Anime / Final Fantasy: Unlimited

"Welcome to the night of Wonderland."

— Fabula

Final Fantasy: Unlimited is, as the name implies, an anime series produced as part of the mind-flayingly popular Final Fantasy franchise. It was produced by GONZO, and brought to the United States by ADV Films; it's available to the Spanish-speaking audience in a subtitled version, and has also been dubbed in French and German. Like many Gonzo anime, Final Fantasy: Unlimited is often guilty of using dodgy CG effects (though it uses said CG better than many other Gonzo productions) and varying art quality depending on which studio is working on each episode.

Originally planned as a two-season anime with an open-ended finale to allow for a third season if it was well-received, Final Fantasy: Unlimited actually had the opposite problem: it did not achieve sufficient ratings or video sales to have its second season produced. The unanimated plotline was instead released in two voiced dramas, a book, and several short stories released on the official website—none of which were made available in a language other than Japanese. That didn't stop the non-Japanese fans from piecing the rest of the story together through unofficial translations and summaries anyway.

Final Fantasy: Unlimited tells the story of a pair of twins from the real world, Ai and Yuu Hayakawa, who journey to a bizarre parallel dimension in search of their parents, a pair of scientists who've made a living off said parallel dimension and went there to investigate it... and never quite made it home. Along the way, they and the friends they find there discover a great deal about Wonderland's troubles, which might actually present a threat to the real world as well. Being a Final Fantasy story, the villains are affiliated with an Eldritch Abomination known as Chaos. And Chaos is battled by existences known as the Unlimited, who are said to be more powerful than gods.

What does this have to do with Ai and Yuu, who just want to find their parents and go back home? Well, maybe more than anyone would like.

Final Fantasy Unlimited now has a character sheet, but at this time it is not complete.

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Provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Some objects such as "Elizabeth" the train, The Magun, its loading and shooting sequence, and the summons.
• Abnormal Ammo: Kaze's summon-firing gun that turns out to be using souls as bullets.
• Adaptational Name Change:
  • The Gun Dragon is the anime’s equivalent to Bahamut.
  • The Sword Dragon is the anime’s equivalent to the Mist Dragon.
• Afterlife Express: Good ol' Elizabeth, which is a Shout-Out to the phantom train of Final Fantasy VI.
• A God Am I: "I'm the only god in this world!"
• Alas, Poor Villain: Out of the main villain team, Fungus dies the most tragically. As he explains, he was a proud general and his kind had no concept of death, which Chaos deftly introduced when it consumed everything he had. Serving the Earl took over everything in his life until he finally regains his home and a chance to rebuild, at which point Oschar and Earl infect it with a mold that traumatized him when it was a part of Chaos consuming it. At this point Fungus becomes a Death Seeker as his world literally crumbles around him like it did in his past, and he thanks Kaze for giving him a warriors death as he burns away. The heroes somberly look on and reflect, while the team he showed Undying Loyalty towards care little for his demise apart from the short term benefit.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Despite what he does, Lisa seems to have a very strong love interest for Kaze from the very beginning. Lou too.
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: It's revealed that Ai and Yu are actually avatars of Chaos, but are generally nice kids thanks to the family who adopted them. On the other hand, Earl Tyrant is fully aware of his true nature and is completely evil.
• Animation Bump: The animation quality varied heavily based on which animation group was handling each episode. Some of the best-handled were episodes one, three, nine, thirteen, and eighteen, but special mention goes to the final episode, every frame of which looked like it could serve as one of the most beautiful pieces of the series' lush promotional artwork.
• Arc Words: The word "Unlimited" is used a few times in the series, often in reference to either Kaze or Makenshi. It turns out "Unlimited" is a noun, not an adjective — the Unlimited are beings of extraordinary power who have the ability to destroy Chaos, the Big Bad of the series.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Kaze’s Magun can summon powerful monsters, and is one of the few things able to stand up against the likes of Chaos or Omega. However, it is cumbersome, takes a long time to activate, cannot fire regular bullets, and suffers from Power Incontinence.
• Bad Boss: Though of course playing as the Big Bad, the Earl is mean to everyone whenever he's in a bad mood.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Invoked. Earl Tyrant, representing chaos, is dismissive of the Comodeen’s wish for order. As far as he’s concerned, the only order that really matters is the one he wants.
• Badass Adorable: Chobi and Moogle are cute creatures who move and fight alongside the humanoids.
• Balance of Good and Evil: Or rather, the balance between order and chaos—what Makenshi aims to restore.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: The series has this with Clear. It's difficult to tell at first, but official character sketches confirm that he's always completely naked besides his boots and gloves, and yet no genitals or nipples are seen. This might be because he isn't human.
• Berserk Button: You don't damage any of Cid's mechanical creations, unless you want to be crushed between the two hammers that he can summon on demand.
• Bittersweet Ending: The villains are dead, but so does Kumo and Kaze, with the last shot of the anime is crying Lisa. On the other hand the kids are reunited with their parents, free of mind control. Though if After is to be believed, Kumo and Kaze survives, but things both in Wonderland and Real World has become From Bad to Worse as the villains Herba and Oscha aren't dead yet as well as introduced a new, more dangerous villain, topped with how the Chaos isn't dead yet.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The Dead Peppers fire Chobi up and give him a speed boost.
• Bookends: The anime begins when a Gun Dragon-controlled Chaos fights a Sword Dragon. It ends when a Sword Dragon-controlled Chaos fights a Gun Dragon.
• Boring, but Practical: Makenshi only has a few summons compared to Kaze, but he only needs Mist for his magic, compared to Kaze’s varied Soil bullets. He can activate his Maken at any time, control it telepathically, and use it as a normal weapon when not using summon magic.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: When Pist steals the Magun and tries to summon the Gun Dragon, he repeats Kaze’s episodic rant word-for-word.
• Braggart Boss: Pist is a showboating, hammy villain who acts very dramatic, even by the standards of his peers.
• Breath Weapon: Makenshi, Kiri, and most probably all other Misterians have mist breath for their attacks.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Fabula often addresses the viewers directly, as the series is presented as though it's a story she is telling them.
  • Chocoimo gets to do the intro once and directly addresses the viewer. Cid gets the pleasure of doing the intro twice, cheerily providing the viewer with details about Wonderland physics.
• Break the Cutie: This is Chaos' favorite game, seeing as how it feeds on negative emotions and all.
  • In the final two episodes, Chaos' avatar Earl Tyrant (seemingly) kills, brainwashes, or absorbs everyone close to the twins to break them down.
  • The entirety of After is based on the forces of Chaos putting Lisa through as much emotional turmoil as possible.
• Brought Down to Normal: Kumo in After. This is also the cause of Kaze's Magun problems in the anime; it was damaged when he contained Chaos twelve years ago.
• Calling Your Attacks: Whenever a summon is used, the summoner will call out their name. Wheather this is needed for the ritual to work or is just for extra flourish is never really elaborated on.
• Cannot Spit It Out: The whole misunderstanding between Yuu and Touya in After Spiral.
• Canon Character All Along: A three-way example. The Big Bad Earl Tyrant and the protagonists Ai and Yu are revealed to be avatars of recurring Final Fantasy villain Chaos.
• Can't Catch Up: Due to Kumo's status as Unlimited, whenever he and Kiri got into the same hobby—say, swordsmanship or summoning—Kumo would always wind up leaving Kiri in the dust; as the older brother (and one with considerable pride), Kiri had a lot of trouble dealing with this. Especially as, like most younger siblings, Kumo wanted to emulate everything his brother was good at out of innocent admiration. This (and Oscha being an asshole) is the eventual cause of all the Cain and Abel in episode 18.
  • And apparently, Kiri eventually gets over this.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: It's kinda stupid how even the Earl didn't see that coming from Kumo, even after saving the good guys/Kaze a few times.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • Makenshi has white hair, wears a white suit, carries a white sword, and summons white dragons. His real name, Shiroi Kumo, means "White Cloud."
  • Kaze wears a black robe, has a black heart powering his Magun, and is often referred to as "Black Wind."When he sacrifices himself to help Makenshi kill Chaos, however, the Soil bullet he becomes is Endless White.
  • Earl Tyrant’s clothes are varying shades of red, purple, and pink. He has the same colors as Chaos. On the two occasions when an Unlimited took control of his body, they took on the color scheme.
• Cool Train: The Interdimensional Train, also known as Elizabeth, can transport the characters between the various universes that make up Wonderland.
• Crystal Ball: Fabula is rarely seen without her trademark blue crystal ball.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Kumo beats the living crap out of Kaze in episode 4, which is quite a change from Kaze's previous I-Win Button status. Chaos to everyone in episode 24, too.
• Cut Short: The anime was planned to have 52 episodes, but because of its low ratings along with the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, it was cut down to only 25 episodes overall. The story was later able to be continued through various other media.
• Cypher Language: The native language of Wonderland is a cipher of English. If you want the key, though, you'll have to track down the (out-of-print) artbook.
• Dead Hat Shot: When Kaze sacrifices himself to summon the final Gun Dragon, his discarded earring is shown next to Lisa.
• Deus ex Machina: Twice in both the anime and After, Fabula finds some loophole (once a Pun on her role as a Guide) that allows her to assist Lisa and the twins. The first time, it's by giving Ai a few words of encouragement and Poshepocket; the second time, she pulls our heroes out of the dimensional tunnel when it looks like Omega will destroy them. And then, in After, she sends Ai, Yuu, Lisa, and Chobi back to their own world when Chaos attacks the Comodeen.
  • Tends to be of the Fridge Brilliance variety, especially considering all the hints that are dropped about how Fabula really feels about her job.
• Damned by Faint Praise: In his debut, Pist tells the other Lords of Gaudium that they are not completely useless, since their constant losses to the heroes gave him the data he needed for his plan.
• Dangerously Garish Environment: The environments of Wonderland are brightly colored and surreal. Besides the monsters that plague it, Wonderland is a hodgepodge of worlds that were swallowed up by Chaos.
• Domestic Abuse: Though not really, what kind of parents like their elementary level kids at home alone?
• Dramatic Irony: Possibly true with Lou Lupus. She leaves the party to go looking for Kaze, which is pretty amusing to the audience, given that we know that Kaze always seems to show up wherever Lisa, the twins Ai and Yuu and Chobi are.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sort of. About who's with them - no one cares when Fungus dies because he never did anything noteworthy.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Earl and his flunkies call Kumo "Makenshi" because he never reveals his name around them. In After, even though they know his name is Shiroi Kumo, everyone still calls him Makenshi out of habit. It causes some, uh, consternation when Touya freaks out about what kind of person might actually be named Makenshi.
• Evil Laugh: Earl Tyrant eventually shows himself to be quite capable of this.
• Expy: The cast has got plenty in Samurai Champloo and Tales of Legendia thanks to the designer liking to recycle his designs; Fabula also has the Zion Archive Narrator in The Animatrix.
• Extreme Omnivore: Fungo. He's been seen eating plates, bags, mailboxes and other inedible objects without batting an eye.
• Fanservice: Lisa wears tights and somewhat lovingly shows her sculpted body and legs.
• Faux Action Girl: Lisa is supposed to be a secret agent with the ability to use Kigen Arts (defensive spiritual energy). She does toss around some foes to temporary effect, but in the end she ends up huddling with the twins while Kaze shoots the things with his Magun.
  • This becomes less and less true the longer the series goes on, culminating with her getting to fire the Magun in the final episode.
• Filming for Easy Dub: Any time Kaze fires the Magun, his clothes cover his mouth, allowing the animators to use the same sequence with totally different dialogue every time.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Kumo blasts his way into the Comodeen's Elaborate Underground Base using nothing but his breath and a twig he picked up outside.
• Firearms Are Revolutionary: Most of the Commodeen rely on blowguns, so Cid is impressed by the potential of Kaze’s gun when he sees it.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Kaze does this when he announces that “The Soil Charge Triad to use on you has been decided!"
• Glamour Failure: When Yu first meets Earl Tyrant, a close-up shot gives the Earl Chaos energy instead of eyes. When he escapes, Yu's eyes go under the same effect.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kiri in episode 18, and Kumo in episode 24.
• God Mode: It's heavily implied that both Oscha and Fabula have God Mode but are unable to use it to directly interfere in the story.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Fabula would love to directly assist the party in stopping Chaos but is unable to interfere due to the rules of Wonderland. She does manage to slip through the cracks once or twice to bail them out of a tough spot, however.
• Gratuitous English: The colors of Kaze's Soil bullets.
  • Soljashy from "After" just loves to use this, too. And gratuitous French, and gratuitous Russian... At least this is revealed to be well-spoken English in the drama CD After 2.
  • The song "Romancing Train" is mostly Japanese, but opens with English and has English peppered throughout.
• Green Thumb: Helba can create and control plant-based monsters.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: There’s a reason Oscha usually wears a mask. A few shots show a manic eye surrounded by withered, rotting flesh.
• Guns Do Not Work That Way: The Magun, wielded by Kaze, essentially acts as a conduit for conjuring Summons through the Soil Charge Triad.
• Guns vs. Swords: Part of the premise of the story is that it pits Kaze (gun) against Makenshi (sword). Even the eyecatch animation involves illustrations of the Magun and Maken forming the two F's in Final Fantasy Unlimited's logo.
• Happy Ending Override: After not only has Herba and Oscha surviving (while what's broadcasted apparently ends with all the villainous characters dead) but also introduces a new villain related to Lisa and made everything even worse not only for Wonderland, but the real world as well.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Makenshi's entire fight against Chaos is eventually revealed to be one. And then there's Kaze and Makenshi's apparent deaths in episode 25, which, according to After, are actually something of a subversion, as they turned out to be Not Quite Dead.
• How Do I Shot Web?: When Pist steals Kaze's Magun, he tries to use it himself (including a bizarre subversion of the normal firing sequence) but the resulting summon turns on him.
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • The Unlimited look like Earth-based humans, but they are notoriously durable, can use summon magic, and can stand up to otherwise-unstoppable gods like Chaos or Omega.
  • Earl Tyrant may seem like a small child, but [[spoiler:he is in fact the mind and soul of Chaos. By extension, Yu and Ai also count, since they are also avatars of Chaos.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: It's revealed that Ai and Yu aren't actually the children of the Hayakawas. They are, in fact, Chaos spawn who were adopted when the Hayakawas lost their original kids.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like...: The two main characters are named Ai and Yu; these are Japanese words for "love" and "courage," and can be put together to spell yuuai ("friendship"), but also sound like the English pronouns "I" and "you".
• In Name Only:
  • The anime has virtually nothing to do with its namesake series aside from the presence of Chocobos, Moogle Kupo, a character named Cid, and the summons themselves.
  • The story is about two kids who get caught in a conflict between La Résistance and The Empire, in which the latter is trying to collect crystals in order to become an unstoppable god-like entity, and who is also Chaos. In addition, it's directly stated that people's souls are energy that can be weaponized, similar (though still different) to Mako/the Lifestream. If that's not "Final Fantasy", then what exactly is?
• In the Name of the Moon: Kaze, typically the only character who confronts an enemy, will combine this with Calling His Attack in his summoning sequence.
• Intimate Healing: Laughed at in episode 15, where Kaze is found drifting in the ocean by the Comodeen and brought aboard their submarine; when Lisa notes that he doesn't seem to be breathing, Yuu prompts her to perform CPR. Although she had no problems using it to resuscitate Ai in the sixth episode, Lisa balks at the thought of having to kiss Kaze—so Knave volunteers. Cue a close-up of his puckered lips descending; luckily, Kaze wakes up just in time.
• Is It Something You Eat?: Fungo asks if a thief is something that can be eaten.
• I Shall Taunt You: Depends on how you take it but the way Kumo talks DOES probably lead Kaze on.
• Kid with the Leash: Ai and Yuu are eventually revealed to have an indirect leash on Kaze's Magun.
• Large Ham: Every one of the Lords of Gaudium, but Pist and Soljashy from After definitely take the cake here.
• Like Reality, Unless Noted: The home world of the Hayakawas and Lisa is identical to modern Earth, except for the use of the Kigen Arts and the emergence of the Pillar of Darkness.
• Limited Destination Time: The train Elizabeth in Final Fantasy: Unlimited can move at a constant pace except for short intervals, so the main characters can't stay in one dimension for too long.
• Limited Wardrobe: In the anime, Ai gets a change of clothes twice, but no one else does; Yuu lampshades this once she gets her winter duds in episode 14. Justified since all they came to Wonderland with was in Ai's backpack, which Fungo ate. Lisa and the twins get new costumes in After, though.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Kaze's Magun sequence. It takes a while and makes battle a bit inconvenient; there's a lot of Lampshade Hanging here from the heroes and villains.
• Meaningful Name: Lupus is the Latin word for "wolf". And Joe and Mary's names might be considered to be a biblical reference, considering Ai and Yuu's eventual role in the story.
  • Oscha is an anagram for "Chaos."
• Mid-Season Twist: In Final Fantasy: Unlimited, the seventh episode introduces new character Lou Lupus and the new threat Omega.
• Mood Whiplash: Episode 17 is a silly little story about Cid coping poorly with a Forced Transformation. Episode 18 is an incredibly serious and depressing glimpse of Kumo's backstory and motivations. And then Episode 19—the most slapstick of the lot—is positively bipolar, swinging between over-the-top gags and Clear angsting.
• The Multiverse: Wonderland is the result of Chaos consuming and combining a number of worlds, and it seeks to take over even more.
• Mysterious Past: We see very little, if not any of anyone's past in the anime. And when we do, it's mostly the same stuff over and over.
• Narrator: Fabula. Subverted in that she turns out to be a story character who just can't interfere directly in the plot (unless she's sneaky about it).
• No-Sell: Pretty much every single time someone uses a "normal" weapon. Notably when Kaze tries to shoot Fungus - without moving, Fungus catches the bullets in his mouth.
• No, You: When Kaze is fighting Fungus in the latter's homeworld, Fungus (who seems immortal thanks to his ability to regenerate himself) taunts Kaze by saying that this will be where he dies. Kaze's response is simply to point at Fungus and say "No, YOU'RE the one who will die here!"
  • In the English dub at least, characters will very often state something explicitly relating to the powers they're using or how powerful they themselves are so that Kaze can retort with "Soil is MY power." and transition seamlessly into the Magun activating.
• Nostalgia Filter: The enemy Nostradamus uses this as a weapon. It is a radio tower that sends out energy waves, trapping people in their happiest memories of the past while constantly announcing "Nothing beats the good old days!". The hero Kaze becomes trapped in the memories of his homeland Windia with his sister. The illusion is broken when the character Moogle reminds him what happened after his happy memories- his homeland was destroyed and his sister died .
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: All the lords of Gaudium, but Soljashy especially.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: In episode 25, after being run through on his own sword by Earl Tyrant, Kumo regains consciousness in time to bind Chaos in a show of truly badass Heroic Willpower.
• Not Quite Dead: Kaze is notoriously guilty of this. He never quite seems to die even if he is killed.
  • Kumo generally suffers more damage than Kaze does, but he regularly survives death all the same.
  • And Fungus is noted for being indestructible, surviving everything that gets thrown at him until he's betrayed by the Earl and infected with mold.
• Odd Friendship: Ai and Clear, Ai and Kumo; Aura and Kumo in the backstory.
• Olympus Mons: The eponymous Unlimiteds are described as having power surpassing that of the gods.
• Once More, with Clarity: At times, Kaze flashes back to his last encounter with an unknown woman. It is revealed to be his sister, Aura, who sacrificed her body to provide Soil.
• Once per Episode: In the first half of Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Kaze pulls out his Magun summon weapon, and saves the day. As time goes on, it malfunctions more often.
• Only a Flesh Wound: watch as Kumo just lays there for a bit then does his ultimate summon after getting pierced though his abdomen.
• Order Versus Chaos: This is the dynamic between Gaudium (chaos) and the Comodeen (order).
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Lou is the last of a race of humanoids who turn into wolves when they look into a reflective surface, such as a mirror.
• Palette Swap: Kiri's summon is just a red version of Kumo's.
• Parental Abandonment: Lisa is also revealed to have suffered from this, between her mother's death and her father's complete disinterest in her aside from her Wonderland's journey and powers.
• Playing with Fire: Despite being around for one episode, Kiri shows he does indeed like fire.
• Posthumous Character: Aura, who is very important to the motivations of a lot of characters, but has no development until Before.
• Power Echoes: The English dub adds echo to Kaze's lines whenever he uses the Magun.
• The Power of Love: This is a big part of the final episode. Among other things, it's how Joe and Mary Hayakawa finally break free of Herba's Mind-Control Device.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: With ones that size, it's probably safe to say Crux has them on default.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Earl Tyrant is assisted by four Lords of Gaudium.
• Royal Brat: The Earl,Just a little.
• Red/Green Contrast: The red-haired Ai is much more impulsive and outgoing than her brother Yu, who has green highlights for his clothes.
• Riddle of the Sphinx: Parodied in Episode 16, where the "correct" answer is the Hemoran bacterium. The person who answers "a human" gets it wrong. The riddle giver in that episode is cheating, so the person answering is always wrong. The only "true" correct answer was to point out that the riddler is cheating.
• Rule of Cool: In relation to Kaze and his extremely long Magun summoning sequences. Much of the runtime is dedicated to it, with sometimes doing it twice, other characters also get this with their own powers, including the Mascot Chocobo's Power Armor being applied
• Running Gag: Chobi chewing on Ai's hair.
• Saving the World: Or in this case, several worlds.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: The glasses worn by the brainwashed Hayakawa parents light up. They stop glowing when they are freed from Chaos' control.
• Seen It All: Yu and Ai barely react to Lou being a werewolf, considering everything else they’ve seen in Wonderland.
• Sic 'Em: This often happens when Earl Tyrant reviews yet another loss on the part of his minions.
• Significant Anagram: Oscha's name is an anagram of "Chaos", perhaps hinting at his true loyalties.
• Stupid Evil: The Earl is motivated by his hunger and very little else to the point that he and Oscha kill a newly turned Implacable Man Fungus just to feed his hunger for fear that day, when reuniting Fungus with his homeland not only gives him said massive powerboost, but also redoubled his loyalty out of greatfulness.
• Ship Tease: A lot of them. There's Kaze's strange tolerance for Lou, Lisa getting a bit further in making Kaze acknowledge her presence, Kaze and Kumo's obsession with each other, Kiri and Kumo and their copious Subtext, Ai being so very considerate of Clear, Miles and Cid apparently getting closer, and even hints that Kumo may have felt something for Aura...
  • An entire end credit sequence is based entirely around a ship tease between Lisa and Kaze.
• Shoo the Dog: This happens when the party runs into a herd of wild chocobo. Yu, upon realizing that Chobi will probably never see the herd again, encourages him to go off with them. It doesn't stick for too long, though.
• Shoot the Dog: Upon learning that Clear is a part of Omega, Kaze immediately tries to kill him despite Ai's protests.
• Shower Scene: Knave in Episode 17 and again in Episode 21.
• Shout-Out: Episode 17 is a play on the traditional Final Fantasy Toad spell, and Kiri and Kumo both seem to use a lot of Final Fantasy spells during their battle in episode 18.
  • The Final Fantasy victory theme is also heard whenever the good guys win.
  • Episode 21 features cactuars.
  • Every summon that appears in the series also appears in the games.
  • Fungus is defeated by a summon that casts Meteor
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Lou, full stop. She falls madly in love with Kaze after he winds up saving her. He's enough of The Stoic to not really care when she attaches herself to his arm and doesn't let go, neither encouraging her nor discouraging her.
• Smug Snake: Pist's Fatal Flaw, hes too stuck up realize when to either cut his losses or realize flaws in his schemes.
• Soul Jar: Soil is made of human essense. During the finale of the anime, Mogle, Lou and Kaze himself transmute their bodies into soil bullet so that the Magun can summon the Gun Dragon.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: The final episode has Kaze and Aura doing this in a Flashback. While standing still. With Aura being The Faceless.
• Stepford Smiler: Subverted with Lisa; whenever she tries to hide emotional distress with a smile, Ai promptly tells her to knock off the creepy laugh.
• Stock Footage: Every time Kaze loads his Magun or Lisa uses one of her special abilities. This tends to come up a lot when the show is criticized; Kaze and the Magun were particularly bad, as the show tended to use the entire loading sequence in multiple successive episodes.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The radio tower in "Moogle: Nostalgic Memories," once Kaze and Moogle Kupo use Ixion Zero on it.
• Summon Magic: Kaze, Makenshi, and Madoushi all have the ability to conjure Summons. Lisa does it in the final episode of the anime.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Makenshi, sort of. The coldness isn't a natural part of his personality, though; if he had his way, he'd be able to dere all the time.
• Supporting Leader: Knave and the Comodeen eventually assume this role as the story becomes more serious, but they never quite outgrow being Plucky Comic Relief at the same time.
• Swiper, No Swiping!: The characters try, and often fail, to pull this on Kaze.
• Talk to the Fist: Part of the lampshades the cast throws on Kaze's long, long, long summoning sequences. Both Pist and Makenshi do it. Pist eventually has this trope turned on him by Makenshi; the results were beautifully epic, as the swordsman effortlessly turns Pist into mist.
• Theme Music Power-Up:
  • Kaze, Kumo, and Lisa are all prone to this. The Lords of Gaudium each have a villainous version.
  • Even Chobi's Ciel Chocobo transformation comes complete with a special theme, as well.
• Theme Naming: All three summoner boys have weather names.
• Theme Twin Naming: In addition to being homophones for I and You, Ai can mean "love, affection, friendly" and "indigo" while Yu can mean "happy, pleased" or "jade".
• These Questions Three...: One stage of the Ocean Puzzle is based on three-by-three questions. The only way to break the sequence is to say the interviewer is making things up.
• Third-Person Person: Lou Lupus, in the Japanese. She speaks normally in the dubbed version, though.
• This Is a Drill:
  • Kaze's Magun has a retractable drill that is used to blend the Soil bullets in the chamber and activate the magic within them.
  • Also, the Cube-Ashura robot in episode 9, which (unlike the other examples) actually uses it as a weapon.
• Title Theme Drop: The series does this with both its opening theme and its closing theme. In an interesting twist, "Vivid" the closing theme for Episodes 1-13 was featured in Episode 15. "Over the Fantasy," the opening theme was played during a montage, with additional lyrics not heard when it was played in the show's opening sequence.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Ai and Yuu are revealed to be parts of Chaos at the end of the anime. Soljashy spends most of After trying to convince them to accept their birthright.
• Tomato Surprise: Lou Lupus, revealed as a werewolf in the middle of episode 7. Ai and Yuu don't care that she's not human, though, and tell her that her transformations are cool.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: played straight most of the time, but subverted by Pist, who seems to be the only one smart enough to realize you can interrupt the montage.
• Trapped in Another World: The story begins with Ai and Yu being trapped in Wonderland. Said other world, controlled by Chaos, is also continually expanding and consuming other worlds, leading to entire dimensions being trapped there as well.
• Villainous Glutton: His weight is questionable due to his outfit, but Earl Tyrant definitely fits the glutton part. 90% of his scenes take place with him eating something or other, usually made from the negative emotions of his "subjects".
• Weak, but Skilled: After being useless bystanders for most of the early part of the story, the twins eventually become very good at using what they have to help out however they can.
• Wham Episode: "Fungus" and "Meteor" where Fungus Took a Level in Badass and had Kaze on the ropes. he reveals key details about the Earls plan and how Wonderland really works, alongside his desire to rebuild his home, only to die with honor due to the Earl and Oschar deliberately infecting him and using his fear to feed Chaos.
• Wham Shot: When the Earl touches Yuu's hand, accompanied by a Wham Line.
  Earl: We'll unite with each other together with your sister... I think that's a really good plan, don't you?
• White Shirt of Death: So he didn't stay dead, but that episode was quite a wince-worthy change to the show's previous Bloodless Carnage. The especially egregious fact is that Kumo is one of two characters Impaled with Extreme Prejudice in that episode, and he's the only one who apparently bled at all—let alone so profusely.
• The Worf Effect: After being able to steamroll pretty much anything it's pointed at in the first few episodes, the Magun's effectiveness begins to wane as the enemies begin learning how to counter it.
• You ALL Look Familiar: No one sees most of the faces of the Comodeen members.

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