Xam'd: Lost Memories - The Complete Collection

Akiyuki Takehara is a high schooler living on the tranquil island of Sentan. He goes to school with his two best friends, Haru and Furuichi, and lives a relatively ordinary life. That all changes when he is accidentally involved in a bus bombing and is bestowed with the dubious power to transform into a strange creature called a Xam'd. The transformation is not without price however, as those that spend to much time in the Xam'd shape start to turn to stone. Saved by a young woman named Nakiami, Akiyuki is rather forcibly removed from his home and employed on a mail ship. Now he must learn to control his new power and try to find a way back home.

This series was weird. It was interesting, then boring, then confusing, then interesting, then confusing, then it ended. The world we are introduced to is interesting and mysterious. Akiyuki was something of an interesting character and he goes through quite a bit of character development. The supporting cast is varied and carry the story well.

I think the problem I had with the series was scale. There are two major plot lines. Akiyuki and Sentan Island. But within that we have multiple sub plot-lines. On Sentan, we have at least 3 different characters to follow, each doing something different. Akiyuki has his story as well as the task of explaining the world, the Xam'd, the Hiruko, and the war. The set up is all very promising, but they just couldn't fit everything in. They do try to wrap everything up, but it comes together in kind of a mess. It it would have been much more interesting if they had cut a few of the sub-plots and fleshed out the main story.

I was intrigued when I started. I was curious and interested. For about the first half. Not to say I wasn't entertained by the second half, and I sort of liked the ending, but all in all I felt like it was a good show that tried too much and suffered for it. But, hey, for under $50 you could just get it and try it for yourself. (or do what I did, and check your local library :)

Xam'd: Lost Memories has taken the top spot as my favorite anime series, or television series at all for that matter. It's set in a world apparently long at war. Neither faction is innocent, as is the case in reality but so rarely in literature. The people use a mix of futuristic bioengineering, modern weaponry, and religious ritual and magic to accomplish their goals. There are many factions, plotlines, characters, and ideas to understand and keep track of, and if you can follow all of them, it is very much worth the ride. This isn't a simple, straightforward story you can follow along with while you do your other work. It takes some effort to keep up with, and rewards that effort well.

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I've watched this series more than once. It is an amazing work of art, not just an anime, but a beautiful piece of storytelling. But I guess it's one of those things that most people think are amazing, but there is a select group of people that think it is "boring", or "moves too slow" or they "just don't get it" or whatever. It just doesn't have mass popular appeal I guess. You know what I'm talking about right? So if you're not one of those guys then I would definitely reccomend this as a must-watch anime.

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Others have covered the premise of this story, so I won't waste your time trying to reiterate.

Pros:

All the stuff that makes a good anime are here: artwork; character development; musical score; imaginative setting; interesting conflict; etc...

Cons:

Lots of stuff going on all over the place. Not sure why some of the characters or plot lines were there, other than to be a parable of some sort.

Overall:

Loved it. Every aspect is very high quality. The effort is there. The character development is excellent for some, if not for most of the characters. This story is beautifully complex, but does sometimes feel crowded, like a diamond ring with too many gems in the setting (distracts from the centerpiece's beauty), or a wedding dress with too much lace (think snowbeast). I can see why some reviewers said it was a little confusing at times. I did have to see the last episode's scenes a couple of times to verify if it was a happy ending or not. It was not immediately obvious, for me which was mildly annoying. Regardless, I was very pleased with this one, and will be adding it to my collection. Just be aware you'll need to pay attention and possibly re-watch some scenes.

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Anime Review

X'amd: Lost Memories

What an odd anime, I really, really like X'amd, but no matter how hard I want to, I can't love it. What keeps X'amd from achieving true greatness, is its lack of development and explanation of the world of the story. For while there are many wars, governments, battles, and creatures, the show never takes the time to give you any substantial explanation for what any of them are, or why they are significant. As a result, it is always hard to feel for the characters, and the gravity of the situation they are in. The potential for true drama is wasted most of the time. Instead we're just expected to believe that war and hatred is bad, and peace and love is good. Unfortunately this is far from the first anime to have that message, and others have done it far better.

This particular story of good and evil begins with Akiyuki, an average, everyday high school student. But the anime universe seldom allows average high school boys to average for very long, and by the end of the first episode, his island home is attacked, and his body becomes the host of a mysterious being known as a X'amd. He is then saved and spirited away by a mysterious girl who has all the answers (But never gives them to the audience), she takes him to the postal airship she lives on, and introduces him to the rag tag group who also occupy it, and who will be responsible for teaching him the life lessons he'll need to learn in order to overcome his status as average high school boy, and help save the world.

It's a shame this story doesn't rise to become something unique, because it always feels it has the potential to do so, if someone would just explain what the heck a X'amd is, besides some sort of generic supernatural guardian of the world. Part of me wonders if this isn't drawing from some well-known piece of Japanese mythology, which would explain the lack of explanation. Sadly this is unacceptable as truly great stories should be universal, so there should have been some kind of explanation.

What this series does have going for it is its lovable cast of characters (but what anime doesn't?). They must have meant something to me for I did shed a tear or two towards the end, not something that happens often, I just wish I had understand the situation more, maybe then I would have cared when one of the characters died, and why his sacrifice was significant. The animation for the show is also quite good. It must also be noted that the English dubbing of the show is superb (save for some brief cringe worthy lines from background characters), another example of how far English dubs have come in the past half decade. Another high point is overall atmosphere of the show, which is extremely reminiscent of Princess Mononoke. It really does ultimately feel like this anime could take place in the same world as Mononoke only thousands of years later. Sadly X'amd's world is much more complicated then Mononoke's so the simple explanations don't suffice. And neither does the ambiguous ending. Though as far as ambiguous anime endings go, this one is pretty good.

If you can watch this show for free on Netflix streaming or some other streaming service, I would definitely recommend it. Otherwise I would never suggest paying for Blu-Ray's or DVDs or digital downloads(I Especially wouldn't pay this $80 for the Blu Ray), without seeing the whole show first, and then deciding its something you always want to have with you.

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