Legend of the Crystal


legend of the crystals cover legend of the crystals logo
 flag 11-24-1998 (VIDEO)  flag 3-21-1994 Film/Anime
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final Fantasy Legend of the crystals screenThe world has been in balance for 150 years. At that time, the crystals of earth, wind, fire, and water were destroyed by the Archmage X-Death. The remains of the crystals chose four warriors of light to vanquish this evil threat, before he was able to bring the power of the void and destroy the world utterly. They succeeded in destroying X-Death, and stopping the void. The crystals were restored, and everything has been peaceful since.
Now the crystals are once again in danger, and the descendants of those great heroes must take up the roles of their ancestors, and prevent the world from being destroyed again.

Legend of the Crystals is the first true sequel from Final Fantasy. It's story takes place in the universe of Final Fantasy V, 150 years after the events of the game.
Animated by Madhouse (Last Order), Legend of the Crystals has not been overly popular, even in Japan. It is not really certain as to why either.
The animation is not all that great. But for the time of release in 1993, it shows the same detail in animation as most OVA's of the time. There is little detail in backgrounds, and not too much more in the characters themselves. Stylistically, it is very similar to the Japanese anime of the time. It is not bad, but when you consider that at the time of release, the world was seeing such works as Aeon Flux, and great standard animations in the form of Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King...it seems like it could have been leaps better.
The story is actually pretty solid. The plot takes place 150 years after the crystals are restored in Final Fantasy V. The descendants of the Light Warriors (Bartz, Krile, Faris, and Lenna) now face a new destructive force in the form of Ra Devil. He is also bent on bringing out the Void, and gaining its powers. Basically there is a pretty good paralel between the games story, and the OVA's story.
final Fantasy Legend of the crystals screenThere does seem to be quite a bit more humor, and one liners, than in the game. I almost felt like they were making fun of the game's pokes at one liners, and bad humor. (Haven't watched it since the re-translated Final Fantasy V Advance) It could very easily be going right with the humor of the game, only up a notch. But humor in Final Fantasy is not all that bad.
It finally saw release in the US in 1998 on VHS, by Urban Vision. Most fans were wondering about a DVD release, but Urban Vision no longer holds the license, and thus far it has not been licensed for release to my knowledge. Most, if not all of the four episodes can be seen on Youtube, though it appears that most is in Japanese, with English sub-titles. The VHS versions, can sometimes be found on Ebay, but they are somewhat pricy do to the rarety of the videos.
I say give it a viewing. It is not too bad...not great, but not bad.

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