Zack has 2 different hairstyles

[Sofen]

Guess which one is the right one...

Its the one that makes him look mostly german..

This one!

The other one. That one.. Is a haux..

What i mean is you can see this in "FF7 Last Order OVA" too. Although it is a well animated OVA, Zack has the wrong hairstyle. Because

Here is the picture in the FF7 game that is given to Cloud by Sephiroth which shows Zack's banging hair!!!

Even in some 3D remade versions. Personally i hate every FF7 that is adopted after the PS1 game,(Sorry for all the fans). But just to use an example, even in those versions, atleast cinematic he had that haircut.

I blame Nomura, but that haircut... Is more or less wrong.

So i am wondering about your views. I like the rocking Non gravity hair!!!. I think the later adaptions have sorta destroyed it slightly because it feels like it tries to seel a shampoo commerical instead of how AWESOME IT IS! Like i bet in 20 years. This will become the new hairstyle. and for that. Sakaguchi is the coolest

I saw a friend who had black hair with the doopiest hairstyle which worked like anti gravity. Which would be the new best stuff to ever exist. It would look so stupid that it would be awesome!!! Some large hair sticking in the air naturally.

 

[Jason Tandro]

A lot of time the original art styles don't blend well with the technology at hand. The spikey-haired Cloud we know stemmed from a desire to limit the polygon count on his model if I recall correctly. It's not unreasonable that the art team might decide that, if rendered to the specs of the PSP Zack's original hairstyle might seem a little bit childish. Hell even in Advent Children we see a bit more bounce to both his and Cloud's hairstyle.

It is interesting though. Then again if you want to get super serial it's worth pointing out that none of the characters end up perfectly matching the Amano designs.

 

[Splintered]

Zack changes his haircut halfway through the game to honor Angeal from the last picture to the one pictured above. Everything else just might be artistic difference.

 

[Sofen]

Zack changes his haircut halfway through the game to honor Angeal from the last picture to the one pictured above. Everything else just might be artistic difference.

I think it was intentional, considering the OVA was made in 2005 where he has it all the time, i think some just said they liked it and just ignored the earlier version of it. Like he doesn't really look so cool with the Kingdom Hearts hair in my view. But that's up for preferences

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Well... Here's a concept art of Zack that goes back to the OG:

And CC is very consistent with Zack having bangs before Angeal died and no bangs after he died. So both are correct.

 

[Sofen]

Sorry for double Post. To confirm my statement

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

The spikey-haired Cloud we know stemmed from a desire to limit the polygon count on his model if I recall correctly.

It was the opposite. At first he was going to give Cloud slicked-back hair, but then he decided it didn't look right for a main character, so he went with the spikes -- and then he went out of his way to make things more difficult:

http://thelifestream.net/weekly-famitsu-issue-no-1224-tetsuya-nomura-interview/

 

[Channy]

I had originally chalked it up to age/time progressed over the game, but now that others mention Angeal, that makes more sense.

 

[Tennyo]

Does Last Order really count, though? Mad House took some stylized liberties on that.

 

[Unit-01]

I really don't see what the big deal is here. Zack has two haircuts, one from pre-Angeal's death, and his post-Angeal's death. I always had the head-canon that it symbolized that he got more mature as many people forget there is a slight time-skip when that goes down in CC.

Also with the second picture Sofen posted, that was from Before Crisis. Now the weird thing with that game is that Zack makes his appearance in that game with in events that happen before the opening of CC(i.e the 2 Soldier 2nd Classes getting kidnapped and used for experiments by the OG AVALANCHE). But at the same time there is a chapter or a few that deal with Zack and Cloud's escape from Nibelheim way after, when Zack has his post-Angeal haircut, but they still use that image for him. This is because they likely didn't want to waste resources making a whole second image of Zack, and BC is unfortunately not very well know.

But Zack's first haircut is not a "haux". It's a part of Zack's character and his story.

Edit- With Last Order Ova, that was confirmed or at least assumed by fans not to be canon and IMO it's just cool to see some FF7 animation like it was presented.

 

[Shinra'sMostWanted]

second one just looks like fanart to me

 

[Sofen]

Does Last Order really count, though? Mad House took some stylized liberties on that.

Well its more that the hairstyle you see in the 2007 PSP game is more or less from that OVA which is from 2005. Which is my conclusion that they just liked it, and tried to retcon some stuff and saying. Ok... that old hairstyle is there for some odd reason umm... oh that character yeah that works. But this is other hairstyle is also canon!!! aka the Crisis Core one.

Too bad because the PS1 was much cooler more or less! Its a reason why i tend to not be so much fan of the later versions XD

 

[Sofen]

Really sorry for the double post but i can't edit. But just to really prove it more. Here is a fighting game from PS1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iREI9qG6IOQ

 

[Splintered]

Well its more that the hairstyle you see in the 2007 PSP game is more or less from that OVA which is from 2005. Which is my conclusion that they just liked it, and tried to retcon some stuff and saying.

The game has both hairstyles. The first one (the one you don't like) is at the beginning of the game, and the second part is after his mentor's death, he gains his hair a lot like his OG.

You can tie it the Japanese symbolism of hair changing=people changing because Zack goes through a significant shift in idealism after his mentor dies and his hair changes, he goes from an overly energetic kid that believes in Shinra and wants to raise the ranks of soldier, to a lot more solemn man who distrusts Shinra.

Madhouse is technically in the wrong because have their timetables messed up, they gave him his younger hair during the Nieblheim incident, but Crisis Core wasn't out by then. And like others said, it was probably an animated choice.

This is btw Angeal:

They don't have the exact same hairstyle but the slick backed, slightly longer look makes me think it's an homage.

EDIT: TO make it more clear, there's a short timeskip between hairstyles, so it makes sense his hair changed.

 

[Tashasaurous]

The main reason, which I'm pretty positive you guys know this, why Zack has two hair-styles is because after Angeal's death in Crisis Core, he designed it as smoothly as possible to honor his late mentor, but at the same time, kept it in it's spiky form to stick on who he is.

Personly, I think his second hair-style is just like Axel's from KH, only with a long fringe on the front and that it's black, not bright red like Axel's and Reno's.

 

[Sofen]

Well its more that the hairstyle you see in the 2007 PSP game is more or less from that OVA which is from 2005. Which is my conclusion that they just liked it, and tried to retcon some stuff and saying.

The game has both hairstyles. The first one (the one you don't like) is at the beginning of the game, and the second part is after his mentor's death, he gains his hair a lot like his OG.

You can tie it the Japanese symbolism of hair changing=people changing because Zack goes through a significant shift in idealism after his mentor dies and his hair changes, he goes from overly energetic kin that believes in Shinra and wants to raise the ranks of soldier, to a lot more solemn man who distrusts Shinra.

Madhouse is technically in the wrong because have their timetables messed up, they gave him his younger hair during the Nieblheim incident, but Crisis Core wasn't out by then. And like others said, it was probably an animated choice.

This is btw Angeal:

They don't have the exact same hairstyle but the slick backed, slightly longer look makes me think it's an homage.

EDIT: TO make it more clear, there's a short timeskip between hairstyles, so it makes sense his hair changed.

You may be confused. I like this hair

The later one that they made more canon i just ignore. Sorry if i got some confused ^^

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm confused. So did OP not realize that he starts Crisis Core with a different haircut but ends up with the one he had in VII's art? Or is he saying that even the later one in Crisis Core is wrong?

 

[Geostigma]

I'm confused. So did OP not realize that he starts Crisis Core with a different haircut but ends up with the one he had in VII's art? Or is he saying that even the later one in Crisis Core is wrong?

Yeah OP definitely didn't play CC lol.

 

[Unit-01]

Also OP is just ignoring the posts that explain why Zack has 2 different hair styles.

The later one that they made more canon i just ignore. Sorry if i got some confused

 

[Sofen]

Well its because i consider Crisis Core to be a bad game. But its not that i ignore it as much as i know it was intentionally changed. Which is from the OVA. And that's why Zack has that Kingdom Hearts hair look instead the metal banging hair from the PS1 game all the time. Like i know there is some bull in CC that tells why he has different hair styles, i just think the game itself is bad : 3

 

[Splintered]

Here you go OP, the entire Crisis Core as a movie

You'll see the expository hair change at the 1:24:-- mark.

 

[Geostigma]

So?

Me disliking the Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars doesn't change the fact that Jar Jar exists.

Not to mention it's been clearly pointed out that the hair progression has little to do with the OVA/Nomura fanboying over hair of all things, which is an absurd theory btw. It's to point out character growth in a traditional way.

 

[Sofen]

Here you go OP, the entire Crisis Core as a movie

You'll see the expository hair change at the 1:24:-- mark.

I think you ignored the earlier post i made explaining that i have read it, but why i chose to ignore it.

Well its because i consider Crisis Core to be a bad game. But its not that i ignore it as much as i know it was intentionally changed. Which is from the OVA. And that's why Zack has that Kingdom Hearts hair look instead the metal banging hair from the PS1 game all the time. Like i know there is some bull in CC that tells why he has different hair styles, i just think the game itself is bad : 3

Also. No.... nawt gonna watch that ^^

 

[ForceStealer]

It's not even about some "bull reason." It's quite simply that he had a different haircut when he was younger. Have you had the same haircut your entire life?

But for the second half of the game through the end, he has the haircut you like, so what's the issue?

 

[Unit-01]

Well its because i consider Crisis Core to be a bad game. But its not that i ignore it as much as i know it was intentionally changed. Which is from the OVA. And that's why Zack has that Kingdom Hearts hair look instead the metal banging hair from the PS1 game all the time. Like i know there is some bull in CC that tells why he has different hair styles, i just think the game itself is bad : 3

Well I actually just looked it up and realized that Last Order was released 2 years before hand. In the case of the OVA, that hairstyle is wrong. But with CC and BC they made it apart of Zack's character canonically. Even if you think CC is a bad game that doesn't just mean the second hairstyle wrong. Also as Force had just said it really isn't a "bull reason" why his haircut is changed, it's apart of his character.

Also Gabriel made the perfect argument, Jar Jar does in fact still exist in Star Wars, even if nobody liked him.