Aki Ross

Dr. Aki Ross is the main protagonist of the 2001 animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. She is a Bioetherics Researcher who seeks to find eight spirits to use to counter the alien Phantom threat.
She was voiced by Ming-Na Wen, who also voiced Fa Mulan in Disney's 1998 film Mulan and portrayed Fennec Shand in the Star Wars franchise.
==Biography==
Years prior to Aki Ross' birth, a meteor crashed in the Caspian Mountains. Unknown to humans at the time, the meteor was a piece of destroyed alien world, and housed remnants of the spirit of the alien world as well as the spirits of alien warriors that had died. These beings, which would be dubbed Phantoms, began killing people across the world. Through research of what was called bioetheric technology, these invisible threats were able to be perceived and fought against, but ultimately were unable to be stopped. The world fell into ruin, with the last civilizations being confined to barrier cities protected by bioetheric fields.
Aki was born in 2038, in the San Francisco Barrier City. Her parents were killed by Phantoms at an early age, causing her to be raised by an aunt. Aki grew up studying bioetherics, and eventually got to work as the protégé of the man who created the technology used against Phantoms, Dr. Sid.
While receiving military training in Houston, Aki entered a romantic relationship with fellow student Gray Edwards. After graduating, she returned to New York to complete her doctorate while Gray joined the Deep Eyes military unit.
Aki grew to respect Dr. Sid, and worked with him on his wave theory. Dr. Sid theorized that all living things had a spirit, and each spirit possessed a wave pattern, including Phantom spirits. He believed that if the right combination of Earthly wave patterns were combined, they would cancel out Phantom waves and bring about a non-violent way to combat the Phantoms. Additionally, Aki joined him in the belief of Gaia, the spirit of the Earth itself.
However, during an experiment, Aki was infected with Phantom particles that began slowly killing her. Dr. Sid trapped the particles in a membrane within her body, using her own spirit to house them, but began work collecting other spirits to nullify the Phantom particles and the Phantoms as a whole. Upon being infected, Aki began having dreams about the Phantoms' homeworld and origins, though she did not understand them. To protect Gray, she left and went to space in her ship to find the other spirits.
Over the next few months, Aki collected four more spirits, coming from a fish, a deer, and a sparrow; the next came from a seven-year-old girl dying in a hospital. Aki attempted to comfort the child by telling her that her that her spirit was returning to Gaia, saddened by the girl telling her that she was ready to die.
Aki later tracked the sixth spirit too the ruins of old New York, finding it to be a plant, but is attacked by Phantoms. She is helped by the Deep Eyes, led by Gray, who is bitter over her leaving him without explanation. As they return to the New York barrier city, they discover Gray was infected by a Phantom. Aki is able to perform impromptu surgery and eraticate the infestation, and then deliver the plant to Dr. Sid.
However, the wave theory is being challenged by General Douglas Hein, who wants to use an orbital bioetheric laser cannon called the Zues to eraticate the Phantom crater. When Sid argues that the cannon will damage Gaia, he is questioned by the council. Aki steps in, revealing the Phantom particles within her as proof that their wave, even in its incomplete state, is capable of temporarily countering Phantoms. This earns the respect of the council, who agree to postpone the firing of the Zues cannon and allow Aki and Sid to continue. However, her infestation draws suspicion from General Hein, who orders her to be watched in case the Phantom particles effect her.
As Aki scans the city for the potential seventh spirit, she is confronted by Gray, who asks if her infection was why she shut him out. The two rekindle their relationship.
Aki's search takes her to the ruins of Tuscon, where large Phantoms are roaming. Buoys are used to distract them as Aki tracks the seventh spirit, revealing it to be a collection of single-celled organisms used in the bioetheric Ovo-pack of a dead soldier. However, the Phantoms begin to be drawn to Aki's infestation, chasing them down and knocking Aki unconscious. The Deep Eyes try to escape, but Phantoms and Hein's men try to stop them, with one shooting Aki in her chestplate when she momentarily awakens. They escape, but Aki's membrane is failing, and Sid is forced to reinforce the containment with the recently collected spirit. Gray acts as her spirital support, joining with her in her dreams to ensure she is not overtaken by the Phantoms. As she dreams, Aki finally realizes what they mean.
However, upon awakening, Aki, Gray, Sid, and Gray's Deep Eyes unit are arrested, with Hein believing Aki's dreams are proof of her being controlled by the Phantoms. While incarcerated, Aki explains that the Phantoms are lost and vengeful ghosts, not an invading force. Hein attempts to open part of the city's barrier and let some Phantoms in as a way of convincing the council to side with him, but the breach grows beyond his control and Phantoms flood into the city, killing countless. The power goes out and Aki and her allies are freed from their imprisonment, fleeing to her ship. However, the Phantoms kill the Deep Eyes, and only Aki, Gray, and Sid get away.
On her ship, Aki mourns the loss of the Deep Eyes and the city with Gray. They embrace and share a kiss before getting intimate with each other.
Sid tracks down the eighth and final spirit, discovering it to be a modified Phantom spirit on the outside of the Phantom Crater. Aki and Gray go down to the crater in a shielded vehicle, hoping to locate the final spirit and complete the wave there. However, Hein has gotten permission ti use the Zues cannon and fires on the crater, destroying the eighth spirit and unleashing a Phantom Gaia from the meteor. Aki then discovers that they are between the Phantom Gaia and Earth's Gaia, and that the destroyed eighth spirit was a Phantom that came into contact with Earth's Gaia, giving it a different wave signature. Aki attempts to communicate with Hein and pleads with him to stop, but still believing she is under the control of Phantoms, Hein ignores her, unaware that each shot from the canon is weakening Earth's Gaia and allowing the Phantom Gaia to grow stronger.
However, as Aki falls unconscious, she realizes through her brief dreaming that the Phantom particles within her have been touched by Gaia and now act as a comparable final spirit. Aki attempts to unleash the completed wave with the pod's shields, but another shot from the Zues destroys the pod and leaves Gray fatally injured. As the Zeus cannon explodes from overuse, Gray sacrifices himself by letting the Phantom Gaia take his spirit while taking the wave with it, cancelling out the Phantom Gaia's spirit and destroying it and all Phantoms. He confesses his love for Aki right before he dies.
With Gaia no longer attacked by the Phantoms, life begins to return to the Earth again. A mournful Aki cradles Gray's dead body as she watches a bird fly overhead.
==Gallery==
Aki Ross.jpg
AkiGoggleFront.jpg
Ffaki.jpg
TSWScreenshot42.jpg
TSWScreenshot14.jpg
TSWScreenshot19.jpg
TSWScreenshot49.jpg
Final fantasy-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg
TSWKiss.jpg
TSWScreenshot142.jpg
Fftsw.jpg
Fftsw poster.jpg
Aki Rose by Steve Giesler and Francisco A. Cortina.jpg
==Trivia==
*Aki Ross was intended to be the first in a series of computer-generated characters to be used and credited in various films, inteded as a "virtual actress" in the same vain as Hatsune Miku and VOCALOIDS being virtual musicians. Though the idea failed due to the financial failure of the film, Aki Ross was still regarded briefly as a "virtual actress", appearing in an issue of Maxim magazine being ranked as #87 of the "Top 100 Hottest Women of 2001". For this magazine, a render of Aki wearing a purple bikini was used for both her image and the issue's cover.
**Aki was intended to appear later in the 2003 animted film The Animatrix, a tie-in with the Matrix film franchise. She would have sported a crew cut and leather clothing and fought the Machines. However, her role was religated to an animation demonstration and another animation was chosen instead. Aki's scene can still be viewed in special features of DVD releases of The Animatrix.
*Every one of her 60,000 hairs was separately animated and rendered, at a render farm consisting of 960 Pentium III-933MHz workstations that took 1.5 hours to render every frame. Her model is estimated to be made up of around 400,000 polygons, as are the other main characters of the movie.
*In early drafts, many details were very different:
**Aki's last name was Shishido
**Aki was Sid's granddaughter
**Aki would have become pregnant with Gray's child following their offscreen intamacy on board her ship, and the spirit of her unborn child would have been the eighth and final spirit. This plot point was negatively recieved by test audiences, leading to it being cut from the theatrical release.
*The scene depicting Aki and Gray's kiss is famous for its revolutionary use of computer graphics, with the most frames in the movie; 1,899 shots exactly.
==Navigation==
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Cartoon Heroes
Category:Female
Category:Science Fantasy Heroes
Category:Final Fantasy Heroes
Category:In Love
Category:Doctors and Scientists
Category:Genius
Category:Virtually Resourceful
Category:Protectors
Category:Honorable
Category:Pawn of the Villain
Category:Healers
Category:Military
Category:Monster Slayers
Category:Pacifists
Category:Good Vs. Good
Category:Orphans
Category:Tragic
Category:Nurturers
Category:Global Protection
Category:Mascots
Category:Selfless
Category:Sympathetic
Category:Betrayed
Category:Cure-Bringers
Category:Harmonizers
Category:Successful
Category:Wise
Category:Voice of Reason
Category:Nature-Lovers
Category:Reluctant Heroes
Category:Master Orator
Category:Loyal
Category:Egalitarian