Cheerio, Xam’d: Lost Memories
I’ll start by stating what I felt throughout the whole of Xam’d: Lost Memories: what a sublime piece of work this is. Everything from the presentation to the writing was notably excellent. It swept with an epic, seamless verve that very few anime manage to pull off and it’s wholly down to the high standard of every constituent part. This wouldn’t be a frenzy of hyperbole if I couldn’t reel off at least one of these superlative zomgzomgs, but Xam’d is one of the very few anime I’ve seen where I’ve sat back and thought, Christ, that’s some good writing.
And I mean it. Every single character convinced me and I fell in love with all them for it. I have this horrible habit of ignoring my suspension of disbelief to strip down fiction to its functioning parts – this character is here for that reason, this plot twist happened for that reason – and while Xam’d wasn’t so shrewd to completely bypass the four years of academic indoctrination, it made it incredibly easy to ignore. There were so many moments of wisdom, deeply affective insight, that I actually wrote down about fifteen-odd quotes while marathoning it for this post. I can’t think of when I’ve done that with an anime. The level of thought gone into every line of dialogue genuinely surprised me; every character stayed true to their sense of self and allowed us to slowly develop a deep, genuine attachment to them. And our affection grew with their maturity as the plot progressed. We even cared about evil or malevolent characters because they developed into their psychosis rather than be some flimsy evil-for-evil’s-sake caricature right from the start. And we cheered on the heroes for exactly the same reason.
None better demonstrate this than Kakisu. He comes back to his mother’s island an outsider, alienated by a society to which he doesn’t really belong and by his peers who don’t trust him. He forsakes his ethics and morality for a government that secretly despises him, and he knows this, seeing as it some sort of retribution. His personal descent, along with his comrade Dr Kenba, is gradual and perfectly told. I realised how well his arc was written when Dr. Kenba forks off from this existential downfall and finds salvation in Azami, who promises him religious absolution. From this point Kakisu is alone, he no longer has a partner in crime to legitmise his actions, and he turns to Dr Ryuzou, Akiyuki’s father, for forgiveness. In Dr Ryuzou he finds a way to displace his responsibility to the man who saved his life, blaming him for all his subsequent crimes so he doesn’t have to face the crushing truth. Ryuzou, grounded and rational, tells him to fuck his petulant self-pity and refuses to give him release, explaining only Kakisu can atone for his own sins. The final confrontation between them is one of many phenomenal moments the supporting cast offer the audience, and again demonstrate how beautifully written every single part of Xam’d is. When the supporting cast provide the same emotional impact as the core cast then the level of dramatic accomplishment is unquestionable.
Kekisu actually leads me onto another fairly ambiguous character, and one the series relates to him in marvellously subtle ways. Ishu seems very much a virtuous parallel to Kekisu. Both of them share the irritable habit of tapping their foot (a nice wee symbolic link the show refers to often) and both play the authoritative role to their respective rabbles. The difference with Ishu is that she hides a deep and intense compassion for her wards, rather than seeing them as commodities. Ishu, no surprise, is one of my favourite characters. I knew she would be from the first moment she appeared, fag in mouth, gun in hand. When I was writing my scrawled notes during the marathon I realised this article could easily be ‘Ishu, the mother’ and be twice as long/convoluted. I won’t deny my love for her directly relates to how much I scrutinised her role in Xam’d, but I honestly believe she’s one of the most complex, nuanced characters of the show. Her relationship with Nakiami particularly stood out as one that hit me right at the base of my stomach. Xam’d makes no concessions in describing their awkward, difficult love for one another and I latched onto that like an emotionally troubled bulldog. We know they adore each other, but ideology sends them down very different paths. Ishu sees her tenure as the Zanbani’s captain as a holiday, a diversion from her true direction in life. It offers a stasis from her responsibilities as a revolutionary and a military leader. Nakiami is apart of that stalled moment of tranquillity, a person that allows Ishu a brief moment of motherhood in her otherwise masculine, aggressive life. It’s not necessarily a success in the traditional sense, but the bond they share is nonetheless one of mother and daughter. One of my most memorable scenes from the series is Ishu’s exhausted plee, ‘Enough, enough . . . I can’t take it anymore’ after Raigyo’s death. The weight of her responsibilities crushes her in those final moments as she approaches Hiruken’s chamber, but she perseveres and achieves what she has set out to do for most of her adult life. She’s a fantastic example of something that’s often reserved for the men in anime – absolute self-assertion and self-realisation.
For me, Xam’d is a show about women. It takes the notion of ‘behind every great man . . .’ and really pays it its dues. The men play the traditional heroes, they take action and physically change the landscape, but the women are celebrated wholly in how their strength and resolve accommodates this. They direct with a myriad of maternal complexity and give the series a framework, a solid base to play out in. Xam’d is the first anime since Evangelion to silence the conflicted feminist criticism I often feel when watching these things. In it, the women can be the protectors of domestic stability as well as messianic figures of justice; the lovers, the fighters and a complicated, humane mixture of both. Xam’d is also a show about men, their masculinity, sense of duty and so forth, I’m not denying that, but it stood out to me how egalitarian it was in depicting its female characters, too. Maybe that’s the benefit of divvying up the writing equally between a man, Yuichi Nomura and a woman, Megumi Shimizu. It should happen a lot more often if this is the end result.
BONES are a shining light in this medium. While GAINAX may be the scatter-brained, inconsistent geniuses, BONES are the studied, unfailing academics that constantly deliver. And their abilities are none more accomplished than this elegant, sweeping, philosophical work of brilliance. Xam’d doesn’t hold your hand, give you explicit answers; it employs subtlety and careful nuance. It makes you concentrate and think while giving you fantastic audio-visual stimulus to make the process easier. The fact that I’m finding it very difficult to stop writing suggests how highly I rate it, and the fact that I miss being in its world, watching its inhabitants, demonstrates it all the more. I want to talk about Akiyuki, Haru, Fusa, Furuichi, Yango and how they and all the others nestled their way into my brain and played havoc with my heart. I want to address the flaws of the show, the slip-ups and bum notes, but somehow that would betray the overall feeling of admiration and love I have for this series. So I’ll leave it at a stern, genuine recommendation and demand you watch it immediately. In marathon sessions (I’m not joking about this).
February 17th, 20093:00 am at
I just finished watching it, and as you said at the start of your article: it’s sublime. I’m not even going to pretend I understood everything this first time around, but never once did the plot feel like it was descending into cliches or cheap thrills. A real triumph for BONES here, I think I owe it at least several more viewings.
Glad you highlighted Kakisu too, a brilliant villian. Appalling but simultaneously understandable, as much as I hated him I was fascinated by the character.
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February 17th, 20096:59 pm at
I found there were one or two loose ends and under-used supporting characters but to be honest those are criticisms you can level at even the most enjoyable shows. Yes, there was a bit of untapped potential here but for me it was only a minor problem. I’m waiting on a rewatch that may change my feelings on that front.
Apart from those minor aspects I found Xam’d to be one of the most impressive series of recent months. I genuinely looked forward to it every week so while my 8/10 score might not indicate that, I honestly thought it was really entertaining.
And of course the emotional impact and attachment I felt for the characters made all the minor niggles almost irrelevant. I think your observation about the female characters is very significant: not because it’s making some statement about society or gender politics, but because the characterisation is so damned good. Between Ishu and Yungo they are the glue that holds the crew together; Fusa and her relationship with her estranged husband is one of the finest parental dynamics I’ve seen in any anime show, ever; Haru and Nakiami have an immeasurable impact on Akiyuki’s journey, without ever really forming the typical love triangle. Maybe it is the woman’s touch on the creative team (there aren’t many women high up in the industry in screenplay or directorial positions as far as I can tell…Saikano’s director is another one of those exceptions) but yeah, Xam’d's emotional core felt more balanced somehow and that could be the reason.
fundamentally stories are about *characters* – I think Xam’d deliberately made them centre stage rather than its worldview, which is not a perfect approach but I’d rather have it that way than the other way around.
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February 19th, 20091:08 am at
@wildcard: What I loved the most about Kakisu was his lack of obvious villainy. It was his growing amorality that made him a ‘bad guy’, but a very human one. He’s a good example of how Xam’d never overdid anything and kept its shit together. I probably could’ve learnt by example when I wrote a blog about it!
@Martin: A couple of characters did seem like they were there for the sake of the plot and didn’t develop much beyond what was functionally necessary, but I still developed a proper interest in everyone who appeared on-screen, no matter how superficial their roles were.
I agree that Xam’d put characterisation first, which is why many people were a bit put out by how non-committal it was with the ‘details’. Its world simply existed without explanation beyond what the characters spoke about and this overwhelmed some people I think. For me it made the experience all the more immersive, it being so comprehensive that things lived and breathed apart from where the camera was pointing
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February 20th, 20094:50 pm at
Good post. I got another perspective of Xam’d from this one. =p
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February 23rd, 20096:53 pm at
I have to disagree. You’re right about the evolution of the characters, but in many other aspects this series is average at best.
Its worst offense is against the suspension of disbelief. The setting tries just hard enough to explain things in a naturalistic manner that it’s impossible to just handwave things as magic, but not nearly enough to be plausible. It’s 1940 all over again, right down to the terrible war two decades ago, except this time there are airships and mighty morphing mecha and incredible conservation-of-mass issues.
The graphical quality is inconsistent: there are moments of beauty, but there are also moments of choppy and underdetailed animation. The music was never remarkable enough to be worth noticing. They’re both technical details, but a good score can vastly improve a series, and a minute of bad graphics can leave a serious aftertaste.
Characterization is an important quality, and Xam’d has it in spades. Without a world with understandable rules, though, it’s nearly impossible to relate to characters. Presumably they and the authors know how their world works, and act accordingly; for the rest of us, it comes across as contrived when the plot twists as a result of something happening which we had no way of knowing was possible. There is exactly one giant flying battle with energy shields; exactly one instance of the emperor’s ecstasy; exactly one instance of a successful demonsterification; exactly one identity swap; plot points hang on each of these. There are energy weapons which sometimes blast through city blocks and other times fail to collapse a meter-deep bridge; their effects depend on the needs of the story.
Inconsistency of that nature, though, is really just bad storytelling.
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February 23rd, 20097:49 pm at
@coriolinus: You’re right to pull me back down to Earth on some of these issues. While I don’t feel Xam’d failed in the ways you’ve listed as strongly as you suggest, I agree it wasn’t flawless. But ultimately I’m obsessed with characters and characterisation, and we agree it excelled in that respect. As for understandable rules, I’ve watched so much anime that blatantly flouts the notion that I’ve given up critically analysing it. I’m not excusing it – believe me when I say I latch onto it as much as you probably do – but I’ve yet to see an anime with high concepts and fantastical design keep things consistent. I get the impression anime producers make a choice between ‘staid and consistent’ and ‘erratic and entertaining’ and the latter always wins. Especially with overblown fantasy epics like Xam’d.
Anyhow, thanks for the comprehensive comment. Much appreciated!
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February 26th, 200912:32 am at
@coriolinus: I see where your coming from but I am with Hige and can’t say I agree that the suspension of disbelief is any more prevalent then in any other Anime or for that matter Film or TV show. I also think that the handwaving arguably made it more plausible, the majority of the cast are unlikely to no huge amounts of detail about some of the parts of the plot you mentioned. While some of it would probably be relatively common knowledge (the terrible war two decades ago and the current one) other parts like how the airships, mecha, and magic work all but a few of the cast would know almost nothing about (Kiselji, possibly Kakisu and Nakiami are respectively the first that come to mind) and none of those characters seam likely to talk about there areas of expertise in any detail and if they did I can’t help but feel it would seem out of character for them to do so.
As for understanding the rules of the world I would put forward that, one we don’t really need to as I fail to see how it would add to the story and two I think a lot of it we can come to our own conclusions about. To be honest I hope and think that the lack of detail about the world was done on purpose, I personally think we are ment to know about as much as most of the characters do which is, relatively little, and thus can’t necessarily see what plot twist may come about. Which I think is a pleasant change to a genre which as a whole is becoming more and more cliched, with most modern anime falling into any of three categories and three categories only these being action, humor and romance meaning that it is becoming easier and easier to know what will happen, who it will happen to and how early or late it will happen in the series which is a problem that excluding a few occasions I did not have in this case.
On a completely different note I feel Yango should be mentioned as I don’t think he has been so far. I particularly like the way that he starts of as a bratty little kid, even if he has got an excuse what with the whole lack of parents and living in a town were hes hated due to his race, and is consistently bratty, excluding the odd moment of insight, right up until the closing moments of the anime where we see the result of how he has developed and matured but don’t actually see it happening, I’m not sure why but I think its a nice touch. In fact I really like the whole flash forward during the final moments of the series.
Finally apology’s for the overly lengthy and rambling comment as well as any bad spelling, Dyslexia is my curse.
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February 28th, 200911:07 am at
@The First Tsurugi: Another beast of a comment. Apologies for taking so long to respond; life is hectic at the moment.
I agree that many of the characters just couldn’t have explained what the audience wanted to know, or that it would’ve been very awkward if the plot just stopped and they gave us a history lesson. I guess they could have used a Gunbuster-like interlude omake but it would’ve boned the pacing entirely.
As for Yanjo, he was going to be the third character I’d cover in the post, but I broached the 1200 words and had to wrap it up. I loved Yanjo a lot. He rapidly developed beyond being an Akiyuki stand-in and became a legitimate, empathetic character. He embodied how the charisma of Nakiami affected those around her and had so many touching moments with her. He was also just a little bad-ass you cheered for the whole way, and one of the few characters who actually changed after the finale’s time-skip. Definitely one of my favourites.
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March 7th, 20096:41 pm at
[...] 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? [...]
March 19th, 20094:25 pm at
I agree with you on the brilliance of Ishu and the astoundingly good Kakisu, but I can’t say that I loved the writing as much as you did. I certainly didn’t love every character, especially that annoying bastard child Yango, but I will admit that he was necessary to bring out Nakiami’s maternal instincts which led to her sacrifice in the end.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Kujireika. She perfectly exemplified the strong female character you mentioned, but also was led down a terrible path, and nearly died holding strong to her beliefs defending against the Hiruken Emperor. GAR AS FUCK. Sure she went about everything all the wrong possible ways, but she was far more interesting in her little time on screen than Haru, Raigyo, or Midori.
Also I’m like you in that good characterization saved this series for me. Sure the plot was extremely lacking, and the ending was lackluster, the sound was decent at best, and there were some pacing problems especially after Furuichi ripped his head off in that beautiful moment and then nothing happened in the next 5 or 6 episodes.
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April 7th, 200910:08 am at
[...] changed in two years as well as noting how rewatching an anime (particularly a BONES anime, I’ve found) can shed all sorts of new light on what it’s trying to do and say. Owen and myself had very [...]
June 20th, 20098:52 am at
Too bad the PSN is the only way to see this at, like, $3 a pop.
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June 20th, 20096:26 pm at
@John: It’s not the ONLY way…
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June 20th, 20098:19 pm at
It’s the only way I’ll consider!
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June 21st, 200911:24 am at
I’m in the market for a new anime series to watch, I love Eureka Seven which I believe was made by the same studio, is it Bones?
The art looks beautiful aswell
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June 21st, 200910:07 pm at
I definitely recommend it, especially if you like your fiction character-driven. BONES have done themselves justice with this one. As far as E7 goes, I can’t say how it stacks up against it as, much to my shame, I haven’t seen it… :x
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