Since you are here, I assume you are familiar with Tokyo Babylon and X; honestly, without a deep interest in either of those, Tokyo Babylon 1999 will be of almost zero interest to you unless you really like bad Japanese horror B-flicks.

Tokyo Babylon 1999 takes place during the twilight period between Tokyo Babylon and X, a period during which Subaru is living utterly on his own without the company of the Dragons of Heaven, and during which he is still adjusting to his broken existence following the events of his year with Seishirou. I assume since Subaru is functional and relatively stoic it is not too soon after the events of the manga, though how close to 1999 the movie actually occurs is not revealed.

Tokyo Babylon

Tokyo Babylon is one of CLAMP’s first manga, a dark, brooding, psychological collection of short stories published in the anthologies South and Wings from 1990-1993. Early 90’s Tokyo (assumed anywhere from 1990-1992) is reaching a state of decadence and decay compared to Babylon, a state in which communication is eclipsed by selfish desires and materialism, a state in which bad things continually happen to good people. The city is grossly overcrowded to the point that a gravesite costs as much as a house, and achievement and advancement often come at a devastating price. The story presents several philosophical points ranging from esoteric subjects such as illusions and karma to more mundane subjects such as overcrowding and the limit of resources, organs for transplants given as a latter example.

Sumeragi Subaru, a sixteen-year-old onmyouji (roughly equivalent to an Eastern medium) and the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi Clan is fortunate, all things considered: he has a background that has given him not only the income to sustain an apartment in Shinjuku, but power, something few people in Tokyo have. He lives with a loving twin sister, Hokuto, and has befriended a generous and gentle veterinarian, Sakurazuka Seishirou, who claims to be madly in love with him, and whom Subaru slowly realizes he loves in return. Subaru balances this year-long Eden with his work life, in which he deals with and changes the lives of (and afterlives of) people who have been wronged, whether it be by other people or by the state of the city itself. Subaru himself is an awkward and gentle soul, more comfortable around animals than other people and painfully shy, but is selfless and willing to go great lengths to help even people who have lashed out at him in anger and pain. Unlike the vast majority of Tokyo and the wounded, jaded hearts of most of its citizens, Subaru’s heart is pure, and it is this purity of heart that allows Subaru to help even the most jaded and wounded—in fact, there is only person in the entire manga who claims to have not been changed by Subaru in one way or another, and this person may be the greatest psychological casualty presented in the Tokyo Babylon storyline: deep down, the most screwed up and distorted beyond humanity. If Subaru battles injustice and ill karma throughout the entire story, this person may represent everything Subaru opposes: illusions, deception, selfishness, irreverence for humanity, and the fact that bad things happen to good people. It is too bad this person is the man Subaru loves.

X (X/1999)

X, which has been being published in Asuka since 1992 and is not yet complete, was originally going to be the sequel to Tokyo Babylon under the title Tokyo Babylon 1999, and, instead of Shirou Kamui and Monou Fuuma, was going to feature Subaru and Seishirou as the main characters. It retains many thematic and tonal influences from its predecessor; in many ways, Tokyo’s ills presented in Tokyo Babylon set up the case for the Dragon of Earth crusade. X has far less of an intimate, short-story feel than Tokyo Babylon; it is a grandiose epic, hosting a cast of 14 main characters whose actions and reactions with one another drive the story and the fate of mankind. X is widely considered one of the darkest and most angst-ridden manga published, and, indeed, there is validity to this claim. It focuses more on prophesy than the gritty, day-to-day realism of Tokyo Babylon. However, it still maintains the feeling that at the core of the fatalism-and-doctrine, it is a story about a young man who just desperately wants to regain his best friend and live a normal life, and it is a story about people trying to learn more about themselves and humanity's impact on the world and itself, both positive and negative.

The war for the fate of the human race is destined to be fought in 1999, and Tokyo is the cornerstone of humanity’s spiritual defenses. Shirou Kamui has returned to Tokyo to, supposedly, choose the course of humanity's fate—the problem is that he just wants to get Shinken (the divine sword) and get the hell out of there before he’s forced to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, but things do not work out for him so smoothly. The Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth vie to seduce him to their respective causes, well aware of the fact that he is their trump. The former wish to save the human race, and the latter wish to obliterate it and purge the Earth of its abuse. Neither side nor Kamui, however, anticipates that as soon as Kamui chooses his side, another ‘Kamui’ will be born to balance his choice, and, of all people, this person is Kamui’s best friend...

In X, Subaru is a Dragon of Heaven (Ten no Ryuu) and Seishirou is a Dragon of Earth (Chi no Ryuu), though neither man cares about the future of the earth. After the events of Tokyo Babylon Subaru became a chronically depressed, chain-smoking wreck, silent and self-isolating, and Seishirou is slowly realizing that Subaru has worked his way under his skin whether he likes it or not. The truth is out, and no more is Subaru pure-hearted and innocent; he is a refracted shadow of what he once was, shattered and irreplaceably tainted. However, Subaru’s actions throughout the course of X reveal that regardless of how selfish he may think himself to have become, Subaru remains kind and gentle, and serves as a mentor and source of strength to Kamui during his times of need. Seishirou just kind of stalks around, smirks, and eats ice cream with Fuuma; not much has changed there either.