Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals Review by Rashad Moore

	Audience:	PG
	Genre:	Fantasy/Adventure
	Contains:	Animated Violence, Mild Language
	Rating:	C+

Based after the events from Final Fantasy 5 (the only chapter that didn't make it to the U.S.) The Final Fantasy anime tells the story of the young boy Prettz (who always rushes into things) and his friend Linaly, a kind young girl who thinks things through. The anime is a huge disappointment for Final Fantasy fans, but if you can forgive the foibles you'll find an extremely enjoyable (yet short) anime worth watching.

Taking place on the Planet R, life is kept in sync using 4 Crystals. But a mysterious force (a race of alien robots?!) is snatching the crystals, placing R in danger. Prettz and Linaly, who are descendants of the Crystal's protectors, are sent to protect the remaining Wind Crystal. But they soon run into trouble, namely Valkas(leader of the airships), a ghost child named Mid, and the scantly clad pirate queen Rouge. Soon after they band together to protect R from the alien threat.

For starters, the animation is average, while the series setting would feel right at home in a Dragon Ball anime. The music, while definetly nowhere near the quality Nobuo Uemetsu tunes of the game. (In fact some of it sounds a higher quality japanese DBZ score,) sounds good and matches the action well.   Probably the biggest disappointment would be the weak character development, the series is only condensed into four episodes, so don't expect the deep characters of the game. Plus the series takes a more comedic approach form the game.  (If you want a quality fantasy-comedy anime, watch Slayers.)

So overall, the characters are appealing, but undeveloped and the action is very constant( for only a short 4-part series). But it comes nowhere near the deep saga of the Final Fantasy games. If you can look past this, you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did.

Image not created by me. Review by Rashad Moore