Final Fantasy

Aside from the references, this anime isn't directly connected to the Final Fantasy V game. It takes place many years after the game, and though it is said that Linaly, the main female character, is a descendant of Bartz, this Bartz could very well be some random legendary hero.

There are job classes, though without the particular outfits and there are four crystals as in practically every Final Fantasy. The plot features the quest to protect the wind crystal after the others are stolen by a new enemy, a strange alien with advanced technology whose base is located in the black moon, a natural satellite of ... planet Gaia.

The story has its fair share of humor and amusing characters especially Pritz and Rogue. The plot is easy to understand even if you haven't played the game, but the references would be lost.

Overall it seems this anime has received more criticism than praise, possibly because people expected a sequel with more connections to the game. But if you look at it as a strand alone Final Fantasy story, it's not bad.

The art and sound are not the best, but to be fair the anime is rather old and has decent art for its time. Despite it not being one of the best anime out there, it's still enjoyable and I recommend watching it with an open mind, being ready to judge it on its own instead of holding it against the game.

Before I begin, let me start with a quick disclaimer. I like the Final Fantasy games, for the most part. If I poke fun at the franchise a bit during the course of this review it's not because I just don't like the series, it's because the series has a lot of goofy aspects. I've looked at a few anime adaptations of video games in the past. I've looked at bad ones, Ninja Gaiden being the obvious example. Average ones, Nightstalkers and ones that were pretty good, Tales of Phantasia. This week I'm going to be looking at a selection from one of my favourite ... game companies, Square and our old friends at Madhouse. This is Final Fantasy, Legend of the Crystals.

Legend of the Crystals takes place several centuries after the events of Final Fantasy V. Linaly, a descendant of Bartz, is going to the temple of the wind to safeguard the crystal. She's followed by a young man named Prettz. The two find the crystal, which decides to hide itself in Linaly's body, which causes her bum to glow for some reason. The two find out that the other crystals have been stolen and find themselves targeted by mechanical beings who are trying to get the last one. They even build a Proctologist robot for that very purpose. Not really, but that would've been moderately less stupid than what actually happens. The actual story is pretty minimal and very cliche. The plot element of Linaly's firefly bottom mostly serves as an excuse for fan-service shots, on a character who looks to be all of twelve, classy. The final battle scene is quite anti-climactic and a lot of the events in the plot happen by virtue of plot contrivance instead of as a part of any kind of cohesive whole.

The characters in this are dreadful. You have Linaly, who spends most of her time either getting kidnapped or acting as a compass. She brings great shame on Bartz's name, and he's not even one of the good FF protagonists. He's okay though, which still makes him far too good of a character to be associated with this helpless twerp. Prettz is only slightly better, being an annoying moron. Then you have Rouge, a character who does absolutely nothing plot relevant. The other major characters are Mid, a ghost who basically serves as a guide for the majority of the OVA, Valkus, a muscle-head with all of one personality trait, and Ra Devil, the antagonist who makes Exdeath look like the best developed character ever by comparison.

The art in this is largely just lazy. With shading being used almost never. The facial expressions used for the characters tend to range from blank to dull surprise with very little variation. A lot of scenes are also repeated pretty much verbatim. To give an example, there's an action scene in which a large woman tries to slice our protagonists with a sword, only to have them duck. Then it happens two more times and it's pretty much the same every single time. The chocobos in this look terrible. They don't have their traditional yellow feathers, looking more like plucked ostriches, their beaks and eyes are also off. Then we have the fan-service. There are a lot of panty shots of our twelve year old heroine, because Madhouse decided to put their grossest people on this project. Linaly, put on some proper pants. Your shorts are far too short. Especially given your age. Rouge's outfit is just terrible. She looks like she's wearing bondage straps. Lady, most people can't pull bondage gear off as an outfit for action and you certainly aren't Sephiroth. Valkus just looks like a badly drawn 90s comic hero with a head that's too small for his overly muscled body.

Madhouse did get some really good voice actors for this. Particularly Ogata Kenichi, Yamazaki Wakana and Minaguchi Yoko. However, they don't give their best performances. In fact, their performances are kind of mediocre. The music is the best part of the OVA. It's the only aspect of the OVA that actually feels like a Final Fantasy game.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. The female characters barely even interact.

that was Legend of the Crystals, and it is bad. To be fair, the story is only the fifth worst I've seen in conjunction with the Final Fantasy title, but that isn't saying a whole lot. The franchise may have some great stories and characters, but it also has some really bad ones. It's not the worst video game adaptation I've reviewed either, but it's down there. My final rating is a 2.4/10.

For someone like me that has never played the games before, a lot of this anime's references will be utterly lost, however that doesn't stop it from being a fun and enjoyable anime in its own right.
The story is midly confusing (probably attributable to the short lenght and its links to the games) and moves quite quickly in places which certainly doesn't help those with no game knowledge, but that doesn't really detract from the overall experience.
This OVA is pretty much carried by its characters, which were interesting, varied and utterly insane: from a block-headed protagonist (who nevertheless remains endearing, despite his occasional displays of ... stupidity); S and M pirates (terrifyingly hilarious); the nose hair guy (also terriyingly hilarious, especially when the romance starts).
If you've played the games or know much about Final Fantasy in general, you will probably watch it with different eyes, but for a novice like me, I found this a thoroughly rib-tickling (for those who've seen it, pun intended) little series.