Ranked #234

X (Manga)

(What?! Nobody has reviewed this CLAMP classic yet?! Shame on you people! So i'll do it, but please bear in mind this is my first review....)

Story: Out of all of the series that Clamp has created over the years, X happens to be their darkest, most violent series to date. As usual, Clamp manages to create some unique, and interesting ideas, as well as some surprizes. What I also find interesting is the whole conflict between the Dragons of Heaven and Dragons of Earth. To me, it feels like neither side is simply the "good guys" or "bad guys". The Dragons of Heaven wish to save mankind, but if they succeed, the Earth itself will be destroyed because of man's ignorance towards the Earth. The Dragons of Earth wish to eliminate all of the people from the Earth to save it from destruction.
Anyways, no matter what side you're on, this series has a great story that should never fail you keep your interest. If not the art will, which brings me to....

Art: The art here deserves a perfect score. The art may be an older style, it is absolutely gorgeous thoughout the manga. Whether it would be peaceful-looking scene, an action-packed fight, a dream sequence, or even a bloody scene of somebody getting hurt and/or killed, the pictures are beautiful to look at, and well placed. Sometime I even pick up my copies of the manga at look at it just so I can admire the art. Its really that pretty, I even plan on buying the art books next time I see them.

Character: Each and every one of the Dragons of Heaven and Dragons of Earth have their own unique back story, and reasons why they want to fight, all of which I thought where interesting to read about. There is character development here too as well from what I have read so far.

Enjoyment: As stated above, great story, great art, great characters, now put it all together and I thought this is certainly a very enjoyable read. X is definitely Clamp at their best, i'm not exaggerating the perfect scores here either.


As I am writing this, I have only read the first 15 volumes of the manga out of 19. Although, I have yet to read them all, I know X still remains unfinished after all of these years, which I find very unfortunate (X being one of Clamp's earlier works that started in 1992). There is a possible reason behind why this happened. It is because the magazine that was serializing X believed that X was way too violent and had asked Clamp to tone it down, Clamp refused, and the series was dropped. Because the series was under contract with the publishing company, there is no other alternatives at this time to get the rest of the series released. There is hope though, its been rumored that Clamp still plans to continue X, and they just might do it after they complete Tsubasa Chronicle and xxxHolic.

If you have been looking for a very dark, yet beautiful series to read, then give X a try. If you're a Clamp fan, then this is one series you should definitely check out, especially because it even crosses over with Tokyo Babylon and Clamp School Detectives. Also, many characters and elements from X also later reappear in Tsubasa Chronicle. But keep in mind that X may not be for everybody due to its very violent content, and theres certianly lots of gore and violence here, you have been warned. read more

I'd recommmend this manga if you're into tragic, supernatural, fantasy & end of the world sort of thing. X/1999 has an amazing storyline (don't count the movie!)

I haven't read the whole manga but I have read certain bits, mainly bits I wanted to see, but still, in some ways the manga is better than the anime because they left out some parts like in the manga, there is a lot more gore & torture.

I do hope it'll be finished with the publishing soon, it's been so long (though not for me but in general.)