X

X: The Movie *

1996. jpn: X: 1999. Movie. dir: Rintaro. scr: Nanase Okawa, Asami Watanabe. des: Nobuteru Yuki. ani: Nobuteru Yuki. mus: Yasuaki Shimizu, X-Japan. prd: Madhouse. 98 mins. (m), 25 mins. (v), 25 mins. x 24 eps. (TV).

Two groups of psychic warriors, known as the Seven Seals of the Earth Dragon and the Seven Harbingers of the Heaven Dragon, fight to save the world or destroy it. The battle is fought in modern Tokyo but draws on landmarks of the city’s historic and spiritual past as both shields for Earth and levers to trigger its destruction. Subaru and Seishiro (characters from CLAMP’s earlier Tokyo Babylon) fight on opposing sides and end up by destroying each other without resolving the struggle. Kamui, a psychic of enormous power, witnesses the fight and is so devastated that he flees Tokyo. But running can’t save him; it is his destiny to join one side or the other and decide the fate of Earth. He finally returns to Tokyo to avenge the death of his mother, but to protect his friends Fuma and Kotori (whom he has loved since childhood), he refuses to take sides in the decisive battle. But Fate has decided otherwise. Fuma is Kamui’s opposite number, the balance to his powers in the scales of destiny. When Fuma is seduced by the Earth Dragon’s powers and kills his own sister, Kotori, Kamui finally joins the other side. The two friends must fight each other to decide if the world survives or ends.

Based on the manga in Asuka magazine from the CLAMP collective, X was preceded by lots of hype and a 25-minute music video made with the rock group X-Japan, suitably titled X2. But the amount that has to be cut from a huge, unfinished saga to make it into a coherent feature-length script can destroy the subtlety of a story and alienate fans of the original. Faced with compressing the massive melodrama without upsetting its fans, director Rintaro opted for style and emotion over clarity and substance. The look and mood of the original are there, just don’t expect it to make much sense in terms of plot. The “1999” was dropped from the title for its English-language release since it didn’t reach video until 2000. Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s X TV series followed in 2001, preceded by an “episode zero” released on video, which included teasers of the show to come, but also footage that was not re-used in the TV series proper. Put into production when the direction of the manga storyline was clearer, and taking advantage of the longer running time afforded by TV, the series revisits the story of the movie, but with greater opportunities for character development.

Xabungle

1982. jpn: Sento Mecha Xabungle. aka: Battle Mecha Xabungle; The Bungler. TV series, movie. dir: Yoshiyuki Tomino, Toshifumi Takizawa, Osamu Sekita, Akira Suzuki, Yasuhiro Imagawa. scr: Tsunehisa Ito, Soji Yoshikawa. des: Kunio Okawara, Yutaka Izubuchi. ani: Tomonori Kogawa, Akehiro Kaneyama. mus: Koji Makaino. prd: Sunrise, TV Asahi. 25 mins. x 50 eps. (TV), 86 mins. (m).

On planet Zola, the purebred Innocents live inside a sealed dome, unable to survive in the inhospitable environment. The Civilian underclass, who live out in the wilderness, regard the Innocents’ rocket launches as “ascensions of light” and do not question their assigned roles as rockmen (bluestone miners), freighters (traders), and sand­rats (desert-dwellers). Civilian Jiron Amos believes his rockman father was murdered and steals the new Walker Machine Xabungle, quarrelling all the way with the pretty land-ship captain Elche. He sets out on the land-ship Iron Gear to learn the truth about his father’s death, but the whole planet has another truth to learn. For generations all Zolans have believed that they were descended from colonists from the planet Earth, but they never left the homeworld—Zola is the Earth, devastated by centuries of exploitation.

A more jocular robot show than its contemporaries, Xabungle (i.e., “The Bungler”) featured an inept hero and giant robot battles often played for laughs, set against a background that mixes parts of Grey and Nausicaä with Westerns—homages extend as far as having a Clint Eastwood clone among the characters, along with a look-alike of Sunrise’s all-time great antihero Char Aznable. A deliberate attempt to break the serious mold of Sunrise robot shows (by Tomino, the man whose name remains synonymous with Gundam), it also predates Patlabor in its depiction of robots as everyday working tools. The story reappeared in 1983 in a feature-length edit, Xabungle Graffiti, screened alongside the two Dougram short movies. The Wild West imagery would return years later in Trigun and Eat-Man.

Xanadu: Legend of Dragonslayer

1988. jpn: Xanadu Dragonslayer Densetsu. Video. dir: Atsutoshi Umezawa. scr: Haruya Yamazaki. des: Koichi Arai. ani: Koichi Arai. mus: Seiji Yokoyama. prd: Nippon Falcom, Toei. 50 mins.

The evil magician Reichswar has killed the King to gain possession of a magic crystal; now he means to use its power to rule the whole of Xanadu. Then the widowed Queen Rieru is kidnapped. One brave young warrior, wielding the magic blade Dragonslayer, goes to her rescue. It’s all based on the role-playing game Xanadu, as if you couldn’t guess.

Xebec

Formed in 1995 by former employees of Tatsunoko, Xebec functions as a subsidiary of its parent company, contributing animation to shows including Zoids, Pilot Candidate, and Love Hina. Prominent staffers include Takashi Sudo, Nobuyoshi Habara, Akio Takami, and Makoto Uno. The company takes its name from a three-masted Mediterranean pirate ship.

Xenosaga: The Animation

2005. TV series. dir: Shigeyasu Yamauchi. scr: Yuichiro Takeda. des: Nobuteru Yuki, Hiroyuki Okawa. ani: Masayuki Sato. mus: Kosuke Yamashita. prd: Happinet, Toei, TV Asahi. 25 mins. x 12 eps.

Four thousand years after humanity abandoned the Earth, a human vessel carrying a KOS-MOS battle android is attacked by alien enemies. In an inversion of the perils of Black Magic M-66, KOS-MOS turns out to be a model that resembles a pretty girl, which self-activates in order to save the life of its creator Shion. The ship destroyed, Shion and her creation are thrust into the middle of the ongoing war between humanity and the Gnosis aliens in an anime based on the PlayStation game of the same name—in fact, it is so based on the game that the cast often seem to assume that the viewer only requires summaries of plot details from the PlayStation version, often making it impenetrable to viewers who do not already know what is going to happen.

Xpress Train *

2003. jpn: Chikan Densha. aka: Groper Train; Lovely Train. Video. dir: Taifu Suginami. scr: Yuta Takahashi. des: Takashi Itani. ani: Yuji Kamizaki. mus: Yoshi. prd: YOUC, Digital Works (Vanilla Series). 28 mins. x 2 eps.

Salaryman Kazuo loses his job after he is wrongfully accused of groping a woman on the subway. The actual culprit is an old lecher who calls himself the “God of Groping,” who takes the down-at-heels Kazuo on as his 500th apprentice. Soon Kazuo is learning the way of successful groping—and picking up handy tips like avoiding women in groups, women on mobile phones, or women who look like they might put up a fight—all targets which the talented Kazuo goes after with relish. However, both gropers are in for a surprise when they run into Reiko, a woman who actually enjoys being felt up by strangers. Making a comedy out of one of Japan’s most prevalent commuting annoyances, this entry in the Vanilla Series even manages to turn tragedy into porn, as the dying old groper persuades one of his victims to administer hand relief to the only part of his body that still has any blood in it. LN

Xtra Credit *

2002. jpn: Reiju Gakuen. aka: Domination Academy. Video. dir: Shigeru Kohama. scr: Rokurota Makabe. des: Yoshihito Kato. ani: Motokazu Murakami. mus: Hiroaki Sano, Takeshi Nishizawa. prd: Discovery. 30 mins. x 2 eps.

Keiko is a young, attractive school teacher, sorry, professor at an elite academy, who secretly enjoys being the pin-up of all the boys. Feeling under threat by the arrival of the equally attractive new teacher Miyuki, Keiko arranges for her rival to be “taught” her true place in the order of things, which involves molestation, rape, and assault, as per usual. An entry in the Discovery Series, not to be confused with the similarly titled Sextra Credit. LNV

X-Treme Team

1998. jpn: Totsugeki! Pappara Tai. aka: Attack! Sprinkle Squad. TV series. dir: Kenichi Maejima. scr: Natsuki Matsu­zawa. des: Yukari Kobayashi. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Media Works, TV Tokyo. 25 mins. x 26 eps.

This spoof of anime’s teens-save-Earth genre starts with rumors of an imminent alien invasion. The world mobilizes to establish the United Earth Defense Forces, the most powerful of whom are, of course, in Japan. When the promised alien invasion doesn’t arrive, however, the SWAT teams resort to mercenary activities, fighting crime, chasing terrorists, and even delivering valuables as security guards. They also organize “friendly” competitions with rival defense teams. A tongue-in-cheek comedy about what might have happened if, say, the cast of Evangelion was all ready for the Angels, but the Angels forgot to come.

XXXholic

2005. Movie, TV series. dir: Tsutomu Mizushima. scr: Ageha Okawa, Michiko Yokote. des: Kazuchika Kise. ani: N/C. mus: N/C. prd: Production IG, TBS. 60 mins. (m), 25 mins. x 24 eps. (TV).

In anime’s answer to The Sixth Sense (1999), Kimihiro Watanuki has the ability to see and interact with ghosts. He is approached by a woman called Yuko, who offers to cure him of his affliction, but only if he agrees to work for her. Based on the manga by CLAMP, which began running in Young magazine in 2003. After the movie XXXholic: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Manatsu no Yoru no Yume), which shared a double bill and several plot elements with CLAMP’s Tsubasa Chronicle, a TV series followed in 2006.