Final Fantasy: Unlimited

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

Final Fantasy Unlimited, the previous comment was made after watching only one episode, and he said it was a terrible anime, personally i don't comment on IMDb, but after hearing him rip into this i had to act. Around a year ago i first watched "FFU", i was blown away by it from the start. It has everything you would look for and love from the final fantasy series, and adds its own unique and great touches along with a strong story. True the ending leaves many unanswered questions but it leaves space for a hopeful sequel. The story mainly focuses around Ai and Yu a pair of twins searching for their parents in an alternate universe known as wonderland. On their journey alongside a young woman Lisa, they repeatedly cross paths with a man without a name who is searching for someone, one of the twins affectionately refers to him as Kaze who wields a powerful magic gun known as "MAGUN". While they are constantly attacked by a group of people for reasons unknown to them. I cannot highly recommend this anime enough. If you consider yourself a fan of the final fantasy games or are a anime fan looking for something unusual this is the anime for you ********(8) out of 10

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...

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.

I've seen a lot of bad reviews about this anime from what I like to call "Anime Snobs." As with any product there will be those who refuse to accept any deviation from the tradition (ie Star Wars fans hating the newer prequels coming out). Here is the truth of the matter: Final Fantasy: Unlimited had me excited from beginning to end.

Sure it had a lot of slow moments in the beginning where it was trying to find itself, however the characters suck you in a refuse to let go. If you can get past the animation (which could've been better) and the mix between hand-drawn characters and CGI graphics you'll see FFU for what it is: A Masterpiece!

Rating 10/10