In Final Fantasy X, the concept of the Aeons coincides with the soul. Each Aeon is the dreaming mind and soul of the sacrificed person who made themselves into the summoned spirits that are used to assist in the final battle against Sin. However, even though the concept of the soul can be applicable to all the Aeons acquired to achieve the Final Summoning, Anima’s seems to be particularly centered around, well, anima [ the soul ].

Looking at the name itself makes this the most obvious. Anima, the soul or the feminine internal self, is the opposite of animus, the masculine external self. But it is not only her name that seems to point to this all encompassing concept.

Lets consider her actual ‘summoned’ form. First off, the female ‘queen’ of the Guado was a lovely human woman, very feminine and refined with deep blue eyes. She was beautiful, in short, but over time she became sorrowful. The many years she spent, even having a child, through all of the suffering of being hated by her people; she was neither Guado nor human to anyone, and the only person close to her still was her son. She even went away from the world with her son, the one person she loved more than anything. She felt responsible for his misery even then…

None of the loveliness of Seymour’s mother was translated into this Aeon. Even as she lay in her encasing within the Baaj Temple, she is still lovely. How can a beautiful woman become such a hideous, mummified, tortured Aeon? The answer lies within her soul, the reflection of her spirit. Look at Yojimbo for example; a mercenary whose Aeon is seem as a Samurai who needs payment to perform tasks.

Anima’s soul died a long time ago; long before she sacrificed herself for her son’s sake, and to think that there was not some part of her that didn’t just feel like destroying them… well, there are two sides to every coin, similar to her Overdrive.

Next, and most obviously, there is the attack: Pain. Her special attack inflicts numerous status ailments as well as insanely high amounts of damage. Which leads us into our last idea behind her appearance; the eyes. Anima’s attacks are all done through one eye that peaks through the stretched, mummified skin of her face. Eyes are often said to be a window into a person’s soul, and, in this case, a window to her pain. [See, like I said, pretty obvious]

While the concepts and motif’s behind her character are rather obvious, they make the story behind Seymour and the secrets of the Guado and of Yevon all the more interesting and complex.