Moving Pictures: On The Way To A Smile Episode: Denzel Final Fantasy VII

On my journey to go through all the Final Fantasy anime and films, I’ve now reached On The Way To A Smile Episode: Denzel Final Fantasy VII. Previously, I’ve had a read through On The Way To A Smile, the novella released to bridge the original Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. While writing that article, I didn’t mention too much about The Case of Denzel, the first story in the novella, because it was also animated as an extra in Advent Children Complete.

In the Episode: Denzel OVA (Original Video Animation), we learn about the young boy who has been living with Cloud and Tifa in Seventh Heaven at the time of Advent Children. Denzel tells the story to Reeve Tuetsi, who is now head of the WRO (World Regenesis Organisation) and hopes to persuade him to allow him to join by meeting at Johnny’s Cafe.

Originally, Denzel came from Sector 7, but when Shinra dropped the Plate on it and blew it up, the boy was left an orphan after his parents sent him to Sector 5 with his father’s work colleague, Arkham.

In the OVA, not much is seen of Denzel’s relationship with his parents. But in the original story, it’s revealed that his father, Abel, was prone to cracking jokes and teasing his son, as did his wife, Chloe. They were a loving family, but it was difficult to see in the anime, as Abel was simply portrayed as a serious Shinra company man. At the beginning of the story, he teases his son about kids from the Slums eating rats, which comes out of left field when animated but makes a lot more sense in the novella.

As we don’t see much of Denzel’s life before, it doesn’t have quite the impact as it should have. So, when Denzel goes to Sector 5, he’s easily able to go back. Arkham essentially abandons Denzel, but in the novella, Arkham stays for a while to ensure that Denzel can look after himself a bit more. He even brought a mattress from the house next door to ensure the boy had a place to sleep, while in the anime, he ran after the Sector 7 bombing. There’s more of a passage of time in the novelisation, as Denzel does stay at his home for a while; until he goes to the smoke and debris of Sector 7, where the Shinra troops inform him it was AVALANCHE’s doing, and that he should get revenge.

After this, Denzel throws a toy plane at a window of a believed-to-be-abandoned house, but instead, it’s revealed that an old woman named Ruvie lives there. Upon discovering Denzel’s orphan status, she all but adopts the child and the two live in her house together. Her home is filled with fake flowers and floral designs, and she even makes a shirt and handkerchief for him, despite the pink, flowery design. Since her son began working for Shinra, he wasn’t home as much, and so Ruvie essentially lived alone, only reading her son’s books to try to comprehend what he did for the company. However, this isn’t mentioned in the OVA, and instead, is mentioned offhandedly when she dies, having contracted Geostigma from the Lifestream attacking Meteor.

Distraught, Denzel is alone once more until some survivors in a truck come by with Gaskin, who has a bigger role in the anime. In the novella, he and the survivors help to bury Ruvie, but in the anime, Gaskin serves as a mentor to Denzel. While they travel to the Slums, Denzel meets a young boy with Geostigma and comforts him until he dies. However, in the novella, this is a lot more jarring, as Denzel keeps rubbing the boy’s back long until he’s passed away, having not realised at first until a young woman and her daughter see him. At this point, Denzel is essentially left alone with the boy and has to find his own way. Unlike in the anime, when Gaskin and the other survivors remain with him.

Gaskin helps the other survivors and creates the Sector 7 Scavengers, becoming a mentor not only to Denzel but a boy from the Slums named Rix. It’s revealed that Denzel and Rix became close to the other orphans, but eventually, they all found their own families. With only Denzel and Rix left following the death of Gaskin, the two go their separate ways when Denzel informs his friend that they should eat rats like Abel said that the Slum dwellers did. Offended, Rix leaves Denzel and calls him out for his ignorance, and the two never make up, despite surviving everything.

Naturally, it’s at this point that Denzel is left alone. He makes a spear, goes in search of a rat, and finds himself in front of Aerith’s church. Cloud is already in the church, as his motorcycle and mobile phone are still there, so Denzel tries to call home. Unsurprisingly, no one answers, and then he finds himself calling Tifa in Seventh Heaven, and the rest is history, as Cloud finds him and brings him back home.

Of course, after hearing all of this, Reeve decides Denzel won’t join the WRO, and tells him to give strength to the adults around him. Bidding him farewell, it’s revealed that Ruvie was Reeve’s own mother, and he was grateful to Denzel for taking care of her. However, Johnny still doesn’t understand why Denzel would want to become a soldier, until it all comes back to Cloud’s own past working in Shinra’s army. Denzel believes Cloud’s strength came from that, and all I can wonder is if Cloud and Tifa knew what Denzel was planning, because I somehow doubt they would have approved.

Overall, I remember enjoying Episode: Denzel a lot when I first watched it, and upon watching it again, I still enjoyed it. However, it does differ significantly from the original novella, and I don’t think it had the same emotional impact as it did in On The Way To A Smile. Truthfully, I think you need to enjoy Advent Children to enjoy this, and it’s not really a standalone to watch on its own. There’s so much stuff that hinges on canon, that you do need to know Final Fantasy VII canon to enjoy it. However, I still think the novella was better, despite the animation being pretty good here.