Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV

I have to admit, given Final Fantasy's bad record of anime/3D animation adaptations I wasn't particularly excited about these shorts. But when I heard the minor buzz that they were actually better than they had any right to be I decided to give them a shot. And I'm glad I did. While Kingsglaive shows off the effects and action that Final Fantasy XV is capable of these shorts focus more on the characters. And that gives them a tremendous advantage. Each episode is focused on a different character, apart from episode one which establishes the basics of their relationships. These shorts are only about fifteenminutes long so they don't have time to show us too much and instead focus on one aspect of their personalities. The focus at all times is on their relationship with Noctis. Episode 2 shows how Prompto and Noctis became friends despite his being a filthy peasant, episode 3 shows how Gladio came to respect Noctis despite his being a bit of a spoiled brat, and episode 4 is about Ignis' attempts to educate/understand Noctis. Episode 5 tells how Noctis' mother(?) died and a bit about why he's so detatched. These are all told through flashbacks set up by events on their roadtrip. The series as a whole is bookended by an attack that happens in the first episode and is resolved in the final one. I enjoyed all of these and especially appreciated how the characters were actually allowed to experience real change throughout the series. It's not overly long or complicated, and it barely has any overarching plot, but it works well at humanizing these characters. The series is basically just an advertisement for the game (they're available for free online) and as such they do their job well. If this level of quality is what Final Fantasy XV is like I'm game.

I went into this anime to mainly get a feel for the main company of characters and their dynamics and was kinda disappointed, kinda because it turned out to be what I expected. The main cast consistent of very one-note characters and getting an episode to learn a bit more about them unfortunately doesn't change that since it adds very little aside from past details that become seemingly irrelevant in the grand scheme. Noct is a moody brat, Prompto is a cheerful bishounen, Ignis is a wet sponge and Gladiolus is a big guy who doesn't know how to wear a shirt. All of themjust feel like a bunch of archetypes thrown together for the sake of variety rather than a proper company of friends who share a history. They go through a couple of pretty personal interactions but that's it, otherwise you could claim they met each other yesterday and it wouldn't feel much different, I feel like having some interesting banter and more real friendship moments could've helped to change that. Otherwise there's little going on in this story-wise, there are some plot points that might be relevant to the game but I don't know of them so pretty much all I got out of this is a short road trip filled with flashbacks providing insights for the characters and occasional glimpse of the world surrounding them. Each individual story was bit of a bland plot template with FFXV characters drawn on top so that wasn't exactly an interesting watch. All character designs themselves are painfully boring, I don't know why but everyone seems to be opposed to characters wearing something other than lame black outfits most of which reflect their personality in the most blatant way possible. Doesn't help that a lot of the time animation is underwhelming and stiff with character art eventually having a stroke thanks to designs being quite detailed and not animation friendly. One thing show does really well however are backgrounds, they're all quite nicely drawn and composed, almost to a point where I'd say it's worth watching just to look at how nice they are. To summarize it's a mediocre show with nothing going for it aside from the gorgeous background art.

I really enjoyed these shorts. While I have some things to critique, overall they exceeded my expectations (by far) and served their purpose (i.e. got my hyped for the game). The story is what you would expect from a FF game/spin-off (or prequel, in this case)--but in my opinion, I personally like this story more than others from preceding games. It has a uniqueness I can't quite delineate--in fact, it might just be Noct as a character that draws me in, as opposed to, say, Tidus (lol citing basically the only other FF game I've invested any sort of time into). Despite the subtle cliché basisthat comes from FF as a whole, the fact that Noct is a character I've come so quickly to care about is enough to make the story feel, from what we were given, well composed. The art, while I have no complaints about it particularly (considering I normally prefer the hand-drawn style), was nothing to flaunt. I almost wish (and I know this probably wouldn't have been feasible) that these shorts were in the beautiful CGI style that the game demo advertised. Again, that's just my preference, but it was what I was sort of expecting (given that I did no research whatsoever before diving into watching these shorts). Overall, I'd certainly recommend these shorts to anyone planning or contemplating buying FFXV. After playing the demo I was already pretty excited for the release, but this little mini-series gives a lot more information as to our main characters in the game and their backstories.

Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV is a prequel to Final Fantasy XV, one of my favorite games. Thanks to this anime I was able to better understand the game. Even though it has a few episodes, the story, as short as it is, helped me understand the relationship between Noctis and his friends. The characters are presented quite well, each with an episode dedicated to him. Argentum Prompto, the best friend of Noctis, is a funny guy, but sometimes he seemed careless. Scientia Ignis is the king's adviser, a serious character, but a bit too serious. Gladiolus's friendship with the prince's bodyguard, his occupation makes him very protective. Irecommend this miniseries to all fans of the Final Fantasy game series. The only downside is that the series is short.

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