In a way, its not hard to think of Final Fantasy Games as
playable Anime features. Enormous and
exotic worlds, colorful characters, intricate plots and fight scenes, more epic
Fantasy Anime have all of these and more.
It’s both no wonder and a shocker we haven’t seen a lot of Final Fantasy
Anime. That’s probably for good
reason…the ones we do get range from passable to just plain terrible. Since we’re finishing up the Final Fantasy
Friday Retrospective this week, for todays Top 5 Wednesday we’re gonna take a
look at the Top 5 Final Fantasy Anime.
Notice how I don’t have “Best” in the title. That’s because, as I said, there aren’t a lot
of truly good Final Fantasy Anime. So
one or two might be on the list that mostly suck but have at least one positive
quality to earn a spot on a list that would otherwise be two or three
selections shorter.
#5-Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Speaking of only making it onto the list for one positive
quality, we have Kingsglaive. While it
is overblown and somehow boring at the same time, the film, which takes place
before and during the events of Final Fantasy XV, is without doubt the best
looking Final Fantasy Anime film to date.
IT’s pretty much everything that Square had been working towards with a
feature film like this since The Spirits Within. Too bad the story and characters couldn’t
receive the same amount of attention as the visuals and action. Kingsglaive is basically DLC for Final Fantasy
XV that feels like one long cutscene than actual playable gameplay.
#4-Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Oh man, the stories behind this one. Square went all in on a project that cost
them so dearly that it was only thanks to the success of Final Fantasy X and a
merger with Enix that it survived this disaster. Is The Spirits Within THAT bad? It is and it isn’t. Yes it has very little to do with the Final
Fantasy namesake and acts more like a generic American scifi story more than
anything else. But the film is a pioneer
in the realm of digital animation and still looks pretty top notch all things
considered, with a well chosen A-List cast to boot. Some people do like this movie. Personally I think it’s ok. It’s a crap ton better than Legend of the
Crystals but then again everything is better than Legend of the Crystals, even
the aforementioned Kingsglaive.
#3-Last Order: Final Fantasy VII
Released as part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
series alongside Advent Children, Last Order focuses on a report by the Turks
detailing the incident in Nibelheim involving Cloud, Zack and Sephiroth. It’s only thirty minutes but Last Order is a
rare taste of what a decent Final Fantasy Anime could look like. The action’s not bad, it’s good to see a
reenactment of one of Final Fantasy VII’s most pivotal moments, and it’s got
some great animation and character models courtesy of Studio Madhouse. It’s kind of criminal we didn’t get a true
Final Fantasy VII Anime series or any other Final Fantasy focused series for
that matter from Madhouse, this seems right up their alley.
#2-Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete
I just reviewed this one during the Retrospective a
couple weeks ago and I wonder why Advent Children wasn’t released with this
extra content. Does it make Advent
Children perfect? Nope, but it does
expand the plots of several pivotal characters and does give us some more
excellent action and even touched up animation.
It’s equally baffling why Square didn’t use this movie as their starting
venture into feature films. Based on one
of their most popular Final Fantasy entries with a cast forever associated with
the title, it was a no brainer. Fun, but
not perfect, Advent Children Complete is the way to go for anyone who’s a fan
of Final Fantasy VII.
#1-Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV
This is as close to greatness a Final Fantasy Anime has
ever gotten. Brotherhood expands
tremendously on one of the universally praised aspects of Final Fantasy XV: the
bond between Noctis and his three besties: Ignis, Gladio and Prompto. Each member of the party gets their own individual
episode to explore who they were before and how they met Noct. All the while we get treated to their usual
on the road antics anyone knows so well playing the game. It’s a fun little bonus experience from Final
Fantasy XV, brought to life by A-1 Pictures which is an inspired choice. After
all, in doing Sword Art Online, A-1 knows how to do combat based on Video Game
mechanics.
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