Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an OVA from 1987. That movie is "Take the X Train".
Now, I'm gonna tell you guys how I came across this movie. You see, when I was scheduling movies to cover for this month, I found out that one of the movies that I was originally going to review was not the correct movie. You see, it had a similar title, until I found out that there was more to it's original title, and that was when I found out that the movie I had wanted to cover was, in fact, not the right film. So, I had to remove it from the schedule, and do some re-scheduling with a couple of the movies I had planned to watch this month, including the movie I originally planned to watch. So I did a search of the movie I wanted to watch, and to see if I could find a bit torrent of it. As I was doing that, I was searching for other movies that I could find to, possibly, replace it. And that's when I came across this movie. And I was sold on the premise, because this sounded rather interesting.
So, from what I could gather from the plot, it has something to do with a ghostly train known as the X Train. And the main character is, somehow, connected to it in some way. So, this leads to other dangerous people wanting to wield the power of this train for their own. And, I think, the train is also a killer train that destroys everything in it's path. And that sounds kinda interesting to me, because I really want to see what this movie could do with that kind of premise. And thankfully, there is a copy of the movie on YouTube, so I'm gonna be watching it off of there. I also know that the movie was made by Madhouse. So, chances are, the movie's probably going to look awesome, even for the standards of 1987.
Now, as cool as this premise sounds, the only thing I'm a little concerned about is the runtime. I'm not totally sure if this movie is able to handle this kind of premise at almost 51 minutes. But who knows? This movie could end up surprising me, and be genuinely amazing. And the only way I'm gonna find that out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Take the X Train."
5 minutes later
So, Toru is still eating his rice lunch, even though the nosebleed he just got a second ago dropped into his rice lunch. You know, if it were up to me, I would probably just end up throwing away the rice lunch if I got a sudden nosebleed and my blood ended up in my food. That was just kinda nasty.
10 minutes later
A "dwatch" sound? So, Toru just stated that the ghost train made a "dwatch" sound? I've heard a lot of trains in my lifetime, but I do not recall a train ever making a "dwatch" sound. In fact, I don't think anyone, even in Japan, would describe a train making a "dwatch" sound. That just sounds kinda stupid to me.
10 minutes later
.........I am so glad you asked that movie, no, I don't know what's going on. This movie has barely offered any explanation about anything, and I really hope that it starts explaining things soon.
2 minutes later
OK, guys, this is like the fourth or fifth time I have seen a close-up of Toru getting a nosebleed. It's rather creepy, especially considering that the camera seems to be focusing in on these shots. And it's getting a little bit creepy, even for me.
6 minutes later
Wait, so these guys that were after Toru have known for seven years that he has the ability to control the X Train with ESP. I have a question. If these people have known this for how long, then why wait until this point? Why didn't they capture him a lot sooner when he first started having these powers? I'm really curious, guys, and I don't think this movie is going to attempt to explain that.
The Review
O...K. That was an...interesting ending. Well, guys, that was "Take the X Train". I'm gonna shut the movie off...OK. I'm still trying to process what I just watched. Good lord, where do I start? I think I should start by talking about the movie's runtime.
Now, I totally understand that because this thing was an OVA, you don't really have a lot of time to boil up a slower-paced story. Sometimes, it can work. A couple of examples would be "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" and "Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals". And even though I didn't care for either one of those movies, they were still able to make it work with their given runtime's. I kinda wished the latter didn't have missing footage, but I'm not gonna dwell on that again here. Or you could have a story that sounds interesting, but doesn't work with a really short runtime, such as the case with "Black Magic M-66". In that movie, there were just so many logic issues and plot points that either don't make a ton of sense, or were not properly explained very well. And had it gotten more time to develop, it probably would've been a better movie. When it comes to "Take the X Train"...it falls somewhere close to the middle. More so leaning towards not working than working, but I should probably talk about the writing.
Writing here is incredibly weak. So we have our main character, Toru, who is able to connect with this X Train, which is the ghost train I mentioned at the start of this. And the connection between him and this ghost train is that he's able to control it through ESP. How do we know that he has ESP? Well, during the latter portion of the film, the people who have been chasing after him have known that he has this special hidden power within his subconscious. And that the way he develops ESP is through something call the inner companion alpha wave and that it's affecting the ghost train's beta wave to make it move. Don't ask, none of it makes any sense. So they tell Toru that because the X Train sent him a message through Morse code, they tell Toru that he must send a message back to the X Train with an image. I'm not going to tell you what kind of image, on the off chance you want to go and see this thing for yourself. But basically, guys, the writing in this thing almost makes no sense. And you know what? I could honestly overlook the short runtime, if the writing was any better. But it really isn't.
Before I talk about the characters, I do need to make a small correction on one thing. I said at the start of this thing that the X Train was a killer train that destroys everything in it's path. And while the latter is true, it's not really a killer, per se. I say this, because, first of all, it barely causes any destruction. The only thing that it destroys was a diesel truck, a trap that was set for it, and most of Toru's car. And it's not really a killer because, at one point, we see that the military was trying to capture it. And as the X Train comes near it, we see a small boy chasing after a firefly on the tracks. This gives the X Train time to stop as the boy stays on the track until his mother steps in and gets him out of the way. So really, to even call this ghost train a killer is kind of misleading on my part. But anyway, as for our other characters, nobody here has any real depth. The closest we do have for character depth is Toru. And I'm not just talking about the connection he has with the X Train. Apparently, his one big character trait is that he has constant nosebleeds, and this happens a lot throughout the entire movie. If there's any one shot in this movie that you will get sick of, it's whenever Toru has any moment where he gets a nosebleed. But that's more on animation than the story. Then we have the people that are after him, because they somehow knew that Toru has these hidden ESP powers. Which begs the question that if they knew that he had these powers for so long, then why didn't they step in sooner instead of letting him be for 7 years? Also, how do they know that Toru has had these ESP powers for 7 years? What if he has had these powers so much longer than that? I understand that I might be putting too much thought into this, but that did kinda bother me a bit as I was watching the movie. One other thing that kinda bothered me was the pacing. And it happens during one scene where Toru is captured and is trapped in some sort of a detention center. And he's getting asked questions about who he is and his date of birth. They also ask him questions as to whether or not he's had a dream about a heart transplant, or if he knows who Deichi Warisaburo is? I don't know what these questions have anything to do with how Toru knows about the X Train. When they brought up the question of who Deichi Warisaburo is, I thought that name was going to become a plot point later on in the movie, but no, it was just a random question that they decided to ask him. And the pacing of this scene drags for about 6 minutes, and that includes him trying to escape this detention center. I really think that they could've either shortened this scene, or cut it out entirely. I totally understand that the OVA would be around 45 minutes or so, but it probably could've benefited the movie's pacing some.
But beyond that one scene, the rest of the movie's pacing is OK, I guess. But the writing here is just incredibly clunky and could've been a hell of a lot better. What about the acting? Well, as far I know, there is no English dub for this movie. So, I have to go off by the Japanese version that I watched on YouTube. And the acting is pretty good. None of it is great, but it's certainly decent for what it is. And for those who were curious about this thing, and didn't want to run the risk of watching this thing with a, potentially, awful English dub, then you can go into this movie without any problems. But for others who prefer watching dubs, you're probably gonna want to skip it. However, if you still want to watch it, regardless if it has a dub or not, then you can go right ahead and check it out. The acting in this movie is, overall, pretty good. So I have no complaints about the acting.
Animation in this thing is great. But again, this is from Madhouse, so I kinda figured the animation would end up being really good. This is, honestly, one of the better looking animated movies I have seen from the mid-to-late 80's. The character designs are really unique, and showcases what this movie wanted to look like. If a character has to be ugly, then they are shown as ugly. And to some people, they are not going to like the look of this movie based off it's character designs. However, if you are able to look past that, including the many close-up shots of Toru getting a nosebleed, then you're probably going to dig the art style of this movie. The animation is really smooth, and I really like the design of the X train when you first see it. This is some really amazing some stuff for 1987 standards. And, in a way, it does kinda hold up today. So, I can give the movie that much.
Sound-mix is mixed well. There are no syncing issues when it comes to mouth movements of the characters, and the subtitles are timed really well. The music is also another positive. One thing I had found out, while looking up information on this movie, is that it's dedicated to legendary jazz composer; Duke Ellington. And one of his songs was called "Take the A Train", hence the title change for this movie. And I'm gonna tell you now, the music in this thing is great. For about 95% of the movie, it's all piano music, and it really is some awesome piano music, too. So, if anything else, if you want a reason to watch this movie, then the music is probably one of the reasons. Especially if you're a fan of Duke Ellington's music.
So, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Take the X Train?" Honestly...that's a very difficult question to answer. I would, personally, say...watch it once. Or if you're a fan of really obscure anime, then you're probably going to find some enjoyment out of this. And, even though I personally didn't really care for this movie, I can't fully say, no, I cannot recommend it. It really is something that you can probably watch once. It is on YouTube, and, like I said, it's almost 51 minutes long. So, I don't think you're gonna have your time wasted if you watch this movie just once. But, as for me, I'm probably not gonna watch this thing ever again. And while I did like the concept of this movie, it didn't really work so well because of the clunky writing. And now that I've gotten this movie out of the way, I kinda want to go and watch another obscure anime film. And I see my copy of "Robot Carnival", so I'm gonna go watch that after I'm done putting this review together.
Anyway, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until, next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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