Final Fantasy: Unlimited
How many episodes of an anime does it take to leech off of a popular franchise...?
Review by: M.H. "Rikku-Lovin'" Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Fantasy Adventure, Video Game series
Watched: Episodes 1-26, subbed
I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy Video games. In my dorm room, I've got 7-9 and Tactics, and on my computer, I've got emulators of 1-6 and of all the game boy Final Fantasies, which most other fans would like to deny ever existed. In that case, if they really did exist, I assure you, I'd have emulators of them on my computer. I'm one of about seven people in the world who actually enjoyed Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. So, it's pretty obvious that I'd at least give the recent anime series, Final Fantasy: Unlimited a watch. I'd heard that the older Final Fantasy (Legend of the Crystals) was pretty darned bad, so my hopes for this one were just that it didn't suck complete ass. Turns out that the makers of this series must have learned something, since the series didn't, in fact, suck complete ass. Some parts of it could be left at the bottom of the LaBrea Tar Pit and none of us would have been the wiser, but most of the series was worth the total ten hours it took to watch it.
Plot summary: Some time in the not-too-distant future, a portal has opened to another dimension known as the "Inner World." Ai and Yu Hayakawa's parents are scientists who disappeared through the portal one day, leaving their children alone. After an unspecified lengthy amount of time, Ai and Yu finally get up the nerve to go searching for their parents in the Inner World. On their way, they meet Lisa Hatsufist, a woman with a mysterious past (tm). When they arrive, they find the Inner World full of weird monsters and strange people. They meet Kuroke Kaze, a mysterious man in black (who isn't, oddly enough, played by either Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones) with yet another mysterious past. It's a well-known fact that every anime series has to have at least one character with at least one mysterious past, and they're just making sure they cover all their bases with Kaze, just in case Lisa's past wasn't mysterious enough. All is not well in the Inner World, though, as the evil Count Akebu is trying to take over all of the different worlds that make up the Inner World by seeding chaos throughout the worlds with the help of his Gaudium deathlords, Hungus, Helba, Pisto, Oscar, and Shiroi Kumo (mysterious past number three; this is just getting to be overkill...). Ai and Yu eventually meet up with a resistance army working against the Count, the Comodin, and join up with them to gain transportation around the Inner World while they're searching for their parents.
Artwork: Pretty standard, really. There's some really nice character design, but what else would you expect from something with Final Fantasy in the name that doesn't have Mystic Quest following that? The simplistic style of drawing carries through most of the series, with occasional CG thrown in "for good measure." Personally, I thought that the "good measure" would have been better spent in actually drawing these things out, since images that should have been easily recognizable, mostly summon spells, were done in completely nouveau style, even within the computer graphics. The result was hardly recognizable and not very pleasing to my eyes (most of the summons, though, are hand-drawn and nice, but the point is, CG in here isn't all that good). The backgrounds themselves were pretty well rendered, serving to set the mood of the scene or just to add a bit of color. The animation is fairly smooth for the most part, but nothing really special by the standards of modern animation techniques.
Music: The music in the series has kinds of mood swings, being emotional orchestral arrangements at one point, bouncy J-pop the next. The opening song, "Over the Fantasy," is a nice mix of orchestral and J-pop, which kind of serves as the middle road of the sound-track, while the first ending theme, "Vivid," is one of the most bouncy, happy, sugar-high-induced songs I've heard on any soundtrack, save maybe Excel Saga. Don't listen to it unless you're comatose, or you *will* want to shoot the singer by the end of the song. (Of course, I adore the song, myself; just goes to show about my taste in music, or it may just be the pixilated Choccobos running around the screen while the song's playing). The second ending theme, "Romancing Train" is pure J-pop, not quite as manic as "Vivid," but it's pretty high up there. It's the sort of thing you'd hear at a discotheque about fifteen years ago, but I personally enjoy it, too. Basically, besides the opening and closing themes, the music of this series wouldn't work very well out of context.
Characters: First, you've got Ai and Yu. Basically, you can package those two together because there's nothing special about the kids. They're... well... kids. And they... well... act like kids. They're unsure of themselves, rely on authority figures (Lisa, Kaze, or any of the adults with the Comodin) and each other to know what to do. They've got a moral streak a mile wide, which shows itself frequently. Lisa is a master of a style of martial arts, Kigenjitsu, which uses the latent energy of nature to act on her behalf. She's unsure of who she can trust, and is nervous about sharing her past with others, although it can sometimes get in her way. She seems to want an emotional partner for support, and she tries finding it in Kaze. Which brings us to the resident Badass of the series, Kaze. This guy is simply a badass to end all badasses. He's right up there with Spike and Tooya in my book. He's the mysterious black-clad figure who shows up to fight the forces of the Count but is unwilling to show loyalty to anyone in particular. He used to work for the Count, but through some series of events which isn't explored all that thoroughly, he decided to turn sides. His weapon is a summoning gun, which he uses to summon creatures, such as Shiva, Ifrit, and Phoenix. Around the beginning of the series, he gets slammed with a severe bout of SailorMoonitis, or Hero of the Day syndrome. He kills every monster and always saves the day in the nick of time. Luckily, this wears off with time and he gets to go back to being the moody, unsociable, uncaring badass that he was meant to be. Shiroi Kumo, the White Cloud, is the newest member of the count's Gaudium deathlords, perhaps the only competent one to work there. He has an incredible destructive power and is made to be Kaze's archrival who Kaze must beat at any cost. He's very aloof toward the other guardians, but shows unfaltering loyalty towards the Count.
Also, what with this being Final Fantasy, somebody felt the need to insert a couple of standard characters, just for kicks. Chobi is a choccobo who likes to pull on Ai's hair. He's pretty much there for comic relief and to protect the kids when Lisa and Kaze aren't around. Moogle the moogle shows up later on in the series as Kaze's long-lost partner (although it's *far* beyond me as to why some one as badass as Kaze would even consider working with a shrimp like a Moogle). The obligatory Cid incarnation is the mechanic for the resistance who *really* loves his machines. There's even a whole episode devoted to Cactuars (which seems a bit of overkill to me; there is no way to make something cute that does 10000 HP damage to you and promptly runs away).
Plot: Well, if you're looking for something deep, with complex characters and themes with important philosophical implications... go play Xenogears again, 'cause you *aren't* getting it here. The plot's about five hours fluff, five hours real substance. The series is extremely episodic, pretty predictable, and at times, downright sappy. I'd be willing to bet that half of the episodes could have been dropped, and the series wouldn't have suffered one little bit. And although I usually don't do this, since what you watch with your time is your business and none of mine dammit. However, despite that, I am warning you *not* to watch episode 10. That's almost completely worthless, and anything important just gets referred back to when necessary anyway. Thus ends my public service save-you-half-hour message for the day. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to burn another copy of this episode onto a CD and place the CD on a railroad track to see if the train derails. For the record, it didn't last time.
CHICKS!!! Two and a half by my counting. Lisa's the most exposed eye-candy of the bunch, and with good reason. She's got a figure that would put any Barbie doll to shame. Which means, of course, that in real life, she wouldn't be able to stand up straight. Really, her breasts are ridiculously large. If she was ever in a car wreck, she wouldn't need airbags. That's how bad it is. I'm convinced that the basis for her character model was a pair of triangles balances tip to tip. Plus, she's got some emotional issues with Kaze, and even if you could look past her clinginess, it'd be hard to make her see anyone besides Kaze. The general of the Comodin, Mireth, has a slightly more believable figure and a stable, not-clingy character, and might be more what you're looking for if you don't want a top-heavy, clean-cut woman like Lisa. The half of a chick refers to Helba, one of the Gaudium deathlords, who one might see as the poor man's Poison Ivy. She's got a decent appearance, save the green skin, but she's got an infantile personality (or a superiority complex, I'm not sure which), which manifests itself through her referring to everyone and everything with the "-chan" modifier. Not personally my cup of tea, but hey, if you're into smelling minty fresh in the general vicinity of your crotch, then she's your girl.
Overall: Well, this series has its ups and downs. On the upside, it's a light-hearted romp through a fantasy world with decent artwork, *two* badasses of magnificent proportions, and an interesting plot (although slightly far-flung at times). On the downside, it has nothing to do with Final Fantasy (beyond chocobos, moogles, and Cid), and some of the characters are blah. I didn't like the series enough that I would recommend it for purchase (maybe borrowing it from a friend who did purchase it, and making illegal copies, but *I* didn't tell you to do that), but I did enjoy it enough that I'll be on the lookout for the sequel novel/fiction series that's been released, "Final Fantasy: Unlimited After" to be translated by ADV. The comedy at some points is worth picking it up (all but episode 10, seriously), and I will personally applaud the makers of this for not allowing the series to suck ass. Thank you Square Enix, now GET BACK TO WORK ON TRANSLATING Star Ocean 3!
In a nutshell:
+ Kaze. My dear god, KAZE!!!
+ Decent laughs through the series
+ Decent artwork
+/- Simplistic plot
- Episode 10.
- Flat characters (except for Kaze)
Final Grade: 7/10
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