Final Fantasy IX: The Animated Series?

[Ite]

News on this is blowing up today:

https://kidscreen.com/2021/06/21/cyber-group-lines-up-final-fantasy-ix-series/

https://www.ign.com/articles/final-fantasy-9-animated-series-announced

https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-9-is-becoming-an-animated-series/

https://www.siliconera.com/ffix-kids-animated-tv-show-is-in-the-works/

The ink is dry, apparently!

I’d heard S-E was putting out feelers for another crack at an animated series, but I thought they were gearing up for more FF7. This news makes me very happy! I love the setting of IX and think an animated kids show is a good fit for its first non-Dissidia step beyond the mainline title.

These sites all seem to assume that this is going to be an adaptation of FFIX’s story. Kidscreen was the one with the scoop, as it were, and is the most explicit about it being an adaptation. As there is very little official word about the project, I wonder if this is accurate… I just played through IX with a first-timer friend and the game has aged like a fine scotch, I really don’t see a need to rehash the story when the setting is begging for a spin-off or prequel… but I’ll eat it up regardless. What do you think?

Previous 2D outings by S-E have been Legend of the Crystals and FF: Unlimited (both tangentially related to FFV, the former being a 4 ep miniseries and the latter being a planned 50+ episode anime but cancelled halfway through its run) Episode Denzel (a short film in the FF7 Compilation) and Brotherhood (5 eps as part of the multimedia prologues to FFXV). This new project is being helmed by a French studio.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I'm cautiously optimistic until I have more info.

But it sounds interesting, whether it's an adaption or something new, I am excited. I'd prefer something different personally.

 

[FFShinra]

Why am I hoping for a Black Mage focused spinoff a la The Bad Batch?

 

[Theozilla]

The French Studio in question has done both 2D and 3D animated series. Have any of the reports specified which one SE is aiming to do with this project?

And this just reminds me I need to finish my first FFIX playthrough. I had gotten to Alexander on mobile/iOS, but now I want to restart it on the Switch so I can experience it on a larger screen while also having some mobility. I just need to get over the hump of having to redo the first third or so of the game.

 

[LNK]

This would be day One, collector's edition, etc. FF9 was my first playstation game and first Final Fantasy

 

[Ite]

The French Studio in question has done both 2D and 3D animated series. Have any of the reports specified which one SE is aiming to do with this project?

Good point! I assumed 2D but I know as much as you at this juncture.

 

[Tetsujin]

I have to assume this was the animation studio being passionate about FFIX and deciding to pitch something to Square Enix because Square Enix randomly deciding to do FFIX in France seems odd.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I mean, Tsume Art, a high quality statue company in France, got the license to do the Battle of Destiny statue of Zidane and Kuja.

... Maybe FFIX is popular in France?

 

[Tetsujin]

 

[Ite]

Bahaha where is the lie tho?

If I had to rename every mainline game and I could only call one of them “Final Fantasy” it would be IX.

 

[Lulcielid]

Interesting. perhaps this studio could do a better FF9

 

[Theozilla]

I mean, Tsume Art, a high quality statue company in France, got the license to do the Battle of Destiny statue of Zidane and Kuja.

... Maybe FFIX is popular in France?

I don’t know about anime, but manga is hugely popular in France, being the second largest/biggest consumer of manga after Japan, and by itself makes up 40% of all manga consumed in Europe. So there are plenty of Japanophiles/weebs in the French market, which I would be unsurprised if it extends to JRPGs too.

 

[Lulcielid]

Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia) did a Freya sketch to celebrate the news.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Holy shit.

If only we could get Horikoshi on this project. Hot damn did they do her right.

 

[Strangelove]

what is this strange feeling

is it...

hope

 

[Prism]

This is a bit of an aside, but I gotta always wonder why we need to have a version of thing we like in a different medium...like, especially if the original thing is already very fleshed-out story-wise, does an animated version of a game really add much? This is a bad example, but FFXV's animated counterpart really adds nothing. (Castlevania, on the other hand, takes an NES game's characters and adds a whole new dimension to them)

I could see the imagery of IX being really gorgeous to see animated, though. It seems like Cyber Group does both 2D and 3D works, so I wonder which this'll be.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Because it's fun? It's entertaining?

Does it really have to amount to anything else? Do you need a reason to help people create something enjoyable?

 

[Strangelove]

an animated series is a lot less of a time commitment than playing the game (unless they dbz it out to entire episodes being shouting "kujaaaaa! zidaneeee!! kujaaaaaa!!!" back and forth but i am imagining this being a limited series of around 9-13 episodes for some reason), so you can get the story without needing to focus on playing the game and grinding and so on. plus different medium would give the opportunity to add things you didn't get in the original game (voice acting, music score tailored to the scenes, more dynamic camerawork than you got with pre-rendered backgrounds, the simple joys of looking at nice animation). possibly putting a different spin on the story, although whether that's welcome or not would depend on your tastes and what that new spin is. like, pls no gritty hyper violent ffix where zidane spirals into the horrors of drug addiction.

i'm sometimes a bit iffy on adaptations when they're a lateral move (like a film that's a remake of a foreign film) because i'm not sure what is being added unless it's being helmed by someone with a really unique vision or previous attempts were lacking something, and video game adaptations are a mixed bag where it's like 90% filled with deadly spiders. but i will give this a chance

or maybe i just want to play ffix again, idk

 

[looneymoon]

I hope its in French

 

[Strangelove]

i will study french for this show, i'm not even joking

 

[Odysseus]

This is a bit of an aside, but I gotta always wonder why we need to have a version of thing we like in a different medium...like, especially if the original thing is already very fleshed-out story-wise, does an animated version of a game really add much? This is a bad example, but FFXV's animated counterpart really adds nothing. (Castlevania, on the other hand, takes an NES game's characters and adds a whole new dimension to them)

I could see the imagery of IX being really gorgeous to see animated, though. It seems like Cyber Group does both 2D and 3D works, so I wonder which this'll be.

It's just fun to see things you like interpreted by different creative teams with different goals and ideas for how things should be, that's really all there is too it. It's neat.

 

[JBedford]

My opinion on adaptations:
-If I haven't seen the original: Wow, that was good. Maybe I'll look into the original.
-If I have seen the original: Wow, what's the point? The original is fine and didn't need this adaptation.

It was thanks to the ill-suited anime adaptation of Danganronpa that I quit half way through the second episode to play the game.

I just can't really imagine getting that excited for adaptations. If you've seen Cowboy Bebop why would the idea of a live action remake suddenly excite you? Unless you think the medium suits the product in some way, like I do kinda want an FFT anime adaptation because long TRPG battles isn't my favourite medium. But that's now how I feel for Cowboy Bebop--anime was fine. Similar thoughts for the Last of Us series.

I don't think I'd be bothered about hearing an FF game being animated normally, but why I'm not excited for this so far:
-French studio. If it was a Japanese studio you could imagine they'd get relevant SE creatives on staff. With a foreign studio it makes me think they're being given freedom to do pretty much anything.
-Kids' show. FFIX's story might be fine for kids, but aiming the show for kids gives me red flags.
-The possibility for it to be 3D CG. In theory it should be fine especially if it imitates the game/its FMVs. But I can't shake my perception of low budget CG shows from my mind.

 

[Ite]

I have a curiosity from a creative perspective. I like comparing things, seeing how different directors, writers, and performers play telephone with a story. It’s also why I like adaptations to be as text-faithful as possible because there are always enough differences in tone, pace, subtext, that it’s transformed already.

However, since FFIX is better than sliced bread, it feels like a waste of resources to make something that will surely fail to hit all its marks when the setting is full of possibilities. You could do a Lethal Weapon-style comedy starring young Baku and Cid, or a Babar-like show about Puck or Eiko, or as FFShinra said, a Bad Batch-esque show about black mages.

 

[Wol]

Is the studio behind the project good?

 

[Torrie]

I support the idea of making a series and here's why:

FFIX's story is fascinating. We know that. So when I was playing it as a teen and when I was replaying it as an adult, I had to face the dilemma of moving on in order to see the plot progressing -- or stop by and grind and do side quests because it's a game, for Gaia's sake, and it won't like your choices when a weak party has to fight the final boss. I mean, the gameplay is cool and engaging, and mini-games have thier charm, yeah, but the story is way more interesting than combat, and grinding just unnecessarily slows the player down.

The developers have to choose a potential audience to aim at. It's unavoidable. It was easier to get away with rating when everything looked like a bunch of pixels... but not anymore. FFIX appeared in my life at the right time, it taught me a lot of wisdom and showed direct correlations between making choices and seeing consequences. Goes without saying, it was also a huge sourse of aesthetic joy due to all those fantastic locations and memorable music tracks. If all of that can be implemented as an animated series, I'll be looking forward to seeing the result.