With the recent dethroning of Donald Trump, my thoughts turned toward anime where the bad guys have ruled over people for years, letting their greed & ego run wild. Not only that, but the hero of the day comes from a rough background, and has gone through many trials & tribulations to get to where he needs to get the job done. After thinking about it for a bit, an obscure series I was introduced to many months ago by a dear friend was floating into my mind. A series that easily meets all of these requirements, and yet.....isn’t actually an anime at all. That’s right, today marks my first “Not-Anime” anime I’ve ever watched. It’s more of a Flash series to be exact. So get on your school uniform, be sure to not piss off the bully or security force, and check out my review for Xin. Let’s begin.
Story/Setup
Taken from AnimeNewsNetwork:
“Public schools are being over run by gangs and dangerous fighters. Xin is a badass fighter that takes down who he thinks is worthless, he's been kicked out of schools for his violence. Now he's transferred to Public High School # 1368, to take down the major gang members, but he's not who they thought he was.”
Alright, let me get this out of the way....Xin is one of the most tropey shows I’ve ever watched! More specifically, it’s filled with enough shonen tropes to gag a maggot. You’ve got the lead with a mysterious past, you’ve got the spunky girl that falls for the lead, you got the sinister bad guy, etc. Even the setup for the series screams shonen, as just by that blurb alone typed above sounds like a series that would come from the land of the rising sun. It’s definitely tropey & stereotypically shonen, and yet.......that’s kind of Xin’s charm. Yes it’s tropey, but somehow it’s quite charming because of that. Sure, it’s stereotypically shonen, but there’s an innocence with the stereotyping. It’s so head-scratching when you watch the first few episodes, but it makes by the time you’re done it makes sense, and in a way acts as something of a portal to an earlier time for anime’s popularity in the United States. It’s certainly not a deep story by any means, but it’s interesting in it’s own way.
Animation
Perhaps one of Xin’s biggest issues is it’s animation. Back in 2003 to 2006 it probably was fine, but nowadays it’s perhaps the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen! It’s incredibly dated, and feels quite primitive. If I wanted to be brutal, I’d almost say it’s on par with how the original season of South Park was: characters move in a stiff manner, special effects look weak, and the passage of time has not been kind to it. I don’t feel ill in anyway when I watch it, but Xin is quite unpleasant to watch in terms of it’s looks.
Voice Acting
Much like the animation, Xin’s voice acting was fine for 2003 to 2006, but nowadays is absolutely terrible. The recording & production as far as the audio’s concerned definitely comes from the early/mid 2000s. The effort is definitely there, but by god does it not sound well. I don’t know how it sounded back in the day (Since I never watched it during it’s original release), but it has aged horribly since then. Don’t have much else to say other than....yeah, it sucks.
Characters
Much like the story, Xin’s cast of characters are the very incarnation of shonen tropes. Like I said above, there’s the lead that’s mysterious, the bubbly girl that has a thing for the lead, and the bad guy that’s effectively twirling his mustache whenever & wherever he can. But, like the story, the tropes that the characters embody adds to the charm of the entire package of the show. Granted a horde of shows nowadays is filled to the brim with shonen tropes (Something I don’t completely have an issue with), but back in the early to mid 2000s it was considerably a more novel thing, and not in so many shows. Like the story, the cast of Xin isn’t deep, but is interesting in it’s own right.
Availability & Pricing
As far as I’m aware, Xin has never been released on any physical form. DVD, Blu-Ray, you name it. On top of that, the original website that hosted it has long been since shut down. Luckily, the whole series can be found over on Youtube, and probably on Vimeo & Dailymotion as well. Right below is a link to the complete show on Youtube:
Xin (Complete Series)
Overall Impression & Rating
Xin is such a baffling show to me. On the one hand, the show has aged as well as Trump’s pre-presidental tweets. It’s dated, not visually appealing, and the audio could have had some better production behind. On the other hand, there’s something oddly charming about at the same time. Yeah it looks and sounds awful, but some of the most iconic anime weren’t necessarily the Mona Lisa either. On top of that, as shonen tropey as Xin’s story is, there’s something oddly comforting at the same time. Almost like it harkens back to a more innocent time in Otaku culture, when we didn’t take things quite so seriously & weren’t so nitpicky, and when we were having fun. I’m not sure what else to say, other than to give it a try if you’re curious.
Xin on a practical rating is a 5 to 6 out of 10. On a fun “warms my weeby heart” kind of rating.....9 out of 10. Maybe even a 10 out of 10 on some days.
And that was Xin. Quite possibly one of the oddest shows I’ve ever watched, but oddly comforting as well. As I said above, I was looking for series that best fit our political climate at this point in time in some way, and this obscure flash series managed to do just that. Well, 2019's number 1 album is getting it’s own review in just a few short days, so see you then!
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