Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Moogles

About

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Moogles refers to the redesign of the Moogle characters in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, the second of Square Enix's multi-game remake of the original Final Fantasy VII. The new design of the Moogle makes them appear slightly more realistic, with open eyes and human teeth as opposed to the closed eyes and closed mouth designs of the original Moogles. designs were widely reviled on social media, as users found them a creepy, unwelcome change, drawing some comparisons to the original Sonic the Hedgehog design for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

Origin

On February 29th, 2024, the release date of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth,^[1] Japanese players quickly commented on their distaste for the redesign of the Moogle characters. For example, on that day, Twitter user @philipmorio5mg^[2] compared the Final fantasy XIV Moogle design to the Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth design, saying that the latter is "such a different creature that I get nervous" (roughly translated). The tweet gained over 3,200 retweets and 3,200 likes in one week (shown below).

Spread

Over the following days, Japanese artists and memers began making jokes about the new design. For example, on March 4th, 2024, Twitter user @Rivet278^[3] compared the design to the anime character Kumakichi from Gag Manga Biyori, gaining over 13,000 retweets and 42,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). The same day, user @ciccowakaba^[4] posted art of the Moogle looking murderous, gaining over 660 retweets and 1,700 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Jokes about the redesign of the Moogles started happening among English-speaking meme circles following a March 5th, 2024 tweet by @Genki_jpn,^[5] who tweeted that the Moogle had become a meme in Japan, gaining over 890 retweets and 2,500 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, left). The same day, user @elvisofthedead^[6] compared the design to "Ugly Sonic," gaining over 5 retweets and 30 likes in a few hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References