Shirou’s idealism and desire to become a ‘hero of justice’ is one of his main defining traits in the Fate and UBW routes. Fans of the franchise would be quick to note that Heaven’s Feel is the darkest of the three main routes in the original visual novel. Of course, this argument disrespects the role that the scene plays in furthering the story of the film. The virality by which the footage of the scene spread across the internet might also be considered its success in “marketing” the film. People would want to see the film more, and then buy tickets, increasing revenue and profits. Sakura in particular is the most submissive of the three love interests of the main routes of the visual novel, which plays kind with the male desire to be dominant over a woman -a friend of mine who watched the film with me said that “everyone I know who likes Sakura is a dude.” Including a sex scene with the character that appeals most to the male fantasy is an effective way for the movie to attract the majority audience of its source material. Sex is a part of, and is one of the main drawing points of the original medium of the Fate series, which is aimed at the male demographic. My own observation (such as, identifying which of my friends are fans of the series) also provides evidence for this claim. Originally an erotic visual novel, it naturally follows that the majority of the Fate fanbase are male. With these concerns in mind, how important then, is this particular scene towards the understanding the plot and the overall enjoyment of the movie? ©TYPE-MOON Īlthough a bit cheap, there is an economic argument to be made for the scene. By now everyone with some interest in the film seems to have known about the scene in the ODEX post above, for example, a big chunk of the comments expressed worries about possible censorship of the scene by the infamously conservative Indonesian Film Censorship Board. The footage went online and spread like wildfire. Japanese viewers took out their phones and started recording (please keep in mind that this is illegal and neither the writer nor KAORI condones cinema recordings). Be careful that there will be some spoilers from this point onwards.īy far, the biggest talking point upon the film’s release was the leak of the sex scene between Shirou and Sakura. Being this invested, naturally I was very much looking forward to the second film, and thankfully enough, I had the opportunity of watching Heaven’s Feel II in a Japanese cinema.
I have watched almost all of the previous “mainline” Fate anime adaptations: the first Fate/ stay night a nime from studio DEEN, Fate/Zero, the first half of Unlimited Blade Works ( U BW ) TV series, and the first Heaven’s Feel film (I was in a kind of anime slump when season two of UBW came out).