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

Some minor spoilers. But if you're reading this you pretty know what largely happens in the film. I would like to start my review by saying I am not a Fate person. My only exposure to the series was with Fate Zero which I enjoyed quite a bit, and Learning with Manga, but otherwise I am quite apathetic to the series as a whole. That being said, Heaven's Feel 2 has been one of the most spectacular movies I have watched this year. Credit where credit is due, while I have forgotten most of what happened in the first film (the only bits I remembered wasSaber falling down at the end and of course Mr.Mapo Tofu/YOROKOBE SHOUNEN), the movie is still relatively easy to understand. While the first film assumed you've watched or is at least familiar with what happened in the first two routes, this film only needs that you watch the first film to understand what happens. That said the writing in this is just awful. Never have I experience the entire cinema groaning in unison when Shirou proclaimed his love for Sakura in the most cliched and unimaginable way possible. The writing and dialogue elsewhere is pretty poor too, everything feels so stilted and awkward. With Sakura being one of my least favourite characters owing partly to her personality, but her dialogue feels like a bag of cliches from 10-15 years ago.

Still, writing issues aside, the underlying story and mystery is fascinating enough to propel the viewer's interest further. As you see familiar characters being exposed to unfamiliar territory, it's great to see how they react and respond to the world around them. Adding to this is the absolutely gorgeous visuals and cinematography. While a few of the action scenes can be a bit messy to follow, this film is a definite treat for the eyes, from the quiet scenes to the action scenes, the film pulls off these setpieces so masterfully it makes one forgive the clumsy writing within. Adding to this, Kajiura's soundtrack is beautifully haunting, giving each scene a surreal and fantastical flair to it. Without spoiling anything, this all culminates in one of my all time favourite scenes in anime, right up there with the Pink Goo scene in Madoka Rebellion. (The scene in question is also very much similar to the aforementioned Madoka Rebellion scene). Everything in that scene is just brilliant, from its placement in the story, to its sharp writing (a rarity in the series) and just how fluid in motion it all is. That scene alone is worth the ticket of admission.

All in all, the story of a young boy falling in love with a weird girl isn't much to write about, but the execution of it all, as well as the overarching plot, is simply too fascinating to ignore. Unless Heaven's Feel 3 crashes and burns, the second film is worthy of a watch and is a marked improvement over the dreadfully boring (but pretty!) first film.

6/10