First Impressions – Xam’d: Lost Memories

I initially heard about this series because of its awesome OP song. I wondered why this title sounded unfamiliar to me, it turns out that it was supposed to air this fall 2008 but somehow got bumped up to summer instead. Heh. So anyway, it’s a mecha, futuristic sci-fi sort of anime, which has never really been my cup of tea. I saw bits and pieces of Gundam Wing years ago, but only because my younger brother watched it. I tried watching Code Geass which I dragged myself to follow until I could no longer do it, finally dropping it around episode 10 or so. Anyway, I think Xam’d is the first anime series that I decided to check out primarily because of the OP song and the fitting OP sequence.

When I learned that it was animated by BONES, it piqued my curiosity even more. Adding weight to this is the info that Kenji Hamada (whose voice has been music to my ears ever since hearing him as Nomiya in Honey and Clover and Bou-san in Ghost Hunt) is voicing one of the secondary characters (Ahm). Being a BONES production, its animation also somewhat reminds me of Darker than Black (*sigh* I miss Hei).

The 1st episode gives you just a slight overview of the series. It introduces the main characters and their connections to each other. It’s the part where the “how?” and “why?” questions begin, with an occasional confused “huh?”  here and there. You’d have to see episode 2 to get a better grasp of the storyline because that’s where the action and the main story begins. You get to have some of the things explained in the 2nd episode too, although it didn’t really answer much of my queries. I tend not to watch mecha because it just doesn’t seem to interest me much and even confuses me at some point. But somehow, despite this, I kept on watching Xam’d (I’m done with episode 4 at the time of this entry). I wonder why.

To answer my own question, I think I kept watching most probably out of curiosity about various things, like how Akiyuki would be able to overcome his fate and live his life as a human and this being called Xam’d . I also wonder how Haru will play a part in all this, since in the 1st episode Nakiami mentions something about Haru being the “guardian” of Akiyuki’s soul(?) now that he’s been turned into Xam’d, and it seems that even Akiyuki’s father will be playing a major part in this fiasco as well since it was mentioned that he played a significant role in the past war. Nakiami has her own backstory as well (which I suppose we’ll have a glimpse of in episode 5). I’m going past episode 4 already, but I honestly still am clueless about where this story is really going and a tad confused about all the new vocabulary being thrown around. xD

Naturally, I have a bunch of questions. What exactly is a Xam’d? What is this “lost memory” that the white-haired people speak of? Why are they inducing Xam’d to awaken in humans like Akiyuki? What is their purpose? Why is Nakiami so concerned about Akiyuki’s well being and why does she want to save him? How did the war start? How is this gonna end? Will there be betrayal and deception somewhere along the way? Will Haru and Akiyuki end up together, or will it be Akiyuki and Nakiami (which I kinda doubt)?

Oh, and why is a “humanform” called a humanform when it doesn’t even resemble the form of a human at all? ;P

Have I mentioned that the OP song rocks? The ED song is pretty good too. It has a pretty solid animation and the character designs are quite good. I also find that it has nice music; the BGM complements certain scenes well. I guess I’ll just go with the flow and patiently wait for the answers as I watch the story unfold. I think I’ll be following this, lest it confuses me too much, though I think my curiosity would win out and make me finish watching this series. xD