X Part 5 Episodes 21-24

The opening salvo has passed.  The numbers of the Dragons of Heaven and Earth have been withered down little by little.  Allegiances have changed, friends have become enemies, and hearts have been shattered along with their barriers.  Only one remains and that one belongs to Kamui.  At the end of this road to the apocalypse lies Fuma: his childhood friend who slaughtered his own sister, Kotori, along with some of the Dragons of Heaven.  It’s time for destiny to unfold and the long foreseen dream finally happens.  Kamui vs. Fuma, the final battle has begun.

Weve come to the end of X and really, nothings changed about my opinions until now.  Yes, some progress has been made and some characters have come a long way.  Others have gotten lost in the shuffle, never developed, just became plain annoying, or didn’t have anything to do except for one thing in the long run (Nataku).  In the end, going into these four episodes, it was do or die time for the series and it had a lot to deliver upon.

Fun fact: The original X manga, to this day, has no ending.  For whatever reason or another, CLAMP never finished publishing the original story, cutting it off around Vol.18 or so.  No official reason exists as to why though most rumors ive heard are that the series was getting too apocalyptic even for Manga/Anime standards (if those even exist and if so, we all know theyre pretty flexible).  So without an original finale, both the TV series and the movie had to improvise.  SPOILER ALERT: The Movie ends with everyone dying except Kamui in brutal, bloody fashion.  It’s a downer for sure and one of the chief reasons I haven’t sought to rewatch it again.  Even so, it seems to be the more logical direction for things to move in.  X has been a series that’s rarely been kind to any of it’s cast members and the series finale hammered that in for a lot of them.  So why does it seem so lackluster?

Maybe it’s because the stakes never seemed that high after more than half of the DoH survived.  Maybe it’s because I had almost zero emotional attachment to almost all the members of the DoE.  Maybe it’s because the final battle with Kamui and Fuma was the failed prototype for an even better finale in Code Geass.  Ugh, look it just wasn’t a great ending and im going to get into it right now.

Let’s do this by group shall we? Dragons of Heaven, Dragons of Earth, then Kamui:

The DoH actually came out the better from this conflict.  Arashi’s sudden betrayal fit the developments of the story and, as Sorata expected, she was only doing it to protect Sorata.  Losing Sorata in the end though was a big a blow as I expected it would be.  He’s been the heart of the team and the joker in the heat of battle.  He’s a good friend to Kamui and an awesome boyfriend for Arashi.  If it was any death that needed to set things up for the finale, it was the death of Sorata.  At least he died surrounded by the two people most important to him: Arashi and Kamui.  Losing Karen…yeah im not going to pretend to care.  I have to admit, as last minute and forced as it was, Aoki provided a good perspective on the overall conflict, forcing himself to divorce his wife to fight in this secret war.  It’s a shame he wasn’t given more to do besides be someone for Karen to fawn over.  If the series could have done without two characters…well on the side of the DoH, it would be them.

The DoE got freaking butchered in numbers. 

But first a side note.  When I watched Attack on Titan, I was convinced the only reason Eren Jaeger allowed himself to have friends is because he was saving them incase he needed them for food.  Why bring this up? BECAUSE THAT IS ALL NATAKU WAS!!!  After being introduced and then forgotten for most of the show, this enigma reappears…just so Fuma can absorb him after Sorata fries his ass with the last of his power (total F YEAH moment).  That is it, nothing else.  I think Nataku was the only DoE I wasn’t terribly attached to.  Everyone else had substance and story.  Nataku just kept lying his head on Fuma’s lap cause creepiness.  In contrast, the fates of Satsuki and Yuto were pretty sad.  The two always had a fun bond and Yuto got Satsuki to open up in a way no one else could.  Satsuki getting killed by Beast for wanting to save Yuto was an unexpected twist.  We’d known Beast was somehow jealous of Yuto’s closeness but to go so far as to kill the woman who operated him?  Cold blooded indeed.

Before we get to the finale, let’s chat about Hinoto for a second.  Her dark side manefistation story I think could have been fleshed out a bit more.  And part of me wishes she had lashed out against Kanoe and maybe even killed her to show how far she’d fallen (it’s better than Kanoe’s actual fate…which we don’t know cause she just VANISHES WITHOUT A TRACE).  Her own sacrifice did move me a little, which is saying a lot since she’s been a shoddy spokesperson for the team meant to save the world.

Ok, the final episode.  Despite an upgrade in animation, the final fight between Kamui and Fuma was  slow plodding and full of more talking than fighting.  I should’ve expected that since all Fuma has done since joining the dark side is monologue and act like he’s walking on water.  Fuma is one of the lamest villains ive ever seen.  He’s like Aizen from Bleach in that he has all of this power at his grasp, but he never uses it.  He just stands around in his Sith Lord outfit and basically poke out his tongue saying, “HAHA I AM INVINCIBLE”.  Probably my favorite moment with him was when Sorata unleashed the last of his power on Fuma and messed him up badly before he died.  So either all of the DoH have been holding back, or Fuma’s just all bark and no bite. 

And Kamui’s answer to everything?  Well if Code Geass had come along before this ending, I’d be mad.  Cause in a rush to wrap things up, we get Kamui sacrificing himself to erect the last barrier around Tokyo, which saves the world and restores Fuma to his old self.  I guess it’s a better end for him given how far Kamui’s come.  He’s not the spoiled brat from episode one.  He’s made friends and lost them just as he was starting to accept them.  Taking the peaceful sacrifice route makes sense…it just has too many shades of Suzaku as Zero stabbing Lelouch to enact the Zero Requiem.  Is it a better finale than the movie?  Well it does lack that amazing end theme song, “Forever Love”.  But overall, it just feels rushed and tacked on.  Like the showrunners forgot they don’t have a finale to work on (besides the movie) so they needed to act fast and picked an ending out of a grab bag.  It’s just not that great.

So lets look at the final scorecard:

Dragons of Heaven

Members Alive: Arashi, Yuzuriha, Subaru, Aoki

Members Deceased: Kamui, Sorata, Karen

 

Dragons of Earth

Members Alive: Fuma, Kusinagi, Kakyo
Members Deceased: Yuto, Nataku, Satsuki, Seichiro

Winner: DRAGONS OF HEAVEN (Score 4-3)

Honestly, I expected a lot more casualties.  I’m surprised all of the DoE weren’t taken out and if I were to knock off a couple more DoH, it would probably be Aoki and probably Subarau (since he’s been sitting around, lost and forgotten until the absolute last second).  It definitely wasn’t as big and disastrous as it could have been, storytelling wise.  Yeah, it didn’t go the End of Evangelion route.  But this seems like an easy of a happy ending for my taste.

So what’s the final verdict:  X does a lot of things right.  The secret war aspect is great.  The fact that everyday people could be involved is fun too.  I like a lot of the characters and love the developments that many of them go through.  But as ive said a million times, the cast is too big to care about everyone and their screentime could be doled out to others for more character development.  Fuma is a let down of a villain and neither side of the war gives a solid argument as to why to join: The DoE want to destroy the Earth (that’s a no) but the DoH follow a shady Dream Seer (also a no).  It’s not all bad but it isn’t that great either.  At least the movie has stellar animation going for it (and that end theme song).  X is a story with a lot of potential in Anime and if it should resurface again, I hope it’s second chance at life (movie trilogy or TV series) is better than this one.

5.5/10

Next week, we begin the march to the end of 2016 by visiting another war of mages and psychics and sorcerers…only better (I think).  The 2006 TV adaptation of Fate/Stay Night kicks off next Monday.  See ya then.