Back to KaiaDesu's Profile KaiaDesu's Profile

Spoiler-free review

I haven't cared much for recent anime titles for 4-5 years, and this really feels like a breath of fresh air. The original Trigun animation was among my first and favorite anime series, and this feels like both a loving tribute, and bold reimagination all at once. Definitely worth a watch!

Animation:

Not typically a fan of CGI animation, and I'm sure most are fairly skeptical of it, but towards the later episodes the necessity of CGI use to make some of the scenes pop the way they did is unquestionable. It's definitely a sludge through the first 4 episodes animation-wise, especially if you're one, like ... myself, who doesn't think CGI is or has ever been much to write home about - however this series changed my opinion of CGI as a whole.
7/10

Story:

A far cry from what I'd expected a Trigun reboot to look like. A lot of the whimsical humor that made the original series stand out is nowhere to be found, and a much more heavy plot replacing a lot of cheap and memorable laughs. The best way I can describe the plot is mildly, yet deservedly, pretentious in the best way possible. 8/10

Characters:

Very well thought out and developed. The pacing to build the various characters and their stories present in this reimagining of trigun is honestly wonderful. Not much I can say without spoiling it, but the character development is a strong selling point

Not a huge fan of how Ufotable took as many liberties with the plot of the source material as they wanted, I should add that the tie-in of both the true and good end from the VN with implied Aozaki family bullshit is actually excellent creative liberty taken by Ufotable.

Overall a bit of what I consider the more important plot points from the VN feel rushed, skimmed, or outright ignored by the film and everything from pre 9LBW to the ending needed 4-5 hours to properly be told, there's only so much that can be done with X amount of budget+screentime and it was ... the best that could be condensed into 2 hours, keeping the attention span of the mouthbreathers who would only watch the adaptation with excessive amounts of flashy combat scenes at bay

The sound design was done very well, and the film should be watched with a subwoofer.

Spoiler-Free Review

In typical Ufotable fashion, the studio has found a way to outdo themselves again. Everything about this was perfectly put together, from the beautiful art that's become a signature of the studio, to the audio quality and voice acting that I feel, as a long-time Type Moon fan, could not have been more spot on.


My only issue arises when I call into question how much the movie sticks to the source material. I personally feel the added detail into the fight scenes detracts from the spirit of the story that this movie was adapted from. ... The excessive fight scene that wasn't VN-canonical felt like an unnecessary time gap that could have been better used on lots of areas they've ignored thus far. Shirou's inner monologue is almost essential for the Heaven's Feel experience and they've nearly ignored it entirely.


Character development should not, now or ever, take backseat to a fight scene and that's exactly what they've done here. It's not lackluster by the standards of the industry, but when you compare it to what I know Ufotable is capable of doing for this entry, and the source material, you'll be left with nothing to write home about.


The positives are the usual suspects. No matter how much Ufotable screws the pooch trying to turn Heaven's Feel into a generic battle shounen, they're adapting a masterpiece that anyone would be hard pressed to find too many issues with.

Overall, still a great movie. I know my review sounds overtly harsh and negative, but I'm holding Heaven's Feel to the standards that the visual novel set, not comparing it to my enjoyment of other anime. This is still far above average and I'd consider HF to be a quintessential part of the Fate/ series, so go give it a watch yourself!

As of writing this review, I've yet to see the other OVA in this series so it may be updated. What you need to know is that this is a great story for any fan of paranormal thriller series, and that despite it's age both the graphics and audio hold up very well, but that's about where it falls off.

A great story with likable characters and a great sense of actual character development despite the shows length, but that's the issue. From what I understand, this was a fairly large manga and the story should ... not have been adapted into so few episodes. It's so rushed it doesn't really hook the viewer and watching it felt forced at parts, but it's definitely worth it at the end.

When I heard about this I really wanted to give it a higher rating, and I feel that my bias towards the genre and older anime in general might be half of why I'm giving it a 7 so take my rating with a grain of salt.