X JAPAN have made the long-elusive animated music video for ‘X’, their 1993 collaboration with manga collective CLAMP, available on YouTube for a limited time. The clip comes from the video work X2 (Double X), and streams until 11:59pm on Friday July 31st before it disappears again.
The release follows a remastered version of X2 (Double X) that arrived on June 10th through Crunchyroll, with the YouTube window for the standalone ‘X’ clip premiering on June 26th.
The animation was directed by Rintaro, working with Madhouse on production. It is widely credited as one of the first times an original manga adaptation was set to a musical artist’s song, and it later fed directly into the 1996 X feature film, also directed by Rintaro, which used X JAPAN’s ‘Forever Love’ as its theme.
X2 (Double X) itself is a four-song compilation of YOSHIKI’s compositions. Three of the songs, ‘Silent Jealousy’, ‘Kurenai’, and ‘Endless Rain’, pair CLAMP’s gothic X artwork with the music in a slideshow style. The fourth, ‘X’, is the only fully animated piece, packing the manga’s early characters and apocalyptic imagery into a short, fast-cut clip set to the bands long live staple. Because it sat unreleased on physical media or streaming for decades, it had become something of a holy grail for fans of both X Japan and CLAMP.
Speaking to Anime News Network around the Crunchyroll release, YOSHIKI reflected on a partnership that, in 1993, had almost no precedent. He recalled being struck by the shared X name and by the beauty and originality of CLAMP’s artwork, and described wanting to create an emotional experience for fans of both music and anime. He added that clearing rights across the artists, labels, publishers, and animation studios involved took a very long time, calling the global release something he never imagined back in 1993.
Alongside the ‘X’ clip, X JAPAN have continued rolling out previously unavailable footage on their official channel. The latest addition is ‘Say Anything’, the 1991 ballad that closes the album ‘Jealousy’. Its video draws on the Violence In Jealousy Tour 1991, mixing live stage footage with candid moments from the dressing rooms.
About CLAMP
CLAMP are a four-member creative group made up of Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. They debuted commercially with RG VEDA in 1989 and have since worked across shoujo, shounen, and seinen titles, including Tokyo BABYLON, X, Magic Knight Rayearth, Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, and xxxHOLiC. Their manga X, which began serialisation in Kadokawa Shoten’s Monthly Asuka in 1992, has sold well over ten million copies and remains unfinished.
The animated ‘X’ video is available on Aniplex’s official YouTube channel until 11:59pm (JST) on Friday, July 31st.
