The year is 1999.
The place is Tokyo, Japan. At
long last, the prophesied battle has come.
At the close of the millennium, two sides will clash for the fate of the
Earth. The Dragons of Heaven will fight
to ensure humanity continues living. The
Dragons of Earth will seek to wipe away Humanity and start the Earth anew. As the chosen warriors from both sides come
together, one key piece eludes both. His
name is Kamui and whichever side he stands with could very well be the victors
of this war. Kamui seems unwilling to
participate in the oncoming storm. But
he’s about to be swept into it, whether he wants to be or not.
Ah the 90’s. It
was an interesting time for Anime tropes: the bad boys were the good guys,
cherry blossoms fortold bloody battles to come, and the end of the world was on
everyones mind. X, from CLAMP, the
beloved group behind Tsubasa: Resevoir Chronicle and Cardcaptor Sakura,
capitalized on these tropes and then some, including lots and lots of Angel
wings, in their apocalypse now style Manga.
The X TV series…came out in 2001.
So yeah, it’s not a 90’s series but the decade is felt heavily in these
intro episodes. Is it a solid adaptation…or
at least better than the movie (which did come out in the 90’s). Well it’s not a perfect, it’s pretty
shaky. But there’s plenty of room to
grow and improve.
First off, our main protagonist, the dreamy Kamui…is
annoying as all know how. He broods, is
antisocial, doesn’t want anything to do with destiny…you know like your average
90’s Anime protagonist. There isn’t much
to like about him, even though this becomes easier as time goes on. I’ll admit, I don’t know how id react if I knew
I was going to be the savoir or destroyer of mankind depending on one, crucial
decision. Right now though, I’m not sure
if the world is better off with Kamui leading the charge. It’s probably better than him trying to
destroy the world.
Still, as hard as it is to believe, it’s a hard sell for
both sides. The Dragons of Heaven (so
far) are hit and miss. The only ones I really
like are Sorata and Arashi. Arashi is a
beautiful, sword wielding school girl maiden (the girl of my dreams) and Sorata
spouts exposition…like any ordinary person would, but he’s so damn likeable it’s
almost enough to forgive him…almost. I
also kind of like Aoki, but I’ll explain more on that in a sec. But Hinoto and her unofficial batch of
groupies are where the sell becomes hard.
It’s hard to trust a Dream Seer who wont give you the full details of
your destiny and trust you’ll make the right call. Her call is desperate enough to drive anyone
away. Not that her “sister” Kanoe is any
better with her Dragons of Earth sell.
Sure she’s got a seductive voice and a killer bod, but she just screams “bad
girl”. So trusting her is a bit of a
stretch. We didn’t see too much of the
Dragons of Earth right off the bat. They
did make more of an impression though.
Satsuki looks promising with her Ghost in the Shell style link up to the
gigantic supercomputer known as Beast…looks painful though. But seeing some technology getting included
in a supernatural throwdown is always promising.
I’ll talk about the DoE’s Yutoh along with Aoki cause
both feed into a similar point. While
some characters like Hinoto, Kanoe and Satsuki don’t produce a good spin on either
side of this war, Aoki and Yuto do for a different reason. They both look like incredibly nice guys, and
average joes with normal jobs. It’s
almost impossible to hate characters with such honesty of upbeat feels. And they definitely aren’t as grating as
Yuzuriha, who is probably too excited to be a part of this battle even with a
spirit dog who can become a sword. The
fact that normal individuals (to the naked eye anyway) are involved makes this
a literal secret war being waged. On top
of that, the DoH can produce barriers that allow battles to be fought on
different plains of existence so normal damage wont affect city areas unless
they are killed. That is an awesome
concept, though seeing how dangerous these battles can be, it’s probably best
the DoH stay alive as best as possible.
Bring on the action though. With Yoshiyaki
Kawajiri (aka the director of NINJA SCROLL) at the helm, I’m expecting great
things. While the action is minimal, we
do get some sword slashing fun with Arashi and a great duel between Sorata and
Yuto.
There’s a lot jam packed into these first few episodes
and that’s both a good and bad thing. On
the one hand, I’m glad they’re taking time to introduce all of the characters
slowly rather than all at once. On the
other, things plod along slowly sometimes and I wonder if some characters will
get short changed in the long run, the longer it takes for us to get to
them. So far, only Sorata is getting any
real development next to Kamui. We’ve
got seven players on both sides of the battle, plus Kamui’s childhood friends
Fuma and Kotori, to get to in 24 episodes.
I think it’s time the series expanded to everyone else soon now that the
important stuff is on the table: End of the world, Kamui’s the chosen one,
etc. Hopefully this cautious, but
potentially double edge sword, style of storytelling doesn’t come back to bite
X down the line.
Wow, I had a lot to say about this one, huh. Guess that’s a good thing. And we’ve got plenty of mystery left going
into the next set. Which side will Kamui
choose? Why his Hinoto seeing visions of
TWO Kamui’s duking it out? Who are the
rest of the Dragons of Earth? WHY THE
F*** DID THE HOLY SWORD BURST OUT OF FUMA AND KOTORI’S MOM DURING
SURGERY???!!! Ahem, sorry but yeah that’s
an intense imagery there. X has begun. And I hope you’re as settled in as I am. See ya next week.
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