Haru and Nakiami Going at It
I think I’ve had enough time spent stewing on the idea of a Xam’d post that it’s time to get down to it.
The first draft of this post had a motif that combined the lyrics of “Vacancy” with “LISTEN TO MY SONG!” It is likely a good thing that I’ve dropped that a couple iterations ago. Still somehow I still retained the strangely irrelevant post title….
I HAVE THIS…DESIGN FETISH IN MY HEART
Anyways, coming back to earth. One of the biggest gateway and influence as an anime-related franchise in my life is CLAMP’s Magic Knight Rayearth. I mention this because one very central but subtle thing from that series carried itself in Xam’d as well, and that is in building its fantasy world through good visual, mechanical, industrial and communication designs.
If we take a random sampling of anime and look at which are the top credited production roles, character designer is going to be one of them for virtually all the shows we look at. In some shows, we’ll see credited mechanical designers. But how about the guys who designed that Escher-esqe landscaping in that picture I keep on pimping? Or the snow-crested mountain paths Yango walked with Nakiami? Or how about the desolate beachhead underneath the Zanbani for half of the series? Or the giant water tower that taught us the value of love that never fails?
How about that last car ride that changed Midori’s life? The cluttered interior of Dr. Ryuzo’s office as we first laid eyes on it? Finding Nazuna with her intravenous therapy apparatus? The foil-like oblesk that marked Akiyuki’s stone-like dream, both past and present? The madness of the Hiruken Emperor as reflected by his exterior? The motions of the invading fetal humanforms? The entwined lives of a Xam’d mother-child? The Tessik flowers? Kujireika’s final scene with a piece of paper?
For me those are just some of the moments that carried the show. I don’t know who deserves those credits, but for every epic scene in the show there are some unsung heroes who put the designs there. Those designs made the scenes that much more special than your average animated epic scene. From the moment the OP kicks in till the ending shot with the photograph and glasses, it is both stylish and meaningful.
What are you doing? I thought you dropped that in a draft…
Yes, I did. Mainly because I still have to talk about the strange mismatched of satisfaction with the product we got in the end. It doesn’t matter if you are one of those who thought there needed be a tight spiral of plot (think Kaiba, perhaps) or if you are those who could enjoy just a grand game plan. No matter if you see that American Football analogy there or not, it would be hard pressed to call Xam’d a best-of-the-best kind of affair. It lacks something.
I mean, Xam’d is still likely one of the best shows you’ve never watched. It comes as a form of recommendation, fully fraught with the dangers of giving advice in general. It’s not really an evaluation; it’s like saying eating vegetables is good for your health, even if it doesn’t always taste great. And you really ought to eat vegetables! And see Xam’d for yourself! And yet, it’s not so great. So my recommendation is also a veiled insult. Of sorts. It doesn’t go fully to the whole DRM-riddled and (more importantly) expensive VOD platform, even if it’s a tool of Sony to do just that.
And frankly I’m tired of trying to describe how Xam’d disappoints. Disappointment is probably the best word to describe the damned thing. After all the word implies a function with expectation, so it’s both the show and you and I that failed.
Expectation is a subjective notion of what we think should happen. And somehow, as some said better, Xam’d positions us to shoot for the stars. Or think it ought to. And why shouldn’t it? Why shouldn’t we expect an anime with almost no holds barred? It channels from some of the greatest productions in our memories, it dazzles us with good sense of style, keen animation and appealing characters. But those expectations we have about a show that didn’t really lead us on is still our own responsibility. It didn’t pull any punches. The ending was something that wasn’t a surprise at all, it is internally consistent and thematically consistent. Perhaps the only thing they could have done more is explain more.
But it’s still the best anime you’ve never seen. And remember this, it shall serve you well.
And serving is why I’m here.
Myself and yourselves. Fans. Fanservice. For us.
On a wholly basic level, I’m just a guy. I work, I waste my free time. I have games. I have no game. I have no plan. Anime? Pure entertainment. So to the extent that Xam’d is merely to entertain, it does so with spades. It does so not only because it comes in high definition and 5.1 surround sound (I can’t stress this enough), but it simulates that episode-by-episode chase. Even if the show, on the whole, is better watched in large chunks. It provided a framework to enjoy the stuff beyond the ordinary.
I think I mentioned this about half a year ago, roughly when Satoshi Kon last visited NYC and I went to see him talk about random cultural stuff, about something special about treasuring what is scarce. Back when our parents walked to school, in the snow, barefoot, up and down the hill, for miles back and forth, people like Satoshi Kon were getting his fix Off-The-Air on a spanking new color television. For 30 minutes once a week. There was anticipation, there was analysis, there was all the fan stuff; and all of this was heightened because he loved the crap and he gave it undivided attention. He had also the time because there were just a few shows on the air. There were fewer distractions back then. It wasn’t overwhelming. But it gave his life as a fan a different texture, a different style. And the experience ultimately differed, obviously.
Following Xam’d like a silly boy for the past half year, I think I got to know what he means by that. No longer I was slave to pirates or remote licensees who distributed a second-hand experience, but I was able to connect with the source. And be at its mercy. Thinking and doing things related to the show was a consuming experience. It was tiring, but it felt somehow more meaningful and fulfilling, perhaps unjustifiably so. I was at the mercy of it. It was a very interesting power shift where I became subject to the show in a very overted way. I had no place to stand and preach down on the show; I just didn’t really care as long as it wasn’t unreasonable.
What’s more, it’s fun. Taking caps from the show was a tough exercise of trimming what great shots are worth taking and keeping and what great shots are worth taking and deleting. It’s beautiful to look at. I could just go through the pictures and enjoy the show that way. I guess that just shows you how much pleasure I derive from the visuals alone.
In relation to that, given how it’s VOD and all, it’s perfect for watching the thing in one (or a few) setting. You aren’t tied down to a weekly schedule; you can rewatch it. You can have a Xam’d party (and totally legally so) where you marathon the whole thing with a bunch of people over a weekend.
I think I’m going to call it here; there may or may not be a subsequent post about Xam’d which I try to piece together the mysteries of its world. Because it is mysterious, I am not sure I can make sense of it enough to show you. We will see.
I still haven’t finished Xam’d. It’s on my list of things to do. I also got the odd sense while watching it that there was something lacking. It’s quite a good show, it’s well-animated with nice art and has a reasonably interesting plot. Yet I really never got incredibly engaged in it. I certainly enjoyed watching what I’ve seen, and when I was watching I was engaged, but it never really held me there. I’d go away from it for a few weeks and then when I next went to watch something I’d end up going for other shows instead.
I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is that’s missing. I don’t think it’s actually lacking anything, just that a combination of factors in the production ends up weakening it. I think part of it is that it can’t quite seem to decide who the main character is - there are essentially three leading characters and it alternates its focus between them. Another potential issue is that it takes a long time to really establish a conflict properly. It throws you in the deep end and never really stops to establish who is what and why, and expects you to sort it out as you go. It made initial watching a bit confusing and it meant that it took me a while to figure out the setting. I also felt that it wasn’t sure about its scope. Sometimes it’s all save-the-world scope, other times it feels like it’s almost a slice of life show. It seems a bit unsure about where it really wants to go with things. This is all in direct contrast to Bones’ last major anime production (Eureka Seven) which established itself very early on and was reasonably consistent on all the same things. Though to be fair that was a different director.
Mainly though, it has this odd feeling that it was adapted from a really compelling set of novels or something, and that it doesn’t quite work when you animate it. It has that good-but-the-books-were-better feeling. But (correct me if I’m wrong here) as far as I know Xam’d is an original production. Maybe it’s an artifact of the way it’s been written.
It’s original, not adopted from books.
I think I know what you mean, however. To an extent the same was true for Eureka 7, in how the narrative just isn’t compelling for a lot of people.
I guess it just is a melting pot of pure stuff. Who cares about resorting to conventionalism when you can just chuck a load of things you like down on a page and convert it to video?
While I would have liked it to be more, it was still my favourite thing when it aired. And whatever potential it did have, it’s achieved in my anticipation and excitement.
It’s a rare gem, something that only a few can covet, it seems. Maybe it’s not something i’ll recommend…but I am glad it was made and I am glad I watched it.
All I could wish for is that the concept returns again, somehow, and in a much different format. There is no possible way that Xam’d got old, there’s still lots there that could be used to create something of greatness again.
So, Xam’d is airing on Japanese TV now. With it, comes an entirely new OP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WSh3yMjv9k&fmt=22
Kinda reminds me of a Gundam OP, how they spoil everything right from the beginning. Note Furuichi isn’t in it, guess that means he dies…
LOL spoiler.
Actually I think the old OP is spoiler-ish too. It’s just that unless you already saw it you wouldn’t know what means what.