Xam’d Lost Memories 7

Xam’d is not a particularly easy show to understand. Right from the get go we’ve been dropped into a world chock full of bizarre creatures, warring factions and a ton of terminology which is only explained little by little. It’s a lot like being handed puzzle pieces one by one and having to put them together without seeing the picture on the box first. 

It’s to Xam’d’s credit that I don’t find this to be a frustrating experience. If anything, every episode I am more intrigued to figure out what’s going on. I had this same feeling watching Dennou Coil which had even more mysteries and series specific jargon. Although my one complaint about Dennou Coil is that when it did explain things it did it in big, dialogue-heavy chunks that gave out too much information all at once. This could very well happen in Xam’d but for now the scriptwriters have generally conformed to the basic “show don’t tell” rule. I appreciate that they think we’re smart enough to figure out what’s going on without having to be spoon-fed.

Of course this wouldn’t work at all if Xam’d didn’t have something to make it accessible but luckily it does: the characters. That’s really no surprise, is there ever a time when an anime doesn’t live or die by the characters?

So despite what else was going on this episode the underlying premise was quite down-to-earth: two people, separated by distance and uncontrollable circumstances, trying to find each other again. In a world without cell phones that’s a lot easier said than done so the fact that Haru’s letters reached Akiyuki at all has to be some kind of minor miracle.

That’s the smuggest look I’ve seen on a character since Death Note.

If Akiyuki and Haru do meet up next episode I wonder how Furuichi will react. It certainly seems as if there will be an eventual conflict between Akiyuki and Furuichi and what could be a more classic reason than over a girl? There’s also the not so small matter of Furuichi being in the military which sets him up nicely for a battle with Akiyuki-as-Xam’d.

It was quite telling that in the fight with the escaped Xam’d test-type Furuichi was quick to dispatch it while Haru, recognizing it was pregnant, sympathized with it.

The fact that Haru could hear its voice and see that strange tower shows that she may have more in common with Nakiami than just a mutual interest in Akiyuki. It would be quite interesting to see these two meet in person, especially as Nakiami grows more and more attached to Akiyuki. This isn’t even too unlikely now that everyone is converging at Tsumebara Pass.

The episode wrapped up with Akiyuki and the Nekomata, functioning as a handy tracking device and viciously cute guardian, jumping out of an airplane to see Haru. Along the way he meets people who have been turning into Humanforms ever since there was an air raid from the North. This almost sounds like the equivalent of radiation poisoning since it doesn’t seem like these people were experimented on directly. Being able to turn people en masse into Humanforms is a pretty scary concept.

Akiyuki is also starting to get the hang of his Xam’d powers but the downside of this is that he’s using them to kill Humanforms, though each time has been in self defense so he’s hardly to blame. Still, I was surprised at just how nonchalant, even dismissive, the little girl and Zuizo were at the death of the man who turned into the black Humanform.

On a final note, I always find it interesting to see what other studios besides the main one (BONES) had a hand in a show. There’s some names I recognize here: Gainax, Artland, Madhouse, J.C. Staff and many I don’t, like Studio Comet or Triple A. I guess it’s a reminder of just how many people, many of them presumably unnamed, are involved in every show.