After his mother dies to create a "Sacred Sword" to seal it into his body, a young man named Kamui Shirō goes back to his hometown Tokyo to understand his fate. As he arrives, he learns of a current war between two factions known as the Dragons of the Heavens and the Dragons of the Earth who seek the survival of mankind and nature, respectively.
No wave sax drifting over ethereal animated desolation! The unusual soundtrack does so much to carry this tale of twin divinities battling over the fate of Tokyo via cataclysmic confrontations on Y2K. Women give birth to swords, bodies explode, there's a towering nightmare-world crucifixion, and some bloody beheadings--so there's still plenty of the usual anime delights!--but this is a more downer-coded trip that puts a little pit in your stomach as the credits roll.
Overall just really strong vibes!
X is one of those movies that's admittedly a tough watch if you aren't really familiar with the manga. However, as a fan of both the manga and Rintaro's output, I like X quite a bit.
Of course, it's a movie cramming several volumes of an unfinished manga into an hour and a half, so a ton of stuff had to be removed or changed. So if you're expecting a lot of character development, that's not really happening here. But visually? This is probably one of the best adaptations of CLAMP's work into anime. I had watched xxxHolic a few months ago and that's a manga that looks better on paper than screen. X, however, remains true to the manga,…
rintaro was such a wonderful choice of director for this film. because it's so condensed it becomes almost surrealist as it jumps from one dream sequence to another, but also has great fight sequences that feel very bloody and personal
as far as adaptations go this film is a distillation of a certain tendency of CLAMP's work. it's an occultist melange, it's horny as a mf, it's interested in then contemporary japanese society, it sees tokyo as a living creature made of overlapping traditions, it has interesting women, it's SUPER weird about women, it's gay, but often only in toxic affections
as an extremely condensed work that tries to maintain the premise of the original the plot ends up truncated (though, they cut LIBERALLY) and most of the cast gets only a few lines and scenes, which is understandable, but makes a lot of sequences fall flat
Sometimes you just need to get high off half a marijuana edible (it is legal where I am) and indulge in a very nostalgic piece of media [Tokyo Babylon & X/1999 were favorites of mine during the anime/manga boom of the early 00s]... And then you watch it [the movie adaptation of X] and remember it bores you.
Don't get me wrong, the animation is fantastic. But that is all it is. Beautiful. There is no room for the story to breathe. It is pretty much all exposition leading to a hasty conclusion. Of course, the manga will remain unfinished at 18 volumes so a movie would have to condense a lot and make many changes to accommodate now, let alone…
Sake + Somaek + awesome fights = good Saturday night
Confusing but really cool. Great music & visuals.
Hard to give this one a higher rating than this. Another anime movie where you need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy it.
Fuma is the best friend of the MC who turns evil because some women with her cleavage exposed says it's destiny. So he just kinda goes with it. Men have turned heel for less i suppose?
A lot of cool sounding ideas get thrown at you 100mph and the english dub is horrendous.
Stars are for fantastic 90s animation, not being god awful and anime boobies.
Well, this was definitely an 18/19 volume manga crammed down into under two hours
En 2025, ça se tient encore pas trop mal visuellement. Le souci, c'est tout le reste.
Le projet n'avait que peu de chances d'être une franche réussite quand il consiste à foutre 17 tomes de mangas dans un long métrage d'une durée de 1h38. On se retrouve avec une histoire incompréhensible où les combats et les rêves s'enchainent à une vitesse hallucinante sans que ça n'ait plus de sens que ça. Les personnages ne sont jamais développés, on arrive à peine à comprendre ce qui se joue et c'est déjà pas mal.
Il y a malgré tout Forever Love de X-Japan en lot de consolation à la fin du film mais préférez le visionnage de la série animée ou lire le manga (qui n'a jamais eu de conclusion cependant).
I love everything about this movie. Well, mostly everything: the INCREDIBLE art and animation, the brooding music, the fights — I just can’t in good conscience give this movie 5/5 for the way that women are being used to give birth to swords. Bechdel be damned!!
Feels like it's trying to cram 17 volumes of manga into a sub-2-hour movie. Or maybe it's just badly written. Nothing makes any sense, character motivations are bizarre, and there's no emotional heft to any of it as these are all just empty cyphers running around cutting buildings in half. Some nice visuals, though I've never been a fan of that really angular 90s style.
feels like a tv show ripped to shreds
clamp style animation but not very good
everyone dies
