My Interpretation of my Crisis Core poster

Back in January 8-10, I went to the Anime Los Angeles 6 convention. This was my third anime convention, and I didn’t get a regular poster yet (I got wall scrolls in the past, though) until this third time. This time, one poster I did pick up was one with three characters from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII: Cloud Strife, Zack Fair, and Sephiroth. I thought I’d never have this image as a poster. But now I do. ^,^ Here’s a LINK to what it looks like (even though this image is from the cover of an import book in Anime Castle and there is Japanese text on it).

After some time passed, I started to look at the poster in a different way. I have it placed on the back of my bedroom door so I see it every morning and every night. Then at some point, I came up with some sort of interpretation of the way the characters are standing and positioned in the poster.  They are each looking at a different direction, and I believe this has a significant meaning, which I will get to little by little.

Let’s start with the lighting. The light source seems to be coming from the left side. It doesn’t seem that there are other main light sources. It doesn’t seem to be sunlight, but it can be seen that way.

Now let’s look at the positions of the characters. Sephiroth is standing facing the right, behind Zack and Cloud. He is holding his Masamune sword. Zack stands closer, holding his Buster sword behind his back, facing the left, and Cloud is in the foreground looking the other way.

After deducing where the light is coming from, I looked at what Sephiroth is doing. He is facing away from the light. He is facing the darker side. He is holding his sword, ready to kill anyone who gets in his way.  He has his mind on fulfilling Jenova's goal.

Now let’s look at Zack Fair. He is fully facing the lighter side with confidence.. He is holding the Buster Sword (honor sword) behind him and has a serious expression on his face, a proud expression, perhaps reflecting on his SOLDIER Honor. Though his heart is heavy with the loss of his mentor Angeal, it is also light with the desire to reach his dream of becoming a hero, and being successful in the world.

Last but not least, let’s look at Cloud Strife. Cloud is in the foreground, with his body facing the left, but his head turned to the right. His eyes are downcast; he is reluctant to face the light. He is looking back at the times he was weak and not able to be his best whenever it was his time to fight. Also, this is Cloud after he and Zack escaped from Nibelhiem on their way to Midgar (he is wearing his FFVII outfit, not the FFVII:AC outfit). He is reluctant to face this light because he is full of guilt for not being able to be strong enough to protect Zack in the past. He feels guilty because of this weakness. Cloud worries if he will ever be strong enough. He is in between the light and the darkness (implied by the left side of his face in the shadow), and his facial expression is that of sadness, as he is lost in thought.  So saaaad...

Now everyone go: AWWWWWW.  :3

So how does that sound? I may be over-doing the interpretation, and also I could be wrong. It’s just my personal thoughts on how to see these three characters in the poster. Let me know what you think.  Or don't.  I just thought it would be interesting to share.  :)