 X/1999 is a series created by the famous manga artist team CLAMP. It’s basically about
the end of the world and it is heavily based on the book of Revelations. Though the main
character of the story is a boy named Kamui (which means God’s power), there are 13
other characters with equal importance to the story. The story is not difficult to get in to,
as a matter of fact the story is quite addicting.
The rough plot is that the Promised Day is coming and there are two sides that want to
reshape the Earth’s and humankind’s destiny on that day. One group is the Ten no Ryu
(Dragons of Earth). They want to protect humankind. However, as a result of saving
humankind, the Earth will die instead. The other group is the Chi no Ryu (Dragons of
Heaven). They will help the Earth continue to live on. But to do that, all of humankind
would have to be destroyed.
Now the Ten no Ryu are rather nice a group of people, seven to be exact. Made up of
three temple leaders, a sorcerer, two pretty average people with magical powers and then
there’s Kamui, who’s their unofficial leader. Everyone in this group must be able to
create a kekkai (protective barrier), because this is what prevents the Chi no Ryu from
bringing about the Promised Day before its actually suppose to get her. On first glance
one would generally guess they are the good guys. But then again they’re out to
essentially destroy the Earth.
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The Ten no Ryu |
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The Chi no Ryu |
The Chi no Ryu on the other hand are a rag-tag bunch of characters. Not nearly as group
orientated as the Ten no Ryu, but working towards the same goal nonetheless. The seven
characters belonging to this group all have some sort of problem with the human race and
thus hope for their destruction. They can cause destruction by destroying certain
buildings, rail lines and etc, which all happen to be in Tokyo. These certain buildings and
things just happen to be the delicate fabric holding the Earth together, once broken the
Promised Day will be here and the destiny of everything will be decided. The Chi no Ryu
are considered to be the bad guys, though they are far more interesting than the other
group.
X/1999 is still running in Japan, rather slowly, I might add. And it has recently been
suspended in America for certain reasons. The manga is definately not for children.
Teenagers possibly. There is a lot of blood and gore throughout the whole thing. It
would give little kids nightmares. Despite that one pitfall, the series is still excellent
story wise, though it can be slow at times. It is worth getting in to. |
