X

X was a pretty interesting series, which had pretty much all of the ingredients needed to make a classic, yet at the same time the ingredients sometimes don't seem to mix properly, making it miss just that last little edge. Still, it has become one of my favorites, because it has exactly those things that appeal to me in an anime show: a good storyline with enough twists and changes, excellent animation, a great soundtracks and amusing and diverse characters. Of course the series has CLAMP all over it, which shows mainly in the characyer design and story, both of which are on par of the averageCLAMP series, meaning they're good. The animation in action sequences is fast-paced and intense, and the soundtrack accompanies each scene well, drawing you in even further. As I stated in the beginning of this review, the plot is decent and there are enough twists and turns in the plotline, with the most important one taking place halfway through the series; I usually see these things coming, and while all the clues were there, spread out very obviously, I was still surprised. What follows after that is a dive into the various main characters backgrounds and pasts (heroes and villains alike), and while that could've been drawn out a little more, it adds a bit extra..though not much. The ending is... a bit less intense that I personally would've hoped for, but it still fits the series; still, it's a non-canon ending, and I wonder how the actual series will end now... A nice series to watch; if you like action with a touch of fantasy in a modern setting, then X is a nice show for you to watch.

X is a very mystyrious and drama-heavy anime, coupled with nice action scense's. The Story focus on the first episodes on Kamui who wants to get a sword that belongs to him, passed down from his mother, but gets drawn into a fight of the destiny of the earth. With him as the key to it apperently. When put like this it doesn't sound like much but add to that some very interesting twist and turns that can glue you to the screen and you get something that you want to see the end of no matter what. The art is done very well, with nicebackgrounds that don't draw to much attention away form what is actually happening and very nice details which together make this anime very nice to look at the music in my opinion is chossen very well in the dramatic moments, but the fight music is at best anticlimatic and sounds like your playing some videogame sometimes, but only when you have a fight that hasn't some kind of drama in it. again drama-moments are very well done in this one. The characters are split in two categories: in one can we put the to main chara's... with development, emotions and all that portrait so realitic and believable that it can overshadow the, rather poor, suppourtcharaters that the authors were trying desperatly to give some dept but faild half way through. All in all the anime is really worth it to at least watch once in your life, even if you aren't a fan of emotinal animes and such.

Ah, X. It's definitely one of those 90's anime classics that deserves more credit now than it deserves. This series was another complete impulse buy by me. I had heard that it was rather enjoyable, and after reading the description of the plot on the back of the Box Set that I saw, I was at least mildly interested. It seemed to focus heavily on the fantasy genre, which I greatly enjoy if the show is paced well enough. Anyways, let's venture on over to my take on the story. In the beginning, much is not explained. The viewersare introduced to Kamui Shiro, a young high school teenager who has supposedly 'returned' to Tokyo after six years in order to take a legendary sword from a shrine, and disappear from Tokyo. His reasons are unclear, but apparently two siblings who were his good friends when he was younger and lived in Tokyo take an interest in him (as they haven't seen him in a long time.) Kamui tries to push them away from his life, believing that they should not get involved with him. Angsty selfless main character? Check! Anyways, basically a larger plot involving the end of the world with the 'Dragons of Heaven' pitted against the 'Dragons of Earth' is revealed, and the plot thickens moreso. I found the story to be refreshing, and CLAMP's vision of a ruined world was believeable and well-put. The ending left a few side problems unsolved, so I will give the story a 9/10. The artwork was based on CLAMP's designs, as they made the original (and for some reason unfinished) manga. Now CLAMP always does nice jobs on their art, but I found this anime to have somewhat bland-looking characters. There was very little color involved and a lot of characters (especially the men) looked similar. Now despite this, I believe that the animation itself was very well done for its time. Thus, art gets a 7/10 from me. Onto the sound from the anime! Personally I decided to randomly watch this in its English dub, and found the dub to be fitting and very well done. I did check out a bit of the sub and I will admit that I found Suzumura's Kamui to be a bit more emotional than Steve Cannon's Kamui (which would be a good thing. I think Cannon needed to really grasp the character's situation more at Kamui's most emotional times.) So overall the voice acting was superb. The music was composed by Naoki Sato, and with that beign said I originally had high expectations for its soundtrack (as I am a fan of Sato's work.) Luckily for me, the soundtrack did not disappoint in the slightest! In fact, I would label it as one of the greatest anime soundtracks in existence. My only gripe would be how often its theme ('Destiny') played in the most unfitting of times. It is a piece designed for an epic sequence, and though many epic sequences were utilised with it, they also used it for smaller and less important scenes. This threw me off a little bit. Regardless, sound gets a 10/10 from me. The characters in X are nearly all loveable: even the villain(s). Many characters grow on you as you watch, as well. There were some I didn't love, but when they're CLAMP-esque pasts were revealed, it was hard to dislike any of them. Character gets a 10/10 from me. Overall, I enjoyed this anime thoroughly. I liked it so much that I decided to start reading the manga (for comparison and out of sheer intrigue.) X had really great pacing and had my attention nearly the entire time (give or take about three episodes in the middle.) Enjoyment recieves a 9/10 from me, and overall a 9/10. If you enjoy fantasy, undecided futures, epic music and the option of the end of the world, I suggest you look into this!

I'm writing this review as someone who read the manga just before watching the anime and who was hoping for the adaptation to be complementary to the original work, offering an ending to the source material which is unfinished/on hiatus. Sadly, the anime was in fact not complementary as the events of the last volume of the manga are completely ignored (volume 18 released after the anime ended), therefore changing major elements from the original story. That said, I could see Clamp going for an ending along those lines (but it could also be different), but I wouldn't consider it as replacement to the nonexisting manga ending. I was extremely excited to watch this anime because I absolutely loved the manga (which I now consider as one of my favourites) and for some reason, I thought it would be faithful to the source material, but I should have seen it coming...it is impossible to have a great anime adaptation with 24 episodes for 18 volumes. Firstly, the adaptation changed and censored a lot of elements from the original work, which in a way destroyed the build-up of some elements leading to interesting revelations/storytelling. From violent scenes being changed to be less violent, to some scenes and elements being completely changed/ignored, and some things completely invented...the changes are too big to be ignored. They took away some interesting plot points and twisted other ones. Secondly, some revelations happened way too early in the anime while it takes more time in the manga. The way things were handled do not work in my opinion as they make the scenes much less impactful; the changes to some scenes take away the climax of the manga. Also, the anime is lacking the apocalyptic vibe of the manga, everything feels less daunting, it feels less like a tragedy and catastrophe. The anime feels very disconnected/scrappy, there is, in my opinion, a pacing problem. Moreover, the relationships between the different characters feel much more powerful in the manga as compared to the adaptation. Again, a lot of things, which could be considered as details maybe, were changed, but these little things, those moments, were the things that created a special bond between the characters. It feels like everything is overlooked and nothing is very deep. Some characters' stories are barely developed as compared to the manga and those were part of the things that were interesting in the original story, those were things that added to the tragedy that this story is. Finally, the character design feels a bit "meh" after reading the manga. Clamp's artstyle is very difficult to recreate in an anime adaptation as it is so magnificient. That said, you get used to the anime character design. Regarding the animation, I do think it was lacking some animation during the fight scenes. All in all, it feels like they used a fast pass on the anime, changing important plot points, not developing relationships and plot points so deeply, staying on the surface of things. I mean, 24 episodes won't allow for something deeper. I would not recommend the anime to someone who wants to discover this story; I would recommend the manga even if it doesn't have an ending. Would I recommend the anime to someone who's read the manga? I am not sure, because it is frustrating to witness all the changes to this beautiful and powerful work. I think they did some interesting stuff in the last episode but once it is finished I felt like "okay" because of everything I've explained in this review. I tried imagining how I'd feel as someone who'd watch the anime without having read the manga, and I think I would have thought that the pacing is weird, that emotional attachement to everything happening is lacking, and that there is not much climax to the episodes. I'll end this review on a positive note: the opening and the OSTs were very very good and I absolutely loved them!