Xam’d Episode 13 - A Miserable Feat of Strength
After the storm that was the last Playstation 3 patch and the PSN nonsense, Xam’d has returned with episode 13.
That was a nice break for me. But as you know, episode 13 was leaked way back when, so this episodic review is probably not news to you.
Sadly I still hate writing about anime at 2 in the morning, and it looks like thanks to the waves of games coming out this may have to be the case for the next 3 months. I guess I get what I deserve. Oh well, it just means looking at Xam’d through these groggy eyes and trying to get a laugh out of myself.
Some facts before we start. Just to recap–Xam’d in the US is broken into 2 seasons, total up to 26 episodes. The break in the weekly release on the US PSN store is because we were ahead of the Japanese store, which started its release in September. Now they have caught up so we’re going 1 ep at a time together with the Japanese fans.
During that break, I swapped cameras. I doubt you can tell though.
Let’s do things in reverse order today. Gadgets first. There were a lot in this episode:
I like rangefinders. Don’t you?
This is the coziest shot of the Skip Kayak ever. Yet.
There were a lot of telephones in this episode. I think this one wins over the others, although the phone booth HaruSis used later on deserves a brief mention.
ASPs are still pretty tight.
This was probably my favorite gadget in the episode. It’s a simple florescent light fixture.
This car was interesting. We got a couple looks but none very good ones.
It almost looked like a rice cooker shaped like a miniature toilet. But plot-wise it seems to be the same stuff Nakiami has going on inside her room on the Zanbani. I suppose it’s used to keep that girl alive.
DUN DUN DUN. The same girl that blew up the bus in episode 1!
That’s as spoiler this episode will get for now. Basically as we recall, Nakiami and Akiyuki left the Zanbani for Sentan Island. He calls up Haru’s sister who passed the message to Haru. Knowing that the phone calls will be traced Akiyuki beats out the local military guys and used Nakiami to courier Haru around.
This scene SCREAMS Studio Ghibli for some reason. Must be Nakiami’s hat.
Moeee?
Meanwhile @ the Zanbani, the rest of the crew clean and accept their time out of the spotlight.
This bothered me. I know it’s a hole, but what’s that yellow stuff?
Looks like my room.
Anyways. Akiyuki took his time to visit his dad, but played a prank on his mom which resulted in another athletic perspective pan shot.
There must be some parallel between her and Akushiba.
HaruSis called up Furuichi too, so we got to see what bug he’s got on his leg.
Some leg. Yep, a Hiruko alright.
Stay tuned when Akiyuki’s right hand nullifies FIRE MAGIC on the next episode of Xam’d: Lost Memories!
Hooray, by far and away the most solid/entertaining show coming out is back. This deserves a \o/
Also, is that blue tinge in the screenshots a product of your photographing a screen, or an artistic decision of the episode? It makes things seem eerie and doleful.
My screenshots are not the usual screenshots. For Xam’d, I use a digital camera to take pictures of the TV screen because there’s no native way to capture images from videos with the PS3.
That said, I’m not sure why it’s got a blue tinge. It might be because of the video itself, but it also might be because of the setting on the TV, or the ambient light in the room.
I like those fluorescent lights.
And yay for ep 1 girl surviving.
The two bulbs even light up in order, which is not exactly what’d happen in real life as I see it–the larger bulb will take longer to reach luminescence but it would be partial.
Please, Akushiba would have caught Akiyuki and still had enough time to browse river sheep milk.
If your computer had a tv card, you could plug in your PS3 and take screenshots that way I bet.
Yea, you certainly can. And it would be nice and 480-rez. Sufficed to say I would rather just download it illegally and take screen shots like how everyone else does it than to be bothered to relocate my PS3 and watch this show at that resolution. Oh yes, I do have a TV card by the way. I never use it nowadays…
I mentioned Akushiba only because, I think Akiyuki’s mom can probably beat her if they’re running a race in the cities and the hills of Senkan Island. Let’s remember she did have several artificial handicaps in this episode.
Yay for Xam’d, my favourite show of the season being back! :D .
> Stay tuned when Akiyuki’s right hand nullifies FIRE MAGIC on the next
> episode of Xam’d: Lost Memories!
Haha, Xam’d is hardly To Aru no Majutsu XD . But the next episode is more or less the episode that has me the most curious/fired up so far because it’s sorta hard to tell what’ll happen here, really…
Oh, yeah, did you know that there’s a summary/preview of episode 14 out at the Xam’d main site already? You can see it here (as well as my translation of it):
http://forums.narutofan.com/showpost.php?p=19816429&postcount=4075
I did not know that, thanks for the tip. But generally I stay away from that stuff since I don’t really want to be spoiled when I don’t have to.
Old news? Nah, not to me. Just watched it this evening, and was horrified at myself for forgetting how excellent it is during the intervening days/weeks since watching #12. Props to you for going to the trouble of physically photographic your TV to get screenies…although the fact that you have a good quality camera makes me a little envious.
I’d love to know the details in regards to the little creatures in the test tubes - if they are connected to Hiruko in some way, the fact that they disintegrate when isolated may be important; if a Xam’d seeks company, the underlying reason may be because it too disintegrates with isolation? It’s a really fuzzy thought for me at this stage though.
The way in which Furuichi has become a bitter and twisted anti-hero is still pretty spectacular - maybe the ‘friends becoming enemies’ idea jumped out at me because I recently watched the end of Berserk and found it mind-boggling how the portrayal of Griffith’s character was turned around. Even so, it looks like there’s FIRE in ep #14. Bring it on I say.
Omo: Well, it ain’t that much of a spoiler such as it is, but I get your point ;)
Martain: Well, the “friends becoming enemies is an often enough explored concept that comes in many a good anime/manga - Akira, Naruto, Code Geass, Gundam Seed - and of course Berserk. Though Xam’d doesn’t focus on that one nearly as much as the others, but it’s there sorta (though the case in Akira is closer to the case in Xam’d than Berserk - because Tetsuo started doing as he did out of a sense of inferiority towards Kaneda).
About the whole isolation thing, well - Nakiami did mention in episode 11 that “humanforms rage from loneliness, there’s no evil intent” as well as some other things from earlier (like for example Akiyuki’s guess that the hiruko just “want to live alognside others”) - all in all things seem to hint at that the only thing humanforms as well as the Hiruko desires is to somehow be relieved from loneliness or something like that…
I hope Furuichi’s Hiruko is just a mechanism for a fast-pace and stylish action scene that leads to some kind of cathartic moment and not much more.
Well, I DO look forward to the upcoming action scene, but I do hope they don’t drag it out too long as I’m honestly more interested in the possibly upcoming Tessik Arc..
Trust you to draw parallels between Index and Xam’d.
It’s a joke!