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

[Shiroth]

Alright, if you wanna take it as people guessing then be my guest.

I've said it before, not every single question needs answering. I mean we never found out why the old woman throws Oranges --- am i going to dislike the show for that reason? Not at all. The question you say need answering actually don't, though you went into the last episode wanting them to be, and that's completely destroyed your look on the show.

[SuperKnuckles]

Yeah, for all the deep characterizations of the first half, the second half being one event after the another meant that a lot of exposition either went unexplained or just vaguely referred to. The whole reasoning for the war, we just have to assume from the various little hints instead of us getting the whole story out of the way (which is why Eureka 7 was superior, IMO, because we get the whole picture explained through normalized expositions, not rushed in 24 or so episodes).

I wouldn't entirely fault the animation crew for it, because what we HAD was really nice, but the potential of the story and characters was barely tapped, because of how fast everything had to happen. And strangely, it felt like the story trudged along a bit because of so many idle dialogue, that should've been left for a longer series.

Personally, I don't think it really matters all that much, but I can see how it frustrates some. For me, it only frustrates me because the show could've reached E7 heights.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by SuperKnuckles

For me, it only frustrates me because the show could've reached E7 heights.

If they had more episodes to work with, yeah. With 50 episodes, Xam'd would have been able to deal with a lot of issues people wanted to see, though with 26 they're asking for a bit to much.

[Zippicus]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Alright, if you wanna take it as people guessing then be my guest.

I've said it before, not every single question needs answering. I mean we never found out why the old woman throws Oranges --- am i going to dislike the show for that reason? Not at all. The question you say need answering actually don't, though you went into the last episode wanting them to be, and that's completely destroyed your look on the show.

I can't see how much of the explanations people came up with can be considered anything but guessing, they sure didn't get the details from the writers. And to be clear I didn't dislike the show, I thought it was decent. I would have liked it better if there were less flaws in the telling of the story. I don't really care about the mundane details, although it's nicer when they do decide to fill those in. That being said quite a bit happened in the last half of the show that probably should have been fleshed out. I mean the whole point of taking us on a journey to a strange and unusual world is to explain the parts that are strange and unusual.

[Nosauz]

ok lets compare xam'd to one of bones' other works or similar length, Rahxephon. Now you have two shows of similar nature, light mecha with aliens and a similar direction, as in what war does to the people affected by it. Now you also have the idea of identity that plays a role in both. Now when you look at the two shows, you see real character development for the characters that are important, and eventhough there is a lot of exposition and dialogue in rahxephon it never feels forced, it never feels cliche, it always comes off as realistic, and in a way such characters seem to come to life. I'm not saying xam'd doesn't do this, but since character development is sparced between a substantially larger cast, and since the cast is somewhat disjointed in seperate factions when you have these swtiches to focus on other characters in xam'd you lose out in chara development for many of the others where as in rahxephon it feels like all the characters have some connection. The point I made about xam'd is specifically related to the story telling of xam'd, with its characters not as well developed when series attempts to wrap it up, many things are left unsaid and the audience is supposed to stumble in the dark. A couple of questions that are significant to the plot, "who is sanova?" What is her connection to the xam'd and humanforms?" What's the idea behind the northern front?" Why do they fight?" How did the hiruken emperor cause the fighting between north and south?" When the plot revolves heavily on the realistic depictions of war, you have these two sides that are not that fleshed out except for the characters who are involved in the army, so its like setting a story in nazi germany where watcher only knows that germany is being attacked by france. Also there parts of xam'ds exposition where I really wanted to kill myself, but I really liked the character designs and the fact that haru is my waifu made me struggle through. The thing is the series start to build up our expectations, and as expectations are meant, only dissappointment can come, but that doesn't stop me from seeing the good things about the show. Music, animation, high production values, and really well designed characters makes this still a good show, just the lack of proper story telling makes it dissappointing to see all these wonderful parts go to waste.

[Twisted Reality]

So why do people keep saying that Xam'd had a bittersweet ending? Haru and Akyuki got together in the end, no questions asked. The "nine-years of melancholy" felt pretty forced.

No questions asked, here's your boyfriend back. We just needed to tease the audience first.

The proper term for this is "cute." It was cute. I'm surprised Haru didn't just jump his bones right then and there.

Edit: Since I'm here. . .
Shiroth:
I don't really buy the "only 26 episodes" thing. I'm convinced shows like Inu Yasha had roughly 26 episodes of worthwhile content. And if you don't think Xam'd and Inu Yasha doesn't compare, whatever. Somebody just needed to sit down and storyboard the thing out in both cases. It was just a matter of boiling everything down to what you wanted to develop and streamlining the plot to support those goals. Doing anything else is simply lazy and unpardonable when it comes to writing.

For example: I don't think we needed the whole aside with Haru's sister. We already had two or three episodes detailing exactly what Kakisu was trying to accomplish with your <insert innocent guinea pig> experiments. Hence, all they did was waste time when they could have just fast-tracked the process and went:
"Okay, we already did this kick-the-puppy episode when Kakisu shot their classmate, why should we do it again? There is only enough airtime to kick the classmate or Haru's sister, but not both. Anything more borders on excessive."

Instead throw in a quick segment showing that Kakisu has finally managed to get the funding/materials and knowledge to mass produce Humanforms from various prisoners/volunteers/whatever to form a special unit. It also shows that there's some premeditation going on for this War with the North that they're hankering after. Two birds with one stone.

That saves more times for things like exposition.

[zalem]

I suppose it's bittersweet because of Nakiami's fate. But yeah, the way they did it with Haru and Akiyuki...well that part is definitely not bittersweet to me.

[Nosauz]

@Twisted_Reality
Yea I expected the end of xam'd to turn into a H scene because man everywhere she looks she sees him. and I totally agree about the storyboarding.

[metamorphic]

I would have really liked to have known more about Nakiami's childhood and how she was adopted. Here's to hoping they release some extras or maybe an OVA or two that could tell us more about her childhood or other things that might possibly have been explored further. Could make the Blurays, if they are released, a pretty awesome thing to own.

Originally Posted by Twisted Reality

So why do people keep saying that Xam'd had a bittersweet ending? Haru and Akyuki got together in the end, no questions asked. The "nine-years of melancholy" felt pretty forced.

No questions asked, here's your boyfriend back. We just needed to tease the audience first.

The proper term for this is "cute." It was cute. I'm surprised Haru didn't just jump his bones right then and there.

Edit: Since I'm here. . .
Shiroth:
I don't really buy the "only 26 episodes" thing. I'm convinced shows like Inu Yasha had roughly 26 episodes of worthwhile content. And if you don't think Xam'd and Inu Yasha doesn't compare, whatever. Somebody just needed to sit down and storyboard the thing out in both cases. It was just a matter of boiling everything down to what you wanted to develop and streamlining the plot to support those goals. Doing anything else is simply lazy and unpardonable when it comes to writing.

For example: I don't think we needed the whole aside with Haru's sister. We already had two or three episodes detailing exactly what Kakisu was trying to accomplish with your <insert innocent guinea pig> experiments. Hence, all they did was waste time when they could have just fast-tracked the process and went:
"Okay, we already did this kick-the-puppy episode when Kakisu shot their classmate, why should we do it again? There is only enough airtime to kick the classmate or Haru's sister, but not both. Anything more borders on excessive."

Instead throw in a quick segment showing that Kakisu has finally managed to get the funding/materials and knowledge to mass produce Humanforms from various prisoners/volunteers/whatever to form a special unit. It also shows that there's some premeditation going on for this War with the North that they're hankering after. Two birds with one stone.

That saves more times for things like exposition.

Did they explain Kakisu's motivations for using Haru's sister as a guinea pig?

[karasuma]

First, production quality is excellent. In fact, everything is excellent except the ending is kinda... flat. This is not unusual in anime series. So, I am not surprised by it.

The best ending among all character no doubt is Haru and Akiyuki, but the rest is pretty bleh....

Nakiami becomes a sleeping beauty is not a satisfying answer to me. It seems Akiyuki owe her somewhat, but you can't have a triangle love and a good ending.

When the Emperor took Akiyuki's name. I thought the emperor will be the one ended up with Haru and somehow Akiyuki will stay with Nakiami as a petrified statue.

Then, it will be perfect if somehow they both wake up nine years later and meet up with Ishu and everyone. That, to me, sounds better.

Too much stories line seems to develop, then get squash right away.
1) Midori as a weapon that never show its power.
2) What's the point of the character Yago?
3) The background war is not explained neither. So, how did it end?
4) Nakiami's relationship with the Lady is not explained until very late. It is like Naruto flash back before they kill the enemy.
5) Nakiami's trip back to her village is pretty pointless too.
etc.. etc...

It is still a good anime though.

[Twisted Reality]

Originally Posted by Mysteria

Did they explain Kakisu's motivations for using Haru's sister as a guinea pig?

He had deadlines to meet in order to back-engineer a Humanform weapon for the Southern army.

Haru's sister was ideal for a transformation for whatever reason.

Nakiami becomes a sleeping beauty is not a satisfying answer to me. It seems Akiyuki owe her somewhat, but you can't have a triangle love and a good ending.

First off, the word "resolution" is probably a better word than "answer." As a resolution to conflict, it is pretty inadequate.

Secondly, I don't understand why people keep shipping characters according to their fancy. The relationship between Akiyuki and Nakiami always struck me as pretty platonic. Nor was there any indication that it was going to evolve in any other direction unless you actually count their having different genitalia a sign.

Whereas Akiyuki was at least shown to visibly be moping over Haru and vice versa. Both had been shown to be childhood friends for quite some time before that. Furuichi was also shown to be jealous of the fact that Haru simply couldn't think of him the way she obviously did for Akiyuki.

I mean, that's a pretty strange idea of a happy ending. If there's a love triangle, there's no way that one member of the triangle could be let down easily.

No. They have to be placed into stasis for a thousand years before everybody can live happily ever after.

[justinstrife]

Originally Posted by Twisted Reality

econdly, I don't understand why people keep shipping characters according to their fancy. The relationship between Akiyuki and Nakiami always struck me as pretty platonic. Nor was there any indication that it was going to evolve in any other direction unless you actually count their having different genitalia a sign.

Whereas Akiyuki was at least shown to visibly be moping over Haru and vice versa. Both had been shown to be childhood friends for quite some time before that. Furuichi was also shown to be jealous of the fact that Haru simply couldn't think of him the way she obviously did for Akiyuki.

I mean, that's a pretty strange idea of a happy ending. If there's a love triangle, there's no way that one member of the triangle could be let down easily.

No. They have to be placed into stasis for a thousand years before everybody can live happily ever after.

Yeah I agree completely. There's been no sign of romantic interest from Akiyuki over Nakiami. He's always been hung up on Haru(as she's been hung up on him). Anything other than them together would just be cheap. It's a sad fate for Nakiami, and not sastifying IMO that she got the ending she did, but Akiyuki was not a real option for her.

[-KarumA-]

I'll just leave this here

[zwarrior]

I'm trying to find the whole soundtrack of the show, anyone know when it will be out?

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by zwarrior

I'm trying to find the whole soundtrack of the show, anyone know when it will be out?

Nope, still nothing has been official said about a soundtrack release.

[zwarrior]

thank you, cant wait for it :P

[zerome]

this may be completely random but does anyone see a possibility of a second season?

and also random question did anyone find a real liking for the little kid xam'd ?

[zalem]

No. It ended pretty conclusively. And even if they did the "1000 years later" thing to show Nakiami awakening, what would be the point? I suppose they could come up with a new story, but somehow I doubt it.

[Nosauz]

The only way I could see this having a second season, would be one that is a prequel. Even then the material for the show would be weak at best since, the original series didn't even elaborate on key plot issues. I'm hoping we'll get a reinvisioning of xam'd in a couple of years, that I think would be interesting.

[Fishman]

I think this series exemplifies a gradual descent from amazing to abysmal, why does the series talk about so many different concepts, but never elucidates anything, ever.