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X - The Movie

X - The Movie

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The TV series is better
Review: I don't have the DVD for this anime, but I have seen the anime itself a couple of times. Hey c'mon now, the anime's DVD features isn't what's important here, but rather, the anime itself overall.

What can we say about, X? I'd say, it's definitely not for the discretion of the weak. Everything in this anime is geared towards adults. The story-telling, the character personas and the art/scene portrayals. This is one animation that is truly sadistic and depressive...in a great point of concept and perspective. It's just like watching your favorite day-to-day soap opera or a full-length romance film, only it adds a sinister twisted elements of betrayal, agony and violence.

X, tells the story about a young boy who must decide the fate of Earth and of humans; He could either destroy it, or spare and save this corrupted world. Kamui Shirou, the protagonist, has been away and hasn't seen the only 2 people (and closefriends) he ever cares about for 6 years. He made a promise to protect and love them no matter what through eternity. And just who are these 2 individuals Kamui loves? Fuuma and Kotori Monou, 2 siblings who has known Kamui ever since they were little kids.

6 yrs. later, Kamui returns to Tokyo to fulfill his destiny and to prepare for this menacing threat he was foretold about. But that's not the worst part of it... For Kamui Shirou, it's himself. It's his soul's matter of 'fate vs. faith', being thorned apart by his own will and destiny...leading to his eventual loneliness in the end. Along with Kamui are these other psionic characters who also wields the vigorous potentials of psychokenesis, being able to come into people's mind and their dreams, freezing time and so fort. Definitely cool and unique fictional characters with super-unatural powers.

The movie version from my opinion, only summarizes what the anime's storyline/plot is really about. But there's a few missing puzzles there and you can only understand it by watching the television series (X/1999) including characters not in the movie and an even more detailed story. The movie isn't that bad, except maybe for the bad English-dubbing part?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: For a 90min movie covering this manga what do expect
Review: X: The Movie wasn't what I expected it to be actually I hated it. After the first time I saw it I literally buried it somewhere in the deep bowels of my room. I mean the beginning isn't something that keeps you wanting to see the rest of the movie but if you do happen to continue with it you will find that it doesn't live up to all of it's hype. Good thing they are starting the DVD series. Maybe that will do this great manga justice.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One of Many
Review: ...Opinions on this film, that is.

X is a truly debatable movie. Now, on one hand, we have the "hard-core" manga fans who claim that this movie is a travesty and a sham and OH DEAR LORD LOOK WHAT THEY DID TO IT -- perhaps, however, they *do* have a bit of a point. X is a rather epic manga series (not your typical shoujo, mind you!), up to volume eighteen of its Japanese release at this point, I believe. Admittedly, squeezing many volumes of an unfinished, heavily detailed manga into a single movie, AND keeping it somewhat coherent is a difficult task.

The result is this movie, beautiful and delirious, as well as brutal and full of bloodshed. Also admittedly, X the movie can drag a bit at times, as it attempts to lay out a plot. The score, with the exception of "Forever Love" is unremarkable. Nearly all of the well-crafted manga character development has been left out. However, this movie is mostly well animated, and can succeed on a purely aesthetic level, or a comedic level if you like MST riffs. (Karen: "Arrrgh!", Aoki: "Ugh!", Kamui: "Noooo!", Subaru: "Haaa-TAH!". Nice subtitling job, Manga.) It depends on your preferences.

After all, you can't please everyone.

Omake (extra): Very shortly (9-24-02), the X TV series will be released in North America commercially by Pioneer.

It is MUCH more faithful to the manga, with a slower pace, full plot and plenty of character development -- and suggest that if you were disappointed with this film, you should give X TV (or the original manga) a try.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Movie vs. The Manga (comic)
Review: I saw X first on a fansub, then I saw it on the big screen (in English) when it was released in the US.

ANIMATION------

Overall, I loved the detail, motion, and setting. It was elegentaly done and very realistic. Most of the symbolic imagery was handled fairly well. Unfortunatley the manga goes into a bit more detail, or better handles some of the symbolic imagery. For animation however, it was the best the animators could have done.

TRANSLATION ------ (Subtitle vs. English)
The subtitling I felt was closer to how the manga was written. However, it only gave you enough detail to progress the story in the movie. A lot of little details were left out. The english version is a bit more basic, and I think anyone of the age 13+ could easily understand it. (It was TOO basic, and almost treated the audience like they were dumb)

STORYLINE -----------
The manga's ending hasn't yet been revealed in the American released comics. However, the basic underlying storyline is the same for both. A young teenage boy is chosen (by fate perhaps) to become the one who will decide the future of the earth. The future can follow two paths, the path where mankind is dominant (yet does not overstep his boundaries by destroying the earth), or where earth tries to reclaim herself (man is removed through the picture through certain events). The outcome in the movie was pretty quick, and brutal (I'm not saying which one it is :P ).

WHERE THE MOVIE SUFFERED THE MOST --------
1) The gradual build of suspense... it isn't quite there. The movie is a 2 hour rush of 12+ (graphic novel) issues. The pace of the movie has a few slow scenes where some of the emotion and symbology are shown, and then rushes through other scenes (some combat scene's that's expected, but they don't leave you time to think during some of the more intellectual momements).

2) Character developement. The "cast" of characters is enormous. Excluding one or two small differences, the characters in the movie are essentially the same as the ones in the manga. In the movie you are introduced to them in bunches and too rapidly to form any kind of attachment or understanding of them. Only one or two key traces of their personality shine through, but that's not enough to make you really feel for the good guys. In the manga, there is more than enough time to see the humor, sadness, and profound impact of the potential future within the characters expressions and interactions. Sorata is extremley charasmatic and funny, but other than one or two quick-witted comments, you don't see that in the movie.

------- WHAT THE MANGA SUFFERS FROM -----

It's a bit too drawn out. As much as I love any forms of symbology (which they were all well done), they are repeated too many times. Instead of balancing the repetitive symbology with weight according to its depth/importance, the symbology for most everything is repeated so much it numbs you to the stories depth. This is especially with Kamui, and Fuuma. The foreshadowing is almost as blindingly apparent in the manga as in the comic. The storyline had some heavy overtones, but with this foreshadowing they take away some of the impact of Kamui and Fuuma's situation.

Other than that, I love the manga (and its Kabbalistic comparisons & allusions). I also own every issue released here in the US.

Lastly.....

I RECOMMEND THE MANGA. HOWEVER IF YOU LOVE ANIME, WAIT UNTIL THE OVA IS RELEASED IN THE US. I only recommend buying the movie for die-hard Clamp fans, or "X" fans.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Very sad but not a bad anime really...
Review: INTRO: When I first bought this DVD, I was kinda' diving into a show that I had not read the manga of, and I half and half regret and am thankful for that. The reasons why are:
--Regret: I didn't get to hear the whole backstory and learn about the whole plot before hand.
--Thankful: I'm glad I didn't get attached to the characters who died in this as much as I already did.
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DVD: To start, the DVD itself is average. Nothing too special. Has bios and some trailers and such. I can't complain but can't praise it either.
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STORY/PLOT: The movie (and series) seems extremely well-done. Usually I don't mind these types of shows (severely depressing). Its just this one seemed to go a little bit too far. Which isn't totally bad, its kinda' a twist from the normal "Hero saves princess" routine. I would watch it a few times actually.
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OVERALL: I know this isn't the "main" review to read. You should obviously read someone else's review before mine (or after). The only advice I can give is that you should probably see the manga first since its far better from the many Otaku I've heard from. Second, if you are hardcore into this series, you might want to check out the TV version that is coming out. It details the events before this movie (the final chapter in the series) and gives the lengthy manga new light.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, but could have been better
Review: Okay, so we have the dragons of earth and the dragons of heaven all in this apocaliptic battle that will determine the future of the earth, no problem. There is a young boy with an amazing power and he must fight his twin star which just so happens to be his best friend, okay. This is where the problem comes in we have such a lack of charecter depth. If you do not go to the special features and read the backgrounds then you will be at total lost. The story could have expanded on more of the charecter's background such as the main charecter's relationship with his mother, or the connection between the two best friends could have been explained more. I've heard that there is a series based of the movie so maybe that will help explain a lot of holes. Overall great fight scenes with a downer ending.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Loved the manga, but VERY DISAPPOINTED with the movie
Review: Hey. What can I say? It just plain [stinks]. First of all, I love the manga series to death. It was one of my favorites that I was really looking forward to the movie. But when I saw it, MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT. Yes, it had a lot of action and blood and magic. I'm never queasy about any of those things. But it's also confusing, probably even more so if you have never even read the manga. You can't start to "care for" the characters because the chemistry just isn't there. I guess its one of those love it or hate em movies. But I hated it. And where's the plot? Sorry CLAMP, I love you girls, but this just plain BITES. Go watch Card Captor Sakura or something.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great anime movie
Review: This movie was great it had lots of fight scenes which i like and i think other people might like to the best partbof itwas each character had their own special elemental attacks.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrible!
Review: I knew bad anime existed out there, and that one day I would be unfortunate enough to come across it. That day arrived when I foolishly rented "X" on DVD.

Is there a plot somewhere in this piecemeal mish-mash? I looked hard and came up emtpy handed. The movie suffers from far too many characters that are utterly insignificant and weak. The dragons of heaven die off like doughboys in the wrong trench, without a thought given to their character development. Once the dragons of earth start dying, the movie just becomes laughably bad.

At least the action sequences are half-decent, but they dont even deserve to be compared with the edge-of-your-seat battles in Neon Genesis:Evangelion. To conclude? This is a terrible anime that wastes any scrap of potential and flat-out bores it's viewer. Stay far away!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One star is one too many.
Review: Now, I love anime. I love CLAMP. I love X. The REAL X, mind you. The manga. Or, now, even the anime series, although even IT has it's flaws. The main problem here? Everything. Except the art and music. The art and music are lovely. I could go on and on, but Whitney at 'What The Thunder Said' puts it all best. http://www.mancer.net/x/txt/review.html

Now, for my own opinions, I think that if you REALLY wanna see this, DON'T buy it. Find a friend with it, or a fansub, or a hong kong pirate. ANYTHING. Do NOT buy it. It's a waste of money on a disappointing movie. And if you're really deperate to see Kamui animated, then find the CLAMP in Wonderland music video, or get your hands on some X TV series episodes. They do the masterpiece that is X a LOT better justice than this thing ever will. And for people that actually enjoyed this... I have nothing but the largest feeling of pity growing in my stomach. I don't know. If you like this movie, there's some dubbed Dragon Ball Z episodes elsewhere on this site. You'd like them too.


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