Review of X

Introduction

I`ve never been able to get into manga/anime. I`ve tried to watch Akira and Ghost in the Shell but found myself uninvolved by them. This is a bit strange given that I love Hong Kong movies and have a collection of American comics that drives my wife to distraction. In fact the nearest I have gotten to enjoying anything remotely manga/anime orientated is Adam Warren`s take on Gen 13. But, there you go.

Therefore, I approached Rintaro`s X with some trepidation. The cover promised "one of the greatest orgies of battle and destruction ever seen". Well, that`s something then.

To be honest, I am hard pushed to summarise the plot because I found it immensely confusing. It appears to be a tale of two opposing forces - the Dragons of Earth and the Dragons of Heaven - that are battling for supremacy with the ordinary people of Tokyo caught in the crossfire. Ostensibly, the Dragons of Heaven are trying to protect humanity but it doesn`t seem to be that simple. As this conflict comes to a head at the turn of the millennium, Kamui appears on the scene. He apparently has the "Power of God" and is fated to play a pivotal role in the struggle. He appears to be aligned with the Dragons of Heaven but again it is not quite that simple. Kamui has an exact opposite who will balance his decision and actions and so, by choosing one side, he will add comparable power to the other.

When Kamui`s childhood friends are kidnapped by the Dragons of the Earth, he is forced to take a position. Carnage ensues.

That doesn`t do the movie justice but it`ll have to do.

Video

X is letterboxed at 1.78:1 and looks decent enough but in the animation stakes has a grossly inferior transfer to, say, the best of the Disneys. Grain and some scratches are visible on the print and the image generally looks a little softer than it should. Colours are deliberately muted in most scenes and this is quite effective in setting a dream-like mood.

Overall, the imagery didn`t impress me. It seemed to be trying a little too hard and ultimately disappointed. The apocalyptic scenes end up more pretentious than portentous. Some of the more pastoral dream sequences look good but ultimately I was under whelmed.

The animation was rougher than I was expecting. The backgrounds were nicely drawn but the characters were often little more than sketches. I expected more detail.

Audio

There is a DD 5.1 English track and DD 2.0 English and Japanese tracks. The English 5.1 is preferable to get a more powerful ambience (although there`s not that significant a difference). However, the English tracks should be avoided because the voice acting is poor and the dialogue risible. The English sub-titles are more palatable but X could never be considered a literate masterpiece.

The music is dull and unmemorable.

Features

Aside from a kinetic trailer, the extras are text based. Biographies of the characters are supplied in the form of a Tarot Card set. These are useful to help you get to grips with the large cast. There is also a 23 page interview with the Director. This again helps you make some sense of the movie however, it seemed a bit disjointed and I could swear that passage were missed (or badly edited) out. There`s also a photo gallery and a preview of some Manga Video presentations. Overall, there is little to get excited about.

Conclusion

X confused me. There were too many characters who were poorly introduced and who were little more than ciphers. It appeared as if we were dropped into the middle of an ongoing story without any preamble. The ending was equally abrupt with no real resolution.

If the plot was confusing, the dialogue was appalling - clichéd and crass.

There were some effective set pieces but ultimately I was unmoved. The character deaths were inconsequential because you knew nothing about them; you almost certainly couldn`t remember their names. The only part of the movie that I liked was the fact that the warring factions were not automatically aligned with Good and Evil. You could read it that way, but it wasn`t so straightforward. Both sides had a defensible worldview and wasn`t as black and white as I was expecting. That aside, though, it was dull fantasy tosh and that`s probably just what the uninitiated always say about this genre. I should be more sympathetic to it but …

One for fans of the genre only.