So I want to start watching the X animes...

[Animebox]

Now, as far as I know, there are three X animes out there. Unless I missed anything, and please let me know, there are:

The movie
Episode 0 of the series
The series itself
and Tokyo Babylon

So without any spoilers, how are those three up there related to each other, if they are at all? What is the recommended order to watch them, if any?

[Captain Impulse]

Tokyo Babylon doesn't really add ALL that much to the series, but since you can pick it up for $10, do it, and watch it first. It'll give you some background on Subaru and some of the characters that surround him.

Episode 0 is found on Geneon's first disc of the series, but since it shows some things that occur later in the series, it's hit or miss whether you want to watch it or not. Some of it is new footage though. I watched it, and I don't think it hurt my viewing of the show at all.

The movie was made before the series, and is inferior to the series in my opinion. If you're going to watch it, do so after the series.

My two cents.

[DeVeliCious]

I think you shoudl stay away from episode 0. Its smthn you can leave till the very end if you want to see more of the characters. Tokyo Babylon is pretty much stand alone, focuses more on Subaru and Seichiro. But plase keep in mind that they look absolutley different than X. The characters are more mature and with a darker solemn look to it.

Go for the series first, it was one of my first animes that I saw and it was excellent.

[Animebox]

Hey thanks guys. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

So if I should leave the movie for after the series, why was the movie made first?

[guyver83]

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Animebox said:
Hey thanks guys. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

So if I should leave the movie for after the series, why was the movie made first?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think they decided lets mash this up into a visually stunning movie and then when people went WTF is going on, who the hell is good or bad they made a series to clear that up I guess. I'm only assuming /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[HatHair]

I saw the movie years ago on TV, and I hated it. I actually hated it enough that I had severe misgivings about watching the series until I was persuaded that it was actually good.
Another reason to watch the movie after the series is that then you will know what is going on more, and who the characters are.
Also, don't forget the movie was made about halfway through the manga, so certain characters are different.

As for Tokyo Babylon, X effectively contains major spoilers for it, so seeing that first may be a better idea. However, I read the manga after watching X, and still enjoyed it.

[kimmiepooh]

Tokyo Babylon is kind of like a prelude to X. Since X - the movie was made before the TV series and only had limited amount of run time to use in it, they crammed in a bunch of stuff, mainly the important plot stuff, and the characters in the movie aren't as developed as they are in the TV series. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[guyver83]

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HatHair said:
I saw the movie years ago on TV, and I hated it. I actually hated it enough that I had severe misgivings about watching the series until I was persuaded that it was actually good.


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Same for me. I was like hell no I'm not watching X the series. One of my friends forced me to watch vol 1 and I was like oo interesting.. and trust me it took alot of persuasion for me even give X another shot. Funnyiest thing of all, it was X the series that got me into manga reading too :-P

[DeVeliCious]

I was told to understand Tokyo Babylon to the fullest you need to read the manga.

Im sorry about earlier, but if you want to understand Subaru and Sechiro's side of X, then you need to know their story to the max cuz there's a spoiler.

[golthin]

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guyver83 said:
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Animebox said:
Hey thanks guys. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

So if I should leave the movie for after the series, why was the movie made first?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think they decided lets mash this up into a visually stunning movie and then when people went WTF is going on, who the hell is good or bad they made a series to clear that up I guess. I'm only assuming /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
It is easy to make an anime for a very popular property instead of risking a new idea and it bombing. There are a lot of remakes now days. Oh My goddess had an OVA and movie before the TV series, Ghost in the shell had a Movie before the TV series. It TOOK a long time before anyone got to those two hot properties. I am hoping for a Video Girl AI remake. 95% of the anime now days is either remakes, Sequels or adaptations from Manga or novels. There is very few anime that are new concepts.

[Rhodes]

in order...

tb
episode 0
tv

the movie is an alt take on tv series... watch last.

tb doesnt really lead into x but it is a good intro to 3 of the characters. not required but good background info... but if you want even better background info, skip the tb anime and get the tb manga.

episode 0 spoils some of tv but since you listed so much of the x universe already your probably aware of what takes place anyway.

[lorddream]

I'd skip the Tokyo Babylon anime (I didn't really think it was that great -- it was too rushed by time constraints) and the X movie (horrible.) Read the Tokyo Babylon manga if you want the background on Subaru, Hokuto, and Seishiro.

For the X series, I'd start with episode 0. Sure, it's going to spoil a few things, but for a show that deals so heavily with destiny, I don't really consider it to be a bad thing. Also, I don't really think there's all that much point to watching it after the series.

[fantasydewdrop]

I tend to think of the episode 0 as a long, spoilerific trailer. And there's not too much point in watching a long trailer for a series right before you're going to watch it anyways. I found it boring. I wish I didn't bother with it and jumped right into the good stuff.
So yeah, I don't recomend episode 0. Haven't seen TB or the movie though, so I can't really comment about them. Though since I haven't finished the series yet (I'd rather watch it all over the course of a few days rather than watch it as I collect it; the first three volumes are fustratingly addictive), I may get Tokyo Babylon and watch it in the mean-time.

[LOUiE]

FYI, there is parts of the TB manga in the X TV series to help introduce those three characters more fully. I highly suggest reading through all the TB manga before getting to X.

[Animebox]

Thanks for all the replies guys! This really helps. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

So what I get is:

The movie is some sort of reinterpretation of the events of the entire TV series.

The TV series was adapted from the manga by Yoshiaki Kawajiri himself.

Tokyo Babylon is a prequel or side story to X (which is it).

All of you agree though that the X series is excellent? High up there on your lists? It doesn't disappoint towards the end does it? I'm thinking about getting a group together to watch this and it is quite annoying if we watch a 25 episode TV series and have the ending be a stinker. Any long investment turning out crappy at the end is not good in a group (I can get hurt ya know /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif ).

[Captain Impulse]

Tokyo Babylon is a prequel (of sorts), meaning the events happen before the series chronologically.

X has a satisfying enough of a conclusion, although very different from what I expected.

X: The Movie tries to cram the entirety of the series into 2 hours, which doesn't work. Meaning some characters are entirely different in the movie (my favorite character in particular, Kusanagi, sucked in the movie). Again, save it until after watching the series, if at all. Same with episode 0.

[LOUiE]

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Animebox said:
All of you agree though that the X series is excellent? High up there on your lists? It doesn't disappoint towards the end does it? I'm thinking about getting a group together to watch this and it is quite annoying if we watch a 25 episode TV series and have the ending be a stinker. Any long investment turning out crappy at the end is not good in a group (I can get hurt ya know /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif ).

[/ QUOTE ]
It's definitely one of my favorites. While the ending isn't perfect, it does what it needs to do. Plus, the manga isn't finished and the director had to create his own ending and I think it was a good job for not having source material in that instance.

I do not think you'll be disappointed. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[DeVeliCious]

If you'd like to skip the TB series, there's a website online that explains Sechiro's and Subaru's relationship (story) pre-X movie.

Maybe that could help you.

[LimePie]

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DeVeliCious said:
Sechiro

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Seishirou. Seichirou is the salaryman with the wife and kid, Seishirou is the bishie assassin.

Avoid the movie like the plague.

[Evangelist]

I dont' even know if the TB anime is even cannon to...anything (certainly not the movie, where it seems like Seishirou and Subaru are meeting for the first time). It just feels like two random side-stories. Watching it won't really explain anything about the X TV series, or the movie. It's really just a two-episode post-card for fans of the manga. Nothing more.

I personally don't think you should watch Episode 0 until you've watched up to episode 12 of the series, or have at least read up to volume 9 of the manga. I wouldn't say it ruins TOO many surprises, but it could take away A LOT of impact. It was really only made to hype up fans of the manga in preperations for when the TV series was released, as if they were saying "Hey look! It's your favorite scene from the manga, animated!!"

And let me just say, in my honest opinion, that it was enormously stupid for Pioneer/Geneon to make Episode 0 the first episode on Disk 1. Even if they wanted to maintain a sense of continiuity, they should've just put it as a n extra with spoiler warning, like Bandai did for Club Escaflowne.

I'd avoid the movie, it really is crap, but if you NEED to see it, I'd wait until you've read the manga or watched the TV series. As previously stated, if you see it first, it could ruin your viewpoint of the entire franchise.

[DeVeliCious]

I think we have all come to the conclusion that you should watch the TV series first.

The others would be like a bonus or extra for you if you get into X. Like if you like Sechiro and Subaru, you'd go like yay, I can see them in TB (get my drift?) Diff stories, diff arcs!

Get the TV series! Go now!!!

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