Having been nearly four years since its original release in Japan, the X/1999 movie is only now being commercially released on this side of the Pacific. Manga Entertainment not only has plans to release this film on home video, but also to give it the full theatrical treatment, allowing North American audiences the chance to see the movie as it was meant to be seen. The theatrical run will be followed by a home video release on July 25, although this date may slip. Check out the Release Dates section for specific format pricing.

The concept for X/1999 was created by the talented women at CLAMP (Magic Knight Rayearth, Card-Captor Sakura), drawing upon a number of characters from their previous works, including Tokyo Babylon and CLAMP Campus Detectives, albeit their grown-up counterparts. The movie was directed by Rintaro, otherwise known as Shigeyuki Hayashi, who's past work includes Galaxy Express 999 and Astro Boy, and features some of the best animation ever to grace the big screen, courtesy of Studio Madhouse.

Here's a preliminary list of venues that are set to show X/1999 in the coming months, opening night having been two days ago:

03/10/00
Varsity Theater; Seattle, WA

03/24/00
Cinema Village; New York, NY

03/24-30/00
Nuart Theater; Los Angeles, CA

03/24/00
Piper's Alley; Chicago, IL

04/07-13/00
Ken Cinema; San Diego, CA

04/07/00
Kendall Square; Cambridge, MA

04/14/00
Dobie Theater; Austin, TX

04/21-27/00
Lumiere Theater; San Francisco, CA

04/21-25/00
UC Theater; Berkeley, CA

04/21/00
Rafael Film Center; Rafael, CA

04/21/00
Camera Cinemas; San Jose, CA

Seeing as this is only a preliminary list and some dates may end up changing, it would probably be a good idea to check you're local listings as well.

The story of X/1999 centers around the apocalyptic battle between the Dragons of Heaven, who diligently fight to protect mankind, and the Dragons of Earth, who's goals are the diametrical opposite, wishing to cleanse the Earth of human civilization. The one man who could tip the balance one way or the other, Kamui, seems neither concerned over the Earth's destruction or it's salvation, caring only to protect those he loves.

The frenetic psychic battles featured in X/1999 are truly awe inspiring, with some of the best city-stomping action sequences I've ever seen, but even so, the character and story development come up a little short. Those unfamiliar with the X universe might feel a little confused at first. As such, a good complement to the movie might be the manga, which Viz is currently in the process of releasing, the 6th graphic novel set to arrive on April 14th.

Anyway, for those of you who've made it this far through my ramblings, your perseverance shan't go unrewarded =) Manga has a nice trailer over at the X/1999 section of their webpage, here, that you guys might be interested in. In addition, we've also got a SWEET music video, featuring some kickin' music by X-Japan to a montage of X footage. The video isn't actually taken from the X/1999 movie though, rather it comes from the X² Image Clip, which was produced several years prior to the movie. It featured a 20 minute sequence of X artwork set to the music of X-Japan, including the songs Kurenai, Endless Rain, Silent Jealousy and X, which is the song accompanying our clip. The main movie page hasn't been updated with it yet (we'll just have to lock Ramza in the basement 'til he gets it done =), but you can get it directly from the ftp server, here. Enjoy!

Oh, a big thanks goes out to Feena's movie radar for finding the X² clip and you can thank Sumire for making sure this tasty bit of news got posted when the rest of us were too lazy to get it done without some gentle prodding. **sniff, wipes tear from his ear** Ain't she a great webmistress =P