I was talking about Tokyo Babylon actually. X does have some of the themes of TB but TB is stronger in them. Both stories in the TB OAVs are independent from the manga. But the first OAV was based on a story in the manga. The original story in the manga wasn't about a corporate thing but instead was about a woman whose daughter had been killed by a child-molestor. The criminal was judged to be not-guilty by reasons of insanity. The woman could not accept this. If the court could not kill him then she would herself, but if she did it overtly then the same courts that found him not guilty of murder would find her a 'good person' guilty of murder. So she did the whole inugami thing that you saw in the first OAV. Because if she killed him by a curse then how could anyone find her 'guilty' (the name of the story is 'guilty'
. But in the TB/X world, use of magic will bring a backlash to the user. The more powerful the magic the stronger the backlash. Experts like Subaru can find ways to handle it, but it is likely the woman would have been killed by the backlash but she doesn't care. So he brings up the spirit of her dead little girl to tell her that she doesn't her mother to be hurt anymore. The mother can't hear the girl speak, but Subaru can. The spirit of the dead girl is in constant pain from her death and pleas for her mother to kill the man and take revenge for her and help relieve her of her pain. So what is the right decision to make? What is the 'good' thing to do in these circumstances. A lot of the stories are like this. The resolution is rarely 'neat' and clean.
I also like how it touches on themes like how old people are treated in modern Japan and the one about the plight of illegal immigrants in Japan. There is also a story about the unwillingness of Japanese people to become organ donors. There are also environmental themes running throughout TB.
If you watch the 2nd OAV you can see the whole scene under the sakura tree. I'm not sure if what I'm going to say is spoilers since what I am about to say never shows up in X but at the end of the TB manga, but well. The concise summary is they had an encounter when Subaru was a kid and Seishirou wiped his memory. For more details: S P O I L E R S MAYBE
When Subaru was 9 years old he wandered one day to Ueno park where he saw this beautiful cherry tree. Then basically what follows is the scene you saw in the 2nd OAV. The part where the wind blows is Seishirou saying that he will make a 'Bet' with him. The Sakurazukamori has to kill any witnesses. But he is interested in the young boy's innocence. So he makes a bet that later he will re-enter the boy's life and if after one year Subaru can make Seishirou feel something (the Sakurazukamori cannot feel emotions) then he, Seishirou would lose the Bet and would stay by Subaru's side forever. However if Subaru fails to make the Sakurazukamori feel anything then at the end of the year, Subaru will have lost the Bet and Seishirou would kill him. He then erases young Subaru's memory of what happened. Subaru has to wear the gloves because Seishirou put a mark on his hands which is the mark of the Sakurazukamori's prey. E N D S P O I L E R S
Also note that what happens to Subaru at the end of the X anime is very very very different to what happens to Subaru in the X manga. The point where they diverge is AFTER the Rainbow Bridge scene (you'll know what scene I'm talking about when you see it - hehe). Actually after the Rainbow Bridge scene the whole anime tends to diverge from the manga...But then again they had to finish it somehow and the manga still isn't finished.
