*Giant Round of Applause*
Well, it’s been sitting, waiting for me since yesterday. But today, I finally watched the last string of episodes of X’amd.
This is, honestly, a very good watch. It’s well paced, does a decent job of elucidating the world its in (there are things more I would like to know, but that’s just my insatiable curiosity), and actually manages to tie up most everything. The animation is stellar, the music moving, and the imagination pervading the show very exhilarating.
The show is set on alternate version of our own world, one that went down a very different path of social and scientific development. There’s lots of things that are the same, but many that are not. The flying boats, for one, are powered by magical levitation red skystone. The social structure, and the fact that mysticism and near-magic are always close in the shadows, is familiar but exotic. It’s a very fun blend, to be honest.
But, a nice world is pointless without good characters to fill it. And it seems that the team at Bones learned from their mistakes in Eureka 7 and fixed things up. There’s a lot of parallel characters. And they’re all done as good or better here. Especially when it comes to the main character, Akiyuki. Being older and more mentally mature than Renton, he deals with his new fish out of water life far better. He also grows and adapts. But not quite as much as some of the people around him. People with their hidden pasts, secret emotions, and driving ambitions all find an answer to them, although not everyone finds they like what they see. The good guy death toll wasn’t particularly high, but their scrapes did leave some very lasting, painful reminders. I don’t want to talk too much for fear of spoiling things. Watch and enjoy. Some might see things coming miles away (it’s not hard), but with the way many people are built, its still satisfying to see them get there.
Plot wise, its a pretty simple setup. Sentan Island is, mostly, a backwater place that the two dueling empires just don’t care much about. War is brewing, but the inhabitants feel more inconvenienced by the influx of Southern Nation troops than anything. Akiyuki, the son of separated, rather quirky parents, is going to school. He’s on the bus with two of his long time friends, Haru and Furuichi. Only their bus has a very young “terrorist” on board. After arriving at their destination, she activates her “bomb” and the bus is blown apart. Panic ensues. Her bomb is actually a device to implant a living seed into someone, in the hopes that they will develop into a full-fledged X’amd. Being part of a religious order, she does this without thought. Akiyuki finds himself the new host of this thing, which happily turns him into a monstrous form.
About this time is when a raiding party from the Northern Empire arrives. Using monsters as weapons, they attack the island. Akiyuki, having lost himself to the thing inside him, fights back. Everything devolves into chaos as Akiyuki tries to protect Haru from getting mooshed. After beating down one monster, though, Akiyuki finds himself turning to stone. This is when Nakiami arrives, knowing a whole lot about the X’amd and such, and saves him from perishing. Taking him back to the postal ship she rides on, Akiyuki finds himself far away from home and filled with questions. On this postal ship are former revolutionaries from the North, random children, an attendant from another religious sect, and other various characters just trying to make a living. Back home, war now rears its head over the whole island. Furuichi joins the military to defend his home, while Haru joins in hopes to find Akiyuki.
And from here, the story develops, following the war between North and South, the various sacred histories, and the people and things that all come crashing together. It’s a glorious mash-up that works well and, for the most part, doesn’t pull any punches. For the most part, the pacing works perfectly. My only complaint is that every now and again, it feels like the plot spends too much time trying to ingrain something that only needs saying a couple times at most. I also would love to have seen more exploration of the history on the world, as you get snippets here and there. It’s probably detailed in various side materials, much of which won’t see English language release in any form (much like the giant mound of history material for Code Geass).
Visually, its a very good show. Bones has, over their history, been very consistent in having high production values and good design. You can tell that some episodes had smaller budgets, but nothing ever goes off model or looks wrong. There’s also no horribly out of place 3D CG to clash with the 2D art; I’m sure there was plenty 3D work used, but unlike the cheapskates at Gonzo, Bones actually cares about unity of design. The art style is pleasing, and there are many very gorgeous sets. Sadly, there are also many boring sets. They fit the plot perfectly, so they’re not out of place; just one of those things where you wish there was just a bit more nifty.
I found the music was, mostly, very fitting. Not many songs really jump out at you, but they all fit into the framework of conveying the emotion. There’s one vocal theme that gets used now and again for the sad but necessary moments that really pulled my heartstrings. So, much like the mellow soundtrack of, say Legend of Oasis, the music reinforces the emotion and occasionally rouses to push it a bit more.
And that’s about it. It’s a very good ride and a positive reminder that people can still create good stories in this very corporate-run world. The first couple episodes are pretty telling of the show, even with the twists and turns that come later. The style and feeling is there, so anyone willing to sink an hour or so into the first few episodes should be able to see if they find the show to their liking or not. And, as a note, there really isn’t much of a worry about which group you get the episodes from. Since everybody is just re-encoding MPEG2 TS rips from Sony’s official English sub release, the differences are very minor. Just go for the actual HD encodes.