Short Synopsis: Akiyuki gets used to living on the airship.
Highlights: Mostly build-up, but good build-up.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I liked this episode a lot. Don’t expect much action, since most of it was just building up, but the cast did get a lot of depth this time. It’s very good to see that Akiyuki moved out of the rebellious phase so quickly, and that he’s willing to adapt so quickly. It’s much like Jomy of Towards the Terra. At the same time, the people on Sentan Island are still mourning about the large amount of people who lost their lives. It’s good to see that the creators decided to put a lot of emphasis on this part. Too often we just buildings getting destroyed and people getting killed who never appear again.
At the same time, the mysteries surrounding Nakiami continue to grow. We still don’t know why she ended up on the postal ship. It seems that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with her own kind of people (war refugees without any place to return to and who ended up as pirates), and at the same time the postal ship isn’t exactly the best place to carry out her wishes of finding out more about the Northern Government. The ship also turns out to have its own priest on board: Tenshin. We also see that Nakiami collects the same strange packages of liquid that we saw in the first episode with the white-haired people.
This episode also convinced me that the creators are building up for some sort of romantic relationship between Akiyuki and Nakiami. Well, it was obvious right from the start, I guess. It’s a rather large cliché, but let’s hope that the creators manage to keep the romance away from what’s really important in this series. Note the picture that Raigyo left behind: the kids and the captain (whose names I’ve forgotten at the moment)’s faces were all crossed out for some reason, while Nakiami’s face was just fine, hinting that the two used to have romantic feelings for each other at one point.
woww I can’t wait 😀
Regarding the romance, I think it’s absolutely necessary, just as it was in Eureka Seven.
Yes, love triangles can get a bit boring, but so can the old pining-for-girl-faraway story.
Besides, both girls are hotties! 🙂
And man, they like slapping and kicking on the Gekkostate II, don’t they!
And how good was the catrabbit licking the stamps???? W00T.
pretty sure the guy that show Akiyuki the picture is the one that crossed out those other faces. think he has the hots for her?
Akushiba obviously has a one-sided relationship here.
And nice to see that the Cold Shoulder of the crew thing that they had in E7 has been dramatically reduced in episode 4. It’s nice to see the crew already warming up to Akiyuki, it was an interesting feature of Eureka Seven but I would rather not see it again in a show that just doesn’t need it.
And yeah, I expected this anime to be a Humanform-of-the-week type show, but for small pockets of action, it’s largely character based. I suppose that’s good in the aspect that the real fights will be very well produced. I look forward to them, definitely – though it seems we’ll be waiting yet another episode.
I’m not seeing the romance. They are both being nice to one another, but Nakiami said she’s being helpful because of his Xam’d, not specifically because of Akiyuki. Akiyuki has Haru on his mind, whereas Nakiami seems to have bigger issues than romance to worry about.
Things could change, of course, but I’m thinking this show will be more like Last Exile than something like Macross Frontier.
Yeah, definitely more like Last Exile. Romance was hinted but ultimately little happened (except for side-characters, of course)
I like the fact that Akiyuki and Nakiami haven’t started blushing or going gaga over each other like Renton did when he first saw Eureka. They seem older and therefore, presumably, more mature.
Not only does Akiyuki have Haru and his family on his mind, he’s still struggling with his strange Xam’d abilities and adjusting to life on board the ship. Similarly, Nakiami seems to have her religious beliefs, scientific research, and perhaps dealing with some guilt and/or feelings for Raigyo (for being unable to help him with his Xam’d). The two have only just met each other, after all, but I’m sure as the series continues and they get to know one another better, Nakiami will show her tsundere side more, heh.
I’m still interested in seeing in what direction the creators are planning to take
Haru.
Regarding the Humanform battle of the week, let’s hope it doesn’t devolve to that. I’d much prefer to see character development and interaction over fights of the week.
Besides, they obviously spent a TON of money designing and animating the fights in the first two episodes and there’s no way a TV series can maintain that pace. They’ve hooked us in with the great design and visuals, and it should now be a much more restrained affair, visually, punctuated by the odd battle or two. Expect more talk, less fights. I don’t mind that.
Let’s just hope that the artwork doesn’t suffer in the same way that Eureka Seven’s did. Some of the animation and drawing became really crap later on in that series.
The enemy humanform weapons seem like some sort of bio-mechanical tanks and planes operated by humans inside, maybe even being alien in nature. I surmise that the military state which scattered Nakiami’s people probably stole and built this technology from them as well. The white mecha which fought them off are vaguely Xam’d-like in appearance too, I noticed, with the oversized Popeye forearms and hands. Now where’s me spinach?
And yea, it’s fairly obvious Akushiba is infatuated with Nakiami but she won’t even give him the time of day, which kinda makes his character somewhat sympathetic, if it weren’t for the fact that he lets the kids get away with sucker punching him in the nads, heh.
Wokka: well, Bonen no Xamdou is probably only going to be 26 episodes, as compared to the 52 of Eureka 7, so there’s less chance for the animation to get really bad. I wouldn’t mind more talking and less fighting, by the way. It’d be interesting to see this series turn out like Seirei no Moribito, with only a small number of well-animated fight scenes, instead of a lot of uninspired ones.
And regarding Nakiami: I’ve indeed saw the beginnings of a tsundere in her behavior, though let’s hope that it’ll turn out less clichéd and indeed be more like Last Exile.
In regards to Seirei no Moribito – it did indeed have wonderful fight scenes but they were so randomly placed and rare. In fact it seems IG purposely added a filler episode in just for the sake of adding some action alongside character development.
So yeah, I do hope Xam’d doesn’t leave too much of a gap between the two, because whilst I do like character development, I always prefer some good action, especially if it’s like Episode 2.
Akiyuki just irritates the hell out of me. Guy has some critter living in his arm and yet there seems to be no drive to find out what it is or any real motivation to get it out. Just passively sits there in front of the old woman. Argh my kingdom for a lead toon with a brain or some kind of normal reaction to being infected with this xam’d symbiote.