OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Final Fantasy: Legend Of The Crystals

Final Fantasy has been an enduring video game franchise for decades. The first time the series was transferred to another media was a 4-episode OVA production by Madhouse that came out 1994. Legend Of The Crystals was a continuation of Final Fantasy V, the game of which hadn't been released in America until years later. Tezuka prodigy Rintaro was the director for this short saga that took Yoshitaka Amano's original designs and rewrote them as a raypunk fantasy. The OVA series got released in America just after the original FF7 got put out for PS1, which many of its buyers thought the anime tied into Cloud Strife and his mates, so this turned off most of any potential otaku among the thirsty gamers. The English version of the OVA was one of the first titles put out by Urban Vision which helped put them on the map as far as anime distributors go, even though they met demise from financing their own sequels to other hit anime by other sellers like Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll. Urban Vision only released this on dubbed and subtitled VHS that never got sold on DVD out here, which is the reason most post-90's viewers have never even heard of it.

Two centuries after FFV on the Planet R, the magic crystals that protect it are being scooped up from alien invaders from their Black Moon lead by the cybernetic nightmare Ra Devil who wants the crystals' power to ascend to another level that he named Deathgyunos, so basically it like going from Shredder to Super Shredder. Linaly is a descendant of one of party of heroes that first helped saved the world in the previous crystal crisis, even though she is only a moderate spiritualist with a minor talent for summoning bald Chocobos. The prodigy heroine goes on a quest to secure the last remaining crystal, the Wind Crystal, along with her childhood friend Prettz, an adventurous biker with a samurai sword. They are eventually joined by the military commander Valkus with forces from kingdom of Tycoon, as well as the treasure-hungry air pirate Rouge and her crew of chunky henchwomen whose uniforms know no shame. The Wind Crystal gets absorbed into Linaly's body which leads to several shots of this pre-teen's rear end magically glowing. Ra Devil captures Linaly, forcing her friends and colleagues use a puny dragon to fly to the Black Moon for a boss battle to save Planet R.

Final Fantasy: Legend Of The Crystals was truly an experiment in adapting a JRPG into an anime which doesn't totally succeed in its execution. Rintaro helps provide some great visuals that he would later use for the Metropolis anime, although it is brought down by substandard cartoon cliches. 21st Century fans might feel an irresistible urge to try and seek out this white whale of an anime, even though they would quickly realize that it was futile quest for sentimentalism.