Manga Monday!!

 

, so 

This is something I've wanted to get started for ages but simply haven't had the time. Going forward every Monday I'll showcase one manga series or standalone manga that I love or simply do not believe gets enough love! And without anymore rambling from me I'll move onto the important stuff the manga!

If you follow me literally anywhere, you'll know that X/1999s my favorite manga ever made, it's also the first series I collected so I may be a bit bias, but honestly, I don't think so. CLAMP themselves are pretty much goddesses in terms of '90's manga and are responsible for such classics as Magic Knight Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura, and xxxHolic. Basically, if you are in your forties or fifties, you probably have a CLAMP anime that formed the basis of your anime habits and as a parent Card Captor was one of the first anime I introduced my kiddos too, they definitely have multigenerational fan base at this point.

X/1999 follows the story of Kamui Shiro a high schooler who must choose to either side with The Dragons of Heaven, led by the Dreamgazer Hinoto and save the Earth, led by Hinoto's sister Kanoe or side with the Dragons of Earth and destroy it. Regardless of which decision he makes his best friend from childhood will become his opposite, ensuring that they are enemies. This is pretty horrible position to be put in period, but for Kamui this is devasting. Everyone around him has been a sacrifice for his very existence since the beginning. His mother's family name literally means to sacrifice (not a perfect translation here but I am working. While in the anime it hints to the violence, the sheer brutality of these sacrifices to truly understand it though you have to read the manga. Fuma (the bestie) and Kotori's mother die giving birth to one of the swords Kamui will pick up and use to ultimately destroy Fuma. His mother dies in a devasting fire, Kotori is crucified. I could go on, but due to I am assuming the highly gruesome scenes from the manga, most of the visual representations of these deaths are cut in the anime.

As we can see here in the image of Kotori being crucified the visuals may be gruesome, but they are stunning. This isn't supposed to be a children's manga, and it shows, not just in the brutality of the characters deaths though, the characters as well. Arashi's spirit sword for example is just another way that CLAMP has shown just how violent this story truly is, and it is genuinely one of the most beautiful drawings I have ever seen in a manga. Extending out through her hand the sword is quite literally one with Arashi, her veins making up the hilt and extending up the sword. It has been at least twenty years since I first saw this image, and it still lives rent free in my head. I should also point out here that part of the reason this "ends" the way it does in the manga (more on that at the end) is how violent this series gets. 

The characters on both sides of the conflict are some of my favorites ever written and while I would love to go through and do individual profiles of each, that would take way too long, so I am just going to hit a couple of them. Kamui, first of course because he's our MC. Kamui can and does come across as boring, maybe even a bit spoiled. But I think for people that only watched the anime this is even worse. While the anime certainly delves into Kamui's history and why he is indifferent to the extreme of the war to save the world I do not think they do a good enough job and if all you ever watched was the movie they definitely didn't. Like I said earlier, everyone Kamui cares about is ultimately sacrificed for him. This isn't a Kamui just thinks that because everyone around him is dying, their jobs, their entire reason of existence is to die for him. That's a lot of weight to put on anyone but for a teenager that's just insane! (One of these days someone will come up with a valid reason for it always being a teen's job to save the world today is not that day.) Kamui isn't indifferent he knows exactly what it will mean for him to make decision and that's terrifying more people will die for him by making a decision he just gets a little more control over who that is. Because of this Kamui is standoffish throughout the series so he never really becomes a hero to most people, he really is the epitome of the "Reluctant Hero" trope, he rarely expresses any emotions, he is not nice, and he is ultimately not doing this for anyone but Fuma and Kotori. Or at least that's how it seems but I don't think that is the case, getting close to people is scary to him and sense the only people he only interacting with are the Dragons of Heaven and Earth he knows that these people will die, it's not an if it's a when. You can't really blame him at that point. 

The rest of the characters on either side of the battle are interesting and as varied as they come. I find this to be one of the biggest pulls of the series. While we do have characters that I would expect to find in this type of story (Shaman, temple priestesses, etc. etc), however, we also have just a standard Government worker, a prostitute who is affiliated with the Catholic Church, an ex-military member, a hacker, etc etc. Their backgrounds in many cases are what drives them to be as dedicated as they are to whichever side they are on. Karen and Satsuki are probably my favorites though. Karen especially holds a special place for me. She has every single reason to want to see the world burn, she was abused by her mother as a child and as an adult she works as a prostitute at a brothel. While there is never any indication that she is ashamed of her career choice (quite the opposite actually) it is fairly obvious that people look down on her for this. The thing is though with Karen even though she's been dealt a pretty shitty hand in life she still likes people. She doesn't think humanity is beyond redemption quite the opposite actually and I love her for that. I also love that fact that she just shows up to battles in lingerie. Sure, yes I believe there is a bit of a shock factor to this, however, I don't think that's the reason why it was included, Karen's choice of attire isn't so much of a choice as she just happens to be working when she has to rush off to protect Kamui and hey that was what she was wearing at the time. It's genuinely just efficient. It also gives her a confidence that I find many of the characters have but Karen oozes. She isn't just secure in who she is secure in the decisions she has made. But it's more than that. Karen's mother abused her because she saw Karen's as demonic, however, Karen is a devout Catholic. The implication is pretty clear here, Karen who has made all sorts of choices that should cause god to turn from her does not, you could even go so far as to god favors her. Karen is a demonstration of what it means to have faith and what it means to have religion given that context of this story this conversation almost had to take place and I can't think of a better character to center it around.

        

Satsuki on the other hand is one of my favorites because Satsuki does exactly what you expect her to do after learning about her background. After determining that Satsuki has what can only be a supernatural ability to communicate with not just computers but network systems her father sends her to a lab to be studied. From there she escapes and is recruited by Kanoe. When put into perspective of when this was written she's an interesting character for a multitude of reasons. The original series was published in 1992 this is a year after AOL is launched in the U.S. and for me (and I am certain many others of my age) this is the start of the internet era. For adults and teens alike we are starting to see people who are absolutely engrossed in AOL Chatrooms, online message boards etc. And yes you do most defintley have people becoming obsessed with the internet, however, the media sensationalizes it (as they are wont to do) and for a brief time there were even treatment clinics set up to address internet addictions. Yeah, it was a weird time. Satsuki defines this fear, she isn't just some kid obsessed with AOL chat rooms, Satsuki can become one entity with the internet itself, she is cold and almost robotic seeing things in black and white. For her there is no grey area especially when it comes to humans; she sees them as a destructive force and that as far as she is concerned is enough to end them. It is heavily implied in the manga and much more so in the anime that she also has a romantic relationship with Beast the super computer that Kanoe gives her to use as her weapon in the war. We again only have to look at this timeframe to see why. Internet porn explodes (no pun intended) during this timeframe, the question of whether or not it's cheating by simply watching porn online begins being asked or whether or not it's cheating to have a romantic relationship with someone online. People are actually entering into relationships with complete strangers that they met through chat programs and message boards. Dating, romance, it's all changing. Today this is simply normal, back then though it wasn't just weird there were true questions about safety being raised. This implication that Satsuki isn't just befriending Beast that she's in love with it is another side of her that represents our perception of not just the internet itself at the time but it's place in society and the morals that seemed to be changing because of it's very existence. 

    

Ultimately, though this series is one of my favorites because while this story is about Armageddon as the story progresses you find out that so much of this story is being controlled by the Hinoto and Kanoe. Both of them have their own agendas here and reasons as to why they'd want one group to succeed over the other. However, at some point Hinoto's personality basically splits into two and she really starts mucking things up, so you've got to wonder just how many people end up getting hurt or die because of this. And don't get me wrong there is at no point where I don't find this personality split to not be understandable. Hinoto is blind, deaf, and mute, she lives in the basement of the Diet Building and basically controls Japan's government through her predictions, she isn't living. Regardless of her circumstances though we've got a person who swears up and down that these people have to battle it out to decide whether or not all of humanity lives or dies and that person turns out to have a couple of very good reasons to want this to go in one direction. Which hey totally sounds like every real-life cult leader ever. 

Now, here's the best part though the manga series has never been finished. There is no conclusion we have no idea whether or not we live and while I have not watched the movie I believe in that one the Dragons of Earth win. In the tv series the Heaven wins. Interesting little condundrum that quite frankly I'm not mad exists. I don't think I want them to finish the manga, without a conclusion the moral of this story is that there is a happy medium here. That humanity can do just a little bit better at taking care of the planet and that we shouldn't be judged or judge others based on the actions of a few. And I like that moral. I also like an ending where Kamui and Fuma both live because gods damn it they went through way too much crap in their lives for one or both of them to end up just dying.