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Feb 6, 2025
Spring Song isn't perfect, but it's a damn good final film for the Heaven's Feel trilogy. While maybe not as nuanced and subversive as Lost Butterfly, This movie does do a lot of things right; namely, giving Sakura independence and breaking her out of the role of damsel in distress. She's genuinely menacing and unpredictable, a welcome change for the character. Shirou rises to the mantle of hero (as is his fate) but it's different from UBW, his tragic path throughout the trilogy has shaped him differently, rather than stardust and the heroic ideal, HF Shirou accepts his mortality and fights to protect what he
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can; it's a fascinating take on the character. Father Kotomine and Matou Zouken serve as great competing antagonists.
Being that this is the finale, the fight scenes are outrageous, and the animation and soundtrack here are better than ever. The film comes to a satisfying climax, however, the epilogue is rushed, and an extra 15 minutes of runtime would've smoothed out the experience, preventing questions from being left unanswered.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 6, 2025
If the ending of Presage Flower felt like getting kicked in the chest, then Lost Butterfly feels like getting curb-stomped, to death. Lost Butterfly takes all the tragic elements of the previous film, and layers atop it horror, and a story that leaves you sick to your stomach; and as much as it hurts to watch, it’s genuinely incredible. While the animation and soundtrack are the same as ever (godly as ever), Shirou’s character and path completely diverge from their course in the Unlimited Blade Works narrative. Similarly, we see different sides for characters like Illya, Rider, and Father Kotomine.
Sakura finally starts getting more screen
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time, and that’s both a blessing and a curse; Sakura is a genuinely compelling character in this film, displayed with much more nuance and feeling than ever before. Her tragic upbringing, and the abuse she suffered, make for truly haunting moments within the film, and some deeply complex, difficult interactions. And that becomes problematic because the film fails to honor both her suffering and her position as the heroine. Lost Butterfly trips over its own feet, trying to both communicate her trauma in a candid way and yet simultaneously sexualize her! A victim of sexual abuse! It’s demeaning and gross. And despite her being the heroine, she’s constantly treated as a damsel in distress.
Disappointing as that is, the film is so well written and executed in every other regard that is can overcome its bad moments and themes. Beyond Fate/Zero, this is the darkest and most interesting chapter of the Fate series. It’s undoubtedly a masterful work and something I recommend watching.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 6, 2025
Honestly, I really liked this film! It does a great job reintroducing Fate/stay night’s plot, and swiftly moving forward into the Heaven’s Feel narrative, something a similar film, Evangelion: You Are (Not) Alone, failed to do, which subsequently left the first leg of that film feeling rushed and unnatural. The pacing is noticeably faster than Unlimited Blade Works, but that’s a compromise that must be made with the film trilogy format. HF handles it well, playing on implied events and prior knowledge to save time. The animation and soundtrack are godly and worthy of great praise. And the story is nothing if not tragic, and
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that’s to its benefit, the horror of HF is sufficient to keep it out of UBW’s shadow. However, Sakura is as poorly written as ever, for the main heroine of our story she sure is sidelined a lot and suffers greatly from her “notice me senpai” complex.
Being that this is the first film, I can’t confidently compare the two narrative routes, but If you like UBW, you’ll definitely enjoy this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 3, 2025
<i>Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works</i> is Ufotable’s most recognizable work, even a decade after its debut, and that’s by no means an accident. UBW is amazing, a rare occasion for a film adaptation that surpasses the original work.
UBW adapts the prologue and second narrative route (Unlimited Blade Works) of the 2004 visual novel <i>Fate/stay night</i> by Kinoko Nasu. Nasu’s talent as a writer is what made FSN such a success; the original story is incredible: its portrayal of the heroic ideal, bombastic action, and timely comedy, mixed with Nasu’s characteristic character subtlety, make for a truly entertaining story. The narrative structure of FSN (three diverging
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narrative routes) is also something to be lauded. However, FSN wasn’t perfect. Looking back on it two decades after its release, it becomes clear that it was written by a man in the early 2000’s, and the medium itself, visual novels, is somewhat limited, and (in my personal opinion) kind of silly.
Ufotable’s adaptation maintains the integrity of Nasu’s writing, while simultaneously upping the bombastic action to a level that would become the gold standard for all of anime. The show is more fluid in pacing than the VN; the long expositions fly by much faster, and the dialogue is less separated from the action. And the Ufotable's writing team takes it upon themselves to clean up the awkwardness and lurking misogyny from the VN; as a result, the story is just better. The only thing that holds UWB back is that Ufotable has not yet adapted the first route (Fate), which would have made many of the moments in UBW much more impactful.
If you want to get into Fate, this is the place to start! I absolutely recommend you watch it. At this point, it’s a modern classic, and it's earned that spot!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 1, 2025
“Before the devil dropped an endless stream of money on his lap”.
Well, here’s the source of that stream, and it fucking sucks. Kinoko Nasu’s skill as a writer is what made the <i>Fate</i> series such a massive success, spawning countless visual novels, light novels, video games, and subsequent anime and manga adaptations. However, somewhere along the line (<b>cough</b>… <b>cough</b>… <i>Fate/Apocrypha</i>) Nasu and Type-Moon seem to have realized where the real money comes from: “gooner games”. <i>Fate/Grand Order</i> is a shitty mobile game where you command around legendary heroes (who are all depicted as half-naked women) to fight evil villains who want to destroy humanity and
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create a new world, and naturally, all the sexy heroines fall in love with you.
<i>Fate/Grand Order: First Order</i> is the tutorial of that shitty mobile game, turned into a movie. To give some credit, Fujimaru and Mash are a cute couple, Dr. Romani is an interesting enough character, and the retconned cast of <i>Fate/stay night</i> are portrayed in an interesting light. Unfortunately, that’s where the praise ends; Mash’s character design is clearly spawned from the fantasy of some degenerate, and her character is simply a transplant of Matou Sakura. The animation is abominable, unquestionably the worst of any <i>Fate</i> anime adaptation, and the sound design is equally awful. There’s not much to say beyond that; this film is the corpse of the Fate series; in a way, it’s sort of mortifying.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 25, 2025
<i>Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore</i> is a mess of an anime, and I truly wish it had been given more care. At first glance, a show written by<b> the</b> Kinko Nasu and animated by SHAFT, should’ve had all the chance in the world to be a home run.
Nasu is undoubtedly a phenomenal writer; his ability for bombastic action, portrayal of the heroic ideal, and character subtlety have earned him much-deserved acclaim. Similarly, SHAFT has become instantly recognizable for Akiyuki Shinbo’s unique visual style and avant cinematography. Unfortunately, with a runtime of only 13 episodes, it lacks the time necessary to build a world that Fate is so known for.
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Each antagonist and their respective arcs are relegated to two episodes (per duo) and thus turn into a blur. Akiyuki’s characteristic style appears only occasionally; most of the animation is artistically bankrupt, and many sequences in the anime seem rushed and low-budget. And then there’s the elephant in the room: gender-bending. Saber and Francis Drake are gender-bent characters; however, unlike Artoria in <i>Fate/stay night<i/>, this isn’t a nuanced take on the character; instead, Saber is gender-bent so she can contrast with Artoria’s design and personality, it’s cheap. As for Francis, the show apparently needed a sexy pirate girl to go breasting boobily around the battlefield; it’s cheap exploitation.
However, these faults can't snuff out all the latent potential. The ending visuals (which change every two episodes) are, admittedly, absolutely beautiful. The soundtrack is exceptional, and so are many of the characters. The new take on Hakuno Kishinami’s character is really interesting, and all the returning characters from previous iterations are great. Despite some of the cheap creative choices made, I believe that a higher budget and more expansive runtime would’ve made Last Encore into something great. It could’ve truly served its purpose, as both a compelling entry to the <i>Fate/EXTRA</i> narrative as well as a great new iteration for those who’ve already played <i>Fate/EXTRA</i>.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 25, 2025
If the problem with <i>Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore</i> was that the show felt rushed and unpolished thanks to low budget and a mere 13-episode runtime, then this is a massive overcorrection; that is, <i>Fate/Apocrypha</i> has twice the runtime, and is visually stunning, but has no substance.
In its 25-episode run, the show presents several beautifully choreographed fight scenes, a stellar (but slightly repetitive) soundtrack, and gives us <b>the</b> most iconic femboy character in media.
However, most of the cast is forgettable, not due to lack of screen time; they’re just poorly written. Not the least, Jeanne d’Arc, who by all means should be the heroine of our
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story, yet she finds herself sidelined by our protagonist as he (a man who was literally born yesterday) surpasses her in both battle and virtue. And of course... she falls hopelessly in love with him; it’s really pitiful. The main antagonist’s identity, objective, and backstory are delivered so poorly that you can hardly piece together who he is and what he's even trying to do. But worst of all is Jack the Ripper, boasting the most appalling character design of all time, not to mention their painfully boring story arc.
The writing isn’t all bad, some episodes are truly phenomenal; the same goes for certain characters, Kairi and Mordred are a perfect master/servant pairing, Achilles and Chiron are a great rival duo, and Astolfo delivers some great comic relief, Karna even, drops some great monologues; but beyond them, the cast underwhelming at best--poor writing and blatant misogyny take what the show has going for it, and throw it all down the gutter.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 18, 2024
<i>Fooly Cooly</i> is unlike any other. This show is bizarre and defiant in every regard. And it’s that defiance and unpredictability that make it such a gem.
This animation is incredible, everything is smooth and fast-paced, but <i>FLCL</i> doesn't stop at just anime, and incorporates manga, CGI, and American cartoon visuals together into a champloo all its own. Not only that, but the show jumps between themes and styles at a whim, following whatever its writers want it to be in the moment while still carrying a touching coming-of-age story. In its high-octane run, full of zany humor and pop culture references, the viewer watches as Naota
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and the rest of the cast grow, but less as characters and more like people. Each character is wonderfully written, and their interactions with one another are phenomenal.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jan 18, 2024
<i>The End of Evangelion</i> is—to me—the greatest animated film of all time, and a fitting ending for the story of <i>Evangelion</i>. Split into two 45-minute episodes (episodes 25' & 26'), which supplement the ending of the TV series (episodes 25 & 26). <i>The End of Evangelion</i> is gorgeous, the animation quality exceeds that of the show, and this further descent into madness is beautifully represented through its psychedelic art that pushes the border of the medium: watercolors, crayon drawings, and live-action frames & sequences. But <i>The End of Evangelion</i> manages to usurp its art, with its story; the loathing, sickness, and despair present in the
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film are palpable, as our characters face their greatest challenge yet. It truly feels as though everything until now was a prelude to deliver this final encore. The film dives into the human soul and psyche, posing questions to the characters and to the viewers themselves: why do we live? Why do we keep on living? What does it mean to be human? To love? The philosophy found in <i>The End of Evangelion</i> and its portrayal of "the wish for non-existence" is nothing short of beautiful. The film brings a gut-wrenching end to <i>Evangelion</i> yet leaves its viewer with one last spark of hope: "Any place can become paradise as long as you have the will to live".
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jan 17, 2024
<i>Neon Genesis Evangelion</i> is a true masterpiece of anime; the gorgeous artwork, masterful animation, and stellar story create an iconic and inspiring work that remains relevant even three decades after its debut.
The artwork in NGE is remarkable, featuring the characteristic style and quality of 90's anime but diverging from the mecha genre; the Evangelion look nothing like the mechas of the era, and the Biblical imagery (while only artistic and not metaphorical) is beautiful. The animation feels fresh and vibrant: the way Evangelion move with wild beastlike motion is unlike any other mecha. But the true achievement of NGE is its story. The first half (13
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episodes) of NGE follows Shinji's struggle to become an Eva pilot as it clashes with living a normal life. The story is more typical of mecha and shonen: self-doubt, the call of the hero, epic fights, and zany humor. It's incredibly entertaining. The dialogue is phenomenal: the characters feel strikingly human, bantering with one another and reacting to the absurd conditions of their world, their chemistry is perfect; each conversation is incredibly engaging and feels "real". The second half of the series (11 episodes) turns dark, as the mysteries that have lingered behind the curtain thus far slowly begin to creep forward. Dire situations reveal the characters’ hidden natures and pasts, and the humor that once filled the show begins to be replaced with more uneasy silence and dread. While this segment is tragic, this change in mood reveals something undeniably "human”. This leads to the finale: (2 episodes) which dive into an even more avant realm of storytelling and visuals, however, are in a sense replaced by the film: <i>The End of Evangelion</i>.
I absolutely recommend you watch NGE (biased as hell), but it ain't the most influential anime of the 90's for no reason.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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