Aki Ross

Dr. Aki Ross is the main character in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, voiced by actress Ming-Na Wen.

A scientific protege, she was one of the first ever photorealistic computer-generated human characters to be created and used in film and was intended to be the world's first computer generated "virtual actress".

Appearance and Personality
When not in her USMF recon jumpsuit, Aki has been seen wearing a formal gray blouse and skirt combination, as well as wearing a white jumper with a chocobo print while resting. Due to her infection, she has a chest plate that contains and monitors her infection. Her hair is naturally black, cut short just below the jaw line, and her eyes are brown.

Aki grew up to be a strong, empathic, and independent woman, finding pleasure in solitude and thought. She is a dedicated pacifist, opting to find the less violent solution in a situation, although she is not above taking the violent solution if no other option is presented. Due to studying in the Houston Military Academy she is knowledgeable of military techniques and recon skills, and as such she is competent with a gun, often carrying her own sidearm during expeditions across the wastelands. She is a knowledgeable pilot, piloting the USAF-88 Black Boa as her vehicle of choice.

As a scientist and doctor, Aki is knowledgeable of medical practices and is an expert on the subject of Phantoms.

Story
Aki Ross was born in San Francisco Barrier City in 2038. She was orphaned at an early age when her parents fell victim to Phantoms and was raised by an aunt in New York Barrier City then on. Following the footsteps of her father, a highly respected scientist, Aki dedicated her life to understanding biotechnology. Often outspoken in her opinions and ideas, Aki became an expert in her field at an early age. She would travel between the barrier cities, conducting experiments and lectures with other scientists. Under the supervision of renowned scientific theorist Dr. Sid, Aki began research on the wave-theory that Sid himself had developed.

Aki trained at the Houston Military Academy (HMA), the institution responsible for all military training in the USMF and USAF. Focusing on aerospace education, she received environmental and wasteland reconnaissance training and during this period she began a relationship with fellow military student Gray Edwards. Upon her graduation Aki returned to New York Barrier City to complete her doctorate, while Gray was subsequently assigned to the Deep Eyes military unit. Despite the distance, they continued their relationship between Gray's missions and Aki's commuting to other barrier cities. Aki had became a dedicated scientist and advocate to Dr. Sid's theory to try and eliminate the Phantoms without using excessive force., but due to an accident during an experiment Aki was infected with Phantom particles. Secretly moving to the Zeus Cannon Dr. Sid managed to isolate the Phantom particles using wave-theory, however, it could only ever be a temporary solution. Weary of the magnitude of her condition and determined to keep it secret, Aki cut off her relationship with Gray without giving an explanation, turning her attention to completing the wave-theory. She and Dr. Sid set out to find the eight remaining Spirits to defeat her infection and find a peaceful solution to the Phantom threat.

The following months saw Aki tracking down and retrieving each spirit; a fish, a deer found in a wildlife preserve outside Moscow, a sparrow, and the spirit of a dying girl. The experience of the last retrieval affected her deeply and brought her own terminal infection and the status of the world in general into focus. During these months she began having recurring dreams of an alien landscape. Deducing that the dreams were brought on by her Phantom infection she began recording them in hopes of finding insight into the species. While retrieving the sixth wave spirit; a plant in the New York wasteland, Aki is found and assisted by a Deep Eye squad of four who specialized in wasteland recon. Rescued by the squad she and her ship are brought to the New York Barrier City, and during the trip she discovers that one of her rescuers is an irate Gray Edwards, now a captain and squad leader of his own unit. Agitated about going through the city's contamination detector due to her infection, she manages to bypass it by saving Gray from an infection of his own that he had sustained during his squad rescuing her; that, and the timely arrival of Doctor Sid, allow her to enter the city with her affliction undetected. Later, in an attempt to prevent any drastic action by the USMF and buy time for Doctor Sid's wave theory to be implemented, Aki reveals the affliction to the entire council as a testament to the credibility of Sid's claims.

Her secret revealed Gray seeks her out, finding her embarking on a scan of the city for the seventh spirit. The two have the chance to rekindle their relationship due to the mischievous actions of Gray's Deep Eye squad and their time together is helped furthermore by a suspicious General Hein, who temporarily assigns Gray's Deep Eye squad to accompany Aki on her remaining voyages and orders him to report any suspicious behavior immediately. To ensure Gray's compliance he orders Major Elliot to insert some of his own men into the squad. Despite sensing that her infection is winning Aki's search for the seventh spirit leads her to the Tucson wasteland and the remnants of the Phantom Cleansing Mission. As ordered the Deep Eye squad accompanies her through the wasteland, deducing that the spirit is the living energy inside the Ovo-pack of a dead soldier. Almost immediately after the spirit's retrieval, Aki is overcome by the infection within her, the presence of which begins drawing other Phantoms towards the party, and falls into a dream-filled coma. She awakens momentarily during the hectic escape only to fall victim of friendly fire by one of Hein's men, and falls back into the coma.

Returning to the New York Barrier city Dr. Sid manages to reinforce the infection's containment by introducing the waves from all the currently collected spirits. During this process Gray has to act as her spiritual support, entering into her dreams to make sure she wouldn't be overtaken by the Phantoms before the containment is complete. The containment is a success and her chest plate is repaired. Aki awakens from her coma only to be thrown into a detention cell along with Dr. Sid and the squad after General Hein finds cause to suspect that she is being controlled by the Phantoms.

This incarceration is short-lived as soon after, due to General Hein's attempts to stage a Phantom invasion, the barrier city's power grid goes off-line. Released, the group escapes from the prison ward to discover the barrier city overridden by Phantoms. Acquiring transport they make their way to the hangars where the Black Boa is being detained, but only three (Aki, Sid, and Gray) escape to safety aboard the ship, as the others are killed in the events surrounding its launch.

Resting in space Aki and Gray comfort each other over the death of their friends, leading to them becoming intimate in their grief. Dr Sid, meanwhile, begins the search for the eigth spirit and enlarges the search field to include the Phantom crater in the Caspian Mountains. Successful locating it as a Phantom, Aki and Dr. Sid devise a plan to obtain the eighth spirit by lowering Aki and Gray into the crater and fusing the spirit with the other seven spirits on location. When an energy beam from the Zeus Cannon hits the meteor the eighth spirit is seemingly destroyed. As the Cannon continues its attack the Phantom Gaia appears from the meteor and begins to grow, dragging down the pod Aki and Gray are in. Despite pleading for them to stop, saying that they are doing more harm than good, Aki's cries fall on deaf ear as General Hein continues to fire the cannon despite warnings of a system overload.

The pod damaged, Aki and Gray discover that they had landed right between the Earth Gaia and the emerging alien Gaia. Being this close to Gaia incidentally means that they are in the best possible location to find another eighth spirit, and indeed, after falling comatose Aki discovers that the final spirit had been given to her in the newly created life within her womb, conceived during her and Gray's intimacy on the Black Boa. Linking to the chest plate that contains her infection and using the Ovo-pack of Gray's gun she manages to reroute power back into the pod's shields and emit the combined wave of all eight spirits.

The combined wave destroys the Phantoms but a final beam from the overloading Zeus Cannon penetrates and weakens Gaia, allowing the Phantom Gaia to grow and begin infecting the planet's soul. With the pod rendered inoperable due to the blast there is no way to transmit the wave, however, Gray, mortally wounded, comes up with a plan; he would sacrifice himself as a way to transmit the completed wave inside Aki directly into the Phantom Gaia. The plan works, at the cost of Gray's life and soul, and the Phantoms and their Gaia are destroyed. As Dr Sid, on board the Black Boa, winches her from the crater Aki cradles Gray's body in her arms and watches the world's life return.

Development
Square Co. Ltd., already known for its revolutionary grasp of computer 3D rendering, especially in the sphere of creating lifelike humans and environments, set about to create their most detailed and realistic human yet. Aki Ross was designed by Square Pictures for the use in their debut film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. However the intention was for her to go further than that, with plans to add her in future films and media as a kind of "virtual actress".

Every single one of her 60,000 hairs was separately animated and rendered, at a render farm consisting of 960 Pentium III-933MHz workstations that took 1.5 hours to render every frame. Her model is estimated to be made up of around 400,000 polygons, as are the other main characters of the movie.

In an earlier version of the script, Sid and Aki were grandfather and granddaughter. Aki's last name was also different: she was originally Aki Shishido. The relationship and names were changed late enough into production that many of the animators and staff did not even know of the modification of the script until the film was nearly finished. Also, in the final print of the film, Aki tells Gray that she is pregnant with his child. The audience at preview screenings hated this plot-point so much that it was cut out before the theatrical release.

While Aki's debut movie was considered a box-office flop, Aki herself has been received positively by critics. The rendering of Aki's hair alone has been praised as highly realistic. Her popularity among the general populace has lead to Aki being qualified as an It Girl by Entertainment Weekly as well as being included in numerous magazines detailing female beauty as a real actress would.

Other Appearances
It was originally intended that Aki might reappear in many places across Square's range of merchandise, but her only appearances have been a few promotional appearances on behalf of her film and Square Pictures.

Maxim Magazine
Named #87 of the Top 100 Hottest Women of 2001, Aki, posing in a purple bikini, appeared on the cover of an issue of Maxim magazine. On the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within DVD, Aki's bikini photo shoot is included as one of the special features.

Thriller Easter Egg
Aki makes an appearance (along with the rest of the film's virtual cast) in a hidden Easter egg parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video created for the DVD release of the film.

The parody is set shortly after Douglas Hein inadvertantly causes the destruction of the New York Barrier City's barrier control room. As he runs away he runs into Aki, Gray, Ryan, Jane, Neil, Dr. Sid, Major Elliot and three alive Phantoms who proceed to, as a group, perform the dance number to "Thriller" with Aki as the lead.

The Animatrix
Sporting a crew cut and clad in a black leather bodysuit, Aki appeared in a short 1:15 minute demonstration video that Square Pictures presented to the Wachowski Brothers before making Final Flight of the Osiris for The Animatrix.

This video is available on The Animatrix DVD in the bonus data section and shows her facing and defeating a Sentinel in hand-to-hand combat.

Etymology
It is thought that Aki was named after Hironobu Sakaguchi's mother. A further link with Hironobu's family is shown in that the day and month shown after Aki's first dream is the birthday of Sakaguchi's wife.

Trivia

 * Aki was voted to be one of the sexiest women ever by FHM and its readers, becoming the first fictional woman to ever make the list.
 * Aki is a certifiable "It Girl", a position normally only held for Hollywood starlets during the time of her receiving it.
 * The eye-piece Aki wears is a Coronet Mono-Scopic S-Scanned Retinal Image Projection Ear Mounted Goggle. Currently undergoing prototype testing, the Coronet is the latest state of the art spiritual energy scanning goggle.
 * The gun that Aki carries into Old New York is the "Flare Gun"; a light, compact Dersled Induced 5.6mm S Short Rifle.

Aki Ross