Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 26: The Great Rock and the Girl ]

LET IT DOWN LET IT DOWN

For me, this ending was a bit weird. It was a happy ending for the most part. Mostly everybody got a good end, except for Nakiami IMO. 1000 years? Seriously? Man, I was really excited when Akiyuki and Yango tried to open the Quickening Chamber back up, but they ended up failing. And then I was like “Oh… FFFFFFFFFFFF.” Besides clearing the sky back up and closing the Quickening Chamber so all those crazies don’t commit mass suicide, I feel like her sacrifice should have had a bigger impact, more specifically on the mass gathered at the chamber. It felt like after it was over, they were just like “Oh well. Maybe next millennium.”

Funny how randomly Akiyuki came back. I was actually expecting him to bust out of that rock. That would have been more awesome. Also what was the deal with the real hand lol? Shit must be creepy if he sees everything like that. Liked how nonchalantly Haru acts when she sees her lover after nine years. She was expecting him to come back all along as long as she kept calling his name; which ties back to the beginning scene with Akiyuki as a kid.

I think I get the whole overview of the story and ending. At least I hope so anyways. There are of course a few things that weren’t explained thoroughly and that would probably require a rewatch on a lot of episodes which I’ll pass on. Xam’d is definitely one of those shows where you have to pay close attention to the dialogue and think past all the metaphors and shit.

[ Final Thoughts ]

Xam’d: Lost Memories was one of my more anticipated shows for 2008. With BONES at the reigns along with a respectable staff, I thought to myself “What could go wrong?” Then after finishing the show for myself, I can say that quite a few things went wrong here. But even despite of its shortcomings, I truly enjoyed Xam’d: Lost Memories overall. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, but I still like it for what it is. If you can get pass the slow pacing of the first half, the second half of the show will offer you with a few FFFFFFF, lol wut, and FFFFUCK YEEAAHHH moments.

Story: 7/10
I understand it for the most part. And when I finally did, I was like “Oh that’s it”? It wasn’t extraordinarily deep or anything. At the core, it’s pretty simple, but Xam’d has so many contrived explanations and LOL DEEP metaphors and symbolism that it ends up leaving a good chuck of its audience just confused if they don’t follow along closely. That aside, the story doesn’t bring anything new to the table nor is it presented in way that’s creative or clever. The many subplots that Xam’d has were far more interesting and executed better, but in the end they bring down the overlaying story as a whole because it felt like the writers didn’t know what exactly they wanted to do with all this. One thing that I loved was the whole setting of the Xam’d world. It felt so expansive with all the different cultures and places.

Cast: 7/10
I liked most of the characters for the most part. The best ones were probably Akiyuki’s parents who got the most and best character development. One character I wish the writers would have used better was Furuichi. It felt like they kinda just threw him away after his use. Like they didn’t know what to do with him. I honestly was expecting him to come back randomly because that was definitely one of the most spontaneous character deaths I’ve seen. The Zanbani crew is the weakest part of the whole cast, which is weird since the first third of the show centered around them. Maybe they were trying to go for an Eureka 7 kinda thing where you have this random kid onboard a flying ship. But it ended up falling flat compared to that BONES production.

Animation: 10/10
BONES. Nuff said. No, but seriously lol… even though Xam’d wasn’t as action packed as I thought it was going to be, the animation still shined everywhere. And the action scenes that are in it, just amazing. See this in HD if you can. I didn’t give this show my choice for Best Animation of the year for nothing.

Music: 9/10
I really liked the music in this series. It was powerful when it needed to be, it was somber when needed to be, and etc. The sound work complimented the beautiful animation and scenery hand in hand. The woman behind all this is Oshima Michiru who is probably best known for her music work in Fullmetal Alchemist. Hearing Oshima’s name in the staff list just increased my anticipation for this show, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Enjoyment: 7/10
It was hard for me to consistently enjoy watching Xam’d. It’s like we get an episode or two of awesome, then it slows down really quick and goes in a dull phase for like around four episodes. That stops like in the later half of the show where things finally begin escalating and come together. That’s where the show really grips your attention. But one of the biggest downsides of this show is the bad pacing which makes it hard to enjoy sometimes.

[ Overall series review: 80/100*]

*Note: Not an average. Actually the score does work out to be the average, but that’s a coincidence. D: