To all the people who know nothing about Fate and want to get into the series now I suggest you guys watch Unlimited Blade Works first and not Heaven's Feel because this is the anime adaptation of the third route from the original visual novel that dedicated solely to Sakura Matou a major character which mean for the beginner the introduction of the cast and the basic premise of the Holy Grail Wars gonna be very rushed to make way for the new story so for the beginners it can be a rough start even for me a fan of the series. Of all the character in the OG Fate series Sakura stick out for me as the most boring and bland character when she often just there to be a cute and loveable potential romantic partner to Emiya Shirou the main character even though in FZ and UBW I can guess what kind of life she live under the god forsaken place that is The Matou household but not until Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower that I finally get some answer and because there still 2 more movies so it still too soon to compared which route is the best but I can already tell that Sakura gonna win the "most tragic backstory" of the Fate series. The animation and the fight scenes that Ufotable pull out is at god tier level that worthy the title "Unlimited Budget Works" although some of my favorite character get limited screen time but I'm happy that the anime introduce me to my new favorite servant "True Assassin" because that guy (for the time being) is the true MVP of this anime.

This is truly amazing, the story is far better than unlimited blade works.

Rating: 7.0

It was a rushed adaptation. The biggest issue was the removal of all of Shirou's monologues consequently making a lot of his actions such as saving saber look random. Despite being 2 hours the pacing felt very fast if you didn't read the source material beforehand you would be completely lost. This is only part 1, and the third installment of the fate franchise so I don't expect it to re-explain everything but by design, it doesn't work as a standalone film. It just omitted too much detail especially Sakura's characterization.

Pros: animation/art style is incredible, and they added anime original scenes like rider sucking Ayako's blood.