Final Fantasy Unlimited – Phase Six (Animé TV)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Episodes: C-

 

 

Without any doubt, the entire Final Fantasy franchise is one of the most overrated of all time and sitting through Final Fantasy Unlimited – Phase Six gave me all new reasons to be unimpressed.  So you have your fantasy elements, talking animals, mysterious people, magical happenings, lame humor and lamer characters and situations.  This one adds a race of talking, moving cactus called the Cactuar, which shows the shallowness and lack of creativity in this latest generation of nothingness.

 

This is junk Animé at its worst, with lame attempts at depth and focus shifts in the animation and the slightly soft look that is an Animé cliché if there ever was one.  Color in the frames, when not muted by the diffusion, is somewhat consistent.  This is another Animé DVD with an English 5.1/Japanese 2.0 Stereo with pro Logic surround Dolby Digital sound choice that is nominal and pointless, like the show itself.  Extras include voice actor commentary that is the kind where they tell us how much fun they had without telling us anything, a style guide, character booklet (slip of paper is more like it) inside the DVD case, and production sketches.  They are no help and there is one serious human character who is armed.  Too bad he did not shoot up the animation studio that churned this out.

 

At least it’s not totally exploitive like some Animé programs.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo