"In a world filled with chaos and death, one kid finds the determination to move forward." Enter the world of "Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel." To put it pretty straight forward, it shows the end results of Final Fantasy VII, but this time we view it from the perspective of an ordinary kid named Denzel, who was caught up in it. Story:8/10 The whole premise of the storyline takes place in flashback sequences, as told by Denzel, who not only explains just how he got where he is at present, but he also wants to join the WRO. Now don’t getturned off by the fact that this OVA ends up being a spin-off, because even though the story does not follow the characters you have grown to know and love, it still manages to capture what really counts in the series...Final Fantasy VII’s heart! Denzel is defiantly not a kid who had it easy, as he continues his tale of love and lose, you will get that deep emotion that the series has been so good at making its audience feel, and thus will truly make you feel like you are viewing the Final Fantasy world through the eyes of this kid. Such emotions like anger, sadness, excitement, and maybe even a little bit of laughs are all present here. Which was nice considering that the whole OVA in its entirety was in fact quite serious. The cast from the original video game is few and far between, but you do get some nice cameo appearances from staple characters towards the end, which was nice at bringing the whole FF feel together. That being said of course, if you are unfamiliar with the Final Fantasy VII universe, then this title can be best described as having lite military themes, and all about showing the reality of war and rebuilding. If you’re not into this style of anime, then I doubt this one will make you change your mind on it, plus some fans of the series may in fact be dissapointed that it doesn’t have familiar faces. All in all though, the heart of the series is indeed in tacked, and contains everything that has made the Final Fantasy games so enjoyable with their story. If you’re a fan that doesn’t mind seeing new faces introduced to the story, then you will enjoy this.

Art: 8/10
The animation is sharp and well detailed, and many fans will recognize environments from the game and movie. Even though I am not the biggest Final Fantasy fan around, and thus don’t keep up with every sort of version that is made, I still found it quite nice to see some of my favorite places now in animated form. I wouldn’t go on par of saying that it’s the most well animated OVA out there, but they did animate it just like you would have pictured it in your head, and for that reason I really enjoyed it.

Sound: 7/10
Now it could be the fact that I haven’t played the game in some time, but I honestly remember the series sounding much better than this did. The whole time nothing really jumped out at me, with the exception of the ending theme. Background music was appropriate, but nothing really special that will be remembered after viewing it. Voice acting was good, and I think they got the right actors for each role. But they also sounded pretty ordinary, particularly with many of the adult male characters. I feel like I heard their sort of deep voices in many anime before. Still, the sound isn’t shabby by any means, it just doesn’t really have much charm to it overall.

Characters: 7/10
A good cast considering that most are new to the franchise. Since the story revolves around Denzel for most of the time, he is the one that is most important when it comes to this category. He did a good job at making you belive he wanted to help others, and his caring nature was impressive. However, there were certain parts where I felt the emotion he was trying to bring, either felt a little forced, or was missing in general. Even though the supporting cast was not the most varied, they still acted very human and quite believable. The personalities of the cameo appearances done by the original cast were also quite good, I felt not a moment had past since I had seen them last, even if it was only for a brief moment.

Overall: 8/10
Despite the fact that the appearance of the original cast is very brief, it ended up being surprisingly very true to the Final Fantasy universe, and I felt all of the emotion that Denzel felt. That, along with the familiar environments, will really involve the viewer. If you’re not a fan of the series, or don’t care for more serious and/or emotional storylines, then this won’t make you change your mind. Plus some fans may also find this OVA a bit too far fetched. Still, for me this was a nice change of pace from what we are use to seeing in this series. And I feel that if given the chance, this one will end up surprising most viewers as well.