Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

***Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children*** 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 highly successful 1997 role-playing video game *Final Fantasy VII*. *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* was released on DVD 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.

## Contents

* +

## Plot

Two years after the events in "*Final Fantasy VII*", a disease called 'Seikon-Shoukougun', or 'Geostigma', is spreading through the planet. This disease is believed to have been caused by the body fighting off foreign material that invaded the body two years earlier, at the end of *Final Fantasy VII*. Guilt-ridden and haunted by his past, ex-SOLDIER Cloud Strife has decided to live a secluded, solitary life away from his friends while maintaining "Strife's Delivery Service", whose headquarters is located in Tifa Lockheart's bar, the Seventh Heaven. Tifa's bar serves as an orphanage for children stricken with Geostigma. Here, Tifa keeps an eye on Barret's six-year-old daughter, Marlene, while Barret searches the planet for an alternative energy source to the Planet's energy, Mako. One day, Cloud receives a phone call from the former Shinra, Inc. president, Rufus, asking him for protection from a mysterious man named Kadaj. Kadaj, in the meantime, along with his brothers Loz and Yazoo, are searching for their "mother", and seem to believe that Cloud knows where to find her. Meanwhile, Vincent Valentine has been wandering the planet gathering information on Kadaj's scheme, and Cloud and his friends must come together again to fight these new enemies.

## Why It Rocks

1. It is very faithful to the game it is based on, where it takes place two years after the events of the game.
2. The computer-animation graphics are impressive (especially the *Complete* version), even by the mid-2000s standard.
3. All of the characters are mostly likable and well-developed.
	* Cloud is likable from the ex-SOLDIER who has the sword called Fusion Sword, his costume design is very nice.
4. The updated songs are great to listen to, with the most notable being One-Winged Angel. The original was an amazing song for the PlayStation 1 (albeit it wasn't that good to listen to) but they improved this score for this movie and has a very nice ring to it. This song is so popular that it was even implemented in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* for Sephiroth's DLC Trailer.
5. Interesting new characters, especially the three main antagonists: Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo.
6. The director's cut, *Advent Children Complete*, is a much-needed improvement over the original. The CGI animation is a major step-up from the original, there is 25 more minutes of added screen time, one thousand revised scenes, and the staff even included links to the *Complication of Final Fantasy VII*.

## Bad Qualities

1. While the opening scene is decent, it still wasn't a good enough recap of the events of *Final Fantasy VII*. Because of this, viewers who have never played the game will be bewildered by the events of this movie.
2. Poor voice acting in the English dub (with the exception of Sephiroth, Vincent, and Reno).
	* This can add to certain lines, such as "Dilly dally shilly shally" which is said by Tifa when Cloud is upset, many fans dislike some of the dialogue in the English dub.
3. Despite his tragic backstory and being made a genuinely tragic character, Sephiroth is kept as a villain instead of being changed from being one back into a anti-hero for the sake of fanservice.

## Reception

*Advent Children* has received mixed reviews On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 33% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10.

### Legacy

In the years since the release, many people are nowadays are taking positive reception. Cloud's design from the movie is available as an alternate costume for Cloud in the crossover fighting games *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U* and *Super Smash Bros Ultimate*. The reveal trailer for Sephiroth as downloadable content in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* recreates the final battle between him and Cloud from the movie (see Trivia here), and several songs from the film appear in the game as part of the Sephiroth DLC pack. As part of the update including Sephiroth, Cloud's Final Smash while using the *Advent Children* design was changed to Omnislash Ver. 5.

## Trivia

Here's an example of a change in Advent Children Complete. This was not in the original film.

* The scene where Cloud fights Sephiroth was used as inspiration for Sephiroth's reveal trailer in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,* especially when Mario, from Super Mario, gets impaled by Sephiroth's Masamume.
* A complete version of the film was released in 2009 on Blu-ray with extra scenes and an extended version of the fighting scene between Cloud and Sephiroth.
	+ Another change that was made for the complete version was the addition to blood in several fighting scenes, notably during the fight with Cloud and Sephiroth, you can see Cloud bleeding from his arm and his face with a small bit on his hair.