amui Shirou left Tokyo as a child in the company of his mother. He
returns to the city as a tormented young adult. In spite of his
horrific messianic visions, which claim his psychic powers will become
crucial in an earth-shattering cosmic war, Kamui insists that his only
interest is protecting his childhood friends Fuma and Kotori. Shrugging off
all appeals to his better nature and his divine power, he simply repeats
his broken-record mantra: he intends to protect his friends.
But when Fuma and Kotori disappear, Kamui's forced to listen at least briefly to the people who claim to be his allies. The Earth, Kamui is told,
is protected by seven power shields tied to seven Tokyo buildings. The
seven members of the Dragons of Heaven protect the sites, but the seven
members of the Dragons of the Earth mean to destroy them. If the shields
are destroyed, the Dragons of the Earth can consume the Earth and eliminate
humanity. After Kamui witnesses the death of one Dragon from each side, a
blind, childlike Dragon of Heaven named Hinoto tells him that she has been
watching his dreams and that he is meant to replace the fallen member of their
team. Kamui refuses, insisting his only interest is in finding and rescuing
Fuma and Kotori.
Meanwhile, Kotori is in a deep sleep in a nebulous womb-like place,
while the Dragons of the Earth approach Fuma and tell him he is Kamui's
"twin star," his ideal opposite, meant to join one team of Dragons or the
other to oppose whichever team Kamui joins. Hinoto's sister Kanoe shows
Fuma a series of visions, explaining that the Earth is dying because of
humanity's abuses and that humanity has to disappear completely before the
planet can be healed. In theory, the stage is set for an apocalyptic
showdown between the opposing forces, with two good friends facing each other in
a battle to the death. In practice, most of the set--along with the
props, the characters and half the script--is still missing.
Contradictory confrontations
X is based on a lengthy manga series by the four-woman team
CLAMP, the talent behind Tokyo Babylon and Magic Knight
Rayearth, among others. This curtailed adaptation reduces good guys and
bad guys alike to a series of tick marks on a cosmic ledger. One by one,
the Dragons on both sides dutifully step up to the plate to defend or
attack the remaining shield-sites. Their battles are graphic and glorious,
but also impersonal. By mid-film, it's painfully clear that
the war is destined to come down to the heavily foreshadowed combat between
Fuma and Kamui, although neither one seems interested in the struggle,
right up until the killing starts.
Few of the Dragons evince personalities beyond the most basic
hero/villain stereotypes, and in the crowd of underused but overpowered
warriors, even the most distinctive personalities don't get much screen
time. Kamui and Fuma in particular are like robots, marching mechanically
toward an epic confrontation neither of them wants. With a more detailed
plot, more involved back story or more gradual pacing, this might have
been a powerful story about the rigors of inescapable duty and destiny.
Instead, it's just ridiculously cluttered and self-contradictory.
X may baffle newcomers and disappoint longtime series fans, but
it will still command a certain amount of fascination among animation
buffs. The glossy, hyper-detailed backgrounds (art director Suichi Hirata
also did background design for Ghost in the Shell) and richly symbolic dream
sequences are an artist's delight. The entire film is a showcase for flashy,
bold images of exquisitely complex moving surfaces--water, electricity,
fire. The many dream sequences and visions only make the
plot more confusing, but they also open up the path for powerhouse
scenarios unlimited by any form of reality. It's a pity the script
couldn't provide an anchor for the gorgeous visual flights of fancy.
