Final Fantasy: Unlimited

The story about Lisa, Ai and Yu who are searching for Ai and Yu´s parents in the inner world. In the inner world they meet Kaze who is equipped with a demon gun which summons creatures. In the inner world they also meet up with Chobi who is of course a chocobo. Omega is taking over the inner world and someone has to stop him...

This show is fantastically awesome. If you're a big Final Fantasy nerd, then you'll fall in love with it. It's a shame they cancelled the second season, but it's good they did so before the last episode was made, so they could finish it all up within a season.

Although the lines of the characters are awful most of the time (kuroi kaze is so full of himself!!), I must say that some of the characters are unforgettable, for instance Earl Tyrant, the death lords of Gaudium and, of course, Makenshi. But, what truly makes FFU a great anime is the soundtrack. The music is sumptuous and sometimes epic (the theme illustrating Makenshi's fighting scenes is truly incredible) and also provides some comic relief or accompanies battle scenes, for instance the one where Kaze loads the Demon Gun, with fast-stripped beats. Honestly, it is the main reason for the high grade that I am giving to the show because, in my point of view, the action is too repetitive and the same scenes are reused far too much. Despite that, I think the fans will be delighted to discover that an anime has managed to recreate the unique atmosphere of Final Fantasy.

I am an otaku and a fan of the Final Fantasy games. I liked the Final Fantasy movie, but hated the old OVA series. This is in many ways worse than the old series. From the begining this series looks like it might be a somewhat decent and entertaining fantasy, but after a few episodes you will see that this is not much better than Pokemon. The digital cell animation is cutesy and digital-looking. The 3D is blocky and out of place; much worse than the awful 3D in Candidate for Goddess. The characters are one-dimensional, whiney, and annoying. The voice acting, while pretty good, isn't anything particularly special. The story is cliched, much more "like a videogame" than the video games. Deffinately geared towards children. The only redeeming qualities are some surreal landscapes and semi-interesting homages to the games. 3/10

The basic storyline is that Ai and Yu, two twins, are seeking their parents who disappeared in a rift 12 days ago. This rift takes the twins to Wonderland, a series of worlds with one ruler: Duke Tyrant, a cruel child who seeks to be the most powerful of all in Wonderland. Ai and Yu must find their parents and stop this Duke from invading their homeworld with strangers they meet along the way... First of whom, Lisa (a young sorceress) meets the twins on the "Ghost Train" that takes them around Wonderland. There's also Kaze, a strange fighter with amnesia and no charisma whatsoever, who defends the twins and Lisa (unintentionally) from the beasts and bosses of Wonderland using a strange and legendary "Magun" that appears to be permanently attached to his right hand that uses powerful colored bullets he calls "Soil". A wide assortment of other characters also exist...

This is a great introduction to the Final Fantasy series of video games for new players. It introduces the elements that are present in almost all of the games: Cid, the summoned monsters, what opposes which, etc. and it doesn't do it in a stubborn manner, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, where concepts build upon each other.

Many people look at the recent games, and decide that this anime is inferior to the quality of stories that are present in the recent titles. This isn't geared towards that at all; Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II/IV were very simple in storyline as well, and are hailed as classics. Could more have been done with this OAV? Sure, but this does have value in of itself in the way it was made.

Of a four star scale, I'd give it two. It has originality and imagination, it could be better, but thankfully it's not the original Final Fantasy series anime. If the introduction was more solid, however, such as clarifying the significance of the Day of Conjunction, and how their parents released a book about it 12 days after the rift opened before disappearing... that would make this a candidate for three stars.