X (TV)

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ActionTokyo BABYLON
MANGA ActionX
MOVIE ActionX
OVA DramaX OVA
ANIME AdventureTsubasa Chronicle
MUSIC ActionCLAMP in Wonderland 2

REVIEWS

• 

  ZNote

  61/100
  Ambitious and apocalyptic, but the myriad of good-to-decent parts can't quite come together cleanly.

  SPOILER-FREE!
  You ever have something in your anime list that seems lacking? For some, that could be a question of genre. We all have particular types of entertainment that we gravitate towards, and our individual anime lists reflect that. As such, there could be a disproportionate amount of one genre represented versus another one. I for one could see more sports anime. But one way to interpret the question is not to think of genre, but of title. I don’t know about you, but there’s something so oddly incomplete about not seeing all letters of the alphabet being represented in my completed list. Is that silly? Yes, but it’s also a little bit of fun.

  "X" was a show I watched to try and fill in one of those missing letters. That at least was the initial reason why it got my attention; as it sat on my watchlist, I had learned that the original source material was made by CLAMP, the same group of manga artists and authors who made Cardcaptor Sakura, which I loved (if we’re deliberately ignoring the Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card sequel series). So, I became more compelled to give this series a look.

  ---

  A group of mysterious individuals are beckoned to Tokyo by an ominous premonition. One such individual is Shiro Kamui, a high school boy with esper powers. His cold and brusque exterior alienates him from his old friends Kotori and Fuma, who remember Kamui as being far different in the past than he is now. After meeting with others that have their own powers, Kamui learns of a dream prophecy that shows the Seven Dragons of Heaven battling to protect the world against the Seven Dragons of Earth, who seek to destroy it. Included in this prophecy are not one, but two Kamuis, indicating that the future and final battle’s result are uncertain. As each side amasses their forces and prepares for whatever confrontation awaits them, Kamui must decide which group he will align with, thus leaving the world’s fate hanging in the palm of his hand.

  Being an apocalyptic story, "X" establishes the grandeur of its tale not only with its beginning images of a desolated landscape future, but also in the beautiful aesthetic in depicting, what was at the time, the present. The entirety of Tokyo is used as a potential place for battles or other significances, with numerous physical settings including shrines or dreamlands. Granted, many of the times we see the larger cityscape is when the characters are posing atop of buildings, but it nevertheless aims to show the wide breadth of how this conflict impacts everyone, even the bystanders. The music was also another strength of the show, always managing to deliver in required moments. One of the show’s tracks quickly etched itself into my memory as being evocative of melancholic fantasy, with lush strings and bombastic brass and woodwinds providing a sweep of emotional excellence.

  "X’s" scope is also explored through its large cast – with two groups of Seven Dragons battling against each other, most of the characters come from different backgrounds or have different connections to whatever the battle has in store for them. Many characters get episodes centered around them specifically, either through expository sequences, actions they do within the episodes themselves, or flashbacks. While Kamui may be the protagonist of the story (and the wild card who will help determine which version of the future ultimately plays out), there is effort to make each of the characters fleshed out beyond simple caricature or archetype.

  But that many characters being involved in the final conflict leads to two noteworthy issues, the first of which being the fact that not every character is terribly interesting. The first half of the show spends so much energy introducing many of the characters and their backstories, which would be fine under most circumstances. However, because there are just too many characters to keep track of, the series cannot possibly keep all of them in focus. The Dragons of Heaven, being the series protagonists, are given more time and attention than most of the antagonists in terms of personality development, chemistry, and their own preconceptions about destiny. The result is that characters like Yuzuriha, Sorata, and Arashi end up being strong, while others like Kusanagi and Nataku are far shallower. The roster is therefore lopsided, and it is markedly more difficult to care about the escalating tension when some characters feel “less than” others. Given that the series involves destiny as a main theme and many of the characters’ fates are, supposedly, written in stone, it becomes all the more important to make the empathic connections for the audience work.

  And the series clearly has the potential to polish its character development, and we see this most-effectively with Kotori and Fuma. Since they are both childhood friends to Kamui, a lot of their interactions, both with each other and with Kamui himself, are centered around trying to reach him or figure out what has caused him to become so distant compared to the past. Since both of these characters developments often act as simultaneous progression for Kamui’s development, it helps expand both Kamui’s emotional background and place greater emphasis later on for why Kamui might do the things that he does or make the decisions he makes. Additionally, this also works to create organic-feeling scenarios in which action involves Kotori and Fuma, or happens around them.

  The second problem with the numerous characters is that this results in some rather poor pacing, of which one of the consequences is that "X" leaves certain aspects of the story unexplained. A fantasy series is not required to have an explanation for each element of its universe, but for certain twists or plot threads, I was surprised at how little reason was given for certain things happening, either for the thing itself or what it did. Chosen one narratives don’t necessarily need to make clear why certain things are the way they are. However, on some level, I felt that "X" missed prime opportunities for delving into why some of the people involved were bestowed with their powers, or more particularly, their specific powers.

  The pacing also dogs some of the action – the show has all signs point to a final battle, with several smaller skirmishes naturally along the way. The action sequences themselves, however occasionally, do not show the full fight. There is one particular battle that happens in the last quarter of the show which involves several of the main characters, but we do not get to see much of what happens because time was taken to show something involving different characters happening at the same time. Even though what the other characters were doing had plot relevance, when we cut back to the battle, there have already been numerous blows exchanged and injuries inflicted. We see the battle’s bookends rather than the middlegame, so some of the inherent danger is not built up as efficiently as it could be. Whether this was a decision made for time, budget, or direction, it came across as feeling slightly robbed.

  Which is unfortunate, because the second half of the series is more action-oriented than the first half. When the character dynamics are sufficiently built and the action is suitably appropriate for its grand, overarching story, the emotional punches "X" can bring about because of what transpires with these characters are fantastic. Especially in regards to the show’s bloodiness and violence, the visceral quality can be palpable. The actual success of these moments however is too inconsistent; the entire roster of characters is not equally-interesting, so the action sequences, despite aspiring to reach the same plateau every time, cannot always do so.

  And that’s ultimately what the show is; constantly reaching for heights, sometimes making it, and other times not. I never came away with the impression that this was a bad series, but rather that it was a series constantly swimming upstream due to its own ambitious premise causing it to get pushed back further downstream. Along with its religious and secular inquiring about the end of the world (such as whether destiny can be changed or not), the show’s smaller pieces, while perhaps good in and of themselves, are not quite assembled into a clean, singular experience. It feels too cobbled together in the hope that it will work rather than adhering to a well-detailed schematic.

  ---

  "X" is a series that I want to like a lot more than I actually do. The animation, sound, setting, and overall conflict are ambitious and wide-encompassing, and some of the characters and emotional moments are quite fascinating and well-executed. The clunkiness of the first half, along with an ensemble cast simply too large to care enough about all the participants and other rushed or unclear portions, drag down the drama despite its apocalyptic endgame. Throw in some action scenes that lack intensity or are too brief to carry the force needed to push things forward, and you have a show where the myriad parts cannot come together cleanly. Like I said, I want to like this, but I cannot bring myself to take that leap.

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• 

  Kermamrek

  76/100
  An extremely strange anime, but not in the way you might expect

  I want to preface that I don't write reviews on this website. Despite it being a hobby for me with things like video games, movies, etc, I don't feel like I classify myself as "enough of a fan" of anime to get really in-depth with it. I only really watch one anime a year on average, and when it happens it's a highly vetted process where I only end up watching things that I pretty much am guaranteed to like, either through trusted friend recommendations or knowing it's something that appeals to me. The reason I bring this up (other than to potentially apologize for not meeting standard anime review conventions) is that X is a bit of an odd case- I knew almost nothing about it and ended up only watching it out of being confused about the situation with it's various adaptations. And even then, I only knew about it's existence from a wikipedia rabbit-hole. Despite this, I came away liking it a lot more than I was expecting... and it was certainly a lot more bizarre than I thought it would be. And so I feel the desire to write my first review on anilist; this is less because X is the best anime i've ever watched and more because it's a relatively unknown one that I think warrants talking about.

  X started as a manga by studio CLAMP (Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, ×××HOLiC) in 1992, being produced all the way until March 2003 when it was abruptly halted before completion. The reasons for the cancellation revolve around publication issues involving graphic/dark content and a series of real life tragedies that closely mirrored what had happened in recent issues. To this day the manga has never been fully completed, as CLAMP refused to revise or change their intended ending, and promptly moved on with other work. From this, several adaptations spawned: A music video titled "X²" in 1993, a feature film in 1996, an OVA in 2001, and finally the anime in 2001-2002 (as well as a fighting game by Arcsys of all people). I initially encountered X by reading the "Devilman" wikipedia page and seeing it left an impression the main writer of CLAMP at an early age, eventually directly inspiring X with similar themes and philosophy. Having just come off reading Devilman for the first time (and loving it), I decided that experiencing a Devilman-inspired piece of media by the people who made a decent chunk of my childhood anime was something I wanted to do. The manga was the obvious choice, but hearing it was never finished gave me pause on wanting to read it. I heard that both the anime and the film had "endings", and that both were apparently unsatisfying in different ways, I decided to go with the movie. Unfortunately it turned out the film was completely indecipherable to somebody without further context, and just ten minutes in I decided to look elsewhere. I had heard online in passing that "the movie starts up at roughly episode 3 or so of the anime", so I decided to watch "the first few episodes" to get an idea before moving on to watch it.

  Twenty four episodes later, it turns out I may have been duped a bit. It is here I can finally start reviewing X proper, as a main aspect of the anime I was not expecting is it's pacing. X (the tv show, which from now on is what i'm talking about) starts off in the middle of a story, working both backwards and forwards simultaneously. While there is an OVA that is meant to railroad you into the anime, it can be safely skipped, and I agree that it is not necessary to watching this series. Furthermore, X has over 20 characters... most of which are major players in the plot and have an entire episode dedicated to them. It is not by episode 5 or so where you are really clued into what the story is even about- even so, the series continues on in a format closer to a character driven anthology series similar to something like "Paranoia Agent" than a traditional plot thread. This might frustrate the average viewer, however I feel like I almost prefer this style of storytelling.

  As for the content of X, it is quite hard to understand the appeal on paper. The visuals and soundtrack aren't anything special for the time (however the ED song "Secret Sorrow" might be a new favourite), the plot can be easily described as "a huge battle happens in tokyo involving the fate of the world", and there are multiple recap episodes (and obvious time filler) despite being rather short. But I think what makes X so intriguing are the things surrounding the core aspects of the anime: the characters, the setting, the scenes. I was rather impressed at how many characters in X I genuinely loved, and was always excited to see reappear on screen. While I don't know if i'd put any of them in a "top three anime characters of all time" list, I think at least one or two might make it in a top ten or fifteen! Having entire episodes dedicated to each one might not do much to make the main plot interesting, but it really helps you connect with everybody and the strange scenario they find themselves in. Tying in with the characters is the theme, which is a strange mix of religion, tradition, contemporary (for 2001, at least), and science fiction. One character seems to have a romantic relationship with a machine called "BEAST", which looks like a final boss out of a shmup and plugs into her through wires under her skin. On the other end of the spectrum, many other characters come from small villages and shrines, living in a community of religious tradition and only arriving in tokyo to meet up for the climactic battle. It never feels like these two distinct concepts or people are at war with eachother despite there being an actual war- it is not a case of "old vs new" but rather a harmony between the spiritual and the technological. Spell cards will be used, pentagrams will be drawn, mystical weapons of power will form, and in the next scene there will be people in a laboratory talking about cloning and artificial intelligence. It never feels jarring or out of place- in this world, the two work closely together.

  This is all fine and dandy, but I don't even know if this is what the appeal of X is to me. Sure, the characters and setting are great, but there's still a decent amount of pacing issues and a lot of mediocrity elsewhere. It is here where I talk about the strangeness advertised in the opening summary of this review: the individual scenes. I would have to use at least two hands to count the times I recoiled back from the screen, or said "what?" or "jesus christ" in response to what was going on in X. There are so many absolutely bonkers scenes that blindside you in this anime that it almost becomes formulaic in it's insanity. But here's the thing: it's not really because of gore, or because of shock value, or anything like that; X is actually fairly tame despite it's subject matter, and really feels like it was toned down or censored from it's source material. It's instead the good and the bad parts of the anime mixing together and making you lower your guard before throwing a gut punch your way. You'll either feel yourself start to grow impatient with the pacing, or be really enthralled in a random character's story, or maybe even thinking "damn this is a pretty generic early 2000's anime", and then suddenly out of nowhere something very "Go Nagai" will abruptly happen, like a needle punching through a soft couch. Without getting into direct spoilers, the first and one of the most memorable times of this happening to me was learning about how the divine swords were formed, as the rather graphic revelation is sandwiched inbetween a tender and emotional coming-of-age backstory. You'll see characters eat food together and exchange slice-of-life dialogue, and an episode or two later they'll be confronted with the question "Why aren't we allowed to kill other humans? Humans kill all kinds of other creatures, what makes humans different?". Despite me knowing the manga was cancelled due to it's graphic content, and that it's inspired off of Devilman, and seeing stuff like this previously happen just episodes prior, it still caught me off guard nearly every time.

  Of course this can sometimes backfire... a few episodes in particular felt like "tragic and shocking backstory greatest hits" back to back, and there's one scene that I had to pause from laughing too hard where somebody manages to get laid in a hospital bed (after escaping a near death experience, of course), but generally X works at creating memorable moments out of nowhere.

  I'm probably going on too long at this point, but I think that basically sums up the core of what makes X so interesting to me. Is the anime perfect? Not at all, in fact I would say it's a solid 7/10 at best if I had to rate it on a objective, numerical scale. Too much recap, the ending is unsatisfying/feels rushed, and it's very "of the era" in some ways. But I think these negatives actually make the anime better in the weird sense of providing you time to slowly lower your guard before snapping it's fingers in your face. Apart from the out-of-nowhere scenes, the characters are extremely likeable, and the science-meets-religion setting is very intriguing, leading me to remain interested even in the more boring parts. I do not think X will be for everyone, but I think if you're looking for something very off-kilter and relatively unknown I would highly recommend you check it out. You might come out of it with a new favourite character or two and some unforgettable scenes, who knows?

  By the way, they managed to make the two boys that are "totally just friends" even more gay than the ones in Devilman. so kudos to that

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