CLAMP, it could be argued, have never really respected their characters. It's a pity, because so many of their characters and series have such amazing potential and are interesting as they are, but the stories surrounding them and the ultimate resolution of the plot are often badly-handled. In particular, CLAMP tend to do at least a passable job on series and then essentially black flag them on the last lap, ruining the entire work by way of a poor attempt at an ending.This is both the strongest and weakest aspect of X, as a film: it is blessedly brief. If it were any longer, it might develop the characters and make it infuriating that none of them really manage to survive. So in that respect, it's good that it is so condensed. But on the other hand, it's a pity that none of the fights, while interesting, are anything close to being impressive struggles. It's just some random people with interesting character designs in mortal combat. A character's final battle should be their most impressive, but that doesn't happen here. More or less all of the fights are brief, unexceptional, and confusing. And since we have no real emotional investment in any of them (aside from some hasty tries at back-building emotional connection with some of them as they're shuffled off), there's absolutely no tension whatsoever whether or not they'll survive.It's also a pity that there isn't more buildup or more development of the circumstances. Too much time is spent on Kamui, and yet he doesn't manage to be compelling or sympathetic, just bland. Things happen simply because the script dictates, which is a common weakness in CLAMP works, rather than them actually having any seeming logical prompt. Kamui appears in a cape and flies around Tokyo upon his return for a good half-hour, for no good reason. Fuuma, despite his reasonable demeanour, immediately starts thinking he's Kamui and displays the most incomprehensible moustache-twirling villain psychoses. Where did any of this come from? Nothing in the plot led up to this; it just happened without reason.There are also plenty of logical errors. Arashi draws a sword from her body without any detrimental effect, yet Kamui's mother (who for some reason must be nude and has vast, spherical breasts) and Kotori are both killed by the exact same thing. Hinoto says she cannot see, hear, or speak, yet Kanoe speaks aloud to her and she clearly hears and understands. Fuuma nonchalantly knocks off a few people without any motivation to do so. Nobody has thought to question the massive electrical drain BEAST must present. Likewise, not a soul has questioned the gathering of a bunch of random people in an extremely important part of the government building. The questions of destiny, choice, and strength are reduced to window-dressing by a group of people who only ever arbitrarily do anything.Kotori is pulled into a dream and runs out from it, only to receive real damage, yet when Fuuma very clearly stabs Kamui, nothing actually happens and the animation becomes awkwardly stilted as Fuuma vanishes. What was that about? Satsuki's relationship with BEAST is also not well-defined, and its actions toward her are completely at odds with what a computer system would logically do -- which is, to act logically -- and makes the whole thing smack of 'because I said so' scripting. Kigai is in the film and has his characteristic weapon, yet his powers are given to a movie-only character who never appears anywhere else. Could they not have planned this a bit better? There's some grotesque content which is clearly included simply to satisfy the preferences of its genre when it was made, which is to say over-the-top violence, blood, apocalyptic scenarios, and boobs. X satisfies all of these in abundance, and in many cases without legitimate justification. It ends up detracting from the scenario, rather than enhancing it.And the less said about the 'ultimate showdown', the better. As anticlimactic as all of the fights are during the film, the last is the least interesting of them all. The ending itself is laughably melodramatic and manages to piddle away what little was built up by that point.It's a shame, because the Japanese voice acting is excellent, the music is evocative (except 'Forever Love', now marred irreparably by the surviving group members reuniting to exploit their past popularity), and the visuals are stunning. The animation is so smooth and so polished, so detailed, so painstakingly created. Everything but the actual plot came through, and that's especially a shame with something that has the potential to be interesting. Watching it, it's enjoyable only if the viewer completely switches off his mind and lets the images wash over him. The lack of cohesive plot or cultivation of any attachment to the characters enables this, at least, but it doesn't make for a good film.In short, X is roughly tantamount to all of the blood-and-guts-and-boobs OVA productions that were so popular for American anime distributors to release in the 80s and 90s. Take any one of those and up the budget, and you have X. It's got violence, it's got blood, it's got a vaguely-defined apocalypse with a bizarre melange of various religions, and it's got boobs. It's not surprising that this was released in the US, and it's even less surprising that some people were all over it. It's practically tailor-made for the US anime market.As for the rest of us, the things it omitted were a bit too insurmountable, chiefest of all being what every film really should have.That is, a coherent plot.

I have read a lot of mangas and a seen a lot of animes... And X is my favorite one...and everything started with this movie. It has a beautiful animation, charismatic characters, and a story that runs with agility... After seeing it I discovered the manga, and in 2002 the anime series... This two are better in history than the movie itself, that's indisputable... But this movie is a very good point to start in the world of X, because is the story in a very "light" version... After seeing it,and if you really liked, you can buy the manga... Believe me: it's going to be one of the best stories you'll ever read... the only problem is that the manga is still without end (18 tankoubons and part of a 19th one), but I think is part of the emotion that involves X: the eternal sensation of "the end" that never comes. Conclusion: A good movie with a single vision of the complete story. And the end of it is very good (The shots of the exterior of the Tokyo Tower are amazing). I really suggest you this and other works from CLAMP: MKR, Tokyo Babylon, Clover, RG Veda, xxxHolic... and specially Tsubasa Chronicle, because this has a lot of clamp crossovers like Sorata and Arashi from X itself (and without their tragic destiny as lovers).

Honestly, people are unfair to this film. CLAMP (the original creators) at the time were in the middle of the amazing 'X' manga, and they created this film as an alternate telling of the story which focused primarily on the main characters (Kamui, Fuuma, and Kotori). The other characters are, regrettably, reduced to less interesting background roles, where their unique personalities do not have as much impact. This is the unfortunate circumstance of the movie, because to me, characters like Subaru, Sorata, and Kakyou (who was not even in the film at all!) are who make the 'X' manga come to life. Also, this is a remarkably long film for an anime, so I was surprised that the level of quality of the animation was kept up for a full 100 minutes and that as many of the subplots as were mentioned were included. Whenever a great manga, like 'Akira' for example, is turned into a film, a lot of the other material that make the story so wonderful is lost. However, just as in 'Akira,' the film version of 'X' creates an interesting alternate telling of the story that is accessible to many and is particularly of interest to those who have read the manga or seen the television series.There are some theories that CLAMP did not have full approval of the film, but they are completely baseless. I have looked into the matter extensively and spoken to the producer, Masao Murayama, at the 2004 Anime Expo. The film was not only made with full approval, but in addition Nanase Ohkawa, the original author of the manga and main writer of CLAMP, wrote the first draft of the screenplay. She is reported to have said at the time that it was exceedingly difficult, since she had to reduce her story (which she had been working on since middle school) down to its barest essentials. However, ultimately it was her decision to try and tell the story of Kamui and the choices he must make. That to her was the most important.Lastly, I will say that, with some knowledge of the Japanese language and a limited ability to speak and understand it, the subtitling on the official DVD released by Manga Entertainment in the states is abysmal. It is rare indeed that I see such a truly awful representation of the original dialog of an anime, and in a film like this where what is being said is VERY important, it is really unforgivable. Furthermore, the English dub is unspeakably bad. On my initial viewing of this film, I thought it was really not at all good, and the treatment of it by the U.S. distributor had a lot to do with it. However, I had the good fortune of buying the Japanese laser disc release, and upon re-watching it I realized just what a wonderful film this is, if you can give it a chance. Tomakazu Seki's acting as Kamui is second to none (to hear his delivery, especially near the end of the film, is a truly remarkable experience in hearing a master voice actor at work), the mood is dark and grim (especially if you watch the film late at night), the music is minimalist and filled with traditional Japanese instruments that help the spirit of the story, the ending credit song is performed by the ultimate in Japanese rock groups X JAPAN (and this is one of their greatest songs), and the animation is second perhaps only to 'Pinnochio' in an astounding level of detail that has not been matched since. Of all the great anime epics of the apocalypse, this is one of the most intriguing and thought-provoking, especially when the dialog is understood without the tethers of a bad dub or subtitling. Some leaps of logic are required, but if you are patient, open-minded, and especially if you are willing to read even a little of the original manga, the 'X' movie can be seen for what it really is: a fascinating portrait, an exciting look into Japanese societal worries about the then-coming millennium, and one of the greatest stories ever told by the ever-amazing CLAMP. Give this movie a chance. You won't regret it.

The series, X (known as X/1999 in America) is truly a great series. However, this movie did essentially no justice to it. If its your first time seeing any part of the series, it really wont mean anything to you, and is just plain a bad way to start a good thing.To enjoy this series to its fullest: a)read the Tokyo Babylon manga, b)see both Tokyo Babylon movies, c)read the X manga, d)see the X TV series (but watch episode zero AFTER the rest of the series), e)THEN watch the movie (it has cool scenes that weren't in the series and a MUCH better ending). If you don't do it all in that relative order, you'll really miss out on a lot.If you like the TB and X series, and want more anime/manga that is similar, I highly recommend that you should see the Neon Genesis: Evangelion series, movies, and manga (again, see the series first, and keep in mind that the movies basically replace the last two episodes of the series.Overall: I give the X movie a 6/10 because it really has minimal story, and will instantly have you lost, if you've seen nothing of it before. Otherwise, it is a pretty good anime to compliment the series, plus a much better, clearer, and actually conclusive ending.