It’s been nearly a month since I’ve posted here but if there’s one thing that can shake me out of my apathy it’s the finale of Xam’d: Lost Memories. Although I expect to do a review of the series later, for now I’m just writing about the ending. It goes without saying that this post contains massive spoilers.
So let me get this straight. The final enemy is actually a stillborn baby, Xam’ds were created by old Lady Sannova to fight said baby and Nakiami saves the world by taking a 1,000 year nap. Yeah, I’ve heard stranger premises… but not many.
The Hiruken Emperor and Akiyuki – The Power of A Name
Let’s start with who and what the Hiruken Emperor is: a stillborn of royal blood imbued with artificial Hiruko which turned him into a monster. He isn’t actually bad because Xam’d doesn’t have bad guys, just characters who really need a hug. First we had Furuichi who just wanted Haru to love him, then there was Kakisu who just wanted his mom to love him and finally the Emperor who, like Frankenstein’s monster, is just incredibly lonely.
Which is why Akiyuki gives the Emperor his own name thereby freeing him from the endless void of nothingness. I’ve always loved the idea that names have power and we see it work here to turn the Emperor from a monster into a man. Perhaps we are meant to draw a parallel with Nakiami and how her name was given to her by Ishu. As for Akiyuki, by this point he’s already finished his character development and grown into a young man who is sure of himself and knows what he wants in life (Haru, of course). He can afford to lose his own identity because he knows he’ll get it back.
This struggle to find oneself seems like a theme I’ve seen in pretty much every anime ever (because if there’s anyone who needs help with that issue it’s teens and otaku) but I think Xam’d pulled it off pretty well here. Especially because it was handled with, if not subtlety, than at least a distinct lack of screaming, crying or temper tantrums.
Nakiami Makes a Prettier Neo than Keanu Reeves
If I’m not mistaken, Lady Sannova implies in episode 25 that she’s been alive for 1,000 years. Are we to believe then that this whole thing is some kind of repetitive cycle and there always must be someone to sacrifice themselves for world peace? I think I see room for a sequel now.
Hiruken Emperor or Hiruken Pharaoh?
From an emotional standpoint Nakiami’s sacrifice was an utter success. If the goal was to make me struggle to hold back tears while Yango, Ishu and the others went to visit Nakiami’s tomb then this plot development did it’s job. There was also something undeniably beautiful in the fairy tale like quality of Nakiami supposedly sleeping for 1,000 years.
Unfortunately I’m still hard pressed to make any sense of this development besides the fact that the writers wanted to turn Nakiami into a messiah and then break my heart by (sort of) killing her. Which is all well and good but I wish they’d actually explained what the Quickening Chamber is and why she had to sacrifice herself to close it. I usually don’t mind some ambiguity in my anime endings but this just didn’t make much sense at all.
Akiyuki and Haru – I Believe in A Thing Called Love
Forgive me for making this comparison once again, but I really felt that this was similar to that other show that I don’t want to spoil but you’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen it. Except that because Xam’d is more mature, instead of a rainbow heart carved into the moon there was just Haru and Akiyuki standing at a cliff and looking out over the water. And in a way the situation is reversed as it is Haru who must save Akiyuki.
There really isn’t much more to say about this except that it is undeniably romantic that Haru spent nine years faithfully sending her thoughts to Akiyuki which turned him from stone back into a human again. The relationship between Haru and Akiyuki was one I liked a great deal both for how romantic it was and that it was pretty realistic for an anime.
Conclusion
Like I said about Nakiami’s disappearance, I think that the end of Xam’d succeeded on an emotional level. Every scene in episode 26 tugged at my heartstrings and was incredibly cinematic, especially when the kids dumped letters off the side of the Zanbani in the hope that their feelings would somehow reach Nakiami and Akiyuki. I know that some people have complained that the characters were flat but I cared about or was interested in nearly all of them, even Yango who didn’t show up until late in the series but was interesting in his own right and brought out Nakiami’s motherly side.
Still there were some major problems with the ending and with Xam’d as a whole. For instance, what about the war? For a show that seemed to try to have war as a central element I don’t even know why the conflict began and I don’t really know what Xam’d wants me to think about war besides the usual: war and hate is bad.
Another problem was that the characters all felt too spread out. The Zanbani crew stopped being important a little more than halfway through the show and I felt like they never really affected the plot as much as they could have or should have. The same goes for Kakisu and Haru’s sister Midori who never really added much to the show despite how much time was spent on showing the military developing Humanforms.
At the end of the day I still love Xam’d. With gorgeous animation, interesting characters, few of the typical anime stereotypes and a unique premise despite borrowing heavily from Ghibli it was extremely refreshing to watch. I just wish the plot had made more sense and had answered the ever present question I had while watching – “what is this all adding up to?”. I want to give Xam’d a 10/10 because it could have been a masterpiece. As it is, I’ll just say that despite its flaws it was good – better than most of the new shows this year – and it might make more sense when I re-watch.
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Great post. Indeed, the issue about the war is puzzling. Up till now, I’m still a bit fuzzy about who’s fighting who and why.
I’m with you on “flawed-yet-good”.
I think the problem with the way the war was handled was that at first the it was just a backdrop to the characters’ situation and explaining about it would have been trite and detracted from the drama, but as the ending approached the war started to move more and more to centre stage. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to intimately interweave it with the character development and it merely kicked the characters’ personal stories aside.
I reckon Nakiami’s non-death was an attempt to compromise between the obvious necessity for some form of conscious sacrifice, and the ‘you can’t just throw yourself away’ line of thought we’d seen established earlier. Which is why it was kind of satisfying despite the lack of explanation.
Incidentally, I feel that Midori can be justified purely on the grounds of her centrality to one of the best scenes in the series. The big green egg flashback thing was the zenith of the show for me.
Mainly Xam’d makes me want to watch the much hyped Eureka7, because I’d like to see something along these lines that just happens to be, y’know, better.
Eureka Seven is worth watching but I’d be very hesitant to declare it better than Xam’d. It’s much more of a conventional boys’ mecha anime, if that’s your bag — basically “Gundam on surfboards”. For me it was one of those shows that had me screaming abuse at the screen at regular intervals, every time the main character did something stupid and annoying (often) but I kept watching it because there were enough other cool things in there to make it worthwhile.
Oh, and the incessant aren’t-we-cool references to 80s and 90s indie and dance music started to seem cheesy pretty early on.
Hmmm, it’s probably a good thing that my expectations don’t get too extreme then – especially as a non mech-head. That said, I might even prefer a stupider lead male – as I felt Akiuyki wasn’t that interesting beyond his relationship with Haru. Only one way to find out I suppose.
Also needed more fights. Meh, I’m an action whore, so take that statement with a grain of salt.
Heh, my views on the ending are prett mcuh the same as yours, although you seem to have worked out more than I have so far. I agree that it succeeded on an emotional level though, which for me is enough (I shed a manly tear at the end!). It also looked and sounded wonderful.
I’m reluctant to declare it to be a masterpiece either, but I’m hoping I get the chance to rewatch it soonish and pick up on any details that I didn’t get the first time, and appreciate the details more in the process. It should make more sense then. Maybe.
@dotdash
That’s true. By the end, though, I think I’d have preferred trite exposition to not actually caring at all about the North or the South.
@coburn
dotdash is right, E7 isn’t all that similar to Xam’d it’s just that there were a few things that greatly reminded me of it including at least one deliberate homage. Personally I loved it but then the inner kid in me was absolutely delighted by surfing mecha.
@omisyth
It didn’t have that many fights but Furuichi vs. Akiyuki is hands down the weirdest, most memorable one I’ve seen all year.
@Martin
I think that watching it in batches instead of one episode at a time will probably help me comprehend it a little more.
>coburn
“Only one way to find out I suppose.”
You said it! Xam’d's director, Miyaji Masayuki, did a lot of work on Eureka Seven so regardless of the differences, there is a lot of continuity in terms of the production quality at least.
Ah finally I finished it.
My appreciation of the show is mostly on the emotional level. My initial reaction (just finished it minutes ago) is that I love it. I think it’s shamelessly sentimental, but I won’t hold that against it.
The ending, with the supposedly dead characters turning up not dead makes the emotional meal a bit too rich, like a tub of ice cream instead of a delicate pastry. I won’t complain too hard or too loud.
I love Xam’d.
I just finished Xam’d today after about 5 days of binging on it and only it for my anime diet.
I definitly noticed the “spiritual/organic” aesthetic to both Hirukoism(is that what it was called?), the Xam’d and the humanoid weapons – fairly remeniscient of the Coralians and the religion orientated around them. I also nostalgically noticed the use of skies as scenery just as much as land. As many of you have said earlier – lots of parallels in look between Xam’d and E7 – as well as superb animation.
I found that it threw a lot of different terms and ideas at you all at once in the first episode – and I was kinda confused, but was really intrigued nevertheless.
I really liked the characters – Haru impressed me greatly – they all changed at least to some degree throughout the show (usually in a significant way), and realistically too.
The ending itself (timeskip) I liked a great deal more than the aforementioned anime’s ending (even tho it is my #1 favorite), but it somehow didn’t feel right. It tied in all the loose ends and did so very well – but it just didn’t feel right to me. Impressive anime nonetheless.
Well I have to say that while the series had great potential, after the mid-season break the pace changed completely and it feels like they spread the events out way too much. I feel that while the scenes were beautifully animated and the imagery created was amazing, it seemed a bit forced. The relationship of Haru and Akiyuki seemed to have too little said. One minute they are just school friends and suddenly they are deeply in love with each other without actually having spent much time together.
I agree with your points about the crew of the ship and how little they contributed to the second half. Perhaps I was looking for much more of a Gekko-Go relationship between the main characters and the ship&crew, but it does feel a missed opportunity. The creators also seem to have some obsession with serially introducing new characters, building them up so that we have some attachment to them, and then just sidelining or killing them off. Very strange.
It had great promise but I find myself completely underwhelmed with the second half and the ending, so much so that by episode 23 I couldn’t wait for the damned thing to be over, just so I knew what happened after having invested so much interest into it uptil then. I was sad that I felt this way, but that was the state of affairs. I’d give it a 7/10 having seen the end, but at episode 13&14 I would have given it 11/10!
Overall, it is a beautiful anime to watch but in terms of story there was so much which could have been done with the excellent ideas and background to the series, but instead it turned out to be a thin husk of a tale. I think that the director and producers and writers were too esoteric and too surreal in what they created.
wow excellent blog., well thought off in every aspects.. i just have one question that been bugging me thou is the kool if i ask? since Nakiami had to sacrifice herself right to get the 1000 years of smiles or peace right, that sacrifice was just like for that darkness to disappear right and since akiyuki gave he’s name to the emperor shouldent that darkness disappear? so there wasent a need for nakiami to sacrifice herself, dont u think soo? what if it went that way,? but in any case this is the first anime that made me feel say PERFECT ending, some anime’s just has either to much or too little done or it was good ending but they didnt end it there you know what i mean?
No, Nakiami did need to sacrifice herself. She didn’t stop the current darkness that Akiyuki stopped, Nakiami stopped the need for the Quickening Chamber. In 1000 years Nakiami will be back and someone else will have to find a way to stop the need for the Chamber.
And since no one else said it, I hated the Haru/Akiyuki pairing. I found Haru to be a useless character that ruined Akiyuki’s character.
_> so that’s alright. :p
Beautiful graphics, and xamd > E7
oops, half of my comment disappeared…
i was saying thankyou for the explanation and all.
while there are still parts that i don’t really understand, Xamd was still a good watch. I’ve seen some animes which are even more puzzling, so this one is okay. and i like it better than E7 somehow…
Yea i agree this anime was awsome and one of the reasons i decided to watch it was because it reminded me of eureka seven which was equally one of the greatest anime of all time. i give this and eureka seven a 10/10. But i would like to know more about the chammber and also why did furuichi kill himself i believe they should have kept him.
in the end it might be just a dream of a coma awaken kid, everything is a BIG dream, wat is a reality in Akiyuki ‘s universe and by waking up from coma he realise it, there is no magical being around but just endless civil war, that reality , he accepted it and woke up from his slumber.
thanks to his girl friend emotional and constant nagging on his hospital bed he have awaken from his coma,thats why he said ur words gotten to me everytime..
and why he stare at his arm and it turns real instead of anime, he slowly returning to the real world, where Hiruko ,Xam’d , where all made up, the emperor was his indentity u have to discover to be awaken, all the chracter he created in his dream are actually part of his personality, by realising it he have found himself..
there u go… my IMHO hahahah.,
its all a dream ….
I think after re-watching for the 2rd time that Bones hit it dead on with this series and Eureka 7. While watching X’amd for a second time I was scared to find myself watching a anime that mirrored a world so close to the one I live in. There were terrorists ethnic cleansing wars death bigotry and so much of what man should despise in this world and I found it somewhat ironic how all that negitivity was there and the characters were always a step above it and if they were not they were killed off or turned to stone. I felt that this was a love story that could be called epic in its display of a womans eternal love for a man she was smitten by. I can only hope that everyone watches this with open hearts and minds , there is alot to be learned in this story about life and love. It and the series Eureka 7 hinted too above are both in my list of the best I will ever see.
“Still there were some major problems with the ending and with Xam’d as a whole. For instance, what about the war? For a show that seemed to try to have war as a central element I don’t even know why the conflict began and I don’t really know what Xam’d wants me to think about war besides the usual: war and hate is bad.”
That statement, “I don’t even know why the conflict began” WAS what Xam’d wants you to think about war, aside from the usual war and hate is bad. They chose to leave it very open and ambiguous to make you question the very purpose of the war. It’s fairly obvious that killing is bad, yet it continues on a daily basis. The “Why” component of this conundrum serves to make you question the very basis for why humans kill ourselves, each other, etc, which is something most shows coming from post-war Japan have failed to touch on at all. Gundam established the woes of war, Xam’d expanded on it to actually address the issue instead of stating the obvious.
I’m not entirely sure if the show chooses to elaborate on this or not, or if it begins the process of questioning. Based on what I’ve received from watching Xam’d and the limited analysis of the show in response to this question, I would say Xam’d tries to argue that we fight due to our selfish desires as human beings, as to the point where we will ignore our true desires and keep acting in the moment, as exemplified by the downfall and death of Furuichi, the lyrics of the OP, the Hiruko program run by that doctor guy, and the (death?) of Kakisu. I say death because I swear I saw him in Ryuzo’s hospital bed at one point with his assistant looking over him, but I’m pretty sure he died from that bullet to the face.
yep that was him on the doctor’s bed
OMG THANK YOU!!!! I just finished watching Xam’d and I am trying to figure this out too. The series just throws a whole bunch of random info and plot twists at you with all kinds of holes that leave you lost. How much more random can you get: the Quickening chamber was just thrown in all of a sudden, a Hiruken Emperor pops up out of nowhere and conveniently Akiyuki happens to be the only one who can set him free while there are plenty other Hiruko more qualified than him to do the job. WTH! The series as a whole was alright, I guess. Even Midori being qualified to be an Artificial Hiruko user was also brought on pretty randomly. A few hints about her potential from the female army officer and all of a sudden Midori(what is she like 12) is transformed into the blob with no real reason as to why she was chosen other than the lame reason that she had to walk on crutches
Oh sorry one more thing. “I’m giving you my name.” Really!! Was defeating the Hiruken Emperor that easy!!!!!
Thanks for the post bro. It was eating me up inside not knowing for sure… if Haru ended up Akiyuki, or was that the death king he gave his name to earlier, and he was still stone some where. Knowing that you said it out loud… makes me feel completed inside… that she send her love… and it brought him back. I guess I was just missing the scene where he breaks the stones from the inside out… while she cries for him, and pops out. Like a sleeping beauty type ending… also. They needed to kiss… wholly crap… the whole show, nine years, a thousand year war, he turns to stone and comes back and ….no kiss… REALLY!!! well its fine amazing anime… really amazing!
I just finished watching it and had to google the ending to figure out what happeded. Maybe its just me but i totally missed that Haru was sending him thought for all those years. I just couldn’t figure out how he turned back from stone. I thought that now the emporer may be living in his place.
The whole premiss of being xam’d is that if you loose your self to it you turn to stone, so by giving his name/identity to the emperor he lost his identity, turning him to stone. but over the years he was able to reform his identity and find himself again and therefore came back from the stone because of Haru’s words.
great write-up. needed it to put some ending connections together.
So the world relies on a perpetual, 1000-year cycle. After that time, the cup of happiness is full and the quickening chamber is needed to reset things back to happyness? Hmmmz. Could that be it perhaps. That could *perhaps* explain why the Great Pilgrimage was needed (i e fend off the darkness by turning all the souls into light). But how on earth did Nakiami replace that by going to sleep… Anyone?
In that episode they keep saying 1000 yrs will fly by in no time I was wondering how long do xam live ?
I hate Haru, she’s a stupid bitch that never listens -.-
Just re-watched the anime after first airing. But yeah I do think there needs to be a sequel 1000 years later. And for god sake, get Nakiami a man! I was rooting for Akiyuki x Nakiami but then the dumb b*tch goes napping for 1000 years, what a waste. In any case, not a disappointment in terms of animation and story-telling generally. Another quality product from Bones. I hope people will keep watching this show for years to come.