Dream Seers, exorcists, mystical hackers, clan representatives
who are users of the four elements. All
of these individuals converging on Tokyo have one thing in common: they’re all
part of the final battle for mankind, destined to become Dragons of Heaven or
Earth. Kamui is still on the fence,
refusing to choose a side. In time, he
may not have a choice, especially when a revelation is made that could change
his destiny with his closest friends forever.
Has the mystery of the “two Kamui’s” at last been solved and what effect
will it have on the battle to come?
Last week, I mentioned that this wasn’t the first time X
had been seen in Anime form. There was a
feature length movie released in 1995, directed by Rintaro (Galaxy Express
999). And while it was a gorgeous film,
seriously some very high quality and cutting edge animation, there was the
downside to trying to cram a story as vast as X into a two hour (maybe less)
film. Characters get lost in the
shuffle, those who are on screen don’t have time to fully develop, and things
generally don’t make sense…but it looked pretty at least. I bring this up again because this week, X
falls prey to the double edged sword of Manga/Anime adaptations. Unlike the movie, 24 episodes allows more than
enough time to explore all of the players in this series, develop them and make
them worth caring about. But there is a
drawback, and we see it quite a bit in this set.
X has a huge cast.
There’s Kamui; his best friends Fuma and Kotori; the Dream Seers Hinoto
and Kanoe; Seven Dragons of Heaven; Seven Dragons of Earth; and a small side
selection of various others like Daisuke and Hinoto’s bodyguards. In these five episodes, Sorata, Yuzuriha, Satsuki
and newcomer Subaru, all get episodes dedicated to exploring their pasts. That’s three episodes where any developments
that came with the rapid fire exposition of the intro episodes, gets pushed to
the side for a little while. It kind of
dilutes the urgency of the end of the world…just a bit. Also, one episode really didn’t need to
happen. We got the gist of Yuzuriha’s
history with Inuki, her spirit wolf (who looks really adorable as a tiny puppy,
just saying), a few episodes ago, in a less than 2 miniute flashback. Watching her episode was like an extended
backstory that didn’t really deepen anything and could have been skipped in
favor of giving us details on Mr. GI Joe (or Kusinagi but I’m gonna call him Mr
GI Joe since he looks like a muscle bound SDF trooper), who clearly has a role
to play since he can see Inuki.
I don’t know if Subaru got it better or worse. We haven’t seen this character since his
quick glimpse in the first episode. But
all of his episode consists of him walking around for 20 minutes, Sorata doing
what he does best (spouting exposition) for about 5 of those 20 minutes, and
then there’s a quick brawl at the end between Subaru and his rival, Seishiro,
while remembering his troubled history with the man who killed his younger
sister. It’s a lot to take in and even a
little boring since nothing happens. I
swear it’s like I was watching an episode of Mushishi…without any of the good stuff
like a fluid story, interesting premise or something to care about. Subaru left less of an impression than when
he came into the plot.
Maybe X’s cast is too big for it’s own good. Having to grind developments like Fuma being
told he’s Kamui’s “twin star” and going all creepy evil while cradling Kamui
(yeah no shock where this might lead…no not talking about the Yaoi fan fiction
either), sucks away urgency and I was left wanting to know more about the main
plot than watch Subaru go for a walk or Yuzuriha talk about her past…again. If they cut down some of the cast to say 3-5
DOE and DOH, it might be ok. Sorata’s
already gotten a lot of backstory and is so damn likeable despite being the go
to guy for any and all exposition, so he can stay. So can Arashi but that’s just cause she’s a
cute swordswoman. Sigh, maybe I’m being
too picky. Cause this show is enjoyable
despite it’s faults. It’s just when they
appear, they appear and aren’t easily forgotten. So it’s easy for me to nitpick and not talk
about how cool Satsuki being a cyber exorcist with a super computer lover
really is. Or how we have a sexy
Firestarter who skips work (at the red light district) to bring Kamui a message
at a funeral in her sexy linegiere while Sorata tries to figure out where she
works and what she does for a living…yes you read all of that right.
Anyway, let’s wrap things up be counting some characters:
We have Sorata, Arashi, Yuzuriha, Aoki, Karen and Subaru-6/7
DOH confirmed
Then there’s Yuto, Satsuki, Nataku (apparently), Seishiro
and probably Kusinagi-5/7 DOE confirmed
Lastly there’s Hinoto and Kanoe, the Dream Seers
And our main protagonist Kamui along with Fuma (THE WILD
CARD) and Kotori
10 episodes in and all of the DOE haven’t been
established yet. Plus there’s the matter
of where Fuma will fall on the line up, but I don’t think it’s hard to guess
where. And we still haven’t gotten the
backstories on Nataku, Aoki, Karen and the unseen 6th DOE member. Let’s just hope their episodes go a bit
faster so we can get to the (hopefully) good stuff.
Like I said, a lot to like about this series…it’s just taking it’s time to get there
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