Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children theme by Star_Waters
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| Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children | |
|---|---|
 Japanese theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tetsuya Nomura |
| Written by | Kazushige Nojima |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Yasuharu Yoshizawa |
| Edited by | Keiichi Kojima |
| Music by | Nobuo Uematsu |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Square Enix Holdings |
Release dates |
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Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Languages | Japanese English |
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children[a] is a 2005 Japanese computer-animated film directed by Tetsuya Nomura, written by Kazushige Nojima, and produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashimoto. Developed by Visual Works and Square Enix, Advent Children is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series of media, which is based in the world and continuity of the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released on Blu-ray and Universal Media Discs with Japanese voice acting in Japan on September 14, 2005, and on April 25, 2006 with English voice acting in North America and the UK.
Advent Children takes place two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII and focuses on the appearance of a trio that kidnaps children infected with an unexplained disease called Geostigma. Final Fantasy VII hero Cloud Strife, suffering from the same disease, goes to rescue the children. He discovers that the trio plan to resurrect Sephiroth using the remains of the extraterrestrial villain Jenova, and he and his compatriots from the game fight to stop them. The film's voice acting cast includes Takahiro Sakurai, Ayumi Ito, and Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese, and Steve Burton, Rachael Leigh Cook, and George Newbern in English.
Advent Children has been released in multiple versions; Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, released on Blu-ray Disc in 2009, adds 26 minutes of new and expanded scenes to the 101-minute original. It has received mixed reviews; critics praised its animation and CGI, but criticized the plot as being incomprehensible to viewers who did not play Final Fantasy VII and having a thin connection between action scenes. The film received the "Maria Award" at the Sitges Film Festival in 2005 and the "Best Anime Feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards. The original release was one of the best-selling animated films in Japan and the United States in its release year. The Complete release was noted as driving a large increase in sales of the PlayStation 3 console in its release week. By May 2009, the DVD and Universal Media Disc releases had sold over 4.1 million copies worldwide. Advent Children (the Complete version) returned to Japanese theaters from January 19, 2024 to February 1, 2024, and returned to stateside theaters on February 21, 2024, to promote the launch of the video game Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.[1]
Plot[edit]
Setting[edit]
Advent Children takes place two years following the events of the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII, during which the antagonist Sephiroth attempted to absorb the Lifestream, the lifeblood and soul of the Planet, and be reborn as a god.[2] He was defeated by Cloud Strife and his companions, but his final spell, Meteor, destroyed the city of Midgar.
Since the end of the game, the survivors of Midgar founded the new city of Edge, where Cloud and his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart now run a courier service and are the caretakers of an orphan Denzel and the adopted daughter of Barret Wallace, Marlene. Out of guilt for failing to save Aerith Gainsborough, Cloud has recently moved out and isolated himself from his friends. The story also portrays that many people, including Cloud and Denzel, are infected with a mysterious and incurable disease known as "Geostigma".
Story[edit]
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Cloud is contacted through Tifa and summoned to a meeting with the Shinra Company's former president Rufus Shinra, who was presumed dead in Final Fantasy VII.[3] Rufus asks for Cloud's help to stop Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, who are the physical manifestation of Sephiroth's surviving spirit and seek to resurrect him using the remains of the extraterrestrial villain Jenova.[4] Cloud refuses to help and leaves.
Meanwhile, Kadaj and his colleagues are recruiting children infected with Geostigma, and Denzel falls in with the group after being attracted by their promises of a cure. Loz follows Tifa and Marlene to Aerith's church, where they are searching for Cloud, and attacks them. Tifa is knocked unconscious in the fight, and Loz kidnaps Marlene. The abducted children are taken to the ruins of the Forgotten City, where Kadaj embraces them as brethren and announces his intention for them to be reunited with Jenova. When Cloud arrives to rescue them, Kadaj's gang overpowers him, but he is saved by the arrival of his old comrade Vincent Valentine. Cloud then returns to the city, where Kadaj has summoned Bahamut SIN and other monsters to terrorize the population.[5] With the help of his companions, Cloud engages and defeats the monsters.
Kadaj confronts Rufus Shinra, who reveals he possesses Jenova's remains. He attempts to destroy it, but Kadaj saves it and flees the city with his companions, with Yazoo and Loz being caught in a blast by an explosive planted by Reno and Rude. Cloud chases Kadaj down and engages him in battle, ultimately subduing him. Outmatched, Kadaj opens Jenova's box and fuses with its contents, transforming into Sephiroth. He tells Cloud he will use the souls of Geostigma's deceased victims to dominate the Planet.[6] He and Cloud then fight; throughout the encounter, Sephiroth appears to have the upper hand and ultimately impales him through the shoulder. He asks Cloud to tell him what he most cherishes so that he can have the pleasure of taking it away. Cloud replies that he cherishes everything and then uses his Limit Break, Omnislash Ver. 5, to defeat Sephiroth. Sephiroth's spirit departs, leaving behind the mortally wounded Kadaj. As he lies dying in Cloud's arms, a healing rain starts falling across the land, curing the people of their Geostigma. Yazoo and Loz appear and confront Cloud; setting off a massive explosion that engulfs the three.
Cloud has visions of his deceased friends Aerith and Zack Fair, who say that his time to join them has not yet come. He then awakens in the church, healed of his injuries and surrounded by his friends. Behind them, he sees the spirits of Aerith and Zack, smiling at him before departing to the afterlife. Aerith says to Cloud, "You see, everything's all right". He agrees: "I know. I'm not alone... not anymore". Cloud and the sick children celebrate by bathing in the rainwater.
During the credits, Cloud is seen driving his motorcycle to parts unknown. Advent Children Complete adds a new post-credit scene where Zack's Buster Sword is seen in Aerith's church while flowers from the church are seen blooming at the location of Zack's last stand, having been placed there by Cloud.
Voice cast[edit]
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Advent Children was released with a Japanese voice track in Japan, and an English voice track elsewhere.[7]
- Takahiro Sakurai/Steve Burton as Cloud Strife. Sakurai and Burton had voiced the character in Kingdom Hearts.[5]
- Ayumi Ito/Rachael Leigh Cook as Tifa Lockhart.[7][8] Nomura felt that Ito's "husky" voice would offer a good contrast with Maaya Sakamoto, Cook had voiced Tifa in Kingdom Hearts II.[8]
- Maaya Sakamoto/Mena Suvari as Aerith Gainsborough.[7][8] Sakamoto had voiced the character in Kingdom Hearts , Suvari had voiced Aerith in Kingdom Hearts II.
- Shōgo Suzuki/Steve Blum as Vincent Valentine.[7][9] Nomura wanted Cloud and Vincent to have noticeably different voices because they were otherwise quite similar. Since Vincent was older and more mature than Cloud, his role was given to Suzuki, who has a very low voice.[9]
- Showtaro Morikubo/Steve Staley as Kadaj.[7][10] Morikubo had difficulties voicing him because of the character's unstable personality and needed time to adjust to the role.[10]
- Kenji Nomura/Fred Tatasciore as Loz.[7][11] Nomura was told by the staff to voice Loz as an "idiot" character.[11]
- Yūji Kishi/Dave Wittenberg as Yazoo.[7][11]
- Toshiyuki Morikawa/George Newbern as Sephiroth.[7][8] Morikawa was instructed to pronounce Sephiroth's lines in such a way that his words would convey his feelings of superiority. In tandem with this, the voice director and Morikawa agreed to make Sephiroth's voice sound always calm, as if he never fears the slightest possibility of defeat.[8]
- Yumi Kakazu/Christy Carlson Romano as Yuffie Kisaragi.[7][12]
- Masahiro Kobayashi/Beau Billingslea as Barret Wallace.[7][13]
- Keiji Fujiwara/Quinton Flynn as Reno.[7][14]
- Taiten Kusunoki/Crispin Freeman as Rude.[7][15]
- Tōru Ōkawa/Wally Wingert as Rufus Shinra.[7][16]
- Kenichi Suzumura/Rick Gomez as Zack Fair.[7][17]
- Hideo Ishikawa/Greg Ellis as Cait Sith.[7][18]
- Masachika Ichimura/Liam O'Brien as Red XIII / Nanaki.[7][18]
- Kazuhiro Yamaji/Chris Edgerly as Cid Highwind.[19]
Production[edit]
Advent Children began as a short film by Visual Works, a company used by Square to develop CGI scenes for their video games, based on Final Fantasy VII. Kazushige Nojima, who had written the script for the game, was brought on to write a 20-minute script. He decided to write "a story about Cloud and Tifa and the kids".[20] The film was developed as a part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a set of different media content intended to expand upon the world of Final Fantasy VII.[21] Square's research and development department worked with Visual Works on the piece, and Tetsuya Nomura joined the crew after VII's director Yoshinori Kitase called him. Early in pre-production, the team thought about making Advent Children into a game. Still, Nomura decided against it, partially because Visual Works had no experience making a full game. The creators had no prior experience working on films, so they fell back on their knowledge of in-game movies.[22]
The film was planned to focus on the characters of Cloud and Tifa in a similar way to how other titles from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII centered on certain characters; for example, Before Crisis focuses on the Turks, Crisis Core on Zack Fair, and Dirge of Cerberus on Vincent.[21] Nomura says the film was, in its first manifestation, only going to be 20 minutes long. The original story featured someone requesting a message to be sent to Cloud; the message is relayed to Cloud through several children. When the message finally reaches Cloud, it is revealed who the messenger is. Nomura very much liked the original script, and it became the foundation of the final version. He decided to make the project longer and grander in scope when the early word of the film generated great interest among Final Fantasy VII fans, most of whom wanted something feature-length. The film's length was expanded to 100 minutes.[23]
Takeshi Nozue and Nomura, who had first worked together on the video game Kingdom Hearts, split the role of directing, as Nomura felt this would add depth to the film. In designing the battle scenes, they first discussed the setting and layout. They then went to the staff with their ideas, deciding which were the best and developing them further. The battle between Cloud's group and Bahamut was the most difficult to design due to the size of the area and the number of objects the staff had to add to the scene to keep it realistic. The alternating positions of the characters, including Bahamut itself, took the staff a long time to complete to give the scene a sense of flow.[24] Nomura said that the team decided not to worry about making the fight sequences realistic, as they felt this would restrict their ability to give the film a "cool look". Therefore, they worked by creating their "own rules". Motion capture was used for many of the film's battle scenes; maneuvers that were not physically possible for live actors to perform were constructed digitally.[25]
While designing the characters, the staff discovered that it was impossible to translate the Final Fantasy VII designs into the film. Thus some identifying characteristics had to be discarded.[26] Cloud's redesign was a combination of eight different designs, from his super deformed appearance in the game to his more realistic appearance in the film. The difficulties in making Sephiroth led the staff to reduce his appearances in the film. It took them two years to develop and refine his look.[24] Nozue also had difficulty developing a framework for Tifa's body that was "balanced, yet showed off her feminine qualities".[27] Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo were designed to be a manifestations of Sephiroth's spirit—his cruelty, strength, and allure respectively.[10] In contrast to Sephiroth, the trio was meant to be younger than Cloud, to focus on the "next generation" theme.[25] By October 2003, the film was 10% complete; while the script was written, not all the characters were designed.[26]
Nomura felt that Advent Children differed from Hollywood films, where the meaning of most scenes tends to be explained. However, with Advent Children, the staff wanted viewers to interpret the scenes individually, allowing them to come to different conclusions.[24] Nojima described the theme of the film as "survival".[26] Other themes Nomura and Nojima were concerned to include Cloud's feelings of guilt and regret for failing to save his friends Zack and Aerith. These feelings are symbolized by a grey wolf that appears whenever Cloud thinks about them. The wolf disappears at the end of the film as Cloud comes to terms with his feelings.[28] The word "children" was used in the title to refer to the film's children, as they represent the "next generation".[25]
Music[edit]
The music of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Keiji Kawamori, Kenichiro Fukui, and Tsuyoshi Sekito, and arranged by Fukui, Sekito, Kawamori, Shirō Hamaguchi, and Kazuhiko Toyama. Nomura would make some changes and have the composers re-record the piece upon hearing each track.[29] The end theme, "Calling", was written and performed by former Boøwy vocalist Kyosuke Himuro. The soundtrack includes both pieces original to the film and arrangements of works from Final Fantasy VII, originally composed by Uematsu. Some of the arrangements, including "Advent: One-Winged Angel", are performed by The Black Mages, a rock band formed by Uematsu, Fukui, and Sekito.[30] Both the pieces are original to the film, and the film arrangements cover a variety of musical styles, including orchestral, choral, classical piano, and rock music; Variety noted that the styles vary between "sparse piano noodlings, pop-metal thrashings, and cloying power ballads".[31] The 2005 soundtrack album Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Original Soundtrack collects 26 tracks of music from the film on two discs. Square Enix published it on September 28, 2005. In addition to the regular release, a limited edition was produced containing alternative cover art and a booklet of credits and lyrics.[30] The soundtrack album reached position #15 on the Japanese Oricon music charts and stayed on the charts for ten weeks.[32]
A mini-album entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete Mini Album was released on April 10, 2009, to coincide with the release of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete version of the film.[33] This version of the film included a new ending theme, "Safe and Sound", by Kyosuke Himuro and My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way.[34] "Water" was replaced with a new song—"Anxious Heart".[33] Tracks on the album included new versions of "The Chase of Highway", "Those Who Fight Further", "Sign", "Advent: One-Winged Angel", and "On the Way to a Smile".[35] A larger album, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete: Reunion Tracks, was released with 21 tracks on September 16 the same year. This album contains the tracks from the mini-album and several lengthened pieces for the Complete film version but not rearranged.[36] Reunion Tracks appeared on the Oricon charts for a single week at position #108.[37]
Promotion and release[edit]
Advent Children and the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series were first announced at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show in September, the former as a direct-to-DVD film.[38][39] The first trailer for the film was featured in the international version of the video game Final Fantasy X-2, released in February 2004.[40] The trailer used a motion capture that was altered in the final film.[26] Advent Children was initially scheduled for a September 13, 2005 release in North America and a September 14 in Japan,[41][42] but the North American release date was pushed back several times. It was first moved to November,[43] then to January 2006,[44] and finally scheduled for April 25 for release on DVD and Universal Media Discs for the PlayStation Portable.[45]
In 2004, Panasonic produced the Japanese exclusive FOMA P900iV cell phone identical to the one Cloud uses in the movie; the phone contained several features related to Advent Children such as wallpapers and ringtones.[40] Before the film's release, Square Enix serialized the web novel "On the Way to a Smile" written by Kazushige Nojima on the Japanese Advent Children website on September 5, 2005,
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