<!-- See WP:JFN --> is a 2005 Japanese animated science fantasy action-adventure 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 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released on DVD and Universal Media Disc with Japanese voice acting in Japan on September 14, 2005, and on April 25, 2006, with English voice acting in North America and the United Kingdom.
Advent Children takes place two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII and focuses on the appearance of a trio that kidnaps children infected with an unexplained disease called Geostigma. Final Fantasy VII hero Cloud Strife, suffering from the same disease, goes to rescue the children. He discovers that the trio plan to resurrect Sephiroth using the remains of the extraterrestrial villain Jenova, and he and his compatriots from the game fight to stop them. The film's voice acting cast includes Takahiro Sakurai, Ayumi Ito, and Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese, and Steve Burton, Rachael Leigh Cook, and George Newbern in English.
Advent Children received mixed reviews; critics praised its animation and CGI, but criticized the plot as being incomprehensible to viewers who did not play Final Fantasy VII and having a thin connection between action scenes. The film received the "Maria Award" at the Sitges Film Festival in 2005 and the "Best Anime Feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards. The original release was one of the best-selling animated films in Japan and the United States in its release year. An extended version, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, was released on Blu-ray Disc in 2009, adding 26 minutes of new and expanded scenes to the 101-minute original. The Complete release was noted as driving a large increase in sales of the PlayStation 3 console in its release week. By May 2009, the DVD and Universal Media Disc releases had sold over 4.1 million copies worldwide. Advent Children (the Complete version) returned to Japanese theaters from January 19, 2024, to February 1, 2024, and returned to stateside theaters on February 21, 2024, to promote the launch of the video game Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Plot
Setting
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Advent Children takes place two years following the events of the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII, during which the antagonist Sephiroth attempted to absorb the Lifestream, the lifeblood and soul of the Planet, and be reborn as a god. which was later released with "Episode: Tifa" by Shueisha in a 118-page book about the film's story titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue Book on September 14, 2005. On September 8, 2005, Square Enix premiered the movie in Japan at Virgin Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. Following the premiere, from September 10 to September 16, Square Enix screened the movie at Virgin Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Toho Cinemas Nagoya Bay City in Nagoya, and Toho Cinemas Nijou in Kyoto. The movie screened once per day at 6:30 p.m.. In order to view the movie, fans had to receive an invite from Square Enix by already being registered to the official "Shinra Company" online fan club on Square Enix's website. In 2006, SoftBank Creative published a guidebook entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Reunion Files, which contains interviews with the film's staff and information regarding the development of the film.
A limited edition of the film titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Pieces was released in Japan simultaneously as Advent Children; only 77,777 sets were produced. The edition contains various pieces of merchandise, a copy of the script, the original Final Fantasy VII game, a strategy guidebook for the game, and a disc containing the original video animation (OVA) Last Order: Final Fantasy VII. Kotaku saw the focus on the Midgar's ruins as a parallelism with psychological trauma due to how all of its survivors suffer a disease that cannot be fought with Cloud's striking weaponry on its own.
The director's cut, Advent Children Complete, was generally praised over the original version. Joystiqs Andrew Yoon found Advent Children Complete a better film, feeling it was more accessible to people who had not played Final Fantasy VII. The director of the video, Hong Jung-ho, stated that it was just a parody of the film but could not get Square Enix's official permission. In September 2025, 2 years after the game's initial release, 'Final Fantasy VII Advent Children EC Edition' was launched as an in-game 'Event'. This event involves reused footage from the film and limited battles, rather than a full storyline recreation like the ones received by other Compilation entries included in Ever Crisis at that time.
Nia DaCosta, director of The Marvels (2023), said that she cited Advent Children in her pitch for her film.