Fate Stay Night Heaven's Feel: Presage Flower BLU-RAY Standard Edition [2019]

There was some mishap with local mail but it arrived in excellent condition!

As much as I love to watch Fate and it’s beautiful series, I would have to say that this purchase was a letdown. The disc couldn’t even play on my Blu-Ray disc player and it only worked on my PC, but it was in 480p and it was super pixelated. I wouldn’t recommend this at all. I’m from the US in case anybody is going to compare this review with their own experience from a different country

Having already done the previous routes of the Fate/Stay Night video game in two separate anime TV series, it was decided to do the last remaining route Heaven's Feel as a movie trilogy, although a great deal was left out of it, nearly as much than what was left out of the Unlimited Blade Works motion picture that condensed the entire story arc in a single feature. Each film based on the game by Kinoko Nasu had its own additional title to it. Part 1 is Presage Flower, Part 2 is Lost Butterfly, and Part 3 is Spring Song, which played from 2018-2020. All three movies were directed by prior Fate/Stay Night character designer Tomonori Sudo and was animated under Ufotable in their first Fate anime since Fate/Zero.Presage Flower begins with Shirou Emiya sometime before we normally see him at the previous entries with his budding friendship with Sakura, the younger sister of his Archer Club mate Shinji. She helps Shirou around his house as he recovers from a broken arm. Over a year later, their relationship hasn't gotten out of the friendzone, although we quickly sweep through several episodes and fast forward to where Shirou has already summoned Saber and been told about the Holy Grail War by Kirei, a priest and former caretaker of Shirou's schoolmate and fellow rival mage Rin. Kirei fought Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou's adopted father in the previous War which decimated the city ten years ago, plus Kiritsugu was also Saber's former master. The war has seven mages summon up their own legendary fighter servant from anywhere in time to battle for them and win the Holy Grail to have a wish granted. Some of the servants are already dispatched by the deadly Assassin, while the servant Rider is controlled by Shinji. Rin and Shirou form an alliance as Sakura comes to stay with Shinji until the danger has passed. They find that Assassin has Sakura's grandfather Zouken as his master and that he is really a swam of insects. Shirou and Saber go to the nearby temple leading to Saber's apparent death and Shirou no longer an active mage in the war.Lost Butterfly has Shirou resolving to stop Zouken's shadowy entity from devouring the city. Sakura gets kidnapped by Shinji to lure out Shirou, but interference from Rin and her servant Archer spoils that plan and reveals that Sakura was really Rider's master. Sakura's power unleashes on Rin and Shirou and they awake in Kirei's church where Rin tells Shirou that Sakura is her biological younger sister, and she plans to take out her sibling if her power gets out of hand. Shirou vows to protect Sakura and tries to form an alliance with Illya, a young mage with her hulking servant Berserker. Zouken unleashes a corrupted Saber to kill Berserker in an epic clash. Assassin chops of Shirou's arm leaving a dying Archer to give him his own before he dies. Rin and Illya move in with Shirou and Sakura since they've lost their servants. Shirou finally confesses his love to Sakura which they make love, but this sets Sakura off as she sleepwalks at night killing people, including Gilgamesh like it wasn't anything where in prior Fate anime he was the top dog servant. Sakura goes back home to confront Zouken but ends up killing Shinji after he assaults her and she is fully taken over by the shadow inside her.Spring Song picks up with the now darker Sakura taking Illya as she's supposed to be a living vessel for the Grail, and Shirou teams up with Kirei to rescue her. Shirou taps into Archer's arm to defeat Berserker. Illya informs Shirou and Rin about the shadow's true evil which is an Avenger servant that fused with the Grail during the prior war and will be reborn through Sakura, so Shirou creates a copy of a magic sword to retaliate. Sakura expels Zouken and absorbs Assassin plus the shadow with Saber under her control. Shirou and Rider combo attack Saber stopping her, while Rin finally gets through to Sakura. Illya sacrifices herself to the Grail where she's reunited with her mother from Fate/Zero while Shirou has a climactic clash with Kirei which is something that had been building up for over three whole Fate titles. Shirou ultimately dies, but Rin and Sakura manage to get a replacement body for him thanks to a sorceress from the expanded "Nasuverse" roster of works.Heaven's Feel draws a close to the game that started the entire Fate phenomenon. The trilogy earned great praise in Japanese theatres upon release and even achieved big success at special screenings in the US. The animation by Ufotable is remarkable, especially in the sparkling fighting scenes where two opposing superpowers clash in an eruption of dark magic and color. Like most Fate installments, there is a considerable amount of lore to get through, and since this storyline coincides with two other anime series, there is a lot that is left out of numerous characters but more added to the cast highlighted as this was their time to shine. It is satisfying to watch the entire trilogy in a single setting that pacing it out between each chapter. If you've never checked out any of the other Fate anime titles, then Heaven's Feel is a fair enough starting point, although it doesn't get much darker than this version.

Well, I never saw an option to select a region for watching, and it doesn’t work for me. I am in the USA and it does not play at all be advised

The disc will not play

It doesn’t even work with my blu-ray what’s the point do I have to go to Japan for it to work?

It doesn’t even work on my BluRay player! Ripoff!