Any of you watch Legend of the Crystals based on Final Fantasy? It's a sequel to FFV, which was pretty mediocre so I guess it deserved a mediocre sequel. Or no sequel, that would be better because I thought it was the most god-awful anime ever. The translation was horrible. The characters were horrible. And the music wasn't even Nobuo's work. But what astonished me the most was that it was directed by legendary Rintaro, who directed one of my favorite anime movies of all time- X. I was shocked to find that Rintaro plus Final Fantasy could equal disaster.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had seen this awful four-part series and what they thought about it, because as far as I know, most people don't even know it exists.

Yeah, I have FF The Legend of the Crystals, (I've had on VHS for years), but I actually quite enjoyed it. A lot of the flak the OVA copped was purely a result of disappointed fans who were eager to see an anime based on FFVII. What they got was an anime based on a FF game which until recently wasn't even available outside Japan.

But I agree about the terrible translation. Pioneer are notorious for stuffing-up translations (Captain Herlock instead of Captain Harlock springs to mind), and FF The Legend of the Crystals only confirmed this pattern. For instance, Bartz was mistranslated as 'Battz' (though anything's better than 'Butz' :p ), airships were called 'flying boats' for some stupid reason, but the most inexcusable mistake was Cid's name being butchered as 'Sheedu'. This is a heresy of the worst kind (as if having his brain stolen from his body and subjected to weird experiments in the OVA wasn't bad enough). Not to mention the main antagonist was probably the most ludicrious villian since FFIII's ridiculous 'Cloud of Darkness'....

But overlooking those short-commings, it was still an enjoyable romp. I loved the design of the Iron Wing airship (particulary the big air battle towards the end) and the sexual tension between Air Captain Vargas and dominatrix treasure hunter Rouge was hilarious. You just have to suspend belief and not take it too seriously, which is what too many people have done unfortunately. Besides, before FFX-2 was released, it was the only case of a 'sequel' being produced under the Sakaguchi-era for any of the FF games, so it's worth watching perhaps for that reason alone.

One question still remains though: why did the chocobos look like pink flamingos? :confused:

I watched part of it, but I'll never go back and finish it. The plot was unremarkable by any standards and the production values were below par. I won't say it was terrible, but I didn't find it enjoyable. No sense wasting my time and money when I can buy much better stuff.


Pioneer are notorious for stuffing-up translations (Captain Herlock instead of Captain Harlock springs to mind)

Bad example. That was the actual Japanese title, not a translation error. That spelling dates all the way back to the original series.

One question still remains though: why did the chocobos look like pink flamingos? :confused:

That's what I never understood! I was hoping someone could tell me. Maybe the chocobos were all bald.:shock: