Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV

Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, Noctis Lucis Caelum, sets out on a journey to Caem. His purpose is to meet with Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, an oracle and Noctis' childhood friend, in order to marry her. A strong and silent type, Noctis is accompanied by his friends and Royal Guard Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis. The four young men set out on a road trip across the continent in the king's personal convertible, the Regalia. Along the journey, each of them experience various situations which allow them to reflect on their past together, and strengthen their bonds for the future.

A prequel to the 2016 video game Final Fantasy XV, Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV explores the relationships of its four main protagonists and the challenges awaiting them.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lucis Caelum, Noctis Main

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Argentum, Prompto Main

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Scientia, Ignis Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Amicitia, Gladiolus Main

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Nox Fleuret, Lunafrena Supporting

Kitagawa, Rina Japanese

Lucis Caelum, Regis Supporting

Isobe, Tsutomu Japanese

Amicitia, Iris Supporting

Han, Megumi Japanese

Marilith Supporting

Koichi, Makoto Japanese

Gentiana Supporting

Kinoshita, Sayaka Japanese

Kida, Kazuya Producer

Adachi, Kazuki Producer

Matsumoto, Miho Assistant Producer

Masui, Souichi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 18, 2016

Kashmius

Recommended

Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV is a five episode short(special sixth episode limited to the special editions) that is supposed to be a treat for those like me who are anticipating the grand game. Now I have waited a decade for this beautiful game so seeing an animation short is pretty sweet. While I would like a full blown 25+ episode anime made for this game, I can see why this exists and its purpose. It's there to present the fans of the series who have been long anticipating this game to connect with the characters and build on them. The animation short does just that. ... It represents each character nicely. I find it to really deliver on that aspect. A prequel of sorts that tells the story from a more character-based perspective. This is really important as if we are going to be experiencing this game we would love to know more about these characters and who they are.

The four characters have an episode of their own and each episode also shows their connections with each other. In particular, the episodes dedicated to characters other than Noctis always come back to showing their connection with Noctis.

Story-wise, it does what it does. It tells the character's background story as an overhead of what is to come in the future. This requires them taking flashbacks to past moments in the lives of these characters, ultimately achieving the goal to present us with details on who they were before the present. And it is all done in a very sweet way. It certainly feels like "an anime." It's Final Fantasy XV in anime form. Characters all feel alive to me now after watching this.

The art is gloriously beautiful. Honestly, I prefer the art in this to any of the stuff we have coming from the more established anime titles now(anime like Sword Art Online and Shingeki no Kyojin). It's just magnificent. Colors and lighting are just so flexible and vibrant. The vast detail in the scenes(especially the fight scenes) is perhaps where the animation and art is the best.

Any music related to Square is an automatic 10/10. For anything related to Final Fantasy XV, it's beyond that. The music for this game was spectacular to begin with. Carrying over to the animated series just takes it even further. If there's one thing good about Final Fantasy XV, it's the music(although I love everything about it). The music is orchestrated divinely. Yoko Shimomura deserves a lot of credit for it.

Overall, I have to say I extremely enjoyed it, as I do with anything related to Final Fantasy XV. If you are someone anticipating this game or are a newcomer to the franchise I recommend checking this out because it really lets you know the characters are alive. They have personalities and we have information as to who they are. It's not something you would watch if you are treating it like some seasonal anime, it's more like something for the fans to watch and understand.

The characters won't have to be a worry for me while playing this beautiful game. The animated short, for me, did a really good job at actually getting to know Noctis, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 5, 2016

Gundroog

Mixed Feelings

I went into this anime to mainly get a feel for the main company of characters and their dynamics and was kinda disappointed, kinda because it turned out to be what I expected.

The main cast consistent of very one-note characters and getting an episode to learn a bit more about them unfortunately doesn't change that since it adds very little aside from past details that become seemingly irrelevant in the grand scheme. Noct is a moody brat, Prompto is a cheerful bishounen, Ignis is a wet sponge and Gladiolus is a big guy who doesn't know how to wear a shirt. All of them ... just feel like a bunch of archetypes thrown together for the sake of variety rather than a proper company of friends who share a history. They go through a couple of pretty personal interactions but that's it, otherwise you could claim they met each other yesterday and it wouldn't feel much different, I feel like having some interesting banter and more real friendship moments could've helped to change that.

Otherwise there's little going on in this story-wise, there are some plot points that might be relevant to the game but I don't know of them so pretty much all I got out of this is a short road trip filled with flashbacks providing insights for the characters and occasional glimpse of the world surrounding them. Each individual story was bit of a bland plot template with FFXV characters drawn on top so that wasn't exactly an interesting watch.

All character designs themselves are painfully boring, I don't know why but everyone seems to be opposed to characters wearing something other than lame black outfits most of which reflect their personality in the most blatant way possible. Doesn't help that a lot of the time animation is underwhelming and stiff with character art eventually having a stroke thanks to designs being quite detailed and not animation friendly. One thing show does really well however are backgrounds, they're all quite nicely drawn and composed, almost to a point where I'd say it's worth watching just to look at how nice they are.

To summarize it's a mediocre show with nothing going for it aside from the gorgeous background art.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 26, 2019

Nlochoco

Not Recommended

This series of Final Fantasy sounds like a rip off rather than an actual game.
The story, which is the core of every Final Fantasy media is not well written at all. These free episodes were just an excuse for the bad story telling, and not only the didn't fix the story, they just made it look even more plain. The character interactions are nothing like the previous series, Noctis and his friends are like complete strangers to each other. That gives me an uncomfortable feeling like they're forced to be together. I know that this is a tragic story but where are the emotions? ... The story could be developed into a master piece. On the other hand, I really like the Art style. It some how reminds me of Japanese anime style and western style at the same time, just like how the way it should be.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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