Final Fantasy Quest - A Brief Detour to Neverland

Hey! Guess who finished Final Fantasy XV finally? Hey! Guess who hasn't gone through his in-game pictures to find good ones for the article or even come up with a decent draft for it yet?

Me. The answer is me.

However, I also had the fortune of spotting Final Fantasy: Unlimited, vol. 1 at my local library. I'd read about this anime and wondered about it, but I didn't go any further because it didn't seem like there was a strong connection to the Final Fantasy games themselves. And I think I thought it was only in Japanese or not released her, or something like that.

Turns out, it did get an English release. I even spotted it at a local bookstore, but it was for an entire set, and since I didn't know if it was good, bad, etc... I didn't plunk down the money for it.

Getting the first five episodes at the library, however, is a different story. I was actually hoping for the Final Fantasy V anime, but as far as I know, that was only ever released on VHS. Anyway, that one was semi-generic and a little embarrassing at the start. I hadn't any idea what to expect with Final Fantasy: Unlimited.

FF me? How rude.

Certainly, it is an anime. There's weird stuff, characters being goofy, overly elaborate weapon preparation sequences, and even a few potential waifus. I'm no anime expert, so I couldn't tell you if it was generic or not. However, unlike with the FFV anime, it doesn't smack of generic TO ME at least.

Right off the bat, the theme song is pretty good. While the other music in the show was composed by other people, they pulled in the one and only Nobuo Uematsu for the theme song. The art is nice looking too, with great backgrounds and (what I assume is) decent animations for the characters themselves.

5 episodes later...

I want more. More overly elaborate summoning-gun loading sequences with a few recognizable FF summon (I know Shiva and Ixion for sure). I want to know more about the mysterious Kaze who wields the strange gun. What's the waifu Lisa's motivation? Will the kids find their parents? What's the deal with the weird kid with delusions of godhood who shows up in some scenes with his villainous lackeys? I'll have to wait to find the answers to those questions.

The least able, but most amusing, of FF:U's villains

For now, I can say that I like the show overall. The music is cool, the action is fun, and the kids aren't so annoying as to make me want to cover my ears. My favorite villain is the incompetent lackey Fungus. With his pompous attitude, pipe-smoking and accent in the English dub, he remind me somewhat of the stuffy British character one might see in Danger Mouse or a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He's something of a mix of Sky-Byte from Transformers: Robots in Disguise and Papyrus from Undertale. A goofy villain you can't help but like a bit.

Anyway, my experience with Final Fantasy: Unlimited's first five episodes was a good one. I hope I get to see more soon.