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X/1999, an early work of the hit all female manga-ka group CLAMP, details the apocalypse in a very literal adaptation of the Book of Revelation. The manga has yet to be completed, but it has been adapted a movie (X/1999 or X: The Destiny War) and an anime TV series.
The manga is published in North America in English by Viz Communications. In Singapore, it is called "X" and is published in English by Chuang Yi.
Plot description
The story is set in Tokyo. Six people, most of them young people raised in temples, and all with magical powers, converge on the city. They are prepared to do battle as the "Seven Seals," the "Dragons of Heaven," to save the human race against a rival group (the Dragons of Earth or Seven Angels/Harbingers/Minions) who wish to destroy the human race in order to reverse the devastation of the environment.
Tokyo, it emerges, is the nexus of magical energy that protects the human race. It is itself protected by seven barriers, namely buildings such as the Japanese Diet building and Tokyo Tower. By defeating each of the Seven Seals and destroying the barrier fields they can generate, the Dragons of Earth intend to destroy the magical protection and thus the human race.
A seventh young person, Kamui, has been sent to Tokyo by the last words of his mother, who burned to death in their home in Okinawa. He meets the other members of the Seven Seals. In conferring with Princess Hinoto, a mysterious seer who resides in the Diet building, he discovers that it is his choice whether to become a Dragon of Earth or a Dragon of Heaven.
After much confusion and soul-searching, he decides to become a Dragon of Heaven, so as to protect the happiness of his childhood friends, Fuuma and his sister Kotori. But he is horrified to discover that Fuuma -- his "twin star" -- is "awakened" by his choice into becoming a "second Kamui." He kills his sister and becomes a Dragon of Earth, whom Kamui must destroy if the human race is to be saved.
Battles ensue, and a number of the Dragons of Heaven must kill their love interests and otherwise win pyrrhic victories. Fuuma destroys them one by one, in deeply ironic and tragic ways, by granting their inmost wishes.
All the Dragons of Heaven are eventually defeated, and their barrier fields fall; likewise, all the Dragons of Earth are put out of the fight -- all but Kamui and Fuuma. They fight in a great climatic battle at Tokyo Tower.
All seems lost when Fuuma runs Kamui through. However, Fuuma, as a granter of wishes, cannot prevent Kamui from realizing his inmost wish: to live on in Fuuma's heart. With Kamui dead, Fuuma ceases to be a Dragon of Earth. Kamui's barrier field, never before seen, expands over the whole earth, preserving humankind.
Characters
Dragons of Heaven (Ten no Ryū)/Seven Seals
- Shirou Kamui (Shirō Kamui): a young, brooding man, who possesses powerful magic which manifested at an early age. He is a childhood friend of Fuuma and Kotori. His mother burned to death as a spirit sacrifice to postpone the earth and humanity's impending doom (caused by global warming).
- KishuuArashi (Kishū Arashi): a foundling girl raised by Shinto priests at the Ise Shrine. Called the "Hidden Priestess Of Ise" her speciality is swordfighting. Sorata falls in love with her, and she comes to reciprocate. But she is convinced by Fuuma that she must kill Kamui in order to release Sorata from his obligation to defend him. In so doing, she ends up causing the death of her lover.
- Arisugawa Sorata (Arisugawa Sorata): an upbeat, irreverent teenager raised by the Buddhist monks of Mt. Kouya and also possessing considerable magical abilities. It was prophecied that he would protect Kamui but die for a woman; indeed, he is dies defending Arashi from Fuuma's sword, despite her earlier attempts to kill Kamui.
- Kasumi Karen (Kasumi Karen): A prostitute and devout Catholic, she was abused by her fundamentalist mother when her power to manipulate fire manifested in her childhood. She comes to admire Aoki, and loses her life saving him from Yuuto.
- Nekoi Yuzuriha (Nekoi Yuzuriha): A fourteen-year-old schoolgirl, attended by a dog-spirit named Inuki who can transform into a sword and which only Dragons of Heaven and Earth can see. Inuki is later killed by Satsuki, but reborn. Yuzuriha falls in love with Kusanagi.
- Sumeragi Subaru (Sumeragi Subaru): A character imported from the earlier brief series Tokyo Babylon. He is a member of a clan of spiritual detectives, and a master with Taoist spell cards. His sister, Hokuto, was killed by his lover, Seishiro. He intends to allow Seishirou to kill him as well, but due to a spell cast by Hokuto at the moment of her death, he kills Seishiro instead. This final blow sends him into catatonia, from which he only emerges in time to contribute to the battle between Fuuma and Kamui.
- Seiichirou Aoki (Aoki Seiichirō, not to be confused with Seishirou): a mild-mannered copy editor with a wife and child, who is also a wind magician. Upon discovering that the battle between the Seals and Angels is at hand, he secretly divorces his wife in order to spare her grief should he be killed. He impresses Karen, who eventually dies saving him. He is a wind master, with the ability to conjure and control wind currents.
Other characters on the side of the Dragons of Heaven
- Princess Hinoto: a dreamseer in the employ of the Japanese government residing in the basement of the Japanese Diet Building. She is blind, deaf and lame and must communicate telepathically, but her dreams have never failed to come true. She foresees the battle between the Dragons of Earth and Heaven and the advent of Kamui, but cannot determine which path he will choose. Either way, she foresees that the Dragons of Heaven will lose, but conceals this from them. For a time, she is possessed by her dark half, which causes a disastrous battle. In the end, she kills herself to end her possession and save Kamui. This precipitates the final battle.
- Souhi and Hien: a pair of twin girls whose family has served Hinoto for generations as her guardians. They refer to Hinoto as princess.
- Daisuke Saiki (Saiki Daisuke): Seiichirou's nephew and also a wind magician, though not of Seiichirou's calibre. Saiki and Kamui do not get along very well, with Saiki not completely convinced that Kamui is the one humanity's fate rests with. Saiki lives to protect Hinoto, whom he seems to have affections for. He was decapitated by Fuuma while protecting Hinoto.
- Kotori Monou (Mōno Kotori): Fuuma's younger sister. A delicate child with a severe heart condition, she was developing her power as a dreamseer when she is killed by Fuuma. Her spirit stays with Kakyou for a time, to tell him that the future is not yet determined.
- Saya Monou (Mōno Saya): Kotori and Fuuma's mother. When they were children, she died giving birth to the first Divine Sword (Shinken) bursts forth from her body. This sword is intended to be wielded by Kamui; instead, it is stolen by Nataku and taken by Fuma.
- Tohru Shirou/Tohru Magami (Shirō Tōru / Magami Tōru): Kamui's mother. She burns to death in a fire in attempt to protect the earth long enough to postpone Kamui's destiny from occurring. Originally, she was supposed to give birth to the first Shinken, but Saya took her place.
- Tokiko Magami(Magami Tokiko): Kamui's aunt, Tohru's younger sister. After meeting with Kamui, she dies giving birth to the second Shinken, which Kamui will eventually wield.
- Kyougo Monou (Mōno Kyōgo): Fuuma and Kotori's father, he marries Saya, even when he knows she loves Tohru. He protects the first Shinken, hidden at the Togakushi Shrine, with his life and is killed by Nataku as a result.
- Hokuto Sumeragi (Sumeragi Hokuto): Subaru's twin sister, who was killed by Seishirou several years ago. She appears in Kakyou's dreams, and along with Kotori, persuades him to turn against Fuuma.
Dragons of Earth (Chi no Ryū)/Seven Harbingers (Angels, Minions)
- Fuuma Monou (Mōno Fūma): a dear friend of Kamui's, tall and athletic, who has sworn to protect him. His dying father tells him that he is Kamui's twin star. Accordingly, when Kamui chooses the Dragons of Heaven, Fuuma is forced to become a Dragon of Earth, immediately attacking Kamui and killing Kotori. He proceeds to grant wishes to the characters with whom he interacts, in a way that leads to their death or that of a loved one.
- Kakyou Kuzuki (Kuzuki Kakyō'): a dreamseer in a permanent coma, appearing as a tall man with a sad expression and long, pale hair. He is coerced into manipulating Hinoto, but finally turns against Fuuma.
- Satsuki Yatouji (Yatōji Satsuki): a young woman with a preternatural ability to interact with computers. She is an extreme rationalist, and attacks Yuzuriha when she cannot explain why killing humans is wrong. She spends much of her time physically attached to a massive supercomputer named the Beast, through whom she can physically control cables across Tokyo, using them to attack. She develops feelings for Yuuto; this causes the Beast to become jealous and kill her.
- Yuuto Kigai (Kigai Yūto): a water master, a polite but largely amoral bureaucrat in a sexual relationship with Kanoe. He sees Satsuki as a sort of protégée and attempts to educate her about emotions. He is killed by Aoki and Karen, but not before mortally wounding Karen.
- Nataku: a sexless clone of extreme magical ability. It is sent to retrieve the Shinken from Fuuma's father, killing him, and later battles Karen and Aoki. After Fuuma is badly wounded by the spell Sorata casts as he dies, he absorbs Nataku's lifeforce into his own and is healed.
- Seishirou Sakurazuka (Sakurazuka Seishirō): Subaru's ex-lover, who killed his sister. An assassin called the Sakurazukamori, his clan serves a demonic cherry tree, doomed to kill to feed it, but to be killed by and pass the curse on to the one they love. Thus it happens, and he passes the curse on to Subaru.
- Kusanagi Shiyuu (Shiyū Kusanagi): an soldier who meets Yuzuriha and takes a shine to her. He is the least anti-social of the Dragons of Heaven, and eventually turns against them. He is grievously wounded by Arashi, who was attacking Yuzuriha. He is telepathically linked to the plants and animals of the earth.
- Shogo Asagi (Asagi Shōgo): A character who appears only in the movie to complete the numbers of the Dragons of Earth in the place of Kakyou Kuzuki, who had not yet been introduced in the manga. He's a smart aleck teenager as brash and cocky as Sorata and a water master (Yuuto's ability to control water had also not yet been revealed in the manga).
Other characters on the side of the Chi no Ryū
- Kanoe: Princess Hinoto's younger sister, who supports the Dragons of Heaven mainly to spite her. She can enter and leave dreams like Hinoto and Kakyou, but cannot see the future. She works as a secretary in the Tokyo Metropolitan Building for the Japanese Governor.
List of seiyu(2001 Television series)
Theatrical Film
An X/1999 theatrical film directed by Rintaro was released in Japanese theaters in 1996. Because the manga was less than half complete at the time of the film's conception, many elements of the plot and characters were simplified, and the primary focus of the story became the build up toward the final battle between Kamui and Fuma. As a result of this simplification, most of the characters receive little to no on screen development. Over all, the film is regarded more for its highly artistic fight scenes than its representation of the plot. The ending theme, "Forever Love", was composed and performed by the Japanese group X Japan, also commonly referred to as X.
The X/1999 film received a U.S. theatrical and DVD release in 2001, courtesy of Manga Entertainment.
List of seiyuu(1996 Motion Picture)
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