Final Fantasy (Anime)

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Original video animation
title Final Fantasy
Original title フ ァ イ ナ ル フ ァ ン タ ジ ー
transcription Fainaru Fantajī
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 1994
Studio Madhouse
length 30 minutes
Episodes 4th
Director Rintaro
music Masahiko Satō
synchronization

Final Fantasy ( Japanese フ ァ イ ナ ル フ ァ ン タ ジ ー ) is an anime from 1994. The production by director Rintaro and Studio Madhouse was released as an original video animation and is based on the Final Fantasy game series . The anime takes place in the world of the game Final Fantasy V , 200 years after its story. The work can be classified into the genres of fantasy , adventure and comedy. Internationally, it also became known as the Legend of the Crystals .

action

200 years after defeating the evil wizard Exdeath, the heroes of yesteryear have become legends. Now planet R is threatened by Ra Devil, a biomechanical being from the black moon. The young conjuring mage Linally and her grandfather - descendants of the legendary heroes - travel to the Shrine of the Wind to protect the crystal stored there from evil forces. They are accompanied by the swordsman Prettz, who is in love with Linally and protects her on the journey. On their adventures, they first leave Linally's grandfather behind for safety reasons and then meet the gang of air pirates from Rouge. Having escaped from them, they finally find the crystal that unites with Linally's body to protect against evil.

Shortly afterwards, Rouge and her gang arrive as well as the fleet of the tycoon under the command of Valkus, who are all after the powerful crystal. Suddenly they are attacked by robots and have to flee together - first on Rouge's island, where the heroes and Valkus end up in their dungeons. There appears to them Mid, a ghost from the time of the legendary heroes. He explains to the three of them what the robots are all about and that they have to fight evil together. Shortly afterwards, the robots attack again and the heroes flee with Rouge into the castle of Tycoon. Princess Lenna also convinces Rouge to join the fight against evil. Now the group takes up the fight together and awakens the dragon from Tycoon, who is supposed to bring them to the source of evil.

Production and publication

The anime consists of four parts, each lasting 30 minutes. These were created at Studio Madhouse under the direction of Rintaro . Naoto Kanda and Tomihiko Ōkubo directed each episode . The screenwriter was Satoru Akahori . The artistic direction was Hidetoshi Kaneko and the character design was done by Kunihiko Sakurai , Satoshi Tasaki and Yoshinori Kanemori . The responsible producers were Tetsuo Daitoku, Yojirō Shirakawa and Yuji Takae. The music of the anime was composed by Masahiko Satō and the credits of the episodes are underlaid with the song Fūsui Kikō ( 風水 紀行 ) by Shigeri Kitsu.

The four episodes were released on commercial media in Japan from March 21 to July 21, 1994. The anime came out in France in 1995, followed by a release in the USA in 1997 and later a Spanish and Italian version.

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
Prettz Rica Matsumoto
Linally Yuko Minaguchi
rouge Fumi Hirano
Valkus Shigeru Chiba
Mid Etsuko Kozakura

reception

The plot follows the usual pattern of computer role-playing games, according to the Anime Encyclopedia : "After a few random fights against monsters, the heroes have to unite two fighting groups" in order to take on the evil that threatens all. This “worn” story is “spiced up” by the original and elaborately designed backgrounds, in which influences from all over East Asia can be recognized. The critic in the German magazine Animania is enthusiastic : "an excellent anime", which in its English version is also translated excellently and without major flaws. With a simple character design and the overall atmosphere, the anime is reminiscent of the early films by Studio Ghibli , the backgrounds are partly similar to those of Franco-Belgian comics . The animations are "still outstanding today [1999]" and the history of the computer game adaptation is not a "pale copy of the game that was forced into a plot [...] but a coherent, independent work".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5 , pp. 195 f .
  2. ↑ a b Animania 3/99, p. 42f.