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WTFriday: The Chrono Trigger Anime

Posted by Bob Mackey

Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week.

We're all excited about Chrono Trigger again--and why shouldn't we be? This November, we'll finally have the chance to pay $40 for a game we could've plunked down $70 for back in 1995. I'm such an unabashed Trigger fan that I actually unlocked all of the bonus content on the terrible PSX port of the game. Hey, it was new, and it was Chrono Trigger, so I was all over it.

So when the Chrono Trigger anime surfaced just a handful of years ago, of course I wanted to see it. It felt like some sort of crime that an animated version of one of my favorite games could be made and hidden from the world for so long. Only after watching it did I learn that the real crime was the making of the Chrono Trigger anime.

But you don't have to take my word for it:

So, let's see... You have a video game property combining the hottest talent across various industries, and you decide to make an animated version of said video game. Will it star the characters designed by one of the most popular comic artists in Japan? No. Will it follow the same story crafted by the most successful JRPG talespinner? Of course not; no one wants to see that. Instead, we'll get to see what really happens during the Millenial Fair at night--and wait for the money to roll in, of course.

I'd really like to know the story behind this production, because I bet there's an interesting one. The whole thing feels like it's barely official; Chrono and company only show up for the last few seconds, and we only see the backs of their bodies--perhaps they were just as embarrassed, too? Whatever the case, you are now aware that the Chrono Trigger anime exists, and are much less happy as a result. I'm sorry.

Related Links:

WTFriday: Goldman's Drama Academy
WTFriday: Play it Loud
WTFriday: Frawless Victory

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Posted Oct 17 2008, 10:00 PM

Filed under: snes, rpg, chrono trigger, square, anime, bob mackey, wtfriday, chrono trigger ds

Comments

Roto13 said:

Why does every action have like two frames of animation? That's pretty pathetic. Maybe it's about the monsters because they're the only things Akira Toriyama can design that don't look like Goku and Bulma.

On an unrelated note, what do you think of Chrono Cross?

October 17, 2008 10:27 PM

Demaar said:

Man, I dunno... I would have been OK with this if it was like, a bonus episode or something of a full length CT anime. I reckon it just seems to suck so much because that's all we got.

October 17, 2008 11:46 PM

Bob Mackey said:

Chrono Cross: I remember liking it, but also being upset with how much of Chrono Trigger it dismissed (like killing off the ENTIRE CAST offscreen). That being said, it has one of the best soundtracks in video game history. I really want to play it again, but I'm going to have to wait until I have nothing better to play.

October 18, 2008 10:52 AM

Roto13 said:

Yeah, I can see that bothering hardcore Chrono Trigger fans. I played it to completion after only having played the first couple of hours of Chrono Trigger, so I was pretty much going into the game as if it was a stand-alone concept and didn't have anything to do with Chrono Trigger besides the word Chrono.

I really liked it, though. I've been meaning to play it again.

October 18, 2008 1:48 PM

Nemo Incognito said:

I enjoyed this. Then again I didn't expect it to be an adaptation of the game, which seems to be a factor here.

Actually I can't see how a Chrono Trigger anime would accomplish anything besides ruining the main character for everyone. Mute protagonists only work because of their ambiguous nature. If Crono wasn't the player's avatar he'd either be given a generic shonen hero voice or reduced to a mime. Either way the mystique would be shattered.

October 18, 2008 2:02 PM

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For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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