Sephiroth (Final Fantasy) - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

Sephiroth was designed by Final Fantasy VII's character designer Tetsuya Nomura. His name comes from Kabbalah, in which the ten sephirot on the Tree of life represent the ten attributes through which God can reveal himself. His character existed from the earliest stages of development, as originally, Nomura thought that the game's plot would deal exclusively with Cloud Strife pursuing Sephiroth, who was always the game's main antagonist. Nomura wanted Sephiroth to appear early in the game, and then have the plot dealing with the protagonists following him, so that gamers would not meet the final boss until extremely late in the game. Sephiroth was initially going to be Aerith Gainsborough's sibling with their hair resembling one another. Later, however, he was changed to Aerith's past love, whom she would remember upon meeting Cloud. This character was then changed to Zack Fair, however, and Sephiroth’s prior relationship with Aerith was dropped. In early drafts of the game, Sephiroth's personality was already brutal and cruel, with a strong willed and calm ego. He was to suffer from Mako addiction, resulting in a semi-conscious state as a result of high level exposure to Mako energy. Sephiroth was also intended to manipulate Cloud into believing that he was a creation of Sephiroth's will, but this aspect of the story was later abandoned. In another excised scene, when Sephiroth's physical body is first seen in the Northern Crater, it was to be female.

Sephiroth has long platinum hair and bright cyan eyes with cat-like pupils, and is depicted in a black coat decorated with metallic pauldrons. Since appearing as Safer Sephiroth in the final battle of the game, Sephiroth has had a single black wing on his back, referencing his theme music "One Winged Angel". When Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was released, the staff stated that the reason the wing was black was to suggest evil. Nomura has stated that Sephiroth was made to be a complete contrast to the game's main protagonist, Cloud, who was originally designed to have slicked-back, black hair with no spikes. His weapon, the "Masamune", which has been featured in numerous Final Fantasy titles, is an elongated nodachi that he learned to use during his days in SOLDIER. The Masamune is named after the famous Japanese swordsmith Goro Nyudo Masamune, whose blades are considered national treasures in Japan today.

Director Yoshinori Kitase believes Sephiroth's role in Final Fantasy VII to be one of the main reasons as to why the game has become so popular. Nomura has called Sephiroth "the ultimate antagonist in the Final Fantasy VII saga. There can't be anyone else," and regards him as an enemy from a previous generation, in contrast to his "Remnants" who appear in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

For Advent Children, the film sequel to Final Fantasy VII, script writer Kazushige Nojima thought that the film's plot would be less entertaining without Sephiroth. His revival in the film was introduced in the early stages of development, but the official decision as to how to bring him back was not reached until later. Nomura originally planned to have him appear from the start, but as it took the staff spent two years to develop his design, the idea of his presence throughout the film was scrapped, and it was decided instead to have him only appear on screen for a short time. Sephiroth was designed for the film in such a way so as to emphasize his other-worldliness, such as the fact that he never blinks or is seen breathing, and his voice remains always monotone and calm. In the film, the staff stated that his strength had considerably increased, to the point that he had "ascended to a new level of existence." Despite initially encountering problems as to who would voice him, Nomura said that once Toshiyuki Morikawa auditioned for the role, they knew they had their actor. Morikawa was instructed by the staff to speak all of Sephiroth's dialogue as if he felt superior to every other character in the film. The voice director and Morikawa agreed to make Sephiroth's voice sound calm to the point that he believes he cannot lose to Cloud, suggesting to Morikawa that he may reappear at some point in the future.