Last Order: Final Fantasy VII

Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, also abbreviated as Last Order or LO, is a 2005 Japanese original video animation (OVA) produced by Madhouse and released by Square Enix. It was directed by Morio Asaka, and produced by Masao Maruyama, Jungo Maruta and Akio Ofuji. Tetsuya Nomura served as supervising director. The OVA is an alternate rendition of two flashbacks which were first seen in the video game Final Fantasy VII. Last Order was released in Japan with Advent Pieces: Limited, a special edition release of the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and as a bonus feature in the North American "Limited Edition Collector's Set" release.

Last Order is associated with the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a series of prequels and sequels to the original Final Fantasy VII. Although not an official Compilation installment, Last Order has nonetheless been included in official guidebooks. The OVA's soundtrack was released with the music of Before Crisis, and select songs were later remixed for Crisis Core. Last Order was created due to the success of promotional commercials for Before Crisis, with production lasting six months. The plot encompasses two events occurring before the events of Final Fantasy VII. One follows Sephiroth destroying a village, and the other follows Zack Fair and Cloud Strife escaping from the Shinra Electric Power Company. These flashbacks are narrated by Turk leader Tseng. Originally meant to focus on Zack, Last Order highlighted Tseng's feelings and position in the Shinra company. Last Order received negative fan response due to differences from the original game's content, and the Crisis Core game designers avoided recreating certain scenes from Last Order.

Last Order explores situations shown and referenced within Final Fantasy VII and other Compilation titles. The world of Final Fantasy VII, referred to as "the Planet", is dependent for its survival on a flow of spirit energy called the Lifestream. The megacorporation Shinra eventually rises to power and begins extracting the Lifestream through mako reactors, killing the Planet. Shinra uses Mako as an energy source and to manipulate the strength and abilities of their paramilitary organization, SOLDIER. Sephiroth, considered the strongest member of SOLDIER, is sent to investigate a Mako reactor in the secluded town of Nibelheim and is accompanied by the SOLDIER Zack and two grunts, one of whom is Cloud. While there, Sephiroth spends most of his time reading in the Shinra Mansion, which had previously been used by the Shinra scientist Hojo to conduct experiments. Through Hojo's log books, Sephiroth comes to learn of his past, in which he was injected with Jenova's cells. The Planet had once been inhabited by the Cetra (or "Ancients"), who were almost completely destroyed by Jenova, an extraterrestrial lifeform that crashed onto the Planet 2,000 years previously, and began infecting the Cetra with a virus. When Jenova was unearthed by a Shinra science team, it was mistakenly identified as a Cetra. This caused Sephiroth to believe he was also a Cetra, and that humans had betrayed his ancestors.

After killing the villagers of Nibelheim, Sephiroth goes to the mako reactor facility, and incapacitates Tifa and Zack. As Sephiroth reunites with Jenova, Cloud ambushes him. Sephiroth impales Cloud and escapes with Jenova. Hojo and the soldiers arrive, and take Zack and Cloud for science experimentation, during which Cloud succumbs to mako poisoning. Zack later escapes with the unconscious Cloud and is ambushed by the Shinra military en route to Midgar.

Other roles include Daisuke Namikawa as Turk (Rod), Ginpei Sato as Turk (Two Guns), Hōchū Ōtsuka as Turk (Martial Arts), Mayuko Aoki as Turk (Shotgun), and Megumi Toyoguchi as Turk (Gun); together, they are group of agents under Tseng's command who previously appeared in Before Crisis. Keiji Okuda, Atsushi Imaruoka, Ryuji Mizuno, and Daisuke Kirii voice members of Shinra's military unit, who attempt to apprehend Cloud and Zack. Yōhei Tadano and Katsuhisa Hōki voice villagers of Nibelheim.

Last Order: Final Fantasy VII was produced and scripted by Square Enix collaboration with Madhouse and directed by Morio Asaka. The decision to create Last Order arose from the positive reaction towards a popular promotional clip created by Madhouse for the game Before Crisis. Madhouse was chosen to produce the OVA partly because of their success with the clip and because the president of Madhouse was very enthusiastic about the project. However, the main reason for choosing Madhouse was that the company "understood the significance" of making a Final Fantasy VII animation, as it was considered a large responsibility to animate "the most popular game" in the Final Fantasy series. Tetsuya Nomura, the character designer for the Final Fantasy VII series and co-director of Advent Children, acted as the supervising director. He had the right to reject or accept concept drawings for Last Order. As a result, Nomura had a large quantity of images redrawn, to the extent that "the entire production was in jeopardy".

Production lasted six months. The production crew considered the most challenging part of creating the OVA to be making "Nomura's drawings move on screen". Because Last Order was hand-drawn, the crew faced difficulties creating uniform lines. Another issue was the overall feel of each scene; original drawings were done by several artists, resulting in various scenes having different styles. Producer Akio Ofuji explained that they "wanted to make sure the final product was of very high quality, so [they] worked with the production company day and night, straight through to the deadline". Nomura and Ofuji agreed that many scenes showing important events and feelings in Final Fantasy VII had been fragmented and disjointed, and so they had decided that those scenes would be the subject of Last Order, giving the audience of Advent Children (the film Last Order was released with) a "more enjoyable understanding". They used the film as an opportunity to portray Zack "properly" as a "handsome, light-hearted man [who] was in everyone's memory". Last Order also details Tseng's growth and his feelings towards his both job and events depicted, wherein he attempts to "get his own ideas of justice heard" but later abandons his moral values "in order to carry out a cruel mission". Ofuji commented that "those are the kind of scenes we wanted people to be more aware of".

Last Order was originally released in Japan with the "Ultimate Edition" of the Advent Children film, Advent Pieces: Limited, on September 14, 2005. The OVA was included in the North American "Limited Edition Collector's Set" of Advent Children, released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on February 20, 2007. The North America release did not come with an English dub and the OVA is subtitled. Last Order was not included in the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, a 2009 director's cut of Advent Children with extra footage.