Ask John: How Much X is There?

Question:
Is X only a manga? I know that there was an X movie made, but is there a television series of X?

Answer:
X of course began as a manga series. At present, there are 17 collected volumes of manga, and the series is still ongoing. In 1996, Sony released a 30 minute “OAV” titled X², pronounced “Double X.” This video consisted of roughly 25 minutes of slideshow stills of X illustrations and paintings by CLAMP set to the music of popular J-pop rock band X-Japan. The final 2 and a half minutes of X² was an anime music video directed by Rintaro with character designs by Nobeteru Yuuki. This Double X music video, set to the pulsing beat of X-Japan’s rock anthem “X,” was a bloody and action packed summarization of the X manga into 2 minutes of anime. Three years later Rintaro and Nobeteru Yuuki expanded the Double X music video into the feature length theatrical X movie. The movie is commonly praised for its stunning art design and animation, and commonly criticized for its lack of characterization and its massive exclusions of plot points from the manga.

In early 2000 plans for an X TV series were announced to the Japanese press. It would be over a year before the long delayed TV series actually premiered in Japan. In preparation for the TV series, a 30 minute OAV titled X: Yochou (X: An Omen) premiered on the Japanese market in August 2001. This OAV introduced Japanese audiences to the X TV series characters and production staff through an all new prologue episode starring the “dream gazer” prophet Kakyou. This prologue led into the X TV series that began on October 3rd, 2001 and continued through 24 episodes. With well over 10 times as much running time as the X movie, the X TV series has the ability to be a much more faithful direct adaptation of the original manga story and, as a result, has met with great praise from fans.

Pioneer will begin releasing both the X: Yochou OAV and TV series in America this September. There is still no American distribution license for the X² OAV.