Xam’d Episode 15 - Claustrophobic Country
I’ve been playing Valkyria Chronicles for a while now; it seems natural given its anime-like presentation, the Sakura Taisen production team, a very nice collection of seiyuu performances, and that it is a PS3 exclusive. Having an anime to go with next year is just a bonus. I mention this because the way some scenes in this episode of Xam’d looked reminds me of all those bullet-dodging and cover-to-cover dashing I have to do in that game.
Oh and it made me less annoyed about the episode not coming out until Wednesday. Boo @ PSN Video Store.
Xam’d Episode 14 - Meanderingly Shocking
This is suppose to be an OSHI episode, but I have a hard time bringing my emotions into the game.
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.
Nana, Xam’d Updates
Since Sony’s video store ops have no inclination to pump out press releases or blog posts or anything in regards to the switching on/off of series, all I have is speculation.
Speculating is fun, right? We know that Xam’d came upon the anime scene much like the Second Coming, just nowhere as purportedly awesome. But it’s like a thief that came like the PSN Video Store announcement, day-date. And a healthy “what the hell is this? how do you say it?” when people are pummeling the preview video and episode 1 rips around the web. Heck, it still doesn’t have an English-language, official homepage dedicated to the show itself. Hey Sony, did you dropped the ball and couldn’t find it or what?
This past weekend I was out of town but somehow I was able to show that same trailer in front of a half-dozen people. It impressed at least one. But at the same time I wasn’t able to camp the PSN site like a hawk. Maybe I should just take a clue and check only on Wednesday mornings. The new PS3 firmware update is suppose to come out soon, but maybe in a future one they should add a RSS feed reader linked to their store?
Who am I kidding, you can just go to the web version of the PSN video store and see what has been added from the web.
Going back to speculation, the Japanese PSN Video Store (and its dirty, 30-day rentals) is putting out 2 episodes of Xam’d each week since September’s launch, so they’ll catch up roughly in another 2-3 weeks to episode 12. I hope from that point on they will do day-date Japan/US releases, or at least that’s the sensible thing to guess. If not, then there’ll be hell to pay.
Of course, that speculative reality begs the question again. Without being 100% exclusive, will it increase or decrease the incentive for me to keep buying, $4 a week? Probably not. Obviously it’s still exclusive in terms of being translated to English, and I think those of us who’ve stuck to it are a bit hooked. As you know, Xam’d is excellent and having 5.1 sound and hi-def to go with, it’s a tough thing to say no to once you’ve seen how good it looks with your own eyes. Rationalizing only does so much against physical impressions.
Being fans, we can distract ourselves with massive QQing and /b/-type antics on the Playstation Blog or something, until the next episode comes out. Not a terrible idea IMO.
Well, clearly this means I’m not going to blog Xam’d the next couple weeks, unless something positively surprising happens. Sorry folks! The leaked episode 13 is definitely intriguing but I don’t think I’m going to write about it even if I do end up watching it. Not until the official release anyways. I guess it’s like, lol, a vacation. And maybe the service disruption might actually cause some mindless fansub sheeples to ask “where’s Xam’d 13-14-15-16?” and figure out it isn’t a fansub like any other and it’s totally just warez-out goodness. Mmmm warez.
In other news, Nana has turned from Osaki to Komatsu. That good news should brighten someone’s day…?
Xam’d Episode 12 - The Throes of Angst, of Yaoi & Yuri, But No.
This was a rather emotional episode. But in a way, too, this episode is much like others where things are built up and set up yet not a whole lot happens.
Despite all of that mushy sentiments, when I took a look at the screen caps I had, I can’t help myself but to weave slashy fic-style narratives out of them. It’s begging to be lampooned. So I’ll give that a shot after I get the SRSBZNS over with.
