X (1996 film)

After his mother dies to create a "Sacred Sword" to seal it into his body, a young man named Kamui Shiro goes back to his hometown Tokyo to understand his fate. As he arrives, he learns of a current war between two factions known as the Dragons of the Heavens and the Dragons of the Earth who seek the survival of mankind and nature, respectively. Shortly after Kamui's arrival, Subaru Sumeragi from the Heavens and Seishirō Sakurazuka from the Earth kill each other, resulting in a moment in the destruction of part of the city. Kamui meets his childhood friends Fuma Monou and Kotori Monou whom he came back to protect, but he and Fuma start suffering visions when seeing each other. Kamui is then attacked by the Dragons of Earth but is saved by the ones from the Heavens. As this happens Kotori is kidnapped by a woman named Kanoe while Fuma follows her.

Kamui is contacted by Princess Hinoto, Kanoe's sister, who seeks to recruit Kamui into the Dragons of Heavens to protect mankind from this war. Kamui refuses to take such responsibility but remains concerned about Fuma and Kotori. Kanoe meets Fuma and recognizes him as the "other Kamui" who could replace the other and join the Dragons of Earth. Seichiro Aoki and Karen Kasumi from the Heavens face Nataku and Shōgo from the Earth respectively but all four fighters are murdered. Fearing Kotori and Fuma possibly being killed by the Dragons of Earth, Kamui joins the Dragons of Heavens alongside the members Arashi Kishū, Sorata Arisugawa and Yuzuriha Nekoi to face their Dragons of Earth. Upon meeting a man named Kusanagi Shiyū from the Earth, Kamui tries to get him to tell him Kotori and Fuma's whereabouts but he tries to kill him alongside Yuzuriha. As this happens, Kamui suffers visions again and Yuzuriha is killed in a battle with Yūto and Kusanagi while protecting Kamui. Fuma finds Kamui and murders Kusanagi alongside Yuto later on.

Fuma then kills Kotori as her body contains another Sacred Sword to wield in the war. The continuous deaths of the Dragons of Heavens cause the destruction of more areas from Tokyo. Before dying from the falling debris, Hinoto transports Kamui to a safe area to protect mankind. Fuma then attempts to kill Kamui who is unwilling to fight his friend. Eventually, Kamui is forced to unseal his own Sacred Sword and beheads Fuma. Despite being the winner of the war, Kamui is completely grief-stricken over what transpired and cries while holding Fuma's head in the remains of Tokyo.

Rintaro directed the movie. He was requested by the editorial Kadokawa Shoten for unknown reasons, which he believes it was due to his work on Harmageddon, a 1983 film that employs different themes from the X manga. He aimed Asami Watanabi's script as a base to develop scenes of his liking. Based on the style he employed, Rintaro expected that multiple viewers would reject his work as the narrative gave Kamui a tragic ending which would impact people's personal taste. X was the first time Rintaro worked with Clamp which he found to be a unique experience. Since the manga was not finished, the script was made with Ohkawa's help to create a completely alternative story. He aimed the film to be a self-contained story and thus multiple subplots had to be removed from the source material. He often discussed this with Ohkawa who created the first script which Madhouse use to adapt. In retrospective, Rintaro is glad with how the movie was completed, specifically due to the focus on fight scenes.^[1] The film was written to be as simple as possible.^[2][3]

The characters were designed by Nobuteri Yuki while the music was produced by Yasuaki Shimizu.^{[citation needed]} X was the first time Rintaro used computer animation in his career.^[4] The character Shogo Asagi was created exclusively to the movie.^[5] Kadokawa Shoten editor Seichiro Aoki supervised the film which gave a large surprise when learning that one of the characters was modeled after him but written in different Japanese characters. His job was also making sure the characters were nearly identical to manga's original style.^[6] Meanwhile, Clamp were asked for help by Rintaro who wanted to properly dress Karen.^[7]

The film was given a limited release in the United States in early 2000 and released to VHS and DVD on September 25, 2001 by Manga Entertainment.^[8][9] X: The Destiny War, a comic book based on the feature film, was released on September 30, 1996. The X Japan song "Forever Love", composed by Yoshiki, was chosen as the film's theme song.^[10][11] "Forever Love" also appears on the soundtrack of the film.^[12]

The X Character Files (キャラクターファイル, Kyarakutā Fairu) were released from June 1996 to December 1996 by Victor Entertainment. The seven audio dramas, scripted by Nanase Ohkawa, focus on the thoughts and motivations of the individual Dragons of Heaven and Earth. The Character Files are performed by the feature film voice actors. They were created to promote the film version of the manga.^[13]