually pining him down to the ground only for the Shadow's tentacles to come to Hassan's aid and distract Archer. Another major highlight of the highlight of the fight was when Archer managed to cut Hassan's mask. Hassan's dialogue was also nice, mainly that he know sounded more like he does in FGO rather than talking high pitched for most of the first movie, indicating he is getting more and more human-like traits with each victim he devours.
The movie also replicates this famous moment from the VN quite perfectly, but with Saber's mask over her face. The mask cracks, and we see fall to pieces (it cracked from one of Heracles's attacks). Shirou reacts with horror as we get another shot of Saber Alter, this time revealing her eyes and thus revealing she is a corrupted Artoria. Artoria then departs, telling Hassan to take care of the rest.
Once Hassan is defeated, Archer, Rin, Ilya, and Shirou are left to confront the Shadow, which begins to mess up Archer in ways that are unspeakable and heartbreaking. He even tries to use the Rho Aias shield, but even that can't stop the attack. The explosion ends up knocking out Rin and blowing off Shirou's left arm. What follows is Emiya giving Rin his goodbye and approaching Shirou to give him his arm as Illy starts to grieve.
The ufotable adaptation ended up giving Archer's demise quite a glorified scene; that is, the VN never really gave much focus to Archer dying compared to here. We see Archer's hairstyle returning to that of Shirou's following the big explosion with most of his red cloak torn up. He rolls up a sleeve as he approaches Shirou and tells Rin that it's farewell. Rider appears to discourage Archer from doing it, but he continues walking. We see Archer dig his blade into left arm before fading to black.
We then see Shirou waking up, and Rin telling him about it. Turns out they cut out that entire scene from the VN where Shirou wakes up in the Church to find Emiya's arm has replaced his arm, Kirei then telling him about the operation, and Illya crying out in relief that Shirou is fine. Cutting out more Kirei and Illya moments? Kinda hurts to be honest.
We still see Shirou struggle with the arm, most notably in one scene where he is taking a bath and thinks about taking off the bandages, only to receive an overwhelming magic circuit that shocks him and causes the water in the bath to overflow. Pretty intense stuff!
Prior to this, there's also a scene where Rin checks on Shirou's arm, and then she tells him about how she first saw him. Sakura hears all of this from the outside, and she begins to cry realizing that Rin also saw Shirou that same fateful day. There's even a nice scene transition where Sakura is shown crying from the memory of how she first seen Shirou despite the truth that she didn't; her grief is stemmed from her belief that Rin is taking away her most precious memory of first seeing Shirou, thus fueling her (Sakura's) yandere nature even further.
Following the scene where Shirou tries to take off the bandages on his arm, he is confronted by Rider on the way to his room. This is ufotable's adaptaiton of the scene where Rider asks him why he wants to protect Sakura, only here, it's just Rider telling him that she cares a lot for Sakura. Shirou then does some tool searching in his room, only for Sakura to walk in, undress herself to the point she only wears her bra and underpants, and then hugs Shirou from behind. It isn't long before the two proceed to make love and profess their love for each other.
Yep, you heard that right: ufotable adapted one of the hentai scenes from the original VN, albeit with anything explicit shown. To be honest, I was surprised to see the audience being respectful and not laughing when "that" scene unfolded, especially considering they laughed seeing Sakura seductively suck the blood off Shirou's finger earlier into the movie. Well, it's two characters expressing their love and affection for each other from the bond they developed over the course of the two movies, so I'm glad to see some maturity from the audience for that particular moment.
The next morning, Shirou and Sakura give each other a cute glance and blush while talking awkwardly during breakfast, fitting considering what they did the night prior. Shirou also helps Sakura gain the courage to interact with Rin by helping her with breakfast, and what follows is Rin being a tsundere and acting awkward as Sakura volunteers to help. Afterwards, Sakura thanks Shirou for helping her being able to confidently address Rin as her older sister again. Cute stuff!
We soon see Kirei opening the Church doors, talking about how he must now make a blessing. Sitting at one of the Church pews, Gilgamesh inquires Kirei about the blessing, to which he tells them the Holy Grail will emerge soon and that he must prepare for it.
This is about it for the Kirei and Gilgamesh dialogue we get here, very sadly. We don't even have the dialogue where Kirei discusses his backstory and his past with his wife. Yet again, it feels like Kirei got shafted in this adaptation despite the fact HF is considered to be where he has most of his spotlight. At least a little bit regarding Kirei's backstory would have been nice. Well, maybe they will incorporate that for the third movie, but we'll see.
We eventually see Sakura traveling through some kind of fantasy-like land interacting with characters and creatures that look they come from a fairy tale. She's also dressed like a princess. As it turns out, it's the dream sequence Sakura has later into the route, but unlike the VN where it depicted with horror and terror, the dream looks a lot happier. Sakura even talks about what's going on in a manner like she is quoting a children's poem. The visuals were rather nice for that scene. I was even reminded of the glowing mushroom-like forrest similar to something out of a fairy book that appears in the Galar region and is supposedly where the probable Fairy gym/stadium will be located (I even joked to myself that maybe Sakura will be the Gym Leader for that Galar region in the Sword and Shield games as I watched that).
The dream abruptly transitions to Gilgamesh standing in the middle of a dark alleyway as he questions Sakura's childish behavior. The candy that Sakura was eating from the dream turns out to be a human finger n real-life, which she drops as the Shadow proceeds to devour it. Sakura also has yandere-like eyes as she stares at Gilgamesh, and she reaches out as if she is still in the dream... only to have Gilgamesh cut her arm off. He then proceeds to pelt Sakura's body over and over until she is on the ground, dead and bloodied. As he approaches Sakura, he leans forward... only to learn his left leg has been cut off from his body! Gil angrily berates Sakura for making "a king like him kneel" and proceeds to unleash his Gate of Babylon. The NP does nothing as the Shadow releases holes that nullify the swords.
Sakura then comes back to life, and the Shadow reveals itself from the wall behind her. Gilgamesh is awestruck. As he comments on the sight, the scene abruptly changes to Sakura doing a chomping motion with her mouth as the camera zooms out to reveal all of Gilgamesh has been devoured except for his other leg (which melts into the Shadow underneath). The Shadow expands behind Sakura and it eventually reveals throughout places in the city, causes blackouts in the areas it shows up in. The entire scene of Sakura vs Gilgamesh following the Shadow's appearances throughout the city was also a highlight of the movie for me, as it captures the moment Sakura is revealed to be the Shadow quite perfectly in a way that delivers shivers!
Shirou and Rin eventually find Sakura all bloodied by the doorstep, so they take her in for her to recover. Shirou begins to have dreams that night where he sees his Hero of Justice version about to execute Sakura, once again serving to question the path he is taking.
The scene where Shirou and Illya walk down the street together is shown shortly after, but it is only shown without dialogue as music plays over it. Kinda hurts having another really cute Illya scene from the VN shafted. Her German singing was quite cute from what I remember!
On the bright side (regarding nice character moments), we also have a scene where Shinji angrily knocks down Sakura's books in her room as he expresses his frustration over Shirou taking Sakura away from him, even going as laughing like a madman. Whether h was laughing as a coping mechanism or because he really is that sadistic, ufotable has done quite a good job showing his descent into detestable territory from everything that has happened to him up until this point, preparing for his most despicable act to come.
Back to our heroes, Illya walks into Sakura's room to ask her regarding what she sees with those that she holds dear. Fujimura eventually walks in, forcing Illya to hide from behind the door. Fujimura ends up being the one to give Sakura that wisdom, telling her about how Kiritsugu often left his home and traveled abroad as if to meet someone important (complete with flashbacks of young Fujimaru interacting with Kiritsugu as he left for those trips) until the day he no longer had the ability to move freely. Illya hears all of this and has quite the surprised face; it's as if she has learned her father really did love her even after betraying the Einzberns at the end of the Holy Grail War, not like what her grandfather manipulated her to think. Her change of heart is even more clear now.
Later on, Shirou eventually has a nightmare where he sees his Hero of Justice self behead Sakura (which is uncensored) on top of a hill as he is powerless to stop it. It serves to bring the moral dilemma that trying to save Sakura means that he will sacrifice everyone else and thus cause the end of the world, which goes against what Kiritsugu raised him to believe and act. He wakes up to find Cursed Arm Hassan standing outside his bedroom door to inform him that Zouken would like to speak with him. Thus, Shirou goes to the Matou mansion in the middle of the night to meet with Zouken in a greenroom. To his surprise, Zouken asks him to eliminate the Shadow, but he goes on to enforce the notion that Sakura must die after a certain number of days if he doesn't want doom and gloom to really come about.
The next morning, Shirou asks Sakura where would she like to take him once the Holy Grail War ends, to which she says she'd like to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. The two pinky-swear.
It all culminates that night where Shirou tucks Sakura into bed that night, then proceeds to grab a knife so that he can murder her in her sleep. He struggles to drive the blade downward though. A montage of every meaningful interaction the two characters had starts playing while Sakura's dialogue from those scenes play. Bits and pieces of Shirou's memories of Kiritsugu also play during the montage, and Sakura's dialogue eventually drones out to just repeated "Senpais."
We now see tears beginning to trickle down Shirou's face as he slowly lowers the blade towards himself. He can't kill Sakura. She has become the most precious person to him. The high amount of his memories of her flooding over his memories of Kiritsugu indicates this. It even indicates that he has become more willing to do everything to protect the woman that he loves than to stick with his Hero of Justice philosophy. Ufotable simply nailed Shirou's characterization here, from his painful reaction to the choreography with how his grief comes about. Even Shirou's VA captures Shirou's grief perfectly! Definitely the most emotional moment in the movie that really makes you feel for our protagonist.
The next morning, Sakura leaves the Emiya household, leaving behind the keys to the place while having an inner monologue expression his gratitude to Shirou and Fujimura. As she leaves, Rider questions her decision, but Sakura then uses her final Command Spell to have Rider not harm Shirou and protect him at all costs. She then moves back to the Matou household, which Shirou horrifyingly learns soon after and begins to run there.
As Sakura moves back into her room inside the Matou household, Shinji confronts her for how she left him in Shirou's favor, and what follows is that infamous scene from the VN. Most of Shinji's extent to what he is doing to her is shown off screen (as in, the groping and the clothe- tearing is not shown screenn), but you can see their leg movement and hear Sakura's screams plus Shinji's laughter as Sakura struggles to free herself. Of course, there's also the moment where Shinji threatens he will tell Shirou about all the intercourses he has had with Sakura to really grind her gears.
For the entirety of the scene, we see Sakura's portrayal as a sexual assault portrayed quite fittingly by ufotable, from her dead silence following Shinji slapping her in the face to her traumatized facial expression as Shinji knocks her onto the bed. Even the way Sakura's VA delivers Sakura's monologue while this is going on communicated her character quite well.
It all culminates with the scene where Sakura uses the Shadow to kill Shinji. Instead of being a poke to the forehead like in the VN, it's more like a small spear going through Shinji's head from temple to temple. A satisfying moment to see the monster that is Shinji killed, but it still doesn't top Heracles bludgeoning Shinji to death like what happened in the Fate route.
What ultimately follows is the scene where Dark Sakura awakens, and it's there the movie ends. The way how those shadow figures (I forgot their name, but they appear during the final battle in HF) first appear as they dance around Shinji's dead was rather unsettling, and their paper-like appearance as they pranced helps with that feeling (it looked jarring the first time I watched it, but awkward animation is often utilized to create unsettling feelings for the viewers if it is done well, which I think ufotable is going for).
So in all:
Pros:
-Ufotable at it again with that awesome animation
-Yuki Kajiura's music adding perfectly to the emotions from what is going on.
-Some great symbolism and metaphors during the first Sakura dream sequence.
-Awesome cinematography and choreography that heightened the deliver of key scenes, from action scenes like Archer vs Rider to emotional moments like Shirou's dilemma regarding whether or not he should kill Sakura
-Shirou continuing to be a great protagonist here, with some great scenes that really communicate his struggle and reactions to the events going on
-Sakura's portrayal in this movie was quite good overall, even if I'm neutral about her character
-Shinji's portrayal that only made me feel even stronger hatred toward him in a good way that fits his role as a love to hate villain
-Illya being very cute that fits her quite well
-Archer vs Rider, particularly the Eye of Goron and Mystic Eyes of Petrification scenes that PERFECTLY demonstrate just what Medusa is capable of!
-Arguably the best fight sequence out of any Fate anime ever in the form of Saber Alter vs Berserker
Cons:
-Kirei and Illya getting shafted hard by having their scenes either briefly shown or having some of their key scenes removed entirely (or in one of Illya's cases, reordering the events surrounding Shirou accepting Sakura for who she is that removes the emotional impact of arguably her biggest scene).
-Zouken being Zouken (still feels shallow as a villain, but in terms of the creepiness factor, the scene of him rotting in front of Illya was great in communicating that).
I'd give this movie somewhere between a 9/10 to a 10/10. I enjoyed it that much
MSmariosonic
Smash Hero
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Yo
DMC5 is pretty darn good. I'm at mission 11 so I guess I'm halfway through.
DMC5 is pretty darn good. I'm at mission 11 so I guess I'm halfway through.
KMDP
Smash Legend
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D
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Bandai Namco should release another Godzilla console game.
Maybe with a Switch port too.
Maybe with a Switch port too.
Delzethin
Character Concept Creator
Yeah, too early to tell for sure. But it does seem to indicate they're at least open to the idea of additional DLC beyond this wave. If they were hard committed to only doing this wave and that's it, they'd probably have only put in 6 placeholders.
Though DBFZ getting a second wave may indirectly raise its chances...and Sakurai is the type to cram in as much content as possible, has said he thinks Smash is "special" enough to always take priority for him if needed, and has even considered whether to step into more of a consultant role in the long run...
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D
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I just feel like they may try more DLC if the Fighter Pass sells great.
D
Deleted member
Guest
Hello.
Hopefully you are having a good day at the moment.
In my case, I feel tired of a thing that has been happening to me during these past days and wish for a break of it.
Thankfully, it isn't February-levels of awful.
MSmariosonic
Smash Hero
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- Jun 15, 2013
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- 5,856
- Location
- Heaven, as of december 7th
- NNID
- kidtendo1996
- 3DS FC
- 3566-1932-7732
- Switch FC
- SW 0383 4539 4118
general kenobi
Cutie Gwen
Lovely warrior
Smash 4 had place holders too and DBFZ isn't the first game to have multiple seasons as SFV and Tekken 7 both have had multiple seasons already
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