Finally finished Xam'd: Lost Memories the other day after a pretty long break in watching it due to Sony pulling it off the PSN so that the Japanese Audience could play catchup. Once that happened I stopped watching it religiously when it became available. Hey I'd watch it on the PSN if I had a freaking Playstation 3 but I don't at the moment. Actually that's one of the cooler things that I think PSN has going for it compared to XBOX Live. Hopefully it'll turn a profit for Sony and they'll decide to offer more original anime (or other stuff) content and Microsoft will get the idea and start offering newer anime series (I mean really how many times can FUNimation whore out Kiddy Grade) than they currently do. Netflix is really nice on the XBOX though but their anime content is even more lacking in the newness. But I'm falling way off topic now.
I've read that a few people have tried to liken Xam'd to Eureka 7 in terms of the love story and how things pan out during the plot going from one plot to another to finally a third plot at the end. And definitely the way I watched it it really does seem to have three distinct Acts that play out during the 26 episode run. But really the only thing that really feels at all like Eureka 7 is the anime style and the characters I guess now that I think a bit more about it. It looks surprisingly a lot like Eureka 7 but only in terms of the people. The technology is entirely different Eureka 7 was shiny with straight lines and more machine like compared to Xam'd which was rounded and soft and much more organic like. The characters were so similar though.
So the anime happens in three acts the first the postal ship act is when our young hero finds him self being cast out into the wild world after being exposed to a mysterious crystal that turns humans into organic shape changing weapons. This is the hardship act where the hero must learn to deal with what fate has given him. This was an easy going act where we learn a lot about many of the characters. The second act is the self discovery act where our hero must take off from the postal ship and find his way through life to find out what he's really on the planet to do. It's also when the other characters are having to do the same thing unlike Eureka 7 Xam'd has three main characters Akiyuki the hero, Haru his long time friend and Nakiami who is the young woman with the troubled past and the most important future ahead of her who's responsible for teaching Akiyuki in the first act his abilities and reasons for going on. Akiyuki in the second act is separated from Nakiami and finds himself lost because he can't remember his name and ends up with a mask on for most of the second act while he is out and about rediscovering who he is with the help of a mysterious black blob. Haru ends up joining the military so that she can find Akiyuki but ends up having to face her other school friend as he spirals out of control then ends up being a prisoner of the military until she is allowed to escape in order to search for Akiyuki again. Nakiami in the mean time ends up acquiring another lost soul to save on her journey back to her homeland to find out what she must do in order to save the world.
So the anime happens in three acts the first the postal ship act is when our young hero finds him self being cast out into the wild world after being exposed to a mysterious crystal that turns humans into organic shape changing weapons. This is the hardship act where the hero must learn to deal with what fate has given him. This was an easy going act where we learn a lot about many of the characters. The second act is the self discovery act where our hero must take off from the postal ship and find his way through life to find out what he's really on the planet to do. It's also when the other characters are having to do the same thing unlike Eureka 7 Xam'd has three main characters Akiyuki the hero, Haru his long time friend and Nakiami who is the young woman with the troubled past and the most important future ahead of her who's responsible for teaching Akiyuki in the first act his abilities and reasons for going on. Akiyuki in the second act is separated from Nakiami and finds himself lost because he can't remember his name and ends up with a mask on for most of the second act while he is out and about rediscovering who he is with the help of a mysterious black blob. Haru ends up joining the military so that she can find Akiyuki but ends up having to face her other school friend as he spirals out of control then ends up being a prisoner of the military until she is allowed to escape in order to search for Akiyuki again. Nakiami in the mean time ends up acquiring another lost soul to save on her journey back to her homeland to find out what she must do in order to save the world.
The third and last act is the war act the coming to together of all the characters into one large battlefield as they each search out their final moments in the story For Akiyuki and Haru who was able to find Akiyuki it's the final battle with the Slumbering giant who is out to eat as many souls as he can turning the world into darkness and all that jazz. Haru is there to save her sister and stand by Akiyuki's side. Nakiami's purpose is to save all the lost souls who have gathered in a large dome to be killed and eaten by the Slumbering Giant. She ends up sacrificing herself and going into a 1000 year slumber herself but when she awakens it won't be a world of chaos (hopefully) because she has ended the cycle of chaos by sacrificing herself instead of all the others waiting to be killed. In the end all the cycles of life that we have been entwined in during the anime are easily come to their natural conclusion and end leaving pretty much nothing to wonder what happened with... There is still grief and growth 9 years after the end battle and I think that goes a long way to show just how much each of the characters have affected each other. Probably one of the better prologues of any anime that I've seen actually since they dedicate a good 30 minutes to it. Honestly I was tearing up a bit during that last episode and I can see why there was such outrage on 4chan for the week after it was subbed.
Of course that also makes this one of the better 2008/2009 animes so far it just sucks that it took so long to finish if it had finished in 2008 it would have been easily one the best of 2008 and I'll have to keep this one in mind for the best of 2009. You owe it to yourself to find this and watch it either on the PSN (for chump change if you don't go all HD on it but I'd suggest that you do) or by other means because I haven't heard any words of this being available on DVD but since Funimation did get the license for the Tower of Duaga there is still hope. We just have to wait for FUNimation's slow ass. Also this is a great starter anime to get others interested in anime as well.
