Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Final Fantasy Friday Retrospective: A Gundam Anime Corner Special Miniseries Part 1.5

*Special note: Yes this was originally supposed to go up on Friday to coincide with the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake.  BUT I realized I had something a bit more…appropriate sitting on my shelf for that occasion.  So you’re gonna see that review as the official “Part 2” of the Final Fantasy Friday Retrospective.  Still, I didn’t want this review to go to waste.  So you’re getting Legend of the Crystals a couple of days early.  Enjoy everyone 😊* 

200 years have passed since The Valiant Ones saved Planet R from the darkness known as Exdeath.  Peace has flourished throughout the centuries.  But now a new evil threatens that peace.  The corrupt Wizard, Ra Devil has returned from the dark reaches of space to claim the power of Planet R’s four elemental crystals.  The descendants of The Valiant Ones, including a Priestess in training and a loud mouthed swordsman, must unite to push back Ra Devil’s forces before he becomes Deathgyunos, an evil God that cannot be stopped.

Released in 1994, Legend of the Crystals bears the honor of being the first Final Fantasy Anime.  It’s also a direct sequel to Final Fantasy V, originally released in 1992.  Granted Final Fantasy wasn’t the massive JRPG juggernaut it is today.  Still, this should have been a pretty big event level Anime to see.  And it’s an OVA and that usually means blending the best of TV and Movie productions together.  We did get Macross Plus in the same year mind you.  Annnnnd Macross Plus…this Anime is not, quite the opposite actually. 

Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals plays less like an actual Final Fantasy title and more like a half assed run of the mill scifi/fantasy Anime that stands out in the worst possible ways.  First example: the beginning.  Final Fantasy VI had that beautiful opening theme while Terra was walking through the snow in a mecha.  Final Fantasy VIII had Squall fighting Seipher to the most bad ass piece of operatic music.  And Final Fantasy XIII, for all it’s faults and more, opened with a visually stunning shootout on a train.  Legend of the Crystals…opens with two to three characters walking or riding a motorcycle through the most bland of environments.  At one point they were even riding across nothing but a smooth field of green that was supposed to be grass with a plain blue background all around them…that’s something you’d see in a Windows 95 desktop or screensaver, not a high level Anime OVA.  The animation doesn’t get much better than that and visually it feels less Anime and more like a very, very tame Ralph Bashki flick (I was getting Wizards vibes all over the place).  Back in an era when we were getting not only the aforementioned Macross Plus but also the original Record of Lodoss War, for an OVA to look this garbage is inexcusable.

Ok, so the animation isn’t the best.  But what about a classic Final Fantasy tale and memorable characters to guide it in the right direction…NOPE!!! Both are fails, as big fails as the animation itself.  The story is so barebones and unoriginal it hurts.  Lot’s of Final Fantasy games have recurring themes, characters and creatures to tie them together through a franchise despite their very distinct and different stories.  But those games also had larger than life quests, casts and villains that made you pay attention and focus when the huge scope threatened to overtake your sense.  Legend of the Crystals has none of that epic awesomeness.  The story is basic: save the world from a bad guy who wants to conquer it.  Ra Devil is as cardboard cut out a foe as you can get.  All he does is scream how he’ll be all powerful while sending his discount Cybermen to do his dirty work.  Sephiroth, Kefka and Queen Edea this guys most certainly is not.  Worse yet are the “heroes”.  I say worse because we spend more time with them in this OVA but lack all sense of memorability or proper character development.  Occasionally, Pretz is a competent fighter and Valgus a decent leader.  But 90% of the time they and their other two companions, Rouge and Linally, are bumbling their way to victory through, as Professor McGonogall would term it, “Sheer dumb luck”.  It doesn’t help that Linally is the subject of the worst aspect of Legend of the Crystals…the Crystal of the Wing stores itself in her butt…im not even kidding.  Moments after one character reveals a rather dark and tragic backstory, Linally blasts a beam from her butt (bending over mind you) to open an important chamber in a temple.  Is this supposed to be a Final Fantasy we take seriously when it’s nothing but more idiots and panty shots than proper drama and good action? 

What’s kind of sad is that the legacy of Final Fantasy Anime isn’t that stellar.  The Spirits Within, Advent Children and Kingsglaive all look gorgeous but lack proper story and gravitas, no matter how epic they might look.  Seeing how bad Legend of the Crystals is, I can see that the problem with that trend didn’t start with The Spirits Within.  Legend of the Crystals is bad, really bad.  Dumb characters, a basic villain, beyond sub par animation, and nothing feels nearly epic enough to merit giving this the “Final Fantasy” title in general.  I now see why this Anime is often forgotten or flat out dismissed if ever brought up in Final Fantasy circles.  Legend of the Crystals isn’t Final Fantasy…it’s just fantasy…and that’s not what Final Fantasy has ever been.  It’s more than that, almost a sub genre of itself.  An Anime debut should’ve been more respectful of that.

0/10

Thankfully there were much better days ahead for the Final Fantasy franchise.  We’ll return to the history of Final Fantasy proper in 2 weeks as we enter the era that truly brought Final Fantasy into the mainstream eye: The Playstation Era.  But this coming Friday, the retrospective continues with a more fitting tribute to the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake…Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

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