X

X/1999 was my first great love in the world of anime,and my favorite of at least 6 years running, and I felt terribly that people attacked the movie. In light of what director Rintaro had to work with at the time, I thought the movie was wonderful. It followed the surreal beauty of X and carried over its darker themes. While the characters could not be fully explored in the span of an average movie, it was masterfully completed.

The director still retained the theme of fate and the protagonists' war against destiny. I believe the ending of the movie was much more effective than the television series, really. I also loved the fact that X Japan did themes for both the TV series and the movie. I love everything about X/1999, and while the movie was a rapid story, it has an endearing quality to it, for example the intense colors. That brought more focus to characters. In short, X/1999 is a story, no matter how quickly told, in which the characters are developed to the point of forming a kind of bond with those who view or read it. You want to cheer on many of them, or simply beat some of them senseless.

It likely sounds like a full out rant, but then I believe a story is in its purest form only in the original shape it took. A movie will never capture the charm of the novel that spawned it, and neither series nor movie can replace how characters develop in a manga series. It leaves parts of characters or story to the mind of the reader, and that is why manga will remain unique. What the TV series and movie are should be able to stand alone and speak for themselves, and they did an effective and beautiful job telling the story. But what has CLAMP ever created that wasn't lovely?

Two months ago, I'd have told you that I despised anime, because two months ago I was under the heavily mistaken impression that all anime was "Dragonball Z" and "DigiMon". Having recently viewed all 24 episodes of "X", I was clearly mistaken. This was the first series I have ever seen about which I have had nothing serious to criticize.

Once one gets past the absolutely godawful, mood-killing, schmalzy theme songs at the beginning and end of each episode, one discovers immensely complex characters and plot lines. Our hero is 16-year-old Shirou Kamui, your very untypical high school sophomore. He's quiet, bitter, has no family left, and he doesn't know or particularly care that he's supposed to decide the fate of the world. This is beginning to sound cheesy, but surprisingly enough, it's not. Basically, we have two opposing sides - the Seven Seals, who are fighting to preserve the world and contain everyone from a hyper 14-year-old to a devout Christian woman who happens to be a prostitute, and the Seven Angels, the "bad guys" who really aren't that bad - they may be fighting for the destruction of Planet Earth, but they're likable and very human. Kamui comes in because he's the only one of this group who gets to choose which side he wants to be on. And it only really begins to matter when he realizes that his two best friends are going to be affected by this.

Kamui (and everyone else) are your standard shoujo posterboys - gentle, selfless, and (as Arisugawa Sorata, one of the primary players in this apocalyptic game comments) ridiculously attractive. But at the same time, they are characters anyone can relate too. The animation is gorgeous, and the non-theme music is actually pretty good. The series also features a trench-coat-clad young medium named Sumeragi Subaru, who seems not to have a personality. He is, in reality, one of the most complex characters ever created. For more on him, read the Tokyo Babylon manga.

If you're skeptical, that's understandable - I was. Now, I'm giving this fascinating series 10/10.

I read X about two years agao and saw the movie. I loved the comic but was appauled by the movie. I thought to myself if they could make a series out of the comic that would be amazing. 2 years later my wish was granted. X tells the story of kamui Shiro and his destiny. After leaving tokyo 6 years earlier he returns and is greeted by the people known as the dragon of heaven and another group the Dragon of Earth. He is told that he has two futures one as a dragon of heaven where he would save us from destruction and the other as a dragon of earth which he would anihilate the earth. If you hated the movie check this out. The story is so much better with more characters and not all the characters die like in the movie. The animation quality is superb too. Don't pass up X

I came to love manga for the first time when I read Tokyo Babylon. Also this manga made me know Clamp and induced me to read RG Veda and the uncompleted X and further TV series of X. Heaven and Earth, Protection and Destruction; Felicity and Agony; Tenderness and Brutality…… all these seeming like antonyms penetrates into the fate of Kamui and Fuuma and "torture" the loyal fans of Clamp. It's really frustrating when Clamp announced the serialization of X stopped in 2002 and I believe many adherents of X and Tokyo Babylon had to face the reality after years of waiting. Anyway, the TV series give us an ending: Fuuma stabbed Kamui and declared that all living things would be destroyed together with Kamui's death, while Kamui told him that he had been living in Fuuma's heart all along and had brought the Wish into the latter's heart. I could not help being sobbing at the scene and this was the first and only time I almost cried my heart out for Kamui. I have to confess that my great love in X shall attribute to Subaru and Seishiro. Subaru is timid, solitary, shy, soft-hearted, angelic, pure…… so I have to love him so much. So I had to extremely desire to visit Tokyo to take a full view of this city going to end in prosperity from the top of that symbolic tower as well as pay a visit to Rainbow Bridge in memory of someone; So I kept the brand –Mild Seven in my mind even though I hate smoking and got jubilant when I happened to see a pack of cigarettes named Mild Seven in a street cigarette stand; So I got to be in love with Sakura and convinced that pink Sakura is unique and sentient; So I felt an impulse to learn Japanese language even Japanese culture……Most of all, I become easily agitated at hearing about Subaru, clamp, TB or X or anything related. Sometimes I feel lonely in the manga world Clamp created because there's few people around me knows Clamp, but when I saw the touching story Clamp fans created on BBS, I got an undescribable sense of contentment. Though Clamp does not give an answer to the destiny of seven angels and seven seals due to its ramdon decision, I really enjoyed the X very much because genial affection and tenderness prevail in depressing and dark backdrop.

At first "X" may look like about the fight between two opposing force, the Dragon of Heaven (Ten no Ryu) and the Dragon of Earth (Chi no Ryu) to prevent or cause the destruction of mankind. However, upon close inspection, it's actually more about the fate of those individuals who are unwillingly chosen by 'fate' to represent each side of the opposing forces.

The series is dark and depressing but all in all presents excellent character development and plot that stands above and beyond the movie version of the same name. A knowledge of "Tokyo Babylon" prior to watching this is helpful in understand some of the characters in here but is not extremely necessary.