Take the X Train

X電車で行こう

Aired: 1987

An OVA produced by Madhouse, based on a sci-fi short story by Kouichi Yamano. Directed by Rintaro, it was created under an unusual arrangement with jazz musician Yousuke Yamashita providing the entire score. Starting from reports of a mysterious ghost train — the X Train — spotted across Japan, the story follows Tooru Nishihara, a young man working at an advertising agency, who encounters an electric locomotive on the verge of being scrapped and is drawn into a strange destiny in this surrealist narrative. Animation, experimental music, and urban landscape imagery converge in a stylish trinity. The ending theme 'TAKE THE A TRAIN,' performed by Akiko Yano, leaves a phantasmal lingering impression. A uniquely distinctive work among 1980s OVAs, fusing railways, jazz, and visionary imagery.