Final Fantasy: Unlimited

Final Fantasy: Unlimited「FF: U」 (ファイナルファンタジー：アンリミテッド, Fainaru Fantajī: Anrimiteddo) is an anime television series based on Square Enix's popular Final Fantasy role-playing video game franchise. The TV series was produced by It incorporates 2D animation and 3D graphics, taking elements from the Final Fantasy games. It was licensed for North America and the United Kingdom by ADV Films and was released on DVD. FF: U was directed by Mahiro Maeda of GONZO, produced by TV Tokyo's Keisuke Iwata, and Square Enix's Kensuke Tanaka. Square Enix game designer Akitoshi Kawazu served as base concept planning and was intended to be the planned video game series director.

Due to a combination of low ratings and the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the anime series's planned 52-episode run was cut to 25, leaving the story unfinished. The continuation of the story has been released in a variety of other media including printed and web novel series, manga, radio dramas, and video games.

Synopsis
Years ago, the opening of an interdimensional portal released two beasts into the skies over the Sea of Japan, visible to all the countries along the coast. After destroying the naval patrol sent to investigate the disturbance, the two beasts then turned against each other.

Scientists Joe and Marie Hayakawa were sucked into the rift by witnessing the fight from Japan. Upon returning to Earth, they compiled and published the academic findings from their voyage in a legendary book titled Day of Succession. Attempting a second expedition to that other dimension twelve years later, the couple has not returned.

Twins Ai and Yu Hayakawa decide to set forth in search of their parents and the mysterious Wonderland they studied. In the ruins of an abandoned subway station, the two wait for a train to take them to the world beyond. On board, they meet Lisa Pacifist, who quickly decides to aid the two in the search for their missing family. Can the three of them manage to find Joe and Marie?

TV Anime
FF:U was directed by Mahiro Maeda of GONZO and produced by TV Tokyo's Keisuke Iwata, and Square Enix's Kensuke Tanaka. Square Enix game designer Akitoshi Kawazu served as base concept planning. A series of video games were intended with Kawazu as director. Due to a combination of low ratings and the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the anime series' planned 52-episode run was cut to 25, leaving the story unfinished. FF:U aired on TV Tokyo's Network 6 weekly on Tuesdays at 6:30 PM starting on October 2, 2001. Japan released the series for home media via DVD and divided it into nine separate releases, known as "Phases". ADV Films picked up the series for North America and the United Kingdom on May 1, 2003. The North American complete boxset re-arranges the series into five discs of five episodes each, titled "Phase 1" through "Phase 5."

Staff

 * Original - Square Enix
 * General Director - Mahiro Maeda
 * Deputy Director - Kenichi Takeshita
 * Conductor - Rice tani Yoshitomo
 * Base Concept Planning - Akitoshi Kawazu
 * Series Composition - Atsuhiro Tomioka
 * Character Draft - Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshitaka Amano
 * Character Design - Kazuto Nakazawa, Carmel 7 (Takuhito Kusanagi, Atsuko Nakajima, Takahiro Kishida, Tomohiro Hirata, Minoru Mura, Masahiro Maeda)
 * Mechanical Design - Makoto Kobayashi
 * Monster Design - Yoshikazu Miyao, Masahiro Maeda
 * Earl Family Concept - Takuhito Kusanagi
 * Art Director - Park Il
 * Color Design - Tomoko Kuroyanagi
 * Editing - Kengo Shigemura
 * Theme Music - Nobuo Uematsu
 * Music - Shiro Hamaguchi, Akifumi Tada
 * Acoustic Director - Yota Tsuruoka
 * Animation Producer - Eiji Sumitomo
 * Producers - Takeshi Sasamura, Yuma Sakata, Shinji Nakajima
 * Animation Production - GONZO
 * Production Cooperation - Avex Mode
 * Production - TV Tokyo, Dentsu, GDH

The European-released complete boxset retains the seven discs as released singularly. Both were released by A.D.V. Films. A promotional DVD titled Final Fantasy: Unlimited Prologue Phase.0 was released containing the history of Final Fantasy, the production history of FF:U, and interviews with the cast. It was released on January 30, 2002.

Sequel
This work was originally scheduled to be broadcast on television for one year from October 2001, and was generally well received, with the audience rating in the Kanto region changing over 6%. However, the movie "Final Fantasy - Franchise", which was funded and produced by Square Inc. (Square Enix), the original author and main sponsor, and released in theaters in the United States on July 11, 2001, was a record failure, resulting in a big box office failure of about 13 billion yen. posted an extraordinary loss. As a result, Square was in financial trouble and was forced to withdraw from the video business it was working on at the time. This work was also canceled because Square Inc. withdrew from the sponsor in March 2002, and the broadcast period was shortened to half a year (25 episodes in total).

For this reason, there were many unresolved parts of the story in the anime, but the mook "FF: U After ~ Outer World Chapter: Outer World ~ The End and Beginning of the Dream", the web novel "FF: U After Spiral", and the drama CD "FF:U After 2 - Lisa: Tachikirare Kusari” told the story after that, and a tentative follow-up was made. Among these, the stage was moved to the modern world where humans live, and the development involving the different world and the outside world (modern world) was depicted. However, the story is still unfinished and many mysteries remain unsolved.

Mook is already out of print, and it is difficult to obtain a new one. In addition, the official website of the web novel was closed around 2004. This web novel is also unfinished, and the plot of the story that was not published is described on the drama CD jacket.

Music
FF:U was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Shirō Hamaguchi, and Akifumi Tada. The series has an opening theme and three ending themes. The opening theme for the series is "Over the FANTASY" (Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Arranged by Takahiro Ando, Lyrics by Yuko Ebine) performed by Kana Ueda. The first theme is "VIVID" (Lyrics and Composition by Takashi Genouzono, Arrangements by Fairy Fore and Masao Akashi) performed by Fairy Fore and was used for episodes 1-13. For episodes 14-24 the ending theme was "Romancing Train" (Composition and arrangements by t-kimura, lyrics by motsu) performed by move. The third ending theme was "Over the FANTASY" and was used on the final episode of the series.

Avex mode released the singles for the opening and endings. The "VIVID" single was released on November 7, 2001. The "Over the FANTASY" single was released on December 5, 2001. The single for "Romance Train" was released on February 6, 2002. Two soundtracks were produced by Avex mode. The first is Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse.1 and was released December 19, 2001. The second titled Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse.2 was released on April 17, 2002.

All music and arrangements were made by Shiro Hamaguchi unless where otherwise specified.

Printed
A novel titled, Final Fantasy: Unlimited – Sou no Kizuna was released on March 28, 2002, by Kadokawa Shoten. The novel was written by Sho Katigiri, illustrated by Kazuto Nakazawa, and supervised by Squaresoft. It explores a side story that is set in the time of the television series. A 96-page artbook titled Final Fantasy: Unlimited – Kaze to Kumo Noita Sekai was published by Kadokawa Shoten and released on April 22, 2002. A book titled FF:U After – Gakai no Sho was released on May 15, 2002, by DigiCube. The book contains a 32-page manga drawn by Hiroyuki Yamashita and a 120-page script written by Atsuhiro Tomioka. It covers the twins' return to their own world, the revelation of Lisa's past, and introduces a new villain under Gaudium: Soljashy. A serial web novel titled FF:U After Spiral was written by Sho Katigiri, supervised by Atsuhiro Tomioka, and was published on the official Japanese FF:U website. The series has a total of seven chapters and one spin-off chapter was released and takes place after the events of FF:U After.

Audio
A serial audio drama titled FF:U Voice Theater – fābura no ikai e no sasoi was available for those who subscribed to TV Tokyo's Anime-X service via mobile phones on i-mode's distribution service. A total of 10 episodes were released monthly beginning on January 15, 2002. It was conducted by Yoshitomo Yonetani with Kikuko Inoue returning as Fabula's voice actress. The series was compiled and released on September 30, 2002, in CD-ROM for Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, and iMac G3. Two drama CDs were released by Avex mode. The first drama CD titled FF:U Before - Aura Inochi Tsugu Mono was given to customers for a limited time as a gift for those who purchased the DVD Boxset. It tells a story in the form of a flashback of the destruction of Kaze and Makenshi's worlds. A radio drama titled FF:U After 2 – Risa tachi kira reta kusari was released on December 26, 2002, and deals with Comodeen's final attack on Gaudium and brings a conclusion to the conflict between Lisa and Soljashy.

Video games
Two video games have been released. The first, titled FF:U with U, is an RPG video game adaptation for Japanese mobile phones on i-mode's distribution service developed by Index (Amata Printing Kako Inc.) and was released on August 20, 2002. The game contains the same plot as the anime. Points can be accumulated by playing through the game's scenarios and be used to purchase more characters. Ringtones based on the music of FF:U can also be purchased through the game as microtransactions. The second game, titled FF:U on PC – Meikyū Kuroki Yume Noki Oku, is a visual novel and card game set in the FF:U universe. Published by Amada Printing, it was released on May 16, 2003. Unlimited Saga was in production around the same time as the anime and originally connected to the setting of the anime series, but these plans were shelved during production. Kawazu later said that many of the similarities were coincidental due to his work on both projects.

Reception
The series was ranked 18 by popular vote for Top 20 Anime in Japan for November 2001.

Outside Japan, the series had received mixed reviews. Play magazine reviewer David Halverson was disappointed that the series was aimed at a younger audience, stating "When I think Final Fantasy, I envision majestic characters, heart-wrenching drama, and exquisite art, none of which make the scene in FF Unlimited". Allen Divers of Anime News Network (ANN) ranked the series an overall score of "B" stating, "Despite its somewhat formulaic plot, Final Fantasy is an ambitious series and manages to be visually engaging." Sandra Scholes of Active Anime praised the series stating, "It is interesting to see how well thought out this series has been. The characters have been created with care and consideration for the ones out there who have followed the Final Fantasy genre from the start." However, Ken Hargon of ANN criticized the series for being unappealing and not living up to the Final Fantasy series nor any other anime. Carlos Ross of T.H.E.M. ranked the series three stars stating that "The style is firmly entrenched in Saturday morning, but at least it's better than FF Legend of the Crystals." Paul Gaudette of Mania gave the series a "D" stating "Although it has almost nothing to do with its namesake, Final Fantasy Unlimited was somewhat enjoyable in the beginning while falling into every cliché of a show written for a younger audience."

External Link

 * TV Anime "Final Fantasy: Unlimited" ─ Official page at GONZO (archived from the original)
 * TV Anime "Fantasy: Unlimited" ─ Official fan site (archived from the original)
 * Final Fantasy: Unlimited ─ IMDb
 * Final Fantasy: Unlimited at the Final Fantasy Compendium (archived from the original)
 * Final Fantasy: Unlimited ─ Wikipedia JP
 * Final Fantasy: Unlimited ─ Wikipedia  EN 

Trivia
to be added.

__INDEX__