Review of Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel - II. Lost Butterfly

*Spoiler-free review* As a reader of the original visual novel, I greatly appreciated the effort put into this movie, especially a certain scene depicting Sakura in an Alice in Wonderland dream, hinting at a very different scene from the original. I am certainly biased, and I have rated everything high simply out of me enjoying this movie so much. However, it still had its flaws. For instance, the fact that one of the most plot-heavy routes of Fate/Stay Night didn't get a TV-series, but rather three movies is wasteful. A positive of it is of course that they were able to adapt it accurately to theoriginal without need of censoring, but a dire consequence of that is that it steals away screen-time that could have been used to develop the characters way better, and not making the whole movie seem rushed. This is overshadowed by the brilliant animation and tone of the movie though, in my opinion, but it's still a flaw that needs to be addressed.

As for the characters; I loved Sakura and Shirou's portrayal in this one, but this is largely due to already having a deep understanding of their characters from the VN. Someone who hasn't read the VN might not pick up on certain character flaws and motivations. For example, Shirou is a way more complex character than a TV series, lest a movie, can accurately depict, as most character development takes place in his head.
There was a particular scene that made me wish they would have gone through the thoughts in his head a bit more throughout it, as his actions were pure stupidity, but the thought process behind it was filled with paranoia and fear. Remove that, and you have an incredibly stupid scene that unfortunately fits TV Shirou.
As for Sakura, her character shines quite a lot during this movie, even if her predicament or certain quotes ("I'm not a virgin!") may seem like it came out of nowhere for those not entirely acquainted with the Fate series. This is probably mostly a fault in the original writing more than the movie itself, though.

Another thing that deserves praise is the fluent and gorgeous animation. Everything from the lightning and movements of the characters are beautiful, in my honest opinion. I believe there were two scenes in the entire movie in which a movement felt even slightly off, and that's after watching it four times.

All in all, I loved it, and it's definitely my favorite Fate work so far. It has its faults, but doesn't everything? I give it a "perfect" score to showcase my enjoyment, but depending on your stance on the Fate series and its characters in general, you might not find it as perfect as I'd like to see it as.

Nevertheless, give it a try! It's definitely better than its prequel movie.