X

(TV Series)

Episodes reviewed: 0-24

X TV Series

What: The Dragon of Earth and the Dragon of Heaven. One fights to protect the Earth. The other fights to protect humanity. The two groups wait for a single man, Kamui, to make his fateful decision, and determine the course of life on Earth. Their destinies were foreordained.

Or were they...?

The Good: One of the best things about the X TV series is it's animation, which is crisp, vibrant, and simply beautiful. Especially the opening theme, "eX dream". The great animation carries over to the lush battle sequences. Also, the series does a good job of building up every single member of the cast, which is a pretty daunting task.

The Bad: This series may be too "angsty" for some people. I'd say Kamui is probably the embodiment of all that is angst in any anime. Plus, the fights don't get really down and dirty until the last half of the series or so, when the show gets it's most interesting.

The Bottom-Line: If you are familiar with the movie and found that it's characters were too underdeveloped, the plot was too rushed, and the ending stunk, pick up the X TV series. To me, the TV series improves upon the movie in pretty much every way. Although, be warned. If you're put off by thinking you already know what is going to happen since you've seen the movie, don't be. There are worlds of difference, including the ending.

The Dub: The dub is actually quite good. A lot of big names in the dub industry are at work. Kamui's voice seems like a near perfect match, and Crispin Freeman as Fuma is growing on my quite a bit.