Final Fantasy: Unlimited
Encyclopedia
was an anime
television series based on Square Enix
's popular Final Fantasy
role-playing game franchise
.
Final Fantasy: Unlimited incorporates both 2D animation and 3D graphics, and takes elements from the Final Fantasy games with quite a few easter eggs, some obvious, others obscure. It was licensed for North America
and the United Kingdom
by ADV Films, and 7 volumes of videos were released on DVD
. In 2003, the series soundtrack Final Fantasy: Unlimited After 2 was released. The continuation of the story has also been released in a variety of other media.
The series is divided into two major sections, defined by the main mention of transport the protagonists are utilizing. The first half of the series see the group using the Interdimensional Train to reach a new world with each episode. In each of the episodes they would emerge to view a new world, confront the inherent dangers of the world, and stave off the latest assault by either the Gaudium Lords, or Omega.
Meanwhile, the story from the antagonist's view is periodically revealed with Earl Tyrant's discussion with his lords. Earl is the embodiment of Chaos, and is seeking the children as they were spawned of Chaos also, and the pieces of a powerful creature known as Omega. Omega is the ultimate destructive force, with its power only rivaled by that of the Unlimiteds; immortal beings of immense power. If he is able to collect these and adsorb them into his body, he will be able to rule Wonderland unchallenged.
The second half of the series see the protagonists join up with the rebel faction, the Comodeen, and board the submarine, Jane, which is bound for Telos, the only place in Wonderland that has a natural deposit of the gravity defying flight water. This substance will allow the airship Silvia to fly, allowing them to reach the Earl's flying fortress.
The series climaxes when the Earl himself makes a move on the Comodeen, destroying Jane and capturing the protagonists. Confronted with Chaos himself, Kaze and Makenshi, the only two surviving Unlimiteds, join forces and destroy it, thus ending its reign of terror over Wonderland.
The English complete FF:U boxset retains the seven disks as released singularly.
Opening theme
Ending themes
Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 1 was composed by Nobuo Uematsu
and Shirō Hamaguchi
. It was released on December 19, 2001 on the label Geneon
. Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 2 was composed by Uematsu, Hamaguchi, and Akifumi Tada. It was released on
April 17, 2002.
is a novel
. It explores a side-story that is set in the time of the television series (somewhere before episode 12).
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
television series based on Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
's popular Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
role-playing game franchise
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
.
Final Fantasy: Unlimited incorporates both 2D animation and 3D graphics, and takes elements from the Final Fantasy games with quite a few easter eggs, some obvious, others obscure. It was licensed for North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by ADV Films, and 7 volumes of videos were released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. In 2003, the series soundtrack Final Fantasy: Unlimited After 2 was released. The continuation of the story has also been released in a variety of other media.
Story
The original Final Fantasy: Unlimited follows the story of Ai and Yu Hayakawa, two twelve year-old twins who travel into Wonderland, a mysterious parallel dimension, in search of their missing parents. Along the way they meet Lisa Pacifist, a member of the C2 Organization, Kaze, a being of incredible power, and a variety of other characters.The series is divided into two major sections, defined by the main mention of transport the protagonists are utilizing. The first half of the series see the group using the Interdimensional Train to reach a new world with each episode. In each of the episodes they would emerge to view a new world, confront the inherent dangers of the world, and stave off the latest assault by either the Gaudium Lords, or Omega.
Meanwhile, the story from the antagonist's view is periodically revealed with Earl Tyrant's discussion with his lords. Earl is the embodiment of Chaos, and is seeking the children as they were spawned of Chaos also, and the pieces of a powerful creature known as Omega. Omega is the ultimate destructive force, with its power only rivaled by that of the Unlimiteds; immortal beings of immense power. If he is able to collect these and adsorb them into his body, he will be able to rule Wonderland unchallenged.
The second half of the series see the protagonists join up with the rebel faction, the Comodeen, and board the submarine, Jane, which is bound for Telos, the only place in Wonderland that has a natural deposit of the gravity defying flight water. This substance will allow the airship Silvia to fly, allowing them to reach the Earl's flying fortress.
The series climaxes when the Earl himself makes a move on the Comodeen, destroying Jane and capturing the protagonists. Confronted with Chaos himself, Kaze and Makenshi, the only two surviving Unlimiteds, join forces and destroy it, thus ending its reign of terror over Wonderland.
Episodes
| Title | Original airdate | English airdate |
|---|
Boxset
The North American complete FF:U boxset re-arranges the series into five discs of five episodes each.The English complete FF:U boxset retains the seven disks as released singularly.
| Phase | Episodes |
|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 01-05 |
| Phase 2 | 06-10 |
| Phase 3 | 11-15 |
| Phase 4 | 16-20 |
| Phase 5 | 21-25 |
Audio
The theme songs of the series are:Opening theme
- "Over the FANTASY"
- Lyrics: Yuko Ebine
- Composition: Nobuo UematsuNobuo Uematsuis a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...
- Arrangement: Takahiro Ando
- Vocals: Kana UedaKana Uedais a Japanese Seiyū employed by I'm Enterprise. She is best known as the voices of Yumi Fukuzawa in Maria-sama ga Miteru, Rin Tohsaka in Fate/Stay Night and Hayate Yagami in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's and Strikers...
Ending themes
- "VIVID" (Episodes 1-12)
- Lyrics and composition by: Takashi Genouzono
- Arrangement by: FAIRY FOREFairy ForeFairy Fore was a Japanese visual kei rock band. Their music was used for a few anime theme songs, such as their debut single "Love Sick", their second single "Vivid" and 4th single"Jet".-Biography:...
& Masao Akashi - Song by: FAIRY FOREFairy ForeFairy Fore was a Japanese visual kei rock band. Their music was used for a few anime theme songs, such as their debut single "Love Sick", their second single "Vivid" and 4th single"Jet".-Biography:...
- "Romancing Train" (Episodes 13-24)
- Lyrics: motsu
- Composition and arrangement: t-kimura
- Vocals: move
- "Over the FANTASY" (Episode 25)
- Lyrics by: Yuko Ebine
- Composition by: Nobuo Uematsu
- Arrangement by: Takahiro Ando
- Song by: Kana Ueda
Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 1 was composed by Nobuo Uematsu
Nobuo Uematsu
is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...
and Shirō Hamaguchi
Shiro Hamaguchi
is a Japanese anime composer, arranger and orchestrator. He is best known for composing music to the anime franchises One Piece and Oh My Goddess! and arranging/orchestrating music in the Final Fantasy series...
. It was released on December 19, 2001 on the label Geneon
Geneon
is a Japanese music, anime and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Geneon has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime in Japan...
. Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 2 was composed by Uematsu, Hamaguchi, and Akifumi Tada. It was released on
April 17, 2002.
| Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 1 and 2 listing | |
|---|---|
| Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 1 | Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse 2 |
|
|
Reception
Allen Divers of Anime News Network ranked the series an overall score "B". 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."Sequels
The story of Final Fantasy: Unlimited, left incomplete by the television series, was continued in several other media and released only in Japan. These are listed below, ordered by the chronology of the events they cover.is a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. It explores a side-story that is set in the time of the television series (somewhere before episode 12).
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited Before is a drama CD that features a flashback to the destruction of Kaze and Makenshi's worlds. FF:U Before was awarded to competition winners in Japan.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited After is a bookBookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
containing a 32 page mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and 120 page script. It was released in 2002 by DigiCubeDigiCubeDigiCube Co., Ltd. was a Japanese company established as a subsidiary of software developer Square on February 6, 1996 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The primary purpose of DigiCube was to market and distribute Square products, most notably video games and related merchandise, including toys,...
. It covers the twins' return to their own world, revelation of Lisa's past and introduces a new villain under Gaudium: Soljashy. - The After Spiral is a series of web novels published on the official Japanese FF:U website (which has been taken down). The first of these short stories takes a quick plunge into Makenshi's past, while the rest describe an encounter between the show's heroes and Soljashy on the twins' childhood home of Sado Island, where Ai and Yu are briefly reunited with their old friend Touya Satomi.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited After 2 is another radio drama. It deals with Comodeen's final attack on Gaudium and brings a conclusion to the conflict between Lisa and Soljashy, however it leaves many questions yet unanswered.
Video games
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited with U is a mobile phone (iPhone) game set in the Final Fantasy: Unlimited universe. It was released in August 2002.
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited on PC Adventure - Labyrinth is a personal computer game set in the Final Fantasy: Unlimited universe. Published by Amada Printing, it was released May 16, 2003.
External links
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited at the Final Fantasy Compendium
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited character database at the Final Fantasy Wikia
- Fan Translation of Final Fantasy: Unlimited continuations