X

X (1996) **

Reviewed 4/7/00

Famed Japanese anime director Rintaro's X tells the tale of Kamui Shirô, a man destined to decide the fate of humanity. He must choose sides between powerful entities called the Dragons of the Earth, who want to wipe out humanity due to our environmental destructiveness, and the Dragons of Heaven, who want to save us. The elliptical storytelling involves the Dragons of Heaven preventing the destruction of Tokyo landmarks, which act as "shields" protecting humankind, from the Dragons of Earth. X has the striking imagery of Akira-like apocalyptic mass destruction, but is a far clumsier movie than that anime landmark. Rintaro and writer Clamp has fashioned about a dozen major characters, and unfortunately, all of them are more interesting than the hero. Rintaro's ambition is high, but his delivery is self-serious, unintentionally campy (two too many cuddlings of the heads of beheaded loved ones), and pretentious (the film starts off with Kamui confronting his nude mother who pulls a swords out of her belly). Like many anime, X suffers from trying to squeeze a large multi-volume manga tale into a medium-length feature film. While reputed to be created by an all-female animation team, X turns out no different from much other anime in its misogynistic feel (one Dragon of Heaven happens to be a stripper/prostitute who conveniently wears what looks like lingerie everywhere she goes and one Dragon of Earth sports cleavage that would put Jennifer Lopez to shame.) X is for obsessive anime devotees only.