User reviews

This movie will probably only have deep or lasting appeal to fans of the manga series. Standing completely on its own, however, it really leaves a lot to be desired. The plot is really quite simple, but the setup is at least somewhat interesting, with the supposedly "bad" guys fighting for the future of the planet by destroying mankind and the "good" guys fighting to save mankind from the aforementioned baddies. For the most part, the main character just spends his time brooding over his "fate", occasionally displaying a burst of sympathy for an old girlfriend. This made it very hard to view him as being very human, and thus to sympathize with him or his place in the gigantic struggle taking place. Some of the incindental characters, however, showed a great deal of personality. But alas, only seemed to be introduced to die in a semi-climactic fight scene five minutes later with little to no characterization in between. The graphics are, as stated by others, top notch. The fights get fiery very quickly, and the big dollar property damage ensues as you'd expect when fates collide, but they tended to end all too quickly, with no real explanation as to why the killing blow was successful. So, if you want to see pretty pictures, or are a real die hard fan of anime for its style alone, you'll probably get enough of a kick out of this. But if you're looking for animation that will engage you on several levels and introduce you to interesting characters you'll actually get to know, steer clear. Indeed, Princess Mononoke actually touches on very similar themes in a much more engaging way.

As a huge fan of the amazing manga (Japanese comic) by CLAMP on which this film is based, I was eager to see it, but found myself bitterly disappointed by this feeble adaption. Of course, this is partly due to the fact that you can't possibly squeeze everything from a serialised comic that runs for several hundreds of pages into one short movie, but it still feels as if the staff could've done a much better job.

The biggest problem is that the characters lack substance. The cast we know and love from the manga is presented rapidly, with hardly a mention of their rich personalities, amusing character traits or interesting pasts that made them so fascinating in the books. Even the main Kamui-Fuuma-Kotori triangle is built up so hastily that it lacks any impact. We end up with just a bunch of mindless drones who gratuitously slaughter each other in a matter of minutes. This is especially bad for the Dragons of the Earth, who were turned from very intriguing characters to just brainless psycho nasties (I hate the way they portrayed Kusanagi as a plain brute in the movie, while he's one of the most gentle and likeable characters in the manga).

Worse still, some of the best characters were left out entirely (Kakyuu is nowhere to be seen), or hardly appear at all (Subaru and Seishiro buy the farm after roughly one minute of screen time). The storyline in itself also suffers from this rushed approach. Since everything needs to be established too quickly, it hardly makes any sense, or holds any kind of point for those who aren't familiar with the manga. You end up hoping to at least see some cool battle scenes, and while there are a few impressive and fast-paced psychic fights in there, they're all over far too quickly.

In favor of this movie, it must be said that the chara design and animation is very pretty, with some pleasingly eerie and surreal moments. You could just see this as a kind of long videoclip of darkly elegant images. As a big dose of eye-candy for fans of the manga, who know the story by heart and are familiar with the character's proper personalities from reading the books, this does the job pretty well (in fact, I'm told that's how this movie was intended in the first place, to accompany the manga).

Because the harsh fact still remains that if one watches this without knowing the manga, it's just a pointless romp that makes no sense and leaves hardly any lasting impression (it -is- a very sad film that can produce a sigh or two from the viewer, but those will be silenced by the all-round "so what?" feeling).

And of course, they just -had- to dub this movie. Not only does that deprive us of the impressive performances from the Japanese voice actors (thus ripping out most, if not all of what little impact this movie -does- have), they've also left us with an archetypical bad anime dub, with several big mistakes. It's full of those annoying long "hhhhhuh?" gasps, pompous filler lines that sound awfully stilted (and were larded on just for lip-synch), and a voice for Kotori that makes her sound as if she swallowed a gallon of helium. Even worse is the way the dub actors couldn't pronounce the Japanese names properly if their lives depended on it. One can only wince in pain when they pronounce Sorata as "Sierrada" or Kotori as "Codery" (note that Kotori's name is misspelled as "Kotari" in the end credits), and everybody seems to have trouble remembering what Yuuto's name was again. Then again, since when has a dub ever done a Japanese film any good?

For CLAMP completist and X die-hards only, this is worth renting once or twice for the eye-candy. Everyone else is advised to give this a miss and seek out the truly tremendous X comics instead (the French version from Tonkam is your best option, though there's an English-language version floating around somewhere as well).

X/1999 is a great manga, it really is. I bought this movie as my introduction to anime, luckily I didn't let this movie ruin anime for me. X is the story of a boy who has the power to choose the future by choosing a side to fight for: the Dragons of Heaven who want mankind to continue to exist or the Dragons of Earth, who want mankind purged from the planet like a bad disease. Personally I would've chose the Dragons of Earth. But enough about me. The move is a short 90mins. Not NEARLY enough time to squeeze in a huge story like X. The most frustrating thing about X is that once you're introduced to a character they die within 10mins or so. The animation however is beautiful, and the girls who created the characters did an excellent job designing them. The violence is brutal when it needs to be which is often times a must for me. But this movie just doesn't flow well. Maybe if they would've shoved an extra hour in this there would be less confusion. But now that I've seen the series and read the manga I've got this movie down to a science. But that doesn't raise the rating. I still love the ending to this movie, and I love it even more now because the ending to the series sucked. If one watches this movie about 5 or 6 times they may start to get it a little more. If one is looking for a dark depressing movie this should be on the top of their rent list right next to Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (which out shines this movie in every way imaginary). Overall, if you've got the patience to watch it a few times go for it, but the only thing I watch it for is the ending.

And not just a bad dream but a very bad nightmare... The movie is about an end of the world happening between childhood friends. We never get any sort of background for all of this or any explanation of the powers that the characters are using but you can understand most things by just watching the movie. The movie is an experience. It has incredible music, very good scenery/art, character designs are fantastic and the animation is breathtaking. The mood of the film works even better than in the TV show and the violence is beautiful as much as it's unsettling.

One thing is for sure, this movie is pretty underrated and forgotten. A gem that needs an extra hour to be really good but even as it is, it is an epic tragedy that is carried enough by its style and atmosphere alone.

The movie is best if you've watched the tv series or read the manga but even without knowing anything you will be pretty impressed; sort of like Akira in that sense. A movie retelling of an apocalyptic tale about friends with crazy force pushing powers without great character development but with amazing animation, visuals, and subtle depth.

When I first watched it, I thought it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. I mean, the story is great. I absolutely love the storyline. I still think so today. But as for the movie, that's another story.

I've read the mangas. I'm not exactly a big fan of CLAMP's work, but this one is the first that I got into with the mangas. I fell in love with one of the characters in the story name Subaru Sumeragi. Favorite character for obvious reason, but if you like any character other than Kamui or Fuuma, then you're in for the biggest disappointment if you watch this movie. OK, to get to the point, this is basically stuffing all the series of the manga into one movie. You won't have time to get to know the characters if you didn't know them already. You just won't get to. Well, they at least explain a bit of their purpose in life for a few seconds. Also, they failed to explain a lot of things about the movie, so that's another big disappointment. Er, and another big disappointment is that, they change some of the character's personality! ANOTHER big disappointment is that they didn't put some of the good story lines in the mangas into the movie. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal and I would like to give an example. There's this one character who loves another character from the other angel (they're enemies angels), but in the movie, they hate each other. So that's what I mean.

But wait, there's a good! The good is that the animation is great. Beautiful and artistic like all of CLAMP's work. It's realistic in animation, and the way it was done was just, wow. even though they lack everything else, but it was still nicely done in animation wise. Now if only the series was done the same way. Oh yeah, the music is great also.

Even though I like the story and how it was animated, I just didn't want to sit through it anymore. Once was enough. So I gave it a 4/10

X, or X/1999, is the work of CLAMP, a group of four highly talented female manga artist group, consisting of Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi. X is undoubtedly one of their most famous works, which has been running as a manga (comic book series) since 1992.

The basic storyline is about a 16 year old boy, called Kamui Shirou. He returns to Tokyo after 6 years absence, being instructed by his mother to do so before she... okay, to say more would give away the story. ^.^ Anyway, he must choose his destiny - to become a Dragon of Heaven or a Dragon of Earth. Because the Earth is dying, due to the destruction wreaked by mankind, the aim of the Dragons of Earth is to eliminate all humankind, so the Earth can recuperate. However, the aim of the Dragons of Heaven is to save humankind, and defend the 'kekkai' (magical barriers) of Tokyo from collapsing (because if they collapse, they will cause huge earthquakes, which kill thousands of people).

Hinoto, who is blind and mute, therefore communicates telepathically, can see into the future in her dreams, and guides the Dragons of Heaven, while her younger sister, Kanoe, can 'shadow' her dreams, therefore being also able to see into the future. Kanoe in turn guides the Dragons of Earth.

There are mixed opinions on the X movie... while some say the plot was TOTALLY ruined by trying to squeeze the epic, already 13 volume and approaching 22 volume story, into a meagre 2 hours (?), the graphics are FANTASTIC, definately superior to many other anime movies, and the music and sound effects are wonderful (especially 'Forever Love', the ending song, sung by X Japan - a Japanese band, not to be confused with X the manga or movie - is particularly beautiful and suits the mood of the movie perfectly). As many people have already mentioned, you must read the manga first, because in the movie everyone appears too quickly for the audience to become attached to the characters, and there are hardly any introductions. The movie is also THE most gory anime movie I've ever seen (the only slight rival being a bit of Mononoke Hime). There is MUCH violence, the plot is EXTREMELY dark... not your typical light-hearted Miyazaki film, and definately NOT for the weak-stomached... people being decapitated, in slo-mo, eh, that's a feature (oops, did I give some of the plot away? ^.^;;). Some of the character's personalities are kinda (or vastly) distorted, and they REPLACED Kakyou with some cocky high-schooler (damn, Kakyou is so much more adorable ::sigh::). But, it is definately worth seeing if you're an X or Clamp fan... if you're not, I actually don't recommend it (even though I'm avidly obsessed with Clamp ^.^), until you've read the manga at least, and decided whether you like it or not, because it may... uh, put you off other perfectly okay animes. X is, unique, to say the least.

But if X isn't your cup of tea, Clamp has a WIDE range of works, with vastly differing themes, from cutesy magical girl series (and I mean that in a GOOD way) like Magic Knights Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura, they've ALSO done kind-of hentai (if you don't know, don't ask ^.^) titles like Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, to adventure tales from ancient myths like RG Veda... find a title that suits you and give Clamp a chance!

Oops, wrote a bit too much, didn't I? Oh well, my only advice is like everyone else says, read the manga first! ^_^

I watched this back on VHS in 2000 and remembered loving it. I decided to watch the X animated series and then watch X the film again. It was a great choice! X the film is completely different than the X animated series. The X animated series is 24 episodes and fleshes out every single one of the 16 main characters (7 Dragons of Earth, 7 Dragons of Heaven, and the two psychic sisters). This film only has about 90 minutes and goes forward at breakneck pace, so there is little to no character development in the film. The characters in the film, while similar in appearance, are vastly different than their series counterparts.

If you watch the series first, you can then watch this film and look at it as another version of the story. Again, this film is totally different in so many ways and watching the animated series makes it much more enjoyable.

Also, the animation in the film is wonderful.

i haven't read any of the X manga, so i thought my opinion may be of interest to some genre fans who are thinking about renting or going to see this movie without being particular fans of X or CLAMP (i.e. like myself).

This is definitely not just wasted time and money. Several aspects of this movie are of interest to any anime fan. First, the animation work is of the highest quality, especially of the movement and of the natural effects. Animated water drops sequence approximately 10 min. into the movie is just splendid, quite unparalleled within the genre. In this respect, however, this is the highest point of the film. Well, the fight scenes are quite good as far as movement animation is concerned but no exciting visual surprises there and the action is rather bland (still i've seen worse). Scenes of destruction of Tokyo are comparatively non-impressive. As a credit to the movie, music did not annoy me, so i guess it was OK.

Where the movie takes a real dive it's the story. I found it quite easy to follow which is probably the only good consequence of the fact that the plot is as generic as can be with no attempt made at differentiating this story from the bulk. I guess that's what stuffing of a 22-book series into a 90-min film does. As it stands now it is so trivial and non-original that by the time the umpteenth of the characters you're supposed to care about dies it is hard not to laugh out loud at the movie's complete predictability and inability to engage the viewer. Actually, i think that explains all the laughter in the theater, i myself wasn't laughing, being thoroughly disappointed with the story. Just as traditionally, the big and pretentious questions are asked aloud and as usual you dismiss the answers given by the filmmakers (if any). One big plus to this movie is that such conversations are kept short and that's probably the only thing that's refreshing and stands this movie apart story-wise.

All in all, it's a good movie as the genre goes. Read the plot summary and if it doesn't sound like something you saw a thousand times already -- see it, it's the same story all over again but it's definitely one of the better versions of it (and an understandable one.) US release English dubbing is solid. 7/10. Dare to guess that the print version is better.

If you are new to the genre and just wanna see a good movie try "Ninja Scroll" or "Ghost in the Shell".

When you find yourself skipping through large segments of a film just to arrive at something vaguely interesting, you know it doesn't have the longevity you want it to. X is decidedly niche which I believe to be a positive, but in its attempts to constrict a manga series down into the constraints of a mere ninety minutes, you know you're not going to create the desired effect, and you're more than likely going to end up with an equivalent to Evangelion Death&Rebirth without the extra something which makes you not skip forward large chunks.

I will state (and prepare for the negative backlash) that I have not seen, but would very much like to, the accompanying mangas and series, because there is something about X that lurks in the background amidst all the faults that is desperately trying to get out, and desperately trying to impress itself upon you as the viewer, but just doesn't quite make it. But is that enough? Given that the directors new of these time constraints, could they not have created a film which did not cater to those like myself that hadn't known anything about it, and just plunged you straight into the world? Too much time in X is wasted on idle dialogue which is disguised as plot development but is as tedious as reading an instruction manual on how to work your DVD player. Yes the explanation of the dragons (I will come to this shortly) is necessary but in the films opening five minutes two characters wage an all out mystical battle and eventually both fall. Now during this sequence they have unnecessary banter, I know this can be common place in manga but if you wish to produce a slick opening, trying to set these characters up as long time enemies who we should feel a connection for (because many reviewers have claimed theirs to be an epic rivalry) only to have them killed two seconds later is madness. There is no logic behind it. This leads me to think that perhaps this was a film specifically designed for those which have a great knowledge over the "X" saga, but I would have thought the directors would wish to be inclusive rather than exclusive (I refrained from using the inane 'X' pun).

There are positives however, one being the creepy Gothic animation which apart from being utterly unique in my experience lends itself to a creation of a sinister and severely dark overtone inevitably benefiting the film.The notion of the opposing forces of "good" and "different good" (I hesitate from saying 'evil') using the connotations of dragons, i.e. the good are the dragons of heaven who wish the world to continue seeing as it was "He" from Heaven that put them there versus the dragons of the earth who wish Mother Earth to regain her rule, is clever and again is unique. The means by which the dragons of heaven defend the planet through the usage of "shields" and the construct in which they work is also an absorbing premise as these sequences provide the high points but, unfortunately, it's not enough.

The trouble with films like X is the content they must squeeze into a shorter time span, it therefore is inevitable that chances are it will not succeed at being able to tell its story fully (try compressing Broken Saints into 90 minutes), and here is the issue. I'm privy to that the directors wanted to create this film regardless, but they needed to make a choice, either completely forgo the notion of trying to be exclusive and create a film entirely for fans of the saga disregarding all outsiders thereby pleasing the contingency of fans that have done the hard work, or the alternative. The second choice is that the directors must create a film which explains everything to everyone and be completely inclusive, they must lay the construct of their world bare on the table and let people try and come to comprehend their universe; and unfortunately they did a little of both, to no great success. I wanted this film to give me more, and if I now want it to I have to put in the hard work which after having viewed the film I don't particularly want to do, and to do it this way around isn't as much fun either. No puns about missing the mark, X not being where the treasure is or 'wordplay' about the film being Xtremely disappointing, it's simply a shame.

Everything about this movie is great;the animation blends perfectly with the CG effects (unlike some American cartoons),the soundtrack is one of the best I ever heard and acting is top-notch.

This movie isn't complete without a couple of flaws however. The depressing and disappointing ending will only make you say "That's it?". This is due to the fact that the manga series is unfinished and still far from completion (the manga is said to be 22 books long and so far only 11 of them has been published as of this writing,with vol.12 coming soon).

Another flaw is that certain points of the storyline aren't explained in the movie,only in the manga,and most of the characters lacks development. You barely get to know a supporting character before they die.

It is still a good film,but I recommend you to read the Manga before watching the film (which is available in English through Viz Communications) in order to have a general understanding of the story.

X is yet another anime to attempt a unique interpretation of the end of the world. The fate of the earth, of course lies in the hands of good guys (dragons of heaven) with super powers vs bad guys (dragons of the earth) with super powers. The somewhat gothic feel to this film is very welcome but at times seems a little overdone. The array of characters in X is also a little overwhelming. It's hard to feel too much for most of the people that are dying, seeing as there is no character development (you'll have to buy the X series to get that). BUT if you are a fan of blatant anime violence and the overdone apocalyptic premise, watch it anyways!

i disagree that this is a terrible movie because it seems to that many of you are taking this film for face value. in order to fully appreciate this anime and most anime one must actually think while watching. not just stare and think the animation is crap.

in order to enjoy most anime people must concentrate for example Ghost In The Shell, X, Akira and Patlabor Two.

So i implore you anyone who reads this above comment don't let it dissuade from watching X. Watch it when you are willing to concentrate and think about what is on screen.

Just because the animation isn't necessarily of the best quality doesn't mean this isn't a good film, it may be less attractive than most popular anime but it is no worse.

I am a huge admirer of the graphic novel series this adaption is built upon and really can recommend X-1999 by CLAMP to everyone for it truly is a masterpiece.

This film, however, was a complete waste of time and I cannot believe that CLAMP actually agreed on summing up the immense plot of the comic books in to one film that is not even two hours long. Because in my eyes it is not the apocalypse aspect which makes the series so absolutely amazing but the detailed characterization of each of the characters, which was here left out completely.

Even the artwork is unable to compete with the visual beauty of the original work.

This film left me completely unsatisfied!

The film starts very confusing. You get a small intro on each of the characters. Through these 'intro's' the threat is somewhat explained. You have two party's 'The dragons of the Earth' & 'The dragons of Heaven'. The movie chooses well between alignment. Tho the dragons of the earth are symboled as 'the bad guys' and heaven is good, the characters of both party's are real individuals (You could side up with both teams). I'd really liked the intelligence in the movie, nice fighting - scene's. Tho I can imagine that this movie isn't for everybody, if you like manga, story & drama... this really is one to watch!

X has some of the most beautiful images ever put in an animated film. The attention to detail is something to be proud of, and the action sequences are fun to watch. If only there was more to the film than this.

Unfortunately, the film is ultimately mediocre, if not outright bad. If you don't know anything about the characters from the manga, then everyone will appear as cardboard cutouts. There's almost no characterization in the film whatsoever. The situation is set up, and then everyone dies violently fighting each other.

If anything, the film is still worth watching for its visuals, but aside from that, it doesn't have anything of interest, except for the most diehard fans of the manga. It's been rumored that CLAMP intended the film as an experiment to see how people would react if such an ending were used for the still incomplete manga. Hopefully, the print version will be done much better.

I should mention before I give my point of view that I had never read the books or comic series before watching this film. I'm just an average anime fan who has watched a fair amount of anime.

After I saw an ad in the paper of it being shown at the independent theater for a showing, I decided to give this a try. I've seen some great anime films in past, and some bad ones. This slides towards the awful side of anime. While I'm sure rotten fruit will be thrown at me for saying that, I just couldn't like the film no matter how much I tried.

While the animation is stellar, the story line and character development never really develops maturely. You constantly see the ending and the struggle of the protagonist & antagonist constantly. The first 40 minutes is seeing dream sequences, then the ending. You don't see it once, you see it over and over again. The ending is at the beginning. They rushed through the magna's, just random people showing up and saying "Hi, we have special powers to save/destroy the world. Nice to meet you." Time was wasted on long drawn out scenes and the battles would be too abrupt.

Now I'm sure the true anime fan will look further into the movie and give better insight. I didn't nor couldn't get that analytical about the movie. While anime tries to do this many times, I just want a good flick, not a lesson in life.

What really irks me the most is that while watching the movie you expect a spectacular ending that'll just floor you and instead it just slaps you in the face while the credits appear saying SUCKER. While admittedly it has fantastic animation, that's all that it really has. Maybe the subtitled version is better (most of the time this is true for anime) but until then the decision is not recommend this film.

The movie was great. I love Manga, and when i saw the movie i was very impressed. Not only was it delightfully gruesome, but it had an intriguing story that wasn't filled with a lot of unnecessary adult themes. The action was great the characters were great and the story left you thinking even after the unexpected end. I've watched it over and over and it still impresses me, a revolutionary vision for its time.

Even though it was dragging at points it X still made it abundantly clear that it was a well planed movie.

I think even though this movie wasn't quite as good as akira it should still receive kudos for the way it was put together. 10 out of 10.

The series, X (known as X/1999 in America) is truly a great series. However, this movie did essentially no justice to it. If its your first time seeing any part of the series, it really wont mean anything to you, and is just plain a bad way to start a good thing.

To enjoy this series to its fullest: a)read the Tokyo Babylon manga, b)see both Tokyo Babylon movies, c)read the X manga, d)see the X TV series (but watch episode zero AFTER the rest of the series), e)THEN watch the movie (it has cool scenes that weren't in the series and a MUCH better ending). If you don't do it all in that relative order, you'll really miss out on a lot.

If you like the TB and X series, and want more anime/manga that is similar, I highly recommend that you should see the Neon Genesis: Evangelion series, movies, and manga (again, see the series first, and keep in mind that the movies basically replace the last two episodes of the series.

Overall: I give the X movie a 6/10 because it really has minimal story, and will instantly have you lost, if you've seen nothing of it before. Otherwise, it is a pretty good anime to compliment the series, plus a much better, clearer, and actually conclusive ending.

I am generally a fan of anime but this was a huge disappointment. The quality of animation was poor, the English dubbing average & the plot & script awful. There is no character development, characters come & die without the audience having any feeling (good or bad) for them. Luckily for director Rintaro one of his follow up efforts, Metropolis is a much better film 3/10