Dreaming of a ufotable Fate/Stay Night Project.

As many anime fans may know a Fate/Stay Night movie is just over the horizon(scheduled to be released in February) and the trailer for the movie has just been released. After taking a look at the trailer I have mixed feelings about it.

For those that don't know the movie is supposed to be based off of the Unlimited Blade Works story arc from the original visual novel. However it's quite clear from the trailer that the movie is also mixing in elements of the Fate path that was previously covered in the TV anime. The reason this is of interest is that the movie(clocking in at 90 minutes) Was never going to be long enough to cover all of the Unlimited Blade Works story and fans wondered how it would work. Now it seems as though the answer is that it won't faithfully follow the story and will again be a blending of multiple story lines just as the TV anime was a blending of Fate/Unlimited Blade Works and Heavens feel.

My gut feeling says that the movie will unfold with the more memorable scenes but aside from that the only thing keeping the movie a Unlimited Blade Works movie will be the out come I.E Shirou fighting Archer. Scenes such as Rider's attack on Rin are shown in the trailer. This scene(which is from the Fate path) is not a short scene in fact it took about 10-15 minutes in the anime. 10-15 minutes it quite awhile for a 90 minute movie that is supposed to be based on a entirely different story arc. However I digress. All that said the movie still looks great. Studio DEEN has obviously stepped things up abit.

This led me to fantasize about the possibility of a Fate/Stay Night project from ufotable. For those that don't know ufotable has been doing the Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners movies(another of Type-Moons property's) The format in which the movies where made was quite interesting. The story was split up into multiple chapters and released as several movies. The catch being that they were done as if they were a anime. What I mean by that is that at the end of each movie you would get the Next episode preview just as if you were watching a anime. On top of this the movies were never very long(with the exception of the 6th movie) normally clocking in at about 45-60 minutes.

The format worked great and the Kara No Kyoukai movies have been a hit. ufotable aside from their release strategy have proven they are incredibly talented as the Kara No Kyoukai movies are stunningly beautiful. Things like fight scenes look like entrancing dances and even horrifying things like blood soaked corpses are beautiful in their own twisted way. It makes me dream of what ufotable could do with the Fate/Stay Night world and cast. I can just imagine the incredible fight scenes they could think up to compliment Rider.

Out of all of the arcs from the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel Heaven's Feel seems to be the one that would work the best for ufotable. For those that don't know the basic breakdown of Heaven's Feel I will give you a bit of a run down. The story primarily focus's on Sakura and her relationship with Shirou. Over the course the story she falls for him(more like she final admits to herself that she loves him) all against the back drop of the Holy Grail War. It's not to long before she starts to change and fears that what she is turning into will harm the people she loves. The story details her decent into madness and Shirous willingness to sacrifice his very being to make sure she remains who she is despite how impossible it seems.

The story has TONS of twists and turns and it's a nearly impossible to predict what will happen next much less the ending(which threw me for a loop and I did in fact shed some tears). This story and theme in general falls greatly in line with the overall story of Kara No Kyoukai of a tragic love(although it's not as evident in Kara no Kyoukai). The whole look and feel that ufotable was able to create for the Kara No Kyoukai movies fits Heaven's Feel to a T, a dark and dour world where beauty still exists in the most unexpected(and sometimes horrifying) places. It would be incredible to see what set pieces they would be able to come up with. The scene of Sakura and Shirou embracing in the rain sends shivers down my spine when I imagine how ufotable would animate it(they did create the most beautiful rain I have ever seen in anime after all)

The great thing about this dream is that it may not been that unlikely. ufotable has just finished work on the final Kara No Kyoukai movie so they will be free to take up another large project not to long from now. Fans may ask why this matters? Well the simple reason is that we have seen a Fate adaptation in the Fate/Stay Night TV anime and we are now seeing a Unlimited Blade Works adaptation with the upcoming movie. That means there will most likely be some sort of Heavens Feel adaptation somewhere down the road.

There is the slight possibility that ufotable could adapt a Heaven's Feel project into a movie series as they did with Kara No Kyoukai or perhaps maybe even a OVA. Although one must take into account that Type-Moon may just stick with Studio DEEN out of loyalty if a Heaven's Feel project is green lit.

Perhaps it's just my wishful thinking but out of all the Fate/Stay Night story arcs Heaven's Feel fits the ufotable style the most. Which quite possibly is why I'm dreaming they would take on such a project. It could also just be that Heaven's Feel being my favorite of the original Fate/Stay Night story arcs that I would like it to be adapted in the best possible way. However only time will tell if this ever happens. The Unlimited Blade Works movie is just around the corner and you never know perhaps Type-Moon will tease us with something at the end.