The Terrible Cancelled Final Fantasy Anime 

I feel the need to inform everyone that Lisa's full name is Lisa Pacifist. When she was first shown, she was speaking into a radio saying "This is Pacifist" so I assumed that it was a codename. No. Her last name is Pacifist.

The twist that the main children were actually from the isekai world and adopted by the scientist because they had a miscarriage is such a good one and I wish it was in a better show.

Wierd thing is that the narrator was revealed to be working with the bad guys this entire time. She was sent to spy on the good guys as a cute robot pet. Which is how she was able to recap every episode. It was just so pointless and confusing. Like how " Kaze" means wind, in Japanese.

The idea that this broody anime guy just shows up every episode and does his one minute long posing, which basically consists of him loading and then shooting his gun, is kinda hilarious. And the fact that the writers just made some weird mirror summoning device instead of having this guy rescue them normally or having the main group solve their own problems is just *Chef's kiss*.

Man, they really soiled any potential this show could have achieved, didn't they?

For everyone saying Chaos escaping the FF1 timeloop and destroying other worlds and combining their remnants into a big mishmash world is a great idea: Final Fantasy also agrees with you, and that's why they made Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

I have to admit I do really love the idea of a flightless bird getting a superhero powerup that just allows it to fly

As a Digimon fan, this feels like they took a LOT of inspiration from that series, but without understanding what fans loved about it.

Okay but... Chaos screwing off out of the FF1 timeloop and starts mishmashing worlds together including the real world IS ACTUALLY SUCH A GOOD CONCEPT FOR A FF SHOW

To be fair to the Chocobo designs in those early OVAs, they are closer to Yoshitaka Amano's original designs for the creatures, which envisioned them as huge, featherless pterosaur/ostrich hybrid creatures before the fluffy yellow chicken mounts caught in in later games. Although I will concede that yeah, the later design caught on for a good reason.

At least you didnt spend 40 bucks a DVD and got the collectors edition vol 1 with the Tshirt....and wore that shirt shamelessly around. Damn, I'm still depressed about this.

I watched this almost 20 years ago and was flabbergasted by it all. I finished out of obligation. However, I cannot explain why I love Kaze and “soil is my power” SO much. I still pull up the ‘Best bits’ video of only the canned Magun sequence every so often. Part of me hopes every time I pick up a new Final Fantasy gacha that THIS will be the brave one that adds Kaze!

16:18 I kind of love the trope of the self-conscious weird child whose weirdness is actually rad as fuck, as well as its slightly more fraught adult romantic counterpart the "but your horns are beautiful!" cliché, partly because when executed decently they can reflect actual human experiences through a fantastical metaphoric lens in a charming way, but also because when they're handled particularly bluntly or simplistically it can be *extremely* funny.

A full 25 minutes, and I still have no idea why we were following Ai and Yu as they seem to never solve anything. Good storytelling team!

That Legend of the Crystals OVA was actually my entry into the franchise and it's a miracle I stuck with it after that introduction. Would love it if that got a roast as well

My favorite thing about this anime was the music. The theme that plays when Kaze fires the Magun is so cool that it made the canned sequence the highlight of each episode. Also, one of the ending themes was "Romancing Train" by m.o.v.e, who are probably most noted for their Initial D songs. I actually got to see them live at an anime convention years and years ago (around 2006/2007) and they played "Romancing Train". It was easily the best moment of any convention I went to.

As somebody who loves dragon. Seeing two hideous CGI dragons just makes my entire existence collapsing on itself

Kaze should have been a twist main antagonist. Guy was going around presumably turning people into Crayola Crayons and shooting at least 3 of them an episode.

Jrpg anime hit a new bar of awful right as I was hitting that point in my childhood where I could afford the occasional box set. I remember the first sets I ever bought were FF Unlimited and Star Ocean EX…. Both of which constantly battle in my brain for the title of “most disappointed anime I ever spent money on.”

I genuinely loved this series when I was younger. I thought it was so incredibly cool. last dvd was the first thing i ever imported ...there was little anime in the middle of rural Sweden in the early 2000s, so when you found something in a store, you bought it.

Seeing mothers basement rip into another bad anime is my 2nd favorite pastime.

Like you said, it seems like there WAS potential here. The whole "world made up from pieces of other destroyed worlds" thing could make a pretty great setting! Kaze's soul gun could have been cool if it had been anything other than a Do-Anything-The-Plot-Needs Device! The kids could have been more interesting than cardboard cutouts if they'd actually been given anything to do! But it sounds like all of that was wasted. What a pity.

I remember seeing the complete set at Best Buy circa 2009, being sold for $20. At that time, anime dvds were still expensive *especially* for box sets. So I was excited to see a final fantasy anime being that cheap and bought it with my own money. Geoff’s opening intro about forcing oneself to like a crappy product is very applicable to my watching experience

Good lord, I watched episode 1 of this back in like 2005 and was confused enough by it that for the next 18 years I would occasionally think back to it and wonder what the rest of the show was like, but never actually having enough motivation to seek it out. Thank you for answering that question and confirming that I made the right decision to be lazy.

Pretty wild that this is coming from the Gankutsuou director and had some talented staff on it from time to time like the late Ryuutarou Nakamura (director of Serial Experiment Lain & Kino no Tabi) directing episode 2 or Noriyuki Abe (director of Bleach, GTO & 90's Hunter x Hunter) storyboarding episode 6

I gotta admit, your ability to ride off the hype of a trend while making it seem like a natural part of your video schedule is the journalistic skill I admire about you.

There is absolutely no way I could have prepared myself for the voice that came out of that evil Earl’s mouth. Good lord lol

I remember there being an abridged series of this anime and the part where the guy was summoning was really funny to me because he just threw together random crap and somehow got a summon.

Geoff really nailed that feeling of finding content for a series you like and having it be garbage. Being a kid in the early 00s you really had to scrap the bottom of the barrel to find the good anime stuff. I remember going to the mall with my cousins and being amazed at the hobby stores that had whole sections related to anime. Outside of that there wasnt alot of places to get access to anime related content outside of renting games/movies like Geoff mentioned. I feel like Grandpa Simpson being like back in my day we had to walk thirty miles for a anime body pillow.👴🏾

don't forget that Soil is Kaze's power and that the Magun has thawed.

I can't believe this show was directed by Mahiro Maeda. Man made Gankutsuou, one of the all time greats!

Imma be real. I unironically love this show. To me it's so fun and I love the character designs backgrounds and monsters. I know its a bad show but I still love it.

Usually I’d cringe my ass off at ad sections but there was something surprisingly wholesome about them just tapping at each other’s screens and her just going like ‘Fine, you can look at ass, but maybe lay off it a bit okay?’ instead of ‘what the hell are you playing? O-o’ He loves her so much, he even put her face on every girl’s assets! That’s couple goals right there.

The Digimon comparison seems really apt as the artstyle of this show really reminds me of Our War Game. Like it's veeeeery similar.

"Soil rhymes with soylent, which is people" I legit choked.

Okay, I don't wanna be "That guy". But I'm gonna be "That guy". The reason the Earl needed the flying water WAS explained. He needed it to contain the pieces of Omega so he could hold them long enough to eat them. It is the only thing Omega can't destroy. Specifically one piece named Clear who was a good guy but would destroy everything around him if he didn't have his suit of flying water. He was also rumored to be the love interest of the little girl. His episode was also an episode where Kaze DIDN'T solve everything.

"Her parents are mind-controlled to think they're pastry chefs and forget they have kids, which makes Yuu very sad." Look Final Fantasy, just because Digimon Tamers was better than your show in every conceivable way does not mean you get to throw shade at it like that. (yes, I know, they were airing at around the same time so it almost definitely wasn't deliberate, but as a fan of both the Final Fantasy games and Digimon Tamers, I am taking this personally.)

As someone who has loved final fantasy for basically my whole life, I remember renting this from my local video rental store and being incredibly disappointed. Especially because I feel like a lot of the games could lend themselves to a very fun anime.

In a odd way, this was and still is one of the favorite animes that I have seen. Yeah, its hella cringey to watch, but man. I remember going to my local library to find the first three dvd's and obviously I loaned them so many times whenever I could, because it was so good. Even later on my years I managed to find a dvd collection on a anime convention and I just knew that I need it in my life. It was just meant to be :D

Okay but I actually want to play as Kaze in a game. The soil gun sounds like it could be turned into an interesting mechanic of combining elemental energies to get different effects. Something along the lines of FF15's magic grenades or Rikku's mix ability from FF10.

I remember this series. I watched it once. And yet one episode has always stuck in my mind. The episode where the Earl's Fungus minion learns that a part of his home had survived. So he goes to restore and protect that land. Of course, our heroes arrive and Kaze fights him, only it doesn't work as his regenerative abilities are too strong. In the end, the Fungus minion discovers black mold (if memory serves) that destroyed his home before. And then Kaze hits him again killing him (only possible now because of the mold ruining his regenerative abilities) and destroying what remained of his home. It then cuts to the Earl enjoying his "meal". I think part of why I remember the episode is because the Fungus guy was revealed to have never truly been a bad person. Just unknowingly working for the person who had destroyed his home. Only to then have it all destroyed by our protagonists. It was an oddly sympathetic story in this series. It was also one of the only times Kaze had to use his gun twice. Otherwise, you are 100% correct. The rest is basically "whacky hijinks", then Kaze using his MaGun to kill whatever villain of the week is here. In the end, the series feels really rushed, too. Honestly, feels like there could have been something interesting if they workshopped it a little more and focused on a cohesive longform story rather than a monster of the week format.

I forgot the days when all the Isekai copied Digimon's homework instead of half-assing Mushoku Tensei. I must now go find a bootleg of Monster Rancher and indulge my inner child. Optimally, before the work-week drives that inner child out to the woods and leave it for random hikers to find months later.

The main thing with it is that a big chunk of the issues with it are due to them being part of the way through the episodes all but complete and trying to tell the story of the rest with what they had left. There were also sections that were pretty far along that got scrapped to at least have a semi-viable finale to it. Clear was going to play a larger role in the story, and Omega was supposed to be revealed as, essentially, a countermeasure for Chaos. Part of the story would have moved up the confrontation with the Earl earlier, which would be followed by ending up back on Earth which is where Lisa was supposed to earn the Kigan dragon she uses later on and most of the events of After would have happened and Chaos still plotting and arriving on Earth which would then trigger things with Makenshi revealing his motives (he was trying to position himself and get strong enough to assassinate Chaos, and would have stolen the Ocean Puzzle which would be used to remix all of the destroyed worlds as a delaying/equalizing tactic so that if they could get through it, they could destroy Chaos and restore the worlds the Earl had destroyed. Madoushi would have played a larger role after that and be revealed as the one who killed Aura [The girl Kaze keeps dreaming about and Makenshi would also have as she was Kaze's sister and had been betrothed to Makenshi as part of a peace treaty...that Madoushi was against and assassinated her after willingly turning to serve Chaos and unleashed him on the worlds of their people while making it look like Makenshi was the one that betrayed them and got Aura killed, which was why Kaze was so focused on going after him). Another thing was that Kaze and Makenshi's first major battle (The one intended to be the opening) is also when Clear was "created" and Omega was shattered The Earth->Wonderland->Earth->Puzzle thing was something they were inspired directly by Digimon Adventure with...the first section largely being to have several other worlds pop up that would show up again later involving other things There were a LOT of things that had been planned for the full, original runtime...which then got butchered as they had to remove a lot of things from the earlier ones while both having fewer episodes to finish things off unless they got a last minute reprieve (which they didn't get) while also hammering in a massive pile of more exposition dumps... All in all, I actually still enjoyed the series and own a copy despite it's myriad of flaws in final execution...and I would have loved the original plans for the series

The power of Final Fantasy is in exploring a world and its implications. Every entry has to answer what black magic is, what white magic is, what roles summoners have, etc. There's always something rotting the world from the inside out, and then that and the magic system usually combine to produce something even more messed up. As others have said, the premise of this one is great. But that's all it is, a premise

There's a real charm to the animation illustration quality and designs, and despite them using canned animation for stuff it looks like the rest of the time the characters are actually moving around and animated fairly well considering it's an episodic show. Such a shame that the premise and effort ended up wasted by poor management.

The musical themes for the Magun (Demon Gun) activating and then Kaze choosing the bullets and firing are some of my favorites.

OMG!! I have seen this as a little kid. I grew up in the middle of nowhere village in Finland and didn't know what anime was until my late teens. But I remember my parents found and bought these weird "cartoons" for me to watch, and I remember being scared of that opening with the portal. Later, I became a huge anime nerd, and I always wondered, was it a real show or my fever dream.😅 Now I wonder where my parents found the anime.

Finally sat through this, and god what a trip down memory lane this was. I saw this whole series when it came out and felt absolutely empty by the end. It sucks because I believed that the setting had a lot of potential, thought character designs and OST were neat, and teenaged me really thought the descriptions of Kaze's Soil Bullets were always pretty metal. The problem was ...the rest of it. I think if Square was Less ambitious and committed to a solid 26 episodes from the jump, then maybe the series would be a lot better. If nothing else, it would have forced them to pare down their ideas (IE, focusing on a couple of major power sources as opposed to the eight or nine they loaded into this) and maybe the animation wouldn't have had to have cut so many corners and there'd be some actual plot progression. Sadly, the FF franchise has always had this reputation of being Huge and Epic, so I can't help but feel like this was doomed from the start.

I'm the opposite of "final fantasy has to be one type of genre or battle system" type of person. Goodness knows every FF after 6 might as well be it's own IP. I love that about the franchise. But the amount of betrayal I felt when I saw spirits within and then this anime sometime all those years ago are on a level I can't describe. It's so far removed from anything FF. And while they are both JRPGs turning FF into a pokemon oriented anime is just strange...I wondered what the point of even labeling this ff even was.

Surely, I cannot be the only one whose first FF game was VIII and played it so much that the Balamb Garden theme playing in this video's background could not be missed. Thank you so much for that, Geoff.

I think it'd be really funny if Unlimited got a reference in an official game. Maybe have a chocobo named Chobi or something small like that.

Glad to see you squeeze in a "CHAOS" there as literally every Stranger of Paradise reference/meme makes me howl with laughter even if it's just for a second.

"Mediocre Digimon" still sounds so much more worth watching than "power fantasy isekai harem". Anyways, I remember watching this in 2007 when, for some reason, Anime Network's 24/7 linear channel was brought to Puerto Rico, as it aired on fridays throughout the year. I recall only seeing a handful of epiosdes and I thought it was fine, but BOY, maybe it's repetitive formula might have been indeed the reason why I probably never fully got into it. On the plus side, THE ENDING THEME SLAPS.

The finale is so sad because, similar to Tsubasa Chronicles, you knew the story was incomplete and you weren’t getting an ending. The OST was great though

The Magun thawing is the best part of the show and it's epic every time. No one can convince me otherwise.

This was so nostalgic! I used to watch that as a lil kid in Japan! It was formulaic as hell, but it looked cool as hell and I was young enough to buy into its cool factor

This convinced me to look up the magun on the wiki and if you haven't, you really should. The concept art is hilarious. Even the designer is like "for some reason, black blades come out".

I really liked the cursed Final Fantasy anime. The whole using that dust gun to perform summonings was unique and lead to the most epic final boss fight where three important characters sacrificed themselves to win the day.

I just finished the ffxvi demo and I’m dying waiting for the release on June 22 , perfect timing Geoff!

This really hits home. I also fell into the trap of this anime when I was younger... I only got to the 2nd episode when I stopped watching and never watched it again. Nice to hear that there was an ending and it was as bad as I thought it would be...

... This video unlocked *primal memories* for me and I kinda hate it I watched this growing up, but I had completely forgot it until I saw Kaze's canned animation with the gun thingie, and I suddenly remembered drawing *fanart* for this thing. Because as a teenager I had no taste. I don't know whether to thank you or curse you for unlocking these thoughts

This was my first ever anime, i watched it as a small child. And even though it's bad, it holds a really special place in my heart. Thank you for at least bringing attention to it! I hope Square Enix makes a reboot of it at least. It had potential to be great.

I remember watching random episodes of this on RU-vid back in 2000 something and I could never find it until right now. Thank you for bringing this back into my life again.

I don't think you realise how strongly your thumbnail sent me into flashbacks of Kaze's magic gun sequence. I remembered literally nothing of the show until you explained, but boy did I remember SOIL! Is my power

14:55 In the animators' room: "Well it's called Chocobo Kick so it must be a rider kick style dropkick" "Sounds legit!"

I remember excitedly buying the first volume of this show on VHS because I was such a huge FF nerd. I learned a valuable lesson about blind buy-in that day.

That part about buying a bad anime at the bookstore and making yourself rewatch it in the hopes you'll like it eventually is so real - I got fairly lucky as a kid, but I did buy two hentai OVAs and Go Nagai's Devil Lady when I was 16 from a bargain bookstore that didn't notice the *Rated 18* label on them.

You know, I always wondered why Final Fantasy, a multi-billion dollar fantasy anthology franchise, refused to make an anime, especially given high-quality concepts such as the stories of FFIX and even the weird concepts in spin-offs like Tactics. Hell, Tactics Advance and Tactics A2 are an isekai and next-generation isekai respectively, and they have amazing worldbuilding via systems like rumors. Now, you have shown me why. This franchise tried cooking something before, and it got burned as a result.

I remember renting this anime when I was very young. My friends were trying to get me into Final fantasy and thought that since this anime was connected to the franchise, it had to be good. It wasn't.

I would think it's a shame to bash on anything Final Fantasy, but with the way Square Enix acts nowadays, I would just say "go for it".

Bruh, that @18:44 "...And HE'S GOT SOIL!!!" fucking killed me! lol!

Years back (around 2006/2007), I was hugely into stepmania/DDR and here in the Netherlands there was a group that would make stepmania packs for conventions. After the conventions these packs were free to grab online and so I played the hell out of them. The packs all consisted of anime OPs and EDs and in some cases other music from the OST. It's a lovely little time capsule featuring the shows that were on the minds of people at the time. These were mostly the anime everyone was talking about, the ones you'd see the boxsets of, the cosplays, the fanworks. The stuff people loved. They had Trigun, Love Hina, Lain, Digimon, a para para mix from the first Pokémon OP, you name it. Anyway Romancing Train, the second ED of Final Fantasy Unlimited on there too for some reason and that's how I found out this anime even existed.

Kaze even has a metal appendage like Vincent, the arm that turns into a gun...which is ALSO Vincent's weapon! 😂 Also, his whole transformation sequence just makes Kaze a magical boy 😂

At about 7:20 Geoff shows a clip meant to highlight how bad the cgi is but I grew up watching Beast Wars and am now mostly immune to cgi of that caliber from that time. … Theoretically

Oh goodness. Years and years ago, someone in a forum I was on based their play-by-post RP character on Kaze, complete with the Soil system. _I finally have context for that._

Ok but that advert was 100% couple goals 😂❤

Rude! The Magun sequences are the best part of each episode! Read into that regarding the episode quality however you want.

FFU was actually my first FF. I never owned a single system that could play a mainline game, and FFU let me bandwagon on my brother asking for a PS2 as a birthday gift. Even now I remain fond and nostalgic on the base concept (thanks Kawazu) and music (thanks Hamaguchi) and even some of the art. Some of original concept art is kinda neat where Kaze was a bard with a shotgun and Lisa WAS BASICALLY TIFA. Thanks for covering my pre-teen Geoff :)

I watched this anime by renting DVDs over several months as they came out, and I kept thinking to myself, "They bothered to dub this, it has to get better. It has to get better. When is it going to get better." The denial was real.

The intro about just dealing with you purchases rings so true. I was picking this up as new volumes were released here in the UK alongside some other, better series and I was just as invested in watching this through. Honestly I have some fondness for it, I like Lisa, though mostly the design, and the soundtrack is pretty damn good. I didn't know they followed it up at all, so now I'm curious how they went about it.

5:51 I'm guessing this Jack Frost is from the Demikids anime? I don't think anyone who hasn't seen it would be able to identify it from Atlus' company mascot alone....

This anime has been laying dormant in my mind for the past 22 years. I was wondering if I'd ever see it again.

I suffered through that anime years ago mainly out of morbid curiosity. My favorite moment will probably be the episode in which the gun with the gun that solves all the fights doesn't take part, and the rest of the cast is left on their own and at the very end the guy with the gun gets summoned and solves the fight. Ending song was pretty hype though. I still like that one Edit: I posted this as soon as I saw what the topic of the episode was. Glad to see he showcased the episode I was thinking of.

I pretty much only watched it for the summoning sequences. That summoning theme was an absolute jam. CHARGED SOIL TO USE HAS BEEN SELECTED!!!

I feel for FFU the same way I feel about the Star Wars prequels: Yes, they are absolutely atrociously made. I still hold them near and dear to my heart because of my childhood memories about them.

Time may have forgotten this anime, but I didn't. I desperately wish I could. Thank you ever so much for the reminder =P

alright sorry my comment has nothing to do with the video(its great btw) but can someone for the love of all that is good please PLEASE tell me what the last music track in the video is called and what game its from? ive been trying to find it for years bc i cant fucking remember where its from and its driving me insane. its the very very last song its like at 24:14 in the vid, please PLEASE help

Found this channel with this video. I remember when this show was first airing and how cool I thought Kaze was with his big CGI gun! I used to praise this show even though I only had seen like 5 episodes of it back then. Now older I see why younger me stopped praising it so quickly... Great episode and you've earned yourself a new subscriber (Also I see that Steambot Cronicles in the background! Highly underrated early Atlas game!!)

I remember this series. Unlimited was.. bizarre, unique, quirky, and weird. Was it good? Um.. yeah that is a difficult one to answer Flashback to The Spirits Within. Oh. Oh I know that feeling 🤔Jeez Memory unlocked This journey has been a weird one Also best girl Yazzy could definitely cosplay a Nikke character 😉 Or Final Fantasy

i have fond memories of watching final fantasy unlimted on the anime network after school but i can definitely say it has very much not aged well.

I swear, that soil animation felt like 15 seconds when I was 12 and not a full minute

Awesome video man 😎!

Your videos always make my day man! Really appreciate them ❤❤❤😊😊😊😊

Wow, it's Final Fantasy day between you and Andrew Bluett both putting out some nice FF vids today. ^_^

Thanks for the upload! Great way to end my night :)

This is the second time I’ve seen you mention last exile in a vid . You truly are a man of culture my friend! That show is really underrated if you ask me

10:47 "just a totally normal girl" has become a frequent plot point in these types of anime, what could go wrong

Given how often Kaze used his canned animation attack, you'd think we would've memed the everliving shit out of it by now.

I WATCHED THE GLOWING ASSCHEEKS FINAL FANTASY OVA! Oh my god I have a few memories of it and I thought it was some sort of fever dream because everyone I asked about it had no idea what I was talking about.

For what it's worth, I was lucky enough to be able to watch FFU when it aired on Indonesian TV channel back when I was in high school in 2003. For me, to be able to hear Chocobo's Theme in FF anime was an awesome moment. But the opening song was also great!