Now we have all heard of the famous game, Final Fantasy, but did you know it was also an animation? Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals was a two-tape, four episode OAV that was released from Japan in 1994, the same time that Final Fantasy VI the game, has been released. It wasn’t nearly as big of a hit as the game and was quickly put aside to make way for Final Fantasy VII. This OAV series made it’s way over to the US in 1997, the same year that Japan released Final Fantasy VII.

Thanks to the company Squaresoft, the Final Fantasy has been able to take shape and become a memorable game. But Final Fantasy didn’t stop at just the top hit games and the minor anime. It went on to much bigger and better things - the movies.

FF I: 1987

FF II: 1988

FF III: 1990

FF IV: 1991

FF V: 1992

FF VI: 1994

FF VII: 1997

FF VIII: 1998

FF IX: 2001

FF X: 2002

After Final Fantasy becoming an extreme success in both Japan, the US, and around the world, and having a minor fall out with the anime OAV, Final Fantasy was sure to go on to bigger and better things. And it did - A Movie. FINAL FANTASY: The Spirits Within. This was an entirely new form of animation not yet used to this extent until Final Fantasy the movie. Squaresoft worked in accordance with Columbia Pictures to try and develop the most advanced and realistically accurate visuals. They spent grueling hours preparing, designing, re-designing, and comparing their computer graphics with real life in order to achieve the affect they were trying to create. Sine the human body and shape of muscle and skin changes with each individual movement they had to study human anatomy to all lengths. They captured each and every movement known to be possible by man in order to get a true affect of natural movement for the CGI created characters of the movie. After this painful process, however; they had to move on to the next step - clothing. They had to have the clothing match well with the human skin and be as realistic as possible. They were able to create clothing on computers that could have swornably been 100% cotton. One of the toughest jobs the animators had, however; was neither the skin, body movement, nor clothing. It was the hair and hair follicles. Each individual hair had to be designed in separately, and thus, moved separately to get the realism of natural hair.

This series premiered in 1998, released by Satou Ozawa/Bandai Visual - Toshiba Emi Gonzo. It was translated by AnimeVillage.com in 1999. In Blue Submarine No. 6 the animators adapted normal animation created the original way - drawings, with the new technology of CHI. The characters are always hand drawn, while the mechanical equipment, props, scenes, backdrops, and even some of the non-human characters, are al created using CGI. This one of the first animated series to complete this duo successfully.

Many other games that use CGI, like Street Fighter for instance, have become their own animated series and/or movies. So you can look into the future to see which one of your favorite games will become an anime next or perhaps, which of your favorite animes will become a game!

In addition to the high "fandom" of Final Fantasy and other various cartoons and animes, are the websites that the fans make as a tribute for their favorite entertainments. This website below is an example of that: