‘X: 1999’ a trip into an apocalyptic future
■ Thejapaneseanime
feature film explores the
beginning of the end of the
physical and spiritual worlds
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Not being an aficionado of ani
me — in fact, having only seen
clips here and there of the Japan
ese animation craft — I didn’t ful
ly know what to expect before
watching “X: 1999,” the newest
offering from Manga Entertain
ment and director Rintaro.
Now that I have seen at least one
solid example of the art, all I can
say is, “Wow, that was weird.”
But, weird in a good way.
The 59-year-old Rintaro is con
sidered to be one of the top anime
artists in the industry, beginning
his professional career in 1958 by
working on “White Snake Leg
end,” the first ever Japanese ani
mated feature film. Rintaro — a
pseudonym for Shigeyuki
Hayashi — also worked with ani
me legend Osamu Tezuka, direct
ing TV episodes of “Astro Boy”
and “Kimba the White Lion. ”
Rintaro directed his first ani
mated feature film, “Galaxy Ex
press 1999,” in 1979, and has
since directed six others.
If none of this press kit informa
tion — you don’t think I just know
this stuff off the top of my head, do
you? — registers in your memory
cells or recognition bank, that’s
OK. You don’t have to be a huge
fan of Rintaro’s nor an expert in
anime to appreciate the lush,
dreamy lookof“X.”
The story is set in 1999, the Year
of Destiny, a time that some seers
call the beginning of the end of the
world. The main character, Kamui
Shiro, receives a message from his
mother during a dream sequence
that a battle between two oppos
. , ■ . . courtesy of Manga Entertainment
Hinoto, the dreamwatcher, is afraid for the future of humanity, and rightly so — opposing forces struggle for a pure universe.
ing armies — Dragons of the Earth
and Dragons of Heaven — will de
cide the fate of Earth, more specifi
cally Tokyo.
Kamui, whose name means
God’s Power (he’s called the
Promised One at one point in the
film), must decide whether to al
low civilization to be destroyed,
therefore purifying the universe,
or to protect civilization. There are
seven dragons from each side,
with the Earth representatives fill
ing in as the baddies, and the
Heaven contingent — directly
from the seven stars of the Big Dip
per — trying to save Earth.
All of you negative population
folks out there will cheer when
one character says, “If mankind is
eliminated, the Earth will sur
vive.” And down-to-earth types
might hoot when another says,
“Mankind, so vain and self-im
portant. My eyes look way beyond
the future of mankind. ”
Kamui’s dilemma is which side
to fight for, but similar to all of
your basic Evil vs. Good dramas,
there are more twists and turns
here than any daytime soap opera.
That isn’t to imply that “X” is in
sipid, just that there are a lot of
dream sequences and maybe one
or two corny cases of “Aha! I
fooled you; this is the real me.”
Most of that silliness comes
from the scenes with Hinoto and
Kanoe, two sisters and oracles
who can foresee the future. To add
even more suspense and head-to
head competition, each one pre
dicts a different outcome. Oy vey,
does it ever get confusing.
In addition to the basic premise
of survival and caretaking of the
Earth, “X” also explores the role
that technology might play in the
ultimate destruction or salvation
of the universe. That’s no big sur
prise, since Rintaro has said in in
terviews that he likes a good game
of “Final Fantasy VII” every once
in a while.
Oddly though, this film is Rin
taro’s first foray into computer an
imation. His other films have been
hand-drawn — which is amazing
in today’s byte-dominated world
— and with nothing else to com
pare, Rintaro’s leap into the mod
ern world is a success.
The true kudos go to Japan’s an
imation studio Clamp, however,
which is run by four female ani
mators. The attention to detail, es
pecially to the softer features — in
fact, most of the characters in “X”
could be described as androgy
nous — is remarkable.
Fans of the Disney-oriented ani
mation may not appreciate the
look of “X.” In a recent interview,
Rintaro admitted that his genera
tion of animators were heavily in
fluenced by Walt and associates.
Yet, he also said he wasn’t “so
keen about Disney’s work and had
a different idea.”
Therefore, this movie is some
what similar to a Disney flick —
well, that is, if Walt’s animators
had taken two doses of hallucino
genic instead of just one.
Overall, “X” is rife with symbol
ism and suggestions of a deeper
meaning to our subconsciousness.
One character asks the age-old
question, “Do dreams really tell us
what we maybe?”
“X” opens Friday at the Bijou
Art Cinema, 492 East 13th Ave.
Showtime is 11 p.m. nightly.
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