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*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ON THIS MOVIE AS WELL AS PREVIOUS ONES ***

If I had to describe this finale in a few adjectives, its be- messy, unsatisfying and confusing. The first adj isn't necessarily a bad thing, it makes perfect sense that the last one is the most ambitious. The fights are mindblowing and this has to be Kajiura's best work in a long time. Let's talk about what defines this work

I suppose out of all three SN novels, this one is supposed to be the emotional one. The one that doesn't necessarily adhere to the themes 24/7 yet hypothetically rips off any pretense ... of what you thought this anime should be and goes full steam ahead hitting emotional peaks you never thought was possible. At least that's what this film wanted to be. Instead, we have 8 billion parts and characters that are so completely unrelated and incongruent to the message of the piece, a plot so undynamic and rigid that it doesn't facilitate any meaningful character decision, and a final sequence that is supposed to be the very climax but isn't even framed in the context of the main conflict (i.e shirou vs ideals). Remember UBW? Sure the fight on the bridge where Saber gets yoinked was overdramatic and didn't really contribute at all to what would the main conflict, but if something like that happened in HF, perhaps Shirou killing saber would've meant something. Also wtf is alter anyway what was the point.

Shirou throws his ideals for love, setting up the third film to be an exploration and implications for what that would mean. And I swear, for the first 30 minutes of the film they were loosely exploring it (via ilya and shirou's cowardice)- but that happened to be the biggest tease in the film of all because 10 minutes later, activating berserker's arm somehow meant that he accepted everything his 'newly born self' entailed of him. Yay shirou's theme he's now complete.

Since this story is about the birth of spring, something has to be lost in some capacity. What is lost? Sakura doesn't kill anyone after HF2 besides her psycho foster parent. Shirou is never put into a situation where he is challenged for his ideals. What exactly was the point of HF 2? Every expectation I had for this plot was subverted in a way that facilitated nothing but to add more people in the mix, which was somehow the worst decision this film made, because literally nothing made sense and was coherent to any substantial discourse the movie promise do

I seriously thought HF2 was leading to what might be something great, but it ended up being a mutated child of F/Z and UBW that could only hang on the coat tails of two amazing stories. You know I talked a lot of shit but enjoyed this regardless, i fuckin love fate and I think that even though it was far from perfect, that this movie still shows why fate's premise and writing can invoke such a unique emotion to the franchise. If you love fate, you'll enjoy this one no doubt. Just don't hold the expectation that it'll come to a quality level that even compares to Zero, much less UBW.

I had my score as a 6 for this show for a long time. It only took some reflection a few months later to realize how biased i am towards the LL franchise just because I adore the music. This show, especially this season, is bad. Just bad. It tries to be something it's not just because it feels as if it must live up to the original LLSIP. The original truly acts like a shackle to this new installment. In many ways, Sunshine trying to go out of its way to feel different from the original comes off as a reskinned idea, or simply ... uninspired. But enough about the first series, this show is bad on its own. It hits some fine emotional points in the first half, but my god that second half. I am truly convinced, the writers came up with the plot as they went on. It had no direction. Nothing served as thematic presence on its own, nor did it work to build up anything by itself. Most of the time, it felt like it was being emotional, just for the sake of being emotional. Love live sunshine season 2, is just kinda shit and I'll probably watch it again someday OMEGALUL

Flip Flappers is a story which struggles with its own identity. Simply put, it was most enjoyable when it didnt take itself seriously.

The main premise is that 2 girls, Cocona and Papiko are to make multiple trips to an coexisting, yet elusive world called 'Pure Illusion'. The first 8 or so episodes really did a great job at unraveling this interesting world, and had me coming back to learn more. Every episode there was a new idea of Pure Illusion- the haunted time loop house, the neo-city, and the monster filled iceland, were the most memorable for me. Ideas were getting tossed ... around and it was a ton of fun. The interactions between the duo are cute and lighthearted.
The art is also worth mentioning, the way this show handles artistic story telling, with a color palette ranging from vibrant to dull, is incredible. Action sequences are consistently fluid, with the use of flashy sakuga.

The opening, Serendipity by ZAQ, embodies the whole mood of the show pretty straight on, with upbeat electronic music, beautiful fight scenes and with the beginning lines "into the sky"embodying the sense of adventure I truly felt when watching the first 9 or so episodes. But after that point, the opening just serves to remind us that the show has truly strayed away from what made it great in the first place.

The story at some point, takes itself way too seriously. There is a hilarious lack of build up for the tension that arrives. The drama crashes in like a toddler who was testing the limits of a bike. It is rushed: the reveals, the explanations, the revelations, the resolutions. It never feels right. At some point, I was thinking "what if they used their animation budget to make more episodes instead". Everything good about the show I've said before, besides the art, just gets thrown out the window at some point. It leaves the viewer unsatisfied. Nothing feels complete, or established. The show becomes over ambitious- attempting a plot to wow the audience but leaves its former identity in the gutter and its viewers scratching their heads.

Flipflappers is the guy in elementary school who is working on a perfectly fine art piece, peeks at someone else's, and ultimately ruins his own in an attempt to copy the piece he peeked at (aka me). Complicated plots are cool but there's no reason to fix anything that's not broken. I can't bring myself to give this show that low of a mark, because I truly enjoy a big portion of the show. But it is because I enjoyed it so much at first, it is more the disappointing that it turned out the way it did.