X series/movies: what's up???

[eva-boy7985]

Hey I was wondering if I could get some feedback/opinions on X the tv series as well as the movies. I've seen various pics, trailers, and short clips of both the series and the film. The art was quite impressive, the characters look engaging, and the story sounds rather epic. Plus I believe Crispin Freeman does one of the English dub voices and he's one of my fave voice actors. However, I've seen various images concerning religious symbolism, and elements of the story (at least from the little bit I've seen) seem to concern spiritual warfare and/or things of a somewhat biblical or apocalyptic nature. I just wanted to know how good this show/movie was in terms of its quality as an anime and also regarding its content considering it seems to deal with some spiritually oriented stuff. Does it cross some dangerous lines? Let me know what's up!!!

[Rocketshipper]

wow, very nice pictures. Anyway, X is one of my all time favorite manga series and I have volumes 1-16 of the manga, the movie, and all of the TV show. Yeah your right., Crispin Freeman does play Fuma in the dub of the TV show. The movie has AWESOME animation, perhaps some of the best animation of ANY anime movie, but since it was made at a time when the manga was only up to about volume 6, the story is a little compressed and confusing. Since the final dragon of Earth hadn't been introduced in the comic yet, the movie writers had to make up one ^_^. The TV show has decent animation and follows the manga's storyline much closer. As for content, the comic and movie are both very violent and gory, although the movie slightly less so than the comic. Both of them also have some nudity. I'd say both the comic and Movie should be considered R rated. On the other hand, the series, since it was made for TV, is much less violent and gory than the comic, since there is a lot of stuff they couldn't show on TV ^_^, the nudity is also less graphic. Overall, even though Pioneer gave the show a "16 up" rating I'd argue that its content is really no worse than a PG-13 rating. As for spiritial content, it is true that the show uses a lot of religious symbolism from various places. The seven dragons, Satsuki's computer "the Beast", the star of David on Kamui's Shinken, the meaning of Kamui's name, the end of the world scenario, etc. Most of this is probably there to just look cool and doesn't factor much into the plot, especially in the movie where everything is so compressed down. But the TV show does have two aspects that are positive to Christianity that are worht mentioning. First is that one of the main characters, Karen Kasumi, is a Christian. Saying anything more specific about her character would probably be a spoiler (unless you want me to tell you) but I will say that the show doesn't look down on her faith or religion at all. A lot of other writers might have taken her story in a more cliched direction that belittled the religion but they don't here. The other thing is that the way the final battle plays out could be seen as an obvious christian metaphor. All I say is that it's similar to how Matrix Revolutions concluded ^_^. There are really only two things I can think of that people might find objectionable about the show. First, it doesn't look down on Christianity, but it doesn't look down on the other easter relgions either. Several other characters are practitioners of eastern relgions and some derive their powers from them. Sorata is a Monk, Arashi is a priestess at a Shinto shrine, and both Subaru and Seishiro are "omyoji" or japanese exorcists that use Yin-Yang magic to fight. The other thing is the relationship between Subaru and Seishiro. Many people believe that Subaru is in love with Seishiro, and although CLAMP never comes out and SAYS that it's a romantic kind of love (they love being ambigious) they certainly never do anything to discorage the idea, especially with Sei-chan asking Subaru "Am I sexy" every ten seconds in the Tokyo Babylon manga ^_^. It definitly can be taken in that way, if you want to, but you could probably just as easily believe that Subaru consideres Seishiro a REALLY close and dear friend, and that Seishiro is just being funny when he hits on Subaru (yeah, thats' it ^^;;) And now that I've brought them up I have to mention Tokyo Babylon, which is sort of the prequal to X. It's the story about Subaru and Seishiro and how they got to the point in their relationship that they are in during X. The manga is 7 volumes and there is a pretty decent 2 episode OVA of it out there, that I'd recommend getting if you decide to view some X and find you like their characters. Anyway...it looks like I wrote a lot on the subject ^^. I guess it;s because I love the series so much. CLAMP rocks!! don't be afraid to ask if you have any other questions, if I didn't answer your questions thoroughly enough, or whatever,

[eva-boy7985]

Thanks for the excellent description! It sound indeed like a pretty tight show. I'll have to check it out once I have the financial capabilities. I'm pretty open-minded regarding sprirtual stuff in anime (it is Japanese culture after all, not ours; thus they have every right to infuse their belief system into it). I just have a problem with things at times that either "poke" at Christ as a deity or utilize Christian theology but really mess it up, making it either really misleading and/or confusing (like the movie Constantine). I'm not necessarily offended by things that much that tease Christians themselves (i.e. Ned Flanders in the Simpsons) because I often find that those jests are based on fact to some degree, like gossip in the church, hypocrisy, or other "fine" examples of our doing the opposite of Christ's character throughout history; if you think about it, it's interesting that the church can at times bash and slam people (like homosexuals or other different "odd" groups) when they should be showing them Christ's love, yet when we're made fun of even in the smallest way, we freak out. What goes around comes around, really (sorry, that was my little "preach" tangent) Anyways, back to X: symbols aren't really a big deal to me all the time either unless they are in some way at the focal point of the story and are misused in some kind of "dangerous" way. Anyways, thanks so much!

[agasfas]

Well, I would suggest that you watch the TV series first before "X movie." Since I've never seen the series (yet), it took me a while to figure out what the heck was happening during the movie. I didn't really catch on until the very end. Action wise, it has tons of it. Though like Rocketshipper has explained, the movie is quite gory.

Personally, it was average.

[Kaori]

I also would definitely recommend watching the TV series before the movie, if you even watch the movie at all. The series is a high-quality show, and it is significantly cleaner than the manga. I personally do not think that the movie is even truly worth watching, but there are others who would disagree with me.

If you are interested in the manga, it does explain some things more fully than the anime, so it might be worthwhile to read if you enjoy the anime. Just be aware that, as Rocketshipper mentioned, the manga contains a fair amount of nudity, some of which is graphic. Also, both the violence and the yaoi/yuri elements in the manga were toned down for the TV series.

[Rocketshipper]

I think the movie is worth a viewing just to see all the pretty imagery and animation, but you definitly shouldn't see it until you at least have some idea of who all the characters are and what the story is about, cause you'll probably be lost without that. I saw the movie before I read any of the manga or seen the Tv series, so I was a little confused.

I'd say that the X TV show has about the same level of "Yaoi" as the manga, my point was that whether or not it's really "yaoi" at all is up for debate, because CLAMP likes to be ambigious and they never come out and specificly say whether or not Subaru loves Seishiro in that way or if it's a deep friendship kind of love. Most of the obvious Yaoi stuff (just about all of it from Seishiro) really only comes up in the Tokyo Babylon manga, and even that ends up having a different reason behind it (although that would be a spoiler ^^)

Edit: there was one other thing I was going to mention that I forgot to type here before. I was kind of in a rush when I was typing this earlyer. Anyway, I remembered one more thing that some people might consider objectionable content, although I had no problem with it (I thought it was really cute) and thats the romantic pairing between Yuziriha Nekoi and Shiyu Kusanagi (I think Shiyu is his first name anyway ^^) The thing that people might find objectionable is the fact that Yuziriha is 14 and Kusanagi is, by most estimates, about 28. Of course if their relationship was any further along than simple hand-holding then it definitly would be a little freaky, but Kusanagi is WAAAY too nice to ever do anything and Yuziriha is all sugarey energy and innocense, so it's all good, plus this is CLAMP and for all their ambigious possible yaoi and gory violence they are pretty conservative when it comes to the mechanics of the actull relationships. The ONLY CLAMP manga I can think of that has even a kiss in it is Chobits, and I think I remember hearing that they refused to let Sakura and Li kiss in Cardcaptor Sakura because they thought it would give their younger readers ideas ^_^.

[Kaori]

Yes, the animation is probably the best thing about the movie, although some people also seem to like the soundtrack. My main complaint (and a rather common one) was that the movie did not at all do justice to the storyline. I generally do not watch movies for the sake of animation alone, but I suppose it would be worthwhile for people who would do such a thing.

Let me explain in more detail what I meant about the yaoi/yuri elements in the manga. Although it's true that none of the relationships are explicitly yaoi, there are quite a few overtones. Not all of these examples are truly spoilers, but I will put them all in brackets to be safe.

[spoiler]1. The relationship between Kamui and Fuma. Even in the anime it could be interpreted as a shonen-ai type relationship, even though it is clear that Kamui is/was in love with Kotori. In addition to Fuma licking Kamui's blood, which is also in the anime and is disturbing on any level, there are a number of lines in the manga that could be considered innuendo, like when Fuma talks about wanting to "play with" Kamui.

2. Sorata is also clearly heterosexual, but in the manga he does tease Kamui for having a pretty face.

3. The manga makes it clear that Fuma's mother (Saya?) was in love with Kamui's mother, Toru, and married Fuma's father just for the sake of being near Toru. In Kotori's dream she says that she was punished for marrying someone she did not truly love. To me, that is very clearly a yuri relationship, even though very little space is devoted to it in the manga. (It is in volume 7, by the way.)[/spoiler]

Once again, it is true that with the exception of that last example, none of the relationships could be said to be unambiguously homosexual. However, it seemed to me that the manga did contain more suggestions of that type of relationship than the anime, even though it never became explicit. Even if you view some of it as just "joking around," there is still a higher degree of innuendo, suggestion, hinting, debatable material, ambiguity, obfuscation, etc. in the manga than in the TV series. The manga often does not go beyond hinting, but the anime does not even do that much.

I will also add that I would not want to interpret a relationship as being yaoi or shonen-ai simply because there are hints of it. Obviously, I would prefer that every character be heterosexual. However, I think that in some cases the evidence is more clearly to the contrary, and in such instances I do not perform mental gymnastics in an attempt to argue that the people involved are "just good friends." There are ways of portraying friendship without making it seem as if the friends have homosexual inclinations.

[daveedo]

I do like X alot... I have been reading the manga... i saw the movie first though. that was a mistake i didnt understand anything... and ... I think it just wasn't very well done. The TV series was excellent and had some beautiful music =)I believe there was some pretty intense violence.. maybe a little blood shed.. There is also some jewish mysticism tossed in from what I have seen... anyways I would really recommend waiting to see the movie until you have a background in the series.. =)

[Rocketshipper]

YAY for the X movie soundtrack. "Forever Love" is one an awesome ending theme!

Yeah, I guess I totally forgot about the thing between Toru and Kotori's mother, so yeah, the manga does have more homosexual overtone stuff. Since they only really talked about it in like 1 volume nd I havn't read any of them since the first time I bought them, It slipped my mind ^^. But I don't really think Sorata's comments about Kamui have anything to do with sexual orientation, but more with Kamui's general Bishounen-ness (is that a word?) Some of Fuma's lines are a little weird ("This is the heart. I could cut it out, carve it up. Perhaps it would be best if I ate it" ok...O_O) but as you mentioned, Kamui obviously likes Kotori and Fuma only shows these weirdo tendancies AFTER his transformation, so I never saw it as anything more than CLAMP just teasing it's female readers. Another good example of CLAMP's tendency to tease is in Suki Dakara Suki where most of the manga seems to be hinting that two male characters are in a romantic relationship but then it turns out to be nothing of the sort. I think the Kamui/Fuma stuff probably falls into that category.

[eva-boy7985]

Everything sounds really informative and well worth being discretionary about. I think the best thing I can do is maybe just rent the first disc of the tv series to see if I like, and most importantly, just pray about it. The way I see it, even if a story has a powerful theme/message to it, the characters rock, and the art is great, if there's any feeling of uncertainty or hesitancy, it's best to just pray about it. Thanks guys!

[Rocketshipper]

the Episode 0 OVA, which was included on the first DVD, is kind of a recap of the main points in the TV series (although since it came first it isn't really a "recap" ^^) That would probably be a good way to get a feel for the series, although if you totally want to avoid spoilers you probably it probably wouldn't be good to watch. But you have a place where you can rent the X DVDs? That's not fair! I can barely find anywhere that rents anime where I live, if I want to try something I have to buy it or borrow it from someone else.

[Rocketshipper]

plus this is CLAMP and for all their ambigious possible yaoi and gory violence they are pretty conservative when it comes to the mechanics of the actull relationships.

lol, I must ammend that statement, because I just remembered something else, in X no less, that contradicts that. Still, for the most part, relationships rarely go farther than hand holding in a CLAMP story and I still think Yuziriha/Kusinagi is super cute shipping ^^

[eva-boy7985]

Yeah the Hastings we have here has tons of anime. Seriously, if I've ever been interested in trying out a new series, I don't think I've run into a time yet where they didn't have at the least the first disc! They keep things really up to date. That's how I usually buy anime: I rent the first disc or talk to someone that knows alot about the series in question. If I like it, then I decided to buy the rest of it. Yeah right now cash is somewhat scarce cuz I'm saving for a con i'm going to, but I'll check out X probably after all that's over. Thanks!