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a.k.a. X/1999
Director: Rintaro
Screenplay: Nanase Ohkawa and Asami
Watanabe
Based on the manga by CLAMP
Voice Cast: Junko Iwao as Kotori
Monou; Ken Narita as Fuuma Monou; Tomokazu Seki as Kamui Shirou; Atsuko
Takahata as Kanoe; Emi Shinohara as Arashi Kishyuu; Hideyuki Tanaka as
Seiichirou Aoki; Issei Miyazaki as Subaru Sumeragi; Jouji Nakata as Kusanagi
Shiyuu; Kazuhiko Inoue as Yuuto Kigai; Kōichi Yamadera as Sorata Arisugawa; Kotono
Mitsuishi as Satsuki Yatoji; Mami Koyama as Karen Kasumi; Rica Matsumoto as
Nataku; Tohru Furusawa as Seishirou Sakurazuka; Toshihiko Seki as Shougo Asagi;
Yukana Nogami as Yuzuriha Nekoi; Yuko Minaguchi as Hinoto
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
X - The Movie was a damned project from the get-go. It is a
notorious tradition to adapt anime, even a theatrical film here, from
unfinished manga as a tie-in, but the further irony is that, even with direct
interaction from a member of the original authors CLAMP for the screenplay, this is a project that came from a manga,
started in 1992, that was postponed in 2003. Despite its lasting reputation in CLAMP's back catalogue, no one's picking
up a pen to finish its dark action fantasy tale, something even Kentaro Miura with Berserk, despite starting in 1989, can at least be ahead of in that
he still (intermittingly) carries on with new chapters. It's a surprise as CLAMP - a group of four women (Nanase
Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi who started as doujinshi (self
published) manga - are still held as monolithic force in manga just for titles
like Cardcaptor Sakura.
Madder still, and probably the
decision that kneecapped X - The Movie
when it was taking the risk to even have its own conclusion with a CLAMP member's involvement, is that it's
merely ninety minutes. That little length, with the number of characters and
plot involved, is the death kneel to a high reputation over these years, and
its only because we have Rintaro, who
has been working since the start of modern anime in the sixties, at the helm
with an all-star team of animators, and his (if divisive) history of adapting
long form works into little lengths, that we got anything remotely worth
returning back to and in need of some admiration for all the glaring issues.
What we got was a film whose scars, abridged, are as part of its beauty as well
as its detriments, a gorgeous and insanely dark, incredibly violent and
melodramatic spectacle.
The film is about two sides, the
Seven Dragons of Earth who, viewing the Mother Earth as dying, wish to rid
human society to heal it and begin anew, whilst the Seven Dragons of Heaven
have to stop them, protagonist Kamui Shirō in the middle as a chosen one whose allegiances
is as effected as another like him being found, dragging in childhood friend Fūma
and his younger sister Kotori. It's a gory, hyper melodramatic tragedy, as
angst as an emo goth hybrid album but with teeth as CLAMP, whilst purveyors of beautiful illustration and gorgeous
characters in their elaborate costumes, were also fan girls of seinen work like
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure which are
insanely nasty and melodramatic (not to mention the known influence of Go Nagai's Devilman manga on X). Unfortunately,
with over fourteen characters and ninety minutes to spare, that's many
characters that are likely fan favourites appearing and then being dispatched. And
dispatched as in death, no bullshit involved, which is the infamous part about X - The Movie in both it quickly
jumping through the story, killing off characters (sometimes nastily) and even
more controversially for fans had to create an ending involving Fūma's turn to
evil that might've not been the desired goal if CLAMP ever got to an actual ending for the manga1.
But returning to the production, it's
a creative dream, a legitimate (with emphasis) darkness permeating the work, mostly
set at night or in moody atmospheric urban or symbolic locations, a cast who
have supernatural powers and exaggerated costumes but can vary from a former
female sex worker to a father who works as a salary man; even the stereotypical
fourteen year old school girl, with a magical wolf only she and her own kind
can see, is such but with a teenager's naivety and everyone on her side very
protective of her. Even the villains, as barely scratched but absolutely
fascinating, are only wanting to destroy civilisation, by breaking seals set
under certain important Tokyo landmarks, to both save the Earth and with the
female leader, a "dreamgazer", whose sister as the leader of the other
side plays an emotional part of their goals. When it goes over to top
aesthetically top, X hits for pop
Gothic delirium; giant dragon ghosts fighting over the Earth in outer space,
love one's sacrificing themselves to create magical swords out of their chests,
crucifixion with razor wire over a lake of blood, insanely psychotropic in
imagery.
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And not surprisingly, with the talent on hand behind the images, X is gorgeous. Rintaro is a divisive director, but with a career most well known in the West for Metropolis (2001), a highly regarded anime known a bit outside of anime fandon, his long (and ongoing) is that of someone whose been in these tough day jobs before to have an idea of what to do. Yoshiaki Kawajiri is more famous for directing anime like Ninja Scroll (1993) but, like here, he's been on other's productions into the modern day and, whether your opinion of his directorial work, he is held as an incredible animator; his protegee Takeshi Koike, who learnt from his master well and later made the incredible sci-fi racing anime Redline (2009), is on the team too and that's not ignoring people in the production like Yutaka Minowa and Yoshinori Kanada either, the former the character designer whose trademark style gave Kawajiri his trademark character designs, and Kanada an acclaimed key animator who even had Hayao Miyazaki singing his praises after his death.
Musically, Yasuaki Shimizu's score can be potentially divisive, a very
unconventional genre leaping one switching between sombre saxophone over a
premonition of ruined Japanese metropolis or use of traditional Japanese
instruments, but it worked perfectly for me2. Hell, they even got X-Japan to compose the end credits song,
possibly (alongside the divisive nature of this film) an issue for a re-release,
but arguably the biggest metal band in Japan at the top of their career; this
is however potent as, whilst a different versions, it's from their last album (Dahlia (1996)) a year before the band
would breakup due to their lead singer being brainwashed by a religious cult to
leave the band, said band splitting up and the tragic death of lead guitarist hide dying in 1998, the potent
melancholia added to the film's ending having more resonance knowing this real
life history.
Also worthy of mention is lead
voice actor Tomokazu Seki in the
Japanese dub, as Kamui, doing his damndest for a character (in spite of the
limited plotting) to wrench an incredible emotional core in his performance. So
there is a lot of talent here. If anything, X was also an admirable attempt, something which in premise at
least has so much in terms of a sober, sadder take on this type of dark
fantasy. It's pertinent, in what little we learn of the Eight Dragons of Earth,
that they intend to destroy human society because of environmental reasons, a
really chilling detail in the 2010s which emphasises the greater moral
complexity in manga and anime even in the villains. The tone is closer to
Ancient Greek drama in its sense of scale and inevitable tragedy - individuals
who fight for their causes thinking they are right; each lead by women who are
siblings; friend against friend. Unfortunately the length and pace cuts out so
much detail that could've added greater meaning, but the drama is still
disquieting at least because the production is so gorgeous.
Adding to its odd history is
that, just a year before the manga was put on hiatus between 2001-2, Yoshiaki Kawajiri himself, still under
the banner of the studio Madhouse,
directed an entire television series based on the series which is more highly
regarded in terms of getting the story told from a beginning to an ending. That,
however, is for another day...
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1) We'll leave what was actually done in the manga for you
the reader to decide, as the manga did reach an important dynamic point and was
being released in English.
2) Growing in my knowledge of music still into my thirties,
I have become already acquainted to Yasuaki
Shimizu by, of all things, Music for
Commercials (1987), his proto-vaporwave compilation of music designed for
actual commercials which is gorgeous. A composer, saxophonist and producer, it's
amazing the longer you dive into the production credits what fascinating
figures worked on these animated films.
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