Genre: Adventure / Action / Fantasy / Comedy
Anime Type: OVA
Director: Rin Taro
Character Design: Kunihiko Sakurai, Yoshinori Kanemori
Production Supervision: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu
Distributor: Urban Vision
ANN Link: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=613
Availability: Rare, out of print.
Package: 2 VHS Tapes, 4 Episodes.
Price Paid: Won at auction.

I had known for a long time that this animated series existed. I remembered seeing the VHS tapes in the "Family" section of movies at retailers like Electronics Boutique or Best Buy, back in the days of VHS of course. However when this OVA was in general circulation (1997 / 1998) I remember not knowing what the heck story it was about. Not surprising because not many people outside Japan, including myself, had ever played Final Fantasy V. Not until Final Fantasy Anthology came out in 2000 did I play FF-V. However by that time this OVA had gone out of print and was near impossible to find.

Then there's eBay, which of course "If you can't find it anywhere, find it on eBay" typically rings true. I found an auction for both the tapes of the series and managed to win them. 

Now, I had read some reviews of this series and already knew it wasn't that great. So why did I buy it, let alone search it out at auction? Well I guess because I just wanted to see it anyway, that and it fits with my other Final Fantasy collectables (I figured if it was really that bad I could auction it myself later). Furthermore it was directed by Rin Taro, so it had to have some redeeming qualities.

Upon receiving the tapes I was fairly eager to watch them, so I dusted off the old VHS player and popped them in.

After the obligatory (and well aged) previews a prologue starts and it quickly cuts to the title, which is simply "Final Fantasy" in the now well-known type face. "Legend of the Crystals" is a subtitle apparently added only for the international release. Along with the title is the requisite avatar image, this one is some kind of animated mechanical gizmo (which looks like it might fit into the Chrono Trigger mythos), and I never understood it's meaning in contex of the anime other than it looked cool. At this point a fanfare plays who's melody is the reminiscent of Final Fantasy V's opening theme. Then the episode begins. There are two episodes per VHS tape, and each tape includes the opening sequence just described only once.

The first feature I notice is that this is very colorful anime, almost 80's or bubble-gum 50's colors. Lots of pastels, and most things have shading but not multiple colors. It has a child-like quality (think Saturday morning cartoons) that is at the same time anime and (to me) atypical of anime. Like early studio Ghibli but simpler. That is the story here. This is not a super-serious translation of an epic fantasy-genre game into anime form. It IS comedic fantasy anime. Think "Those Who Hunt Elves" not "Record of Lodoss War". If you go into it with that mindset you will enjoy it a whole lot more, trust me. Once I made that distiction I was able to sit back and go "O.K." and laugh when it was sophomoric jokes or at the absurdity (to my 26 year old eyes) of adolescent male fan-service (such as a crystal magically absorbing itself into a 15 year old anime female character which causes her rear end to glow leading to many upskirts shots of her bum for the male lead character and presumably the viewer to "oogle", or the dopey attraction of the hard-line general to the high-maintenance female pirate).

This also means that if you DID want a serious adaptation of classic Final Fantasy fare into anime you'll be a bit dissapointed in this title.

The story is pretty solid, if thin. It is based on the story found in Final Fantasy V, which in itself is pretty thin to begin with. However you'll not find any characters from the game besides Cid and Mid actually in this anime. Indeed it revolves around Cid in a way, as did Final Fantasy V...in a way...

Probably the best feature is that this is full cel drawn anime with lots of interesting action sequences, which for my money is better than CGI, precisely because it's moving artwork (not to say CGI isn't, I just prefer complexity of the fully hand drawn cel animation action in anime). There are plenty of action sequences, and the whole OVA really feels like a 3-4 hour movie as opposed to individual episodes (as is often the case with OVA).

Overall it's pretty mediocre and the juvenile jokes are rather cliche, and except for adolescent boys once is enough. However if you're a die-hard Final Fantasy otaku, and you enjoy the "old school" Final Fantasy games (the ones before Final Fantasy VII and Tetsuya Nomura redirected the series) or if you are a particular fan of Final Fantasy V (Advance) then these are worthy additions to your collection, if only for collecting's sake.

However in comparison to other fantasy-genre anime I grade this a 2.5 out of 5, and that's a tad nicer because I am an old school Final Fantasy otaku. Therefore FF collectors or STRONG fans of juvenile comedic fan-service fantasy anime only. General anime otakus can easily pass this up without missing anything.