Mysterious, enigmatic... for as much that Final Fantasy : Unlimited is a series that relies on a massive amount of stock footage.. it remains something rather fascinating to me. Not a true Square work, and oddly enough several hundred times better than Legend of the Crystals ever was. And within this series there is a single man, haunting by his past and struggling against a power too great for him to ever defeat on his own. And oddly enough... he isn't Kaze.

Shiroi Kumo, in english, White Cloud. The opposite of the Black Wind, Kuroki Kaze and the hero of the series. Oddly enough, why Kumo remains Kaze's primary antagonist, he is not the actual villain of the series. Rather, Kumo is a manipulator, playing the two sides of the story - Kaze, Lisa, the twins and the Comodin Corps, as well as the Deathlords of Gaudium and The Tyrant Count - against each other, working behind the scenes to unravel many of the mysteries of the story and to try and discover what exactly is going on.

Perhaps the earliest and most attractive thing about him is the odd air of composure and mystery that he carries about him. At first a candidate for the position of Deathlord, Kumo appears to be the odd noble person who is helping the Count for reasons unknown. When he first confronts Kaze in episode four, the battle is rather awe inspiring, considering the ease at which Kaze eliminates all of his other foes before this encounter. But for some reason, Kaze can not use his Demon Gun against Kumo, and the white clad swordsman unleashes his own summon, the One Blade Animal, and apparently kills Kaze.

But neither of these men are all that they appear to be... and the most interesting portion of the conflict between these two men comes to light throughout the series. While Kumo continues to nominally serve the Count all through the animated series, it appears that the Tyrant is more than willing to play games with the White Demon Swordsman. During one of the challenges placed before the heroes in the Ocean Puzzle trap created by Pisto, Akai Kiri - The Red Mist - appears. Also a cool character, and with a very, very sexy voice, Kiri reveals several bits of Kumo's past to us. That his world was destroyed in the past, like Kaze's world and so many others.

And that Kiri is Kumo's dead brother. And things get more complex from there - although Kumo is eventually obliged to destroy Kiri and free his brother's spirit from his sword, it becomes obvious that Kumo is not the evil villian that he appears to be from his position of employment. You just have to love the more morally ambiguous heroes. And that Kumo and Kaze are, from long ago upon their homes of Mystaria and Windaria was at war. The Gunners vs. the Swordsmen. An eternal struggle... one that was eventually brought short by the ravaging destruction of the Count.

Due to the events that led to the destruction of their world, which never are completely explained, Kaze grew to hate Kumo with all of his heart. As the Demon Gunner speaks in his first encounter that we see with the Demon Swordsman, "I know nothing of ideals. To see the end of this person... No matter the cost to the world, no matter how much blood is shed, I don't care!"

Obviously there is some bad blood between the two. However, for all of the hatred on Kaze's part, there appears to be only respect and sympathy on Kumo's - an odd situation, to say the least. Of course, Kumo also kills Kaze a few times, but there is also the odd fact that both Kaze and Kumo appear to be effectively immortal as well... another fact that is not explained in the TV series, beyond the fact that their respective avatars appear to be summoned creatures of great power... the Dragon King Bahamut, and Kumo's own one blade animal, the King of the Ocean, Leviathan.

Mysteriousness, elegance, beauty, precision, and above all, respect... these are the things that make Kumo to be one of my favorite characters. Always accompanied by either a mournful piano and violin melody, or an entire haunting symphony for his theme as he goes into battle, he cuts across the series as a worthy foil to the hero - perhaps one of the best that I've seen in a long time. While a large number of cliches dominate FF:U, many of them, Kaze and Kumo's rivalry chief among them, are done in a manner that sets them apart from the norm. An endless battle between two rivals... broken for a time by the threat of something greater - the possibility of the end of all that is.

"Now I see... that sword is meant to cut only true enemies. My brother... that which I was unable to accomplish... I now entrust to you. Please...
~Akai Kiri