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

[orion]

Aw, let's talk about the episode...

So do you think that the previous crewmember is that monster in the government's hands?

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by orion

Aw, let's talk about the episode...

So do you think that the previous crewmember is that monster in the government's hands?

Okay.

I don't think Raigyo is the Xam'd that the military has. In ep2 it was strongly hinted that the Xam'd is a mother who was protecting her child when she mutated and turned into stone. They're probably going to leave his whereabouts vague for a while to leave us hanging. Either he died (Nakiami had to kill him maybe?) or he's on another side and will face the crew later in the series. It'll be interesting to see if the military from the Southern Government also starts hunting Akiyuki, since they know another Xam'd is out there, and now Kakisu has formed a connection with his disappearance from the bus explosion.

Edit: Just another thought, did the action sequence between Nakiami and the Humanform in ep3 remind anyone else of Shadow of of the Colossus?

[spicypolvoron]

You know guys what I think about Haru and Akiyuki meeting again? I don't think they will. I think the female character from the beginning of OP (who licks the letter) is Haru with short hair. I don't know, probably time-skip? She probably joins the army (since she's strong when she beat the crap of that guy), assuming that she's wearing an army uniform in the OP.

Well in any case, I WANT AkiyukiXNakiami! Not with Haru! :P

[FlareKnight]

Spoiler for Ep3:

Well its a pretty tough situation for Akiyuki and a lot worse than I had first thought. Seems like Nakiami has brought a few of these guys on board, but none making it so far. Just a delay before they ended up stoned and thats that. So clearly the odds are set against Akiyuki just to survive. If those things are drawn to him there is no way he can go home and thus create trouble. At least he can send a letter home. Though its not like it will be going there right away since they are the mail delivery people.

Still pretty rough ship to be stuck on. Geeze that one kid is incredibly rude. Feel for the mother having a child like that. Not to mention this is looking to be a really tough job to be stuck with. This is why good deeds end up biting you in the rear. Helping that girl onto the bus was the dumbest thing Akiyuki has ever done.

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Spoiler for Ep3:

Helping that girl onto the bus was the dumbest thing Akiyuki has ever done.

Spoiler:

I dunno, judging from his utter stupidity in ep3 when he ripped off the needle, I think we're in for a whole lot more dumbness from Akiyuki before we're through. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes and makes it through without creating too much of a mess for everyone else.

[Sotobrastos]

Spoiler for Xam'd:

Akiyuki will probably go through what Renton did in E7--gets kicked around a bit, then acceptance will come.

I wonder why Namiaki is so driven to save the Xam'd, though. She looks like she's from the northern regions, and the ending song shows her traveling away from her homeland.

Haru is hot~ she's like Shirley or Orihime without all the things that make them so annoying.

[Navel]

Originally Posted by orion

Aw, let's talk about the episode...

So do you think that the previous crewmember is that monster in the government's hands?

In the beginning of episode 1, there is a group of children who are there to receive the "Xam egg" from the old lady. And we saw that one of them, Nakiami, made Akiyuky into a Xam. It's safe to assume the Xam the military discovered is just the result of another one of those children transforming someone into a Xam. Why the old lady is doing that, we'll find later on.

The way the story is set looks so much like Eureka 7, indeed.

And regarding the PSN and availability on PCs. There is a reason why the PCs can not play the encrypted files from the PS3 and why Sony is not interested in that. The PS3 and the PSP both have cryptographic hardware that are proprietary technology. It's the hardware that decrypts the media file. PCs don't have it, and will never have for so many reasons: one is that it's impossible to convince all PC manufacturers out there and their dog to add a component which increases the price of the PC they sell, two because they're most likely Sony rivals so such a deal would only be a I'm doing this for you, you give me something in return, and would increase the overall cost even more, three, and most likely, Sony knows software encryption schemes are easier to break than hardware ones. They are the only ones who know the secrets of their chips, and they like it that way because it forces people to buy their hardware and to use their services, not to be able to go to a competitor. It's 101 on how you build yourself a competitive advantage, you deny competitors the possibility to copy you easily, and make yourself the only source for something customers want. Even the ts files that are available on p2p are not decrypted media files but reencodes of the PS3 analog output, which was already doubly resized by the PS3 so the result is less clear than the original.

[terrus]

Originally Posted by duckroll

I don't think Raigyo is the Xam'd that the military has. In ep2 it was strongly hinted that the Xam'd is a mother who was protecting her child when she mutated and turned into stone. They're probably going to leave his whereabouts vague for a while to leave us hanging. Either he died (Nakiami had to kill him maybe?) or he's on another side and will face the crew later in the series. It'll be interesting to see if the military from the Southern Government also starts hunting Akiyuki, since they know another Xam'd is out there, and now Kakisu has formed a connection with his disappearance from the bus explosion.

Do you think it might be possible that Raigyo is the man we've been seeing in the op and ed? The one with camera and walking through a crowd.

Also about the Giant Xam'd isn't dead or is going to be revived somehow, because if you watch the trailer you can see it with it's back to us and four wings coming out of it's back. You can also see it has the same colours as the gaint Xam'd so it can't be Akiyuki.

[arias]

Originally Posted by Tiamat's Disciple

I'm not sure i agree it's the best series of the season, but it is a good show. Shame Sony are castrating themselves with poor availability. If they followed Gonzo and released on BOOST or Crunchy they'd make a hell of a lot more i think

Sony aren't castrating themselves with poor availability though; this move is intentional and is aimed at boosting the profile of PSN.


I would go so far as to say this is shaping up to be one of the best anime I've seen in YEARS. If it continues in this quality it will join my shortlist of top favorites like Honey & Clover, Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Crest of the Stars series..

[arias]

Originally Posted by duckroll

They've been planning this release since December last year. :P

I love watching people hav no idea about what bs they're spouting

[SuperKnuckles]

Good production as always, but the constant smart-mouthing gave me a real headache. Normal people, even people in anime and in fantasies don't talk with such sharp tongues like that. It's a lot to handle.

At least the plot was a very straightforward and actually a pretty cliche one. Boy gets lost, the entire crew hates him and the family misses boy.

Also, I'm not sure I want to see the government being all evil with experimentation and all. Reminds me of Eureka 7 in a way. And of course, it's the holy queen of cliche that the governments do big bad things and always becomes antagonists. Again, great production, but I sort of keep having that nagging feeling of cliche. With such production values, I almost am expecting them to rise above it.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by orion

So do you think that the previous crewmember is that monster in the government's hands?

When they say "turn to stone" i'm gonna go with the meaning death. For now anyway until we more on the subject.

Originally Posted by duckroll

It'll be interesting to see if the military from the Southern Government also starts hunting Akiyuki, since they know another Xam'd is out there, and now Kakisu has formed a connection with his disappearance from the bus explosion.

I think that's defiantly what we're going to see in the upcoming episodes. They've just gotta make the link first that he's on that ship, and i'm sure that'll happen once a report of Xam'd has been spotted. I guess they'll go speak to his father first?

Originally Posted by duckroll

Just another thought, did the action sequence between Nakiami and the Humanform in ep3 remind anyone else of Shadow of of the Colossus?

Yeah i thought that, though the humanform creatures remind me to much of all the Japanese monster movies i've seen over the many years --- it was just how the battle went that reminded me of that.

[typhonsentra]

Spoiler:

I'm thinking Nakiami had someone close to her die from turning to stone like this.

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by terrus

Do you think it might be possible that Raigyo is the man we've been seeing in the op and ed? The one with camera and walking through a crowd.

Also about the Giant Xam'd isn't dead or is going to be revived somehow, because if you watch the trailer you can see it with it's back to us and four wings coming out of it's back. You can also see it has the same colours as the gaint Xam'd so it can't be Akiyuki.

There are too many unknowns about the unvealed characters, so I can't really make a guess there. But good catch on the trailer. In the same scene you see a bunch of ASPs (the military mechs) in the background, so I think the scene should be coming up soon in ep4 or 5.

[Tiamat's Disciple]

Originally Posted by duckroll

They've been planning this release since December last year. :P

It's not a question of how long the planning is, but a question of the quality of the planning. I've seen shows with two years of planning fall flat on their face, and i've seen shows with next to no planning succeed.

Limiting to the PSN is fine, but limiting it to america, when they hold the rights to other countries as well is just plain nuts. Sure you may raise awareness in the US of the PSN, but you're pising off potential users in other countries, in other words you're losing sales and castrating yourself

Edit: And the BOOST version of strike witches beats the PSN version of Xam'd in quality IMO

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

Spoiler:

I'm thinking Nakiami had someone close to her die from turning to stone like this.

Well, there's two options in which this could go --- one being what you've mentioned, or it's her mission so to say to protect the Xam'd. This could be linked to the white haired children or the trible markings.

Both are good options in which Nakiami's backstory can be told, though it'll be interesting for her character development if it's the one you mentioned.

[Zoe]

Originally Posted by Tiamat's Disciple

Limiting to the PSN is fine, but limiting it to america, when they hold the rights to other countries as well is just plain nuts. Sure you may raise awareness in the US of the PSN, but you're pising off potential users in other countries, in other words you're losing sales and castrating yourself

It takes a lot more than pushing a button to launch a video rental service in a region. What did you want them to do, launch in all the areas with JUST Xam'd? And don't forget the localization issue for releasing things to Europe.

This isn't limited to America. America just gets it first.

[technomo12]

all i can say in ep 3 is ok i see riiight but still there is a small action ehhehehe

[Tiamat's Disciple]

Originally Posted by Zoe

It takes a lot more than pushing a button to launch a video rental service in a region. What did you want them to do, launch in all the areas with JUST Xam'd? And don't forget the localization issue for releasing things to Europe.

This isn't limited to America. America just gets it first.

I give up trying, your completely missing the point *sighs and goes for a coffee*

[comatose]

Originally Posted by Zoe

It takes a lot more than pushing a button to launch a video rental service in a region. What did you want them to do, launch in all the areas with JUST Xam'd? And don't forget the localization issue for releasing things to Europe.

This isn't limited to America. America just gets it first.

...yes, they should've launched it with just Xam'd or held off the global release.
What he said is right: they're pissing off customers and it's likely that if it was available globally, nobody would've bothered to capture and release it.

I would've bought it, but now I'm not going to be getting it even when the video store opens in September. If Sony's not going to cater to my needs, I'm not going to cater to Sony's needs.

At worst I will buy the BDs later, after they're discounted.