Chaos. Blood. Decapitation. All of these are in X/1999. But why is this such a great movie? I, most of all, was thrilled with the concept of ‘end-of-the-world’ themes based on a single perspective. How’s that? The world ending is only the setting. The story is in fact about Kamui and his dilemna of choosing whether to save the Earth or not. You might say, that’s easy. Any GOOD guy would choose to save the Earth. Well, I was the first time wrong about that. Kamui holds a heavy burden. Whatever he chooses might bring about a frightening result.

CLAMP paints a very good picture of the setting. Nowhere have you seen visions of the Earth’s salvation or destruction in a not too frightening light. The visual imagery is just stunning that the looking at the world end could even be beautiful. The characterization is also at its finest. Kamui Shirou is the focus of this movie but he is not at all perfect. And CLAMP adds a great supporting cast representing the Two Dragons. There are 7 on each side and I bet that because they have their own funny and touching side backgrounds, you will have a favorite. Mine are the beatiful sword-wielding warrior Arashi and the handsome Sorata. And as I’ve enjoyed magical battle and sword fights, you’ll never get enough from this one.

Or will you? Because the main flaw of this movie is that several volumes of the manga have been condensed into one and a half hours that a lot of the details have been missed. Most especially the side stories of the supporting cast. Don’t worry though. This is not like Angel Sanctuary (Tenshi Kinyouku) which seemed like they just caught 3 episodes out of a hat and showed them. This is one is just well… too condensed! And I want more!

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 9; Story 10; Characters 8; Sounds 8

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2001 at 6:43 pm and is filed under X/1999, Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.