Bounen no Xamdou Episode 26 Discussion

ForlornHope said:
What started out as a "9" series for me turned into a "7" series by the end. I felt it had a lot of wasted potential and would of worked better as a 39 or 52 episode series.

AnimusNathan said:
I tried to like Xam'd. I really did. There was SO much god-damn potential. So much. But this ending was the final nail in the coffin and I can no longer keep up the act.

This series is really REALLY fucking bad. REALLY FUCKING BAD. About 50% of it makes sense, the chamber, the emperor, the hiruken etc. then there is the other 50% that makes no fucking sense at all. Everything was just pulled out of fucking nowhere. And why are we supposed to give a fuck about a bunch of characters that served no purpose and weren't really that interesting. Why the fuck did we take half the episode to focus on a bunch of ship members that served NO PURPOSE?! WHY?! TELL ME WHY! WHYYYYYY!!!

And then a bunch of other characters get 2-3 minutes of epilogue even though the also served no purpse. Honestly, who really gave a fuck about Midori or that captain guy whose name I'm sure none of you can remember and his girlfriend pulled out of fucking nowhere. Or Midori's dad.

and how in the fuck is that butch postal service captain still alive? huh? She got fucking exploded. If stone and metal couldn't withstand it, how in the father of fucking god did she?

And what was with Akiyuki? He's a statue then he's not? There was no logical explanation for that crap. Don't even try it. This was a massacre of epic proportions. I can only imagine how ashamed the BONES staff are to have spent so much money on this giant pile of garbage.

Cnon said:
Didn't like the ending. I wanted Akiyuki to live 5/10

Kregard said:
I do not understand how some people have not come to the conclusion that Akiyuki did come back to life. In the very last episode after the half time credit there is brief intro stating that an ongoro blossomed next to the stone statue that Haru visits after she has finished her teaching for the day. You can view the ongoro on top of the stone statue during the scene Haru speaks to his stone statue. At the very end in the exact same scene location where the statue used to be there is a flower bed of the same flower that was blooming on Akiyuki's statue and the Ongoro jumping around next to Roppa. Akiyuki also states that he has been listening to Haru for the past 9 years and finally regained his presence. I do apologize to anyone who I spoiled this for but I just wanted a detailed explanation for any of those that were completely lost.

Fundog said:
The romance was really forced, neither of the two showed any signs of a relationship beyond normal friends in episode 1, then BAM, they're confessing to one another.

PlatinumHawke said:


Except he didn't. Notice the large stone formation that Haru was standing by when the title card showed up and that Akiyuki was the same as he was nine years ago. It was all in Haru's memories.

HalAnime said:
Watching this anime, the whole thing felt nostalgic for some reason. It feels like one of those old anime you watched during a summer that you forgot about, but then suddenly remember giving you a special reminiscent vibe to it.

Overall: The story was confusing towards the end and it took me a while to try to decipher. The biggest positive thing I could say is the world building. The world was diverse with numerous locations filled with lore that reminded me of Eureka Seven. The characters in this series are the most normal characters ever which imo is fantastic because they're unique with no cliche stereotypes. All the supporting characters were well done as well.

Love the ED theme :)

dbaranyi said:
What a garbage ending. But then, considering how mediocre the writing was in this series the poor ending shouldn't be surprising.

Twenty-six episodes of metapyhisical baloney, back story only hinted at, characters brought back from the dead. This was a waste of 13 hours of my life.

Good animation will never make up for the lack of a coherent plot and the lack of consistant characterization.

callmetheBigD said:
Honestly, this and Eureka Seven are the exact same beast, for reasons which you are all probably aware by now. This show was on my Plan-to-Watch list for a while now, and I had been waiting for a good chunk of time to finish it.

While the crew of the Zambani rides in the shadow of Gekkostate, and Nakiami was a ghibli Copy-and-Paste, the show still offered some really interesting points.

That said, I was wrong to come into this show expecting action. I came for the fights but stayed for the characters. They took alot onto their plate, and you could honestly see that they took the time to develop their characters. When someone calls in an old bet, or talks about how it was in the olden days, you can really hear the weight behind their words. Characters like Akiyuki and his parents, Furuichi, and Haruka had real development. It didnt seem like just convenience, with the animation showing actual people who lived these lives rather than shells of characters who spout off useless nonsense.

Speaking of useless nonsense, that is exactly the two words I would use to describe this plot. In my experience, the plot was a garbled, jumbled mess, and the show would have been better without it. That is not to discount the ways in which the plot was advanced, but the psycho babble about Hirukos and Humanforms had no place in this story, and offered almost nothing.

It was an anime that tried to have both a thought-provoking plot and an ensemble cast of characters, but ended up falling flat on its face. but in the end the story took a backseat to the characters. Amidst all the development, We never really got to find out anything about the world Like who the North and South really were, why they were fighting, why people like the Tessik's were hated so much, or even stories about the origin of the Humanforms or Sennova/the white-haired children beyond just some small exposition. I guess you could say that I agree (somewhat) with the people who said there should have been more episodes, though the pacing probably would have been wrecked if that happened.

In the end this story is about the characters. they deal with these crazy fantastical situations in very real and relateable ways, to the point where you could have replaced the Humanforms with normal soldiers and had the exact same effect and emotional impact. War affects people, it tears them apart. But when you dont have enough time to develop your plot or make it somewhat relateable, you run into problems. Had they chosen to do a normal war story, all the time for useless exposition could have been spent on building a plot that was engaging and encompassing for the show, instead of what was decided upon. While it would have made the story more rote, I also think it would have made it better. But honestly, that's just my 2 cents.

What do you guys think?

Recynon said:
As another post on this forum mentioned, a lot of what the show is saying is embedded in the metaphors:
- People let their jealousy, loneliness, buried resentments, misunderstandings, and grief turn them into literal monsters that lash out at others.
- Being frozen by grief and unable to move on encases you in stone.
- The Xam'd is a metaphor for uncontrolled emotions--- if you let them get out of control, you forget who you are. At the same time, they can be used as a positive force in the world if mastered.
- People turning into monsters is a metaphor for what happens when people are consumed by hatred for their enemy and/or grief for their lost loved ones and they are in turn perceived as monsters by the people they fight. Nakiami is the only one who sees the human core inside the monsters. This manifests on both the personal level and on the national level as nations begin to hate those who fight them.

Chrome_Falcon said:
Well, finally it is over. This anime was a pain to sit through. Everything it did was half hearted. We know there is this war between north and south. But we don't know why or how it started. Hiruko and Xam'd are mentioned once every 5 minutes but never properly explained. Where did they find Hiruko? Were they some kind of supernatural entity or a different species or aliens? Ruikon, prana, the big green stone were what exactly? Most of the characters don't know either and put up with it anyway.

Furuichi was a bad one dimensional character. Haru was better but there wasn't much going for her. She loved Akiyuki and her family that's it. The crew aboard the Zanbani didn't have much role. Raigyo had several episodes dedicated to him but doesn't do anything.  So many episodes and time was spent on Kakisu, the scientist and their experiments. It all culminated with Midori becoming a monster. She was just returned to her former self so easily in a cliched way that took like 5 minutes.

I hate these stories where the lack of information on the lore isn't because of mystery but because the storywriter could not come up with proper development. So much time was wasted in the earlier episodes that could have been used for better worldbuilding.
The lack of info felt really artificial because characters who didn't know anything didn't try to gain any more knowledge and the story just goes forward.

By the way, Haru's sister has always been holding her crutch in the wrong arm.
The story doesn't have any overused elements but nothing is original either.
The most interesting character was Nakiyami. Akiyuki's father was a close second. The op, ed, art and animation were the only things I liked about this. Even the action scenes were limited to about 5 episodes. This reminded me of that awful sequel to Eureka seven. 4/10.