Audience reviews
6 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
CentralUnplan
I definitely enjoyed "Take the X Train" - it has a commitment to the craft that is very admirable. The character designs lean heavily towards a realism rarely seen in modern anime, while combining that with the incredibly zany cocktail of a haunted train stalking an ESP-awakening office worker. I think the biggest stand-out visually is the design of the ghost train itself; fully electro-incorporeal, arcs of lighting suggesting the shape of a train without "revealing" it - it understands the rules of the spook. And within this vague story is a bit of thematic depth and genre playfulness, about the world modernity left behind and what (if anything) we got in return.
The downside here is that it does not do very much with any of these parts. The characters are vague and one-note; the "story"…
Read at the sourceephemerry
Take the X Train, a riff on Billy Strayhorn’s composition ‘*Take the “A” Train,’ was written by Kōichi Yamano as a tribute to the late Duke Ellington. This OVA is a fascinating thriller that is half supernatural spectacle, while the other half focuses on the protagonist’s paranoia, involving government surveillance. I came across this anime, while going on a Rintaro binge, and it blew my socks off! It is spectacular!
*Take the “A” Train was a signature piece performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
This review of X Densha de Ikō (1987) contains spoilers! You have been warned!
—Story/Characters
The story begins with Toru Ishihara, who is a run-of-the-mill salaryman—working for the railroad conglomeration. He isn’t married and sticks to the simplicity of having a casual lover. One day,…
Read at the sourcematthigh
This is a really, really weird one. After completing it, I was just left thinking, "What the hell did I just watch?"
Let's start out with what sticks out the most: The character designs. Definitely not your standard, stereotypical 'anime' style, but rather a strange type of realism only stretched out a bit verging on the grotesque. Reminds me a bit of Don Bluth characters. And the designs are so...distinctive...you can't get past them in this one-shot story. You're noticing how strange the people look from beginning to end.
But beyond that, the rest of the artwork (including the backgrounds) are wonderful. And the animation quality is top-notch. Among the very best I've seen for the entire decade's worth of work.
The storytelling style is also a little outside the norm, which is par…
Read at the sourcebusterbeam
Ignore the negative reception completely; this OVA is amazing. It's not "deep" or "high art for the elite" or any of those other pretentious descriptors, but it's a very inventive, experimental, stylish, spooky, funny and above all else mind-bendingly fun horror-comedy. As far as I'm concerned, everything is perfect - it's conceptually sort of (I say "sort of" because it's always hard to simplify something extremely unique) like the kind of vague, unexplained short horror stories Edgar Allan Poe wrote, if made in the 80s, mixed with a ton of animated comedy and sci-fi elements. Don't worry, though. It's not generic anime comedy.
All the plot and lore explanations that left viewers confused would've absolutely destroyed the willfully mysterious structure of the work (compare to Poe's simil…
Read at the sourceSidewinder51
4 (decent)
seen via english subtitles
Warning: if you are not a fan of blood don't watch this!
Likes:
art: For an 80's flick animation was good. Transitions were clean and cut.
Plot: A unique attribute unseen in most videos on horror. The right flare, right touch, right paint strokes... a lot of good tension building horror tools were used. Dislikes:
art: Characters and some elements were trashy in appearance. Not something you would go home and fantasy over.
plot: was confusing not in a good way. Too many unanswered questions. Mostly caused from the weird turns they made.
Intro: was a mess. I understand they had two stories going on in the one scene but tell the viewer whom it is they should be paying attention to. Sorry but one at a time!
Audio: Not a very balanced musical attribu…
Read at the sourceFreida5
Toru is the put upon lackey of an add company and learns about a particular train. He thinks nothing of it, but little does he know that he is more closely connected to this train than he realizes...
Pros: The best part of this ova is the artwork. It has a very classic 80's style that is smoothly animated. It has some good gross/spooky imagery that fit the horror theme. It also does a quirky, comic book style word balloons to represent actions at some points, like the sounds of a fight. I had never seen it used like this in anime before and thought it was interesting. The atmosphere of the horror film was good. I especially liked the pacing and that it had nice long establishing shots to build tension and it tries to have a good pay off in the end. The sound is solid, especially the creep…
Read at the source