(L) Bonen no Xamdou (Xam'd: Lost Memories)

[Kaioshin Sama]

Well count me in. I really like the mecha design for the robot too. Definitely gives off that organic look like the Nirvash. I don't know but I think we are probably looking at a 50 episode series just going by the usual standard.

[Same_Shark]

I definately plan on watching this one! I love the designs already. Let's hope this gets better theme songs than Eureka 7.

[Haohmaru]

Are you serious? Days by Flow is awesome! Shonen Heart was good as well. I wasn't a big fan of the last 2 though.

[Matt122005]

I wonder if this DOES have a connection to E7. That mech resembles the last transformation of the Nirvash.

And the staff is alot from E7.

If Dai Sato is involved, I may faint.

-Matt

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by solomon

What is it meant by Chico not being Bones, it's listed on their website. And Koichi Horikawa (a key animator for bones) is doing the character designs and animation direction. It's a team up with Telecom, which welll my god..........

I think you're mistaken. Koichi Horikawa is only doing the character designs, the animation director is Hiroaki Noguchi - from Telecom. The director and main animation director of Chico are both from Telecom. BONES is mostly supervising the production in terms of designs and story, while Telecom will be animating the bulk of Chico.

[Westlo]

Looking forward to this, thanks for the information here and on AOD duckroll!

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Same_Shark

I definately plan on watching this one! I love the designs already. Let's hope this gets better theme songs than Eureka 7.

If it gets better theme songs than Eureka 7 then we just may be looking at the best OST ever.

[Westlo]

He was probably referring to the OP/ED songs not the actual BGM/Score, I wasn't really a fan of the first two op/eds for E7 (The FLOW song for Code Geass was much better than the first E7 op imo) but the last 2 op/eds I liked especially the 4th OP. The actual OST/Score for e7 was awesome, one of my favs for that year easily.

[wao]

The fact that I don't even feel excited hearing about this means I need a really big long break from anime, I think This is kinda sad.

Or maybe it just looks so damn much like E7 that I don't want to look forward to it and expect too much. My biggest hope is that, as usual, the suits have as little to do as possible with the storyline...

I wouldn't call that character design a ripoff off Yoshida's, but I think I'll be amused if his designs made such an impact that they've really seeped into the general Bones aesthetic*


*well, I might just be talking nonsense here but for quite some time I've always felt that there's been a sort of "Bones face" - like the faces in Wolf's Rain, Ayakashi Ayashi, Juuousei, maybe even DtB, there's this roundish touch to the drawings that I associate with Bones. It's also a little visible in Eureka 7, I think (especially, I think, with those 3 kids)

But Yoshida's E7 designs are different IMO, you can see it when he draws them himself (or in cases like the last episode where the lines suddenly look a lot more nuanced... if my memory hasn't utterly rotted, that is)
And there's a hint of this in the promotional art for this new thing. If it's not Yoshida (I wouldn't have an idea, when's the last time I checked 2ch...) then I think it's kinda interesting to see the influence.

[BluWacky]

Originally Posted by wao

*well, I might just be talking nonsense here but for quite some time I've always felt that there's been a sort of "Bones face" - like the faces in Wolf's Rain, Ayakashi Ayashi, Juuousei, maybe even DtB, there's this roundish touch to the drawings that I associate with Bones. It's also a little visible in Eureka 7, I think (especially, I think, with those 3 kids)

Great minds obviously think alike! I've always thought that Bones characters have a particularly distinctive look regardless of who does the character designs etc. It's partly the faces, but I think it's also perhaps something in the eyes although I can't quite pinpoint what it is. I actually thought that Toshihiro Kawamoto HAD done the DtB character designs, they look so similar to Wolf's Rain and Ayakashi Ayashi.

Anyhoo, I personally hope this isn't an internet broadcast show, as duck seems to be insinuating, because it's a bugger to watch thanks to region-coding and the quality is frequently terrible. Fingers crossed, and roll on April 10th.

[Same_Shark]

Originally Posted by Westlo

He was probably referring to the OP/ED songs not the actual BGM/Score, I wasn't really a fan of the first two op/eds for E7 (The FLOW song for Code Geass was much better than the first E7 op imo) but the last 2 op/eds I liked especially the 4th OP. The actual OST/Score for e7 was awesome, one of my favs for that year easily.

Yeah. I was referring to the OP/ED songs. Well, there was actually one OP I didn't like. That was Shounen Heart. I hate that song! As for the actual OST, I don't feel there's another that can compare. BTW, FLOW's theme song from the first Eureka 7 game was the best.

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by wao

But Yoshida's E7 designs are different IMO, you can see it when he draws them himself

Personally, I don't think Eureka 7 designs are all that different from regular BONES roundish aesthetic, though character design for Xamdou (or, at least, what we've seen of it) does look rather E7-ish.

Must be the eyes.

Originally Posted by BluWacky

I've always thought that Bones characters have a particularly distinctive look regardless of who does the character designs etc.

Original character designs can look quite drastically out there (i.e. Akihiro Yamada), but then animation character designer is let loose on them and standardizes the uniqueness.

[aardvark]

The original designs for DTB were by Yuuji Iwahara. It makes sense that the anime designs looks so very BONES-ish since they were adapted by Takahiro Komori, one of the studio's longtime regulars (been there since Angelic Layer)

->


BONES definititely have a very uniform design aesthetic that is prevalent in literally all their works (I think Kurau is probably the most singular of the older works, but still has the BONES feel). In fact I think Yoshida's drawing style is pretty much right at home at the studio, thus why his E7 designs while still different from the rest and unmistakenably Yoshida, still have a traditional BONES feel.

As for who is designing Xamdo, I definitely feel that it is Ayumi Kurashima. Her episodes of E7 were the most aesthetically close to Yoshida's work, and it's obvious the style must have rubbed off on her. Also, it wouldnt be the first time 2 BONES artists have similar styles, see Toshihiro Kawamoto and Hiroshi Ousaka (rip).

[solomon]

hmmmm, i think we may be overestimating the character design thing.

After all both Sutepuri and Hagaren were adaptions, Ouran is totally out of the "normal" bones "style"

I haven't seen any studio in Japan with a house style outside of Ghibli really.

by the way ardvark, any place I can find more pics of Iwahara's designs for DtB

[aardvark]

Originally Posted by solomon

hmmmm, i think we may be overestimating the character design thing.

After all both Sutepuri and Hagaren were adaptions, Ouran is totally out of the "normal" bones "style"

I haven't seen any studio in Japan with a house style outside of Ghibli really.

Actually, I think Ouran looks 100% BONES. The main thing is eyes and the overall drawing style. It's unmistakenably them. That's just imo though. (also, Sutepri original designs are pretty different from the anime from what I remember)

by the way ardvark, any place I can find more pics of Iwahara's designs for DtB

It's from one of the R2 DVD covers I had saved (dunno what the original source is), the R2s also have huge booklets with a lot of Iwahara art in them. I don't know if anyone has scanned them online though :\

[Elehayym]

Originally Posted by aardvark

Actually, I think Ouran looks 100% BONES. The main thing is eyes and the overall drawing style. It's unmistakenably them. That's just imo though. (also, Sutepri original designs are pretty different from the anime from what I remember)

Agreed! Especially Sutepri looked very different from the novels artwork (can see a pic here... bad pic I know but it's the first one I found

Also Ouran manga artwork can be seen here, BONES version of the characters looks much better imho

Even FMA that is more similar to the original character design has still something distinctively BONES in the drawing style; I ended up noticing it a lot when I saw first episode of Jushin Enbu, that looks a lot more like Arakawa's drawings IMHO.

[duckroll]

http://www.animate.tv/nf/detail.php?id=0000002725

There's supposed to be a mysterious 10 second clip of Xamdou playing at the BONES booth along with their other shows in the trailer reel. I hope someone records it, I'm not there this year!

[aardvark]

TRAILER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoV2bl59m4E

[BluWacky]

If anything, the quality of that clip suggests it's going to be a full-length film. Even by Bones standards that's one big old key-frame fest. But where would they get the money from, especially since Stranger tanked at the box office? I hope it's a TV series because that means more potential awesomeness, but there's no clue in the trailer unless it says something on the final credits scene which is waaaay to blurry to make out anything useful if you're me.

It seems that the mecha holding the girl in the promo picture is a transformed high-school kid, although why remains to be seen. Going wildly off on completely pointless speculation, this concerns me a little - if this means he's going to be protecting said busty girl I may start foaming rabidly at the mouth in fury unless they make her a decent character.

[wao]

Thanks tons for the link. So the character designs are by Ayumi Kurashima and the director is Masayuki Miyaji as previously mentioned...

...man, one would be 100000% forgiven for thinking this was a sequel to Eureka. From what I saw anyway. (I'm just speaking on a very general level)

Some of the monsters look very RahXephon-ish though. (Actually when I re-look at the main page I realise it's the same thingy - I think it's just because the main colour is white, so it reminds me of something I saw in RX...)

But hey, pretty explosions!

I really hope it isn't a film, but I think it's still quite possible it's a TV series... If it's BONES getting as serious as they did with Eureka I can imagine that level of animation in the first episode/trailer. There's something on the left of that credits screen, I can't see it even with the &fmt=18 addition - maybe there's a better quality video of it somewhere, I hope... I can't hear a damn thing.