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I will start this review by stating I will avoid major plot spoilers and discuss the events vaguely as to not spoil anything but will discuss character developments;

Firstly, this movie was one of my favourites in the fate series and I am very glad I had the opportunity to see it in theatres. I am a fan of darker and sad stories and this certainly fits right into that genre. While I believe many will be discussing the more heavy focus on sexuality in this film I would like to focus on other elements and only touch on the sexual elements to say that it ... was done well and did not take away from the core plot or feeling of the film. The scenes were enjoyable and honestly rather touching when you view them as more than simple fan service, and instead as a way to express the true desires of the characters and the meaning that it holds for each of the protagonists. Sakura has a sad past, so, it is not surprising that she would so dearly and with much desire, seek out someone who cherishes her and seeks to protect her. On another note, one downside of this arc of Fate is that it heavily requires knowledge of the other routes to make sense of the film. This is not necessarily a fault but it is still true nevertheless. Most likely this is due to time restraints.

Story/Plot: 8
As mentioned previously I like stories that make you feel for the characters and this movie does that very well. The story of Sakura Matou is a dark one and the way in which they portray her, her experiences, and the effect that it has upon her is honestly amazing and one of the strongest points of the film. Her dream scene, for example, showing an absolute contrast of pure innocence and evil was very well done and while furthering the plot it also further personified Sakura in my eyes.

The pacing of the events does not feel so fast as to be unnatural but it is also not necessarily slow either. I have not played the VN, however, I am aware that much inner dialogue and 'downtime' was cut to streamline the film. While some may view this as an inherent deficit; I do not view it the same. Perhaps if I had played the VN I would not be of the same opinion but as the film is right now I feel as if the core elements that needed to be there were there. However, that is not to say that this movie is not a little confusing even for someone who has seen all of the other fate adaptations.
While part 2 answers some of the questions we had in part 1 it still leaves much unanswered and unclear to the viewer. The goals of certain characters and the way in which the grail functions in this war is still rather unclear. However, as this is only part 2 I cannot fault the movie on this as we still have part 3 that may provide clarification to many of these unanswered questions we have.

One slight complaint I do have with the story is the situations Shirou keeps getting himself into that always involve Rin & Archer having to come to his aid. I do not wish to be more specific than that to avoid spoilers but it was a little bit annoying knowing that probably no matter the situation he would charge into it will be resolved the same way. This is only a minor issue and I could not find any major issues with the plot. The true time for in-depth plot analysis will be when part 3 is released so that we may indefinitely conclude on what is lacking and how it could have been done better in the earlier films as well.

Characters: 9
Unlike much of the Fate Series, this route does not focus on servant - servant or servant-master relationships as much as it does the main masters of the series. We learn little of the servant's desires and honestly hardly hear from them at all. While some might characterize the Fate Series for simply the servants in it I believe this approach to further flesh out the masters is a great one that was done very well. Naturally, the most fleshed out character, Sakura, was done extremely well. As previously mentioned her dream scene not only furthered the plot but showed her inner idealized innocence in contrast to the greater outer evil. This was an extremely memorable and impactful scene for me. Her greatest development is likely her own perception of herself that changes over the course of the film with the help of Shirou. From a tainted object to be used and abused she starts seeing herself as someone who can be loved. Truly a touching development; but not one without a catch, such is the intense desire to be loved and belong that follows

Shirou, our other main protagonist, alongside Sakura can be seen as two broken parts trying to fit together to be one again. It is sad. It is tragic. But, it was done well. The internal conflict within our characters at many points in the film showed their true desires in active conflict with their idealized versions of themselves. Shirou, the hero of justice, and Sakura, the innocent girl. The conflict of these desires and their ideals and wishes to protect one another gave a depth to the characters that I had not expected when compared to the other Fate adaptations which seemed to follow a righteous path in comparison to Heaven's feel which does not mind dirtying its hands to produce a great story.
Both approaches are fair, however, the dark reality brought upon by the cast and story of Heaven's feel is a great change and delivers a great story with protagonists you can truly feel for.

Illya! Everyone's favorite loli. In this film, she is mostly seen as comic relief but has her moments as well later into the film as well. I would have liked to see her given a little more time to flesh out her place in this film, but if that would mean less time for the two protagonists then I cannot complain. She is still given some serious parts in addition to her silly and adorable segments too. Tohsaka is given a bit of time as well as I mentioned in the plot section but does not play as significant a role as our other two protagonists. But, don't be sad Tohsaka fans. She is still given quite a bit of screentime.

Art: 8
Let me begin with why this score is not higher. I truly would have loved to give this a 9 for the absolutely amazing scenes between Shirou and Sakura that truly enhanced the film overall. The atmosphere, characters, and feelings were all conveyed very well through the art and various absolutely stunning scenes. But, unfortunately, I cannot. While those scenes among many others make this a very strong 8 the certain elements of the fight scenes make it hard to justify a 9 or higher. Please do not interpret me as saying the fights were bad as they absolutely were not. However, during some fights, it would simply turn into a show of solid colors flashing across the screen and focused far too much on wide scale destruction as opposed to the fight itself. I had this same complaint with Fate / Apocrypha but it seems to be here to a lesser extent in comparison.

Perhaps this is simply my opinion but I prefer to see an epic fight than be impressed with a plethora of flashing colors and destruction. I also believe the general choreography of fights was stronger in other Fate Adaptations. But, with that being said this Arc does not seem to focus as much on fights as it does the characters so this is not a major fault. Overall, the art was still VERY GOOD and with scenes being simply superb. I am very impressed and pleased with the art.

Music: 7 EDIT: 8
While the music of this film was good, it was not as good as other routes that I may have given an 8 to. All the scenes went well with the music and I never found fault with any music. However, it did not feel as if it impacted me as much as it had in previous films and not enough to justify a higher rating. The music is by no means bad, I am giving it a 7 after all, but it is not a key feature that stands out in this movie. Especially in comparison to the other elements I have discussed.

EDIT: I have since really started to love these songs months later

Overall;
Whether you're a fan of Tohsaka, Shirou, or Sakura, Heaven's Feel is a great addition to the Fate series. Would I recommend this movie? Absolutely yes. If you are a fan of the Fate Series / Nasuverse you will absolutely enjoy this. You will enjoy it even more if you can accept a more heavy/dark plot than the other routes have taken. This is a story that I have been waiting for, and am glad it is being told as well as it is. I, along with probably many of you, eagerly await Part 3!

Seeing many of these 10/10 reviews and people saying they cried shocked me. I wondered if we had even seen the same movie. I, and seemly many who left the theatre did not leave angry; but we certainly were not raving about it being a masterpiece either. And in the whole theatre, only a single person cried. I overheard many conversations after the movie of it being "okay" and "a lot of stuff didn't make sense" and a few more criticisms. And I agree with them, this movie is no masterpiece. However, it is not bad either. So, here is my review

Story:5/10
Firstly, I find the ... plot to be all over the place, and it never seems to have enough time to focus on each 'arc' of the story. Due to this, we see a few time jumps that aren't explained and many many many coincidences throughout this animation. So many coincidences it's actually ridiculous. So many unexplainable coincidences made it seem pretty silly many times throughout the film. The best example would be when Maquia one night disappears, and then the next thing we know she's getting her hair cut in some random room and then next thing we know she's heading an invasion of some sort. Like, wtf just happened? I have a general idea, but wow. There is literally no explanation other than she vanishes and then bam shes back again so you're left to put together the pieces. And, of course, the fact that in a massive metropolis city she manages to 'stumble across' every main character multiple times across the entire movie. "The Clan of the Separated"? Yeah right... This for me dampered many scenes that would have otherwise been fairly heartwarming or sad. The overall plot isn't a bad one. It's actually a very interesting concept that I feel was just simply not done right. Or, maybe needed 2 parts and more time to do it correctly.

Art: 7/10
Animation wise it wasn't bad. Certainly wasn't great either. A few scenes looked quite silly but those were few and far apart. Was up and down throughout the film and sometimes is quite plain and boring but decided on a 7. Overall, not many complaints here.

Sound 7/10:
Here I had no complaints. No song really stuck out and made me really think about it deeper but all the songs seemed to match their scenes and OST was well done. No issues here

Characters: 6/10
Characters were pretty good. Clear development was seen in our two main characters which was nice to see. However, many other characters who seemed like they had importance, or could have had importance were simply forgotten about which was very disappointing. The biggest of which is the Army General Izol who swore to atone for his sins to Leila who was seen after that for maybe less than 5 seconds. In addition, the drunk man whom we never learn much of anything about whi randomly appears to save the day or just simply out of nowhere could have been done a lot better too.

In conclusion, it was a Weak 7. The movie was decently enjoyable but was literally coincidences the animation. Had a good concept with potential but didn't live up to it. However, still created a movie that was appealing and a decently enjoyable watch if you don't think too much about it.

I would first like to state this review contains some spoilers as I needed to discuss the final arc and certain scenes with characters.


Story: 5
The story is certainly not the strong point of this series. It follows a young shogi prodigy and his daily antics of being a professional shogi player and a Loli harem king.

While some arcs are seemingly pointless some are rather good. For example, Keika attempting to be a professional player after so many years of trying. And the final Ryuo match where Yaichi overcomes his slump after turning away his friends. Both were rather heartwarming but still had their respective faults.

However, ... as we neared the end of the story it felt fairly rushed. Firstly, cutting off a potential arc of Sora and Yaichi making up after their argument prior to the Ryuuou match. And even more so in summing up his final 3 matches in a single sentence and leaving it at that. Right after the excitement of his win, I felt it was a slap in the face to be told that he simply won all the rest of his matches in one sentence. It doesn't make any sense and is very anti-climactic

Animation: 7
The animation is quite nice. Always smooth and pleasant to look at. This section was well done. There isn't too much else to be said.

Sound: 7
After about four episodes I had downloaded the OP to my phone. I think it's great and matches the upbeat opening very well. The ED was also quite enjoyable.

Sound during the anime was good. No glaring issues but nothing special either.

Characters: 4
Other than a couple main characters and some sides I feel like many were introduced simply for fan service. However, as a comedy, some of their moments were fairly funny (for ex. the announcer girl) and enjoyable.

The show had many of the classic character archetypes we have all seen before but they were still made enjoyable.

No characters were really all that deep aside from Keika (who still wasn't all that deep) whom we learn of her past struggles. Of the others, we don't learn too much but the arc in which Ai gains family approval is quite nice too.

As per usual in anime, MC's are either dense or beta. And Yaichi follows the trend with his attitude towards Sora. The scene on the beach and his later argument in which he was never shown apologizing for were not pleasant. Character fights that involve drama can create good tension in a show but in this show, I don't feel that sort of drama was needed. But if it was going to be there, as they did, please at the very least resolve the character drama and don't just forget about it. Sora was one of the stronger and more likable characters in the show imo. How can one be so dense? And how can one not apologize for what he did? I don't know. But if they grew up so close you would think he would not just ignore her right when he is thrown countless lolis. But oh well.

Enjoyment: 7
I largely enjoyed this show as it was colorful, eye-catching, and fun. Cute girls playing shogi? How could I not? Even with mediocre story arcs some prevailed and made us feel a bit for the characters. While other may have made us hate them a little too (Fking apologize to Sora).

But overall lolis and shogi were never going to make a masterpiece of an animation. However, what it did make is an enjoyable comedy with some drama thrown in. Was the drama really needed? Probably not. But it wasn't bad, and the ending was fairly nice and lighthearted as well.

Preface: I hope you enjoy my first review. I found this to be overall quite well done and hope you do as well.

Story: 6/10
Our story begins rather abruptly, the hero of our story must defeat a demon in order to gain the acceptance of his family. While the story is slightly predictable there are still moments that had me surprised, to say the least. The ending being my favorite. Even considering how short this work is we are given insight into the backstories of both our characters which is nice. Motivations are made clear, and it can even be rather comical at times.

The ending ... was well done. Our hero (As well as myself) learns a life lesson. Family approval isn't everything in life. We can be free of society's grip and be who we truly want to be, not who society wants us to be. Toss away our pride and do what we truly want to do. These themes only further enhanced my enjoyment of the story as it led to a deeper connection to the characters as well as a great lesson. I also feel our hero got what he truly desired in the end which was a moving way to end our tale.

Art: 7/10
There is not too much to be said here. The art was solid. Honestly, surprisingly good. I really did like the art of our heroines Kimono.

Character: 7/10
I'm rather impressed in this section. This is a story that revolves around the eldest son of a famous demon hunting family. His family sent him to a smaller branch of the family for adoption as they believed he wasn't "cut out" for demon hunting. However, our hero set out to prove them wrong. He would defeat a 1000-year-old demon (1000 year old demon Loli of course) in hopes that his family will accept him. A rather sad tale.

On the other hand, we know little of our demon. We learn her name upon their meeting but little else other than her power. Later however, we certainly learn of her sadistic tendencies. (Masochists rejoice). Fair warning, her sadism can get quite intense.

Enjoyment: 7/10
I certainly found that this was an read enjoyable, and rather enlightening. I learned that sometimes in life we must do away with pride and do what we desire. Life should be enjoyed, not spent grueling day by day for the sake of others acceptance. Other than life lessons, I was pleasantly surprised with both characters and the art as well. I believe this story is rather memorable and if you are a masochist in any respect you will most likely find some enjoyment to be had.

Overall: 7/10
Masochists this is your story. However, it is a tale enjoyable those from all walks of life. A story of family acceptance, honor, and pride. We can all learn a lesson from our heroes adventure and take away some enjoyment too. With nice art and a fair story, you won't be disappointed.