There is now an official manga featuring Final Fantasy XIV characters as anime high schoolers. As promised, it’s here in time for Christmas, but you might have a difficult time reading it if you’re not fluent in Japanese. Luckily, some fans are already breaking down the plot so we English-speakers can enjoy a little taste.
The manga features Alisae and Alphinaud as its principal characters, as broken down in Aitai Kimochi’s explainer blog. They’re first-years living in a shared house (called, naturally, the Rising Stones) with Y’shtola, Thancred, and Urianger. The first chapter has the twins running late for school and, naturally, your typical high school manga hijinks ensue.
Zenos pops in as the sneering popular kid, flanked by flunkies Asahi and Yotsuyu. The chapter-ending cliffhanger has Principal Tataru popping in to challenge the students of light and darkness to gather points in various school activities. That starts, as you might expect, with a sports festival. You can get a much more detailed breakdown at the link above.
There’s no word yet on whether this manga will get an official release in English, but it’s a safe bet that fans will stay at work on unofficial translations until it does.
FFXIV EORZEA ACADEMY MANGA HAS FED US SO WELL:
-Strong female lead Alisaie
-PRINCIPAL TATARU
-Emet-Selch as sexy school counselor
-Urianger & Thancred as chemistry + P.E. teacher trope
-Aymeric as School President
-G'raha as Estinien fanboy
-Haurchefant 🥺
-Zenos the popular kid pic.twitter.com/z72UtDSrb6— ☆オードリーAudrey☆ (@aitaikimochi) December 23, 2021
The latest Final Fantasy XIV patch has sadly ended the reign of the low-poly grapes, but hey, at least it introduces the first raid for the MMORPG‘s latest expansion.