X, also known as X TV, is a Japanese anime television series based on Clamp's manga series of the same name. It was produced by Madhouse and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Its twenty-four episodes were broadcast in Japan on WOWOW from October 2001 to March 2002. The story takes place at the end of the days, in the year 1999. It follows Kamui Shiro, a young esper who returns home to Tokyo after a six-year absence to face his destiny as the one who will determine humanity's fate. There, he discovers two organizations who want to take him as well as another person who shares Kamui's same talent.
Plot
With the manga's serialization on hiatus, the animated adaptation show the young esper Kamui Shiro reaching different fates. Kamui returns to his home, Tokyo, after a six-year absence following his mother's last will. According to her, he can change the world's fate. He can either join the groups a Dragons of Heaven or Dragons of Earth and fight for mankind or the nature, respectively. Kamui's choice to protect mankind solely by his desire to based on his love towards his childhood friend Kotori and Fuma Monou transforms him into a Dragon of the Heaven. In contrast, Fuma suffers a personality change and becomes Kamui's opposite from the Dragons of Earth. The new Fuma kills Kotori in coldblood and swears his friend to kill him. This causes Kamui to fall into catatonia as part of the trauma. However, the Dragon of Heaven Subaru Sumeragi enters into Kamui's inner mind and convinces to face reality and grant his wish. Kamui decides to side with the Dragons of Heaven to recover the old Fuma, but lacks the powers needed to create a barrier.
Kamui goes to fight Fūma after Hinoto's suicide unseals the Sacred Sword, which can be used as a catalyst to enhance the power of both Kamuis. Fuma uses the former Dragon of Heaven Arashi to intervene but he is stopped by Sorata who uses his last forces to burn his body. Fuma kills Nataku and absorbs his flesh to recover. Kamui then tries to kill Fūma after learning his loss was predetermined. Kamui is severely wounded in combat as Kamui gave on his own ideals. Before Fuma kills Kamui and the Armageddon ends, Subaru takes the hit from Fuma's Sacred Sword and again encourages him to grant Kamui to grant his own wish even if he a comes across as selfish. In the final battle, Kamui sacrifices his life to create a barrier that will protect mankind and passes Fūma his will, which restores his personality. In the epilogue, the survivors from each side resume their lives with Subaru's late sister Hokuto joining the Dragon of Earth Kakyo Kuzuki in the afterlife.
Production
For the X television series, director Yoshiaki Kawajiri decided not to explore Kamui's backstory early in the series and to focus more on his cold demeanor. Kawajiri considered Kamui weak because of how much it costs him to express emotions. As a result, he portrayed Kamui as a strong person, though his weakness becomes noticeable as the narrative progresses. Because Kamui did not have many lines in the original video animation, his voice actor, Kenichi Suzumura, lacked a full impression of him before more of his character was explored in the television series. Suzumura found his role complicated because he understood Kamui is neither the weakest nor the strongest character. Voicing Kamui meant Suzumura debuted as a singer for an X CD. Fuma's voice actor, Junichi Suwabe, found voicing him difficult due to his dual personality: one kind, and the other cold-hearted. He also noted that the X manga was very popular in Japan, and he wanted to meet audience expectations. Suwabe befriended Suzumura. Kotori's character was modified for the TV series as Kawajiri wanted to portray her as a more regular teenager in contrast to her weaker persona from the manga.
The series was first announced by the original manga creators, the artists group Clamp, in October 2000. The script was handled by Hiroko Tokita, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, Kenji Sugihara and Yuki Enatsu. Koshinori Kanemori adapted Clamp's character designs and served as art director along with Yuji Ikeda. The music for the series was composed by Naoki Satō, with two original soundtrack albums released on 19 December 2001 and 6 March 2002. The TV series uses two theme songs: "eX Dream" by Masatoshi Nishimura (credited as "Myuji") is used as the opening theme, while "Secret Sorrow" by Kohei Koizumi is used as the ending theme. The OVA's ending theme is "STRENGTH" by Kouhei Koizumi.