What Is the X Movie?
A beautiful, brutal trailer for a story that did not exist yet, with an ending invented because a film must end.
The X feature film premiered in Japan on 3 August 1996, directed by Rintaro at Madhouse and co-scripted by CLAMP's Nanase Ohkawa. At that point the manga was less than half published, so the film does what it must: it takes the premise, the cast, and the mood, compresses them into 97 minutes, and finishes the apocalypse itself.
American audiences met it in a limited theatrical release in early 2000 and on DVD from Manga Entertainment on 25 September 2001, under the title X/1999.
THE MAKING
Rintaro’s TokyoPhotographed first
Rintaro sent teams of photographers across Tokyo to capture the film’s real locations from every angle, and the painting departments spent months reproducing them, down to the telescopes and city maps on the Tokyo Tower observation deck where the film ends.
The designs
Character designs are by Nobuteru Yuki, translating Mokona’s ornate figures into some of the most admired animation drawing of the decade. Music is by Yasuaki Shimizu.
Forever Love
The theme song is X Japan’s Forever Love, written by Yoshiki. The song later turned up in a 2001 campaign advertisement for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, an odd second life for an apocalypse ballad.
THE DIFFERENCES
What the film changesA smaller cast
The Dragons are reduced to supporting players; the film is the tragedy of Kamui, Fuma, and Kotori only. Kakyo the dreamgazer is absent entirely, replaced by Shogo Asagi, a water master created for the film.
An ending of its own
In the film, every Dragon of Heaven and Earth dies, and the last battle leaves Kamui and Fuma alone. Kamui kills Fuma, breaking his blade and cutting through his neck, and the film closes on Kamui weeping over his best friend among falling cherry petals. None of this is the manga’s ending; the manga has none.
The verdict of time
Reviews then and since agree on the shape of it: a technical showcase of cel-era craft whose plot assumes you already know these people. It plays best as a companion to the manga, which is how this shelf files it.