Final Fantasy: Unlimited

I couldn't wait to take a look at Final Fantasy Unlimited after reading the article in Newtype magazine. Silly me, I assumed that the games' great characters, interesting plots and beautiful art would be present in the anime. The number of positive reviews for Final Fantasy Unlimited on IMDb.com is mind-blowing. Granted I've only watched the first episode, but it was repulsive and filled with clichés. Normally I'm the type of person to stay with an anime long after it goes bad, but lately I've completely lost my patience. I guess my main disappointment is that I expected it to live up to the games.

In all fairness, it was brash of me to drop this series after the first episode. But you have to be one hell of an anime to make a person go through these stages in twenty minutes:

1. "Well, this is alright."

2. "What?"

3. "Ugh! Wait, maybe it's a comedy!" (And it worked alright as an unintentional comedy)

4. "Life is too short." *Fast-forward, peek at next episode, turn off TV*

*Shrug* And I'm no FF expert... But I notice that in the beginning of the FF games I've played, you usually see the main character doing *something* really *cool* or nice. Here, we just have a bunch of random people freaking out over a huge light in the sky. So what? Who cares? Then we meet our protagonists.

The characters are nothing new. The bad-ass of the series, whose name I didn't learn because he's *so* MYSTERIOUS, seemed like he was crammed with every trait a dark loner could ever want: He has a dark cloak, long matted hair, unusual tattoos, broken glasses that obscure one eye AND amnesia! The twins, who appear to be the protagonists, are annoying even for anime kids. Some of their lines seemed to be ripped out of a bad fan fiction: "You're the ghost here lady!" "Ai! Remember your manners! Sorry, my name is..." And last but not least is a large-busted female we meet in the first episode, who the girl twin hates for some reason. When we first meet her, she speaks a few cryptic lines into a cellphone. In retrospect, this could have made for an interesting character. But somehow I completely forgot about that. I never attached to the characters because nothing about them sticks out to me.

The animation was as mediocre as the characters. I mean, sure it's colorful and digital, but the designs just lack that spark. I know that every additional line adds up real quickly in animation and that a TV show could never have the detail of even the FF sketches, but this is *really* minimalist. I've heard comparisons to Digimon's animation; all I can say is that even that had more detail than this. And besides, the Digimon designs always struck me as full of energy; these just look... typical. Maybe the lion's share of the animation budget went to the crappy 3-D special effects?

I dunno. Maybe I have really bad taste and no patience. But I would only recommend watching it so you're familiar with what people might bring up in conversation.

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

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.

The creators of Final Fantasy: Unlimited made only one mistake, in my opinion, and that is not completing the all 52 episodes.

I must say that it is laughable that, when people hear "Final Fantasy", they expect to see characters from the games. Every installment of the Final Fantasy game series has its own unique plot and characters, and so does the anime series. FF:U does feature all the usuals – including chocobos, moogles and summon creatures – although it doesn't need these elements to make it a great series.

Although the series starts slowly and falls into something of a monster-of-the-day pattern early on, its every character is given special attention and will never cease to entertain you (especially Ai). Every episode packs its fair share of drama, comedy and action. As another reviewer has commented before me, it is when you get to the later episodes that you realize how great FF:U actually was. The plot is imaginative and detailed, and the further you advance into the story, the more exciting it becomes.

It is a shame that FF:U was cut down to 25 episodes, as this stands even more true for the rest of the story that was never told. I speak as one who has read the Japanese books in which the untold parts of the story have been published when I say that the best was yet to come. I think no one has the right to bash Final Fantasy: Unlimited until they know the whole story. Unfortunately, it does not seem as if an English adaption of the After series will ever be made.

Still, though FF:U might not be for everyone, anyone who is willing to watch this series with an open mind is likely to find himself pleasantly surprised.

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