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

Much like a crest worm devouring spirit for mana, it grows into that of a lost butterfly, devouring humans for the Holy Grail... Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - II. Lost Butterfly was not what LA was expecting, like some serious Cerberus syndrome effect kicks in as well loose plotline presented in presage flower is...well given 'bloom" as it. Lost Butterfly fully embraces Sakura Matou's route and gives us NO WAY back with all the consequences Shirou's decision has take him into. Lost Butterfly takes place after the events of presage flower where Saber gets taken in by this "shadow" and has now gone missing, all thewhile Shinji is out on the loose and it just gets worse from there...

Lost Butterfly by all means centers NOW on Sakura, though hinted at in presage flower, Sakura takes centre stage in the what is the buildup of Heaven's Feel as we see Shirou take on her route all the while dealing with Shinji, Zouken and whatever the shadow that infected Saber is still out on the loose. We get LOTS of development from Sakura, from her proper mindset and her odd behaviour towards Shirou and with Shirou fully embraces Sakura's route, well romance adds in as it were. So it's smooth sailing for Shirou and Sakura right?, defeat Shinji and Zouken and all is well...well...

First thing is first, Sakura as character is greatly developed, be it with her interactions with Tohsaka and FINALLY letting it be clear that their sisters (as the other routes only skimmed this point), with all the events that happened in Lost Butterfly Illyasviel helps Shirou with the shadow and with the increasing threats to Shirou and thanks to Saber missing, Shirou is in even more danger, so with Tohsaka and Illyasviel staying at Shirou's house and Shirou taking in Sakura when she had nowhere to go...Tohsaka and Illyasviel might take Sakura's place in Shirou, that of a "lover" with Tohsaka and "little sister" with Illyasviel...making her lost. But not only that but with the odd behaviors and latter on the plot twist with her (to be expected, it's her movie now) she's lost...thus lost butterfly.

To Shirou's end with Shirou taking up Sakura's route and fully embracing it, Shirou has a rather tearful moment with Sakura and the interpretation can be taken in two ways for LA..or both, that of betrayal, the simple one is in betraying Sakura's promise, the much more deeper one...being that of Shirou betraying his promise with Kiritsugu of the belief of protecting everyone by killing one (yeah something Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Sekka no Chikai's alternative Shirou ALSO took on and heck even Kiritsugu at the end of Fate/Zero did the same thing!)

With the mass shuffling of characters and the "point of no return" looming, like LA aforementioned above, Illyasviel and Tohsaka though having less screentime to Sakura, they got some, with Illyasviel and Tohsaka both being support to Shirou and mainly healing Shirou whenever he gets heavily injured, but Tohsaka gets some sisterly bonding time with Sakura and Illyasviel talks things with Shirou about Kiritsugu and finally giving her some resolutions to Kiritsugu as a father in the process, so even with all things worsening plot-wise, character wise, the main cast gets some much needed development.

The animation once again done by ufotable...well can LA say it, GOD LIKE as per usual with the perfect blend of amazingly well detailed character designs and fluid choregraphy that does get rather batshit crazy with how well detailed it gets. The CGI was pretty much disguised with how well it blende din with the traditional animation. The crisp and sharp character designs, the god like seamless battles and add in the fact that Lost Butterfly uped the amount of gore and blood from presage flower and it's completely uncensored and well what else but...ufotable did it AGAIN and they clearly poured their souls into the animation for this one.

The voice cast...easy MVP's, since Sakura has taken centre stage...Noriko Shitaya for all Sakura went through just DAMN Noriko was great as Sakura. Of course the rest of the cast reprises their roles, with Noriaki Sugiyama as Shirou, Kana Ueda as Tohsaka Mai Kadowaki as Illyasviel, Hiroshi Kamiya as the bastard asshole Shinji and Junichi Suwabe as Archer, Jouji Nakata as Kirei. The old Fate stay night voice cast is back and as crystal clear, almost bewitching as ever cadences from all of them.

Lost Butterfly goes to the deep end with Sakura's route and really won't let go of Shirou and LA just loves the entire dichotomy of Shirou and Sakura's relationship, if Shirou and Saber's route is that regrets of the past and looking to the future, Shirou and Tohsaka's route being that of looking at the present, then Shirou and Sakura is that of betrayal and having no future. Lost Butterfly beautifully intertwines Shirou and Sakura (not in that way) predicaments together, greatly develops them as characters, their relationship and drives their bloody and dark plot forward to endgame of Shirou and Sakura's route be it good or bad, things are getting crazier from here on out...and LA can't wait for the endgame.

"Why does the world around me...hate me" - Sakura

But only a Spring Song can give Sakura a future...