Short Synopsis: Raigyo gets his proper introduction.
Highlights: Haru.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
A quiet episode this time, which was just meant to give Raigyo’s character some time to catch up in terms of background and fleshing out. Nothing much happened, even for a Xam’d-episode, As it turns out, Raigyo had been travelling the world for two years of his own free will, and in the meantime he brought back a bunch of souvenirs. The crewmembers on the ship apart from perhaps the captain are thrilled to see him back, so of course Akiyuki starts to suffer from an inferiority complex when he’s around. Fairly standard, although I guess that this was a valuable chance for Akiyuki to realize that he’s not special, and that there are more people of his kind.
In any case, I don’t think that I would have suspected this after just the first episode, but Haru’s really turning into my favourite character from this series. She doesn’t take anything for granted, and because of Akiyuki, she continues to doubt her superiors, and yet at the same time she doesn’t run around and throws tantrums to anyone who wants to listen.
Benikawa came with an interesting twist this episode: she actually plans to attack the Northern Government. That was quite a surprise to me, as she’s been behaving like a pacifist for the majority of the series. Well, it does make sense now, why the Zanbani has assault weapons, and why the members are so skilled with fire weapons. Benikawa’s pacifism turns out to be her habit of not getting involved in pointless fights that’ll only put the crew in needless damage.
I do have to say, though, that the website of Bonen no Xamdou sucks. When I want to look up something as simple as the name of one of the characters, it makes me wait more than a minute before the site has fully loaded. That’s way too long, for such a tiny bit of information.
I thought this was a very good episode especially since this was meant to introduce a character. Generally those kind of episodes are very boring and hold little interest to me. But I would say it was handled very well. From the revelations of the past to quirky moments it was a job well done. But one thing i am coming to like more and more are the main characters namely Akiyuki and Haru. I was kind of expecting a lot more sulking from Akiyuki actaully and jealousy that Raigyo is so close to Nakiami since that is a normal pattern in an anime. But he handled it all like a man with very little downtime which makes me want to respect his self esteem a lot more. He has his feelings sorted out (for now at least). It is clear that Haru is the only one in his heart. I really dislike the indecisive sort of main characters (remember Alto anyone?). And lastly but not at all the least I could not praise haru’s character enough. She is like the ideal heroine the one which u dream you get to see once in a lifetime. She is much more mature than ur average rabble I can’t find a single flaw in her character so far i someone can plz enlighten me. It saddens me that she will be cutting her hair short in the next episode since she looked very nice in her long hair ponytail but I guess that is part of her character’s development. Loving this show so far.
A quieter episode, to be sure. I like the fact that Akiyuki got over his inferioriy complex/jealousy of Raigyo relatively quickly (again, his maturity factor over Renton is a welcomed relief).
It does seem Akiyuki has only Haru on his mind (and appeared uneasy and nothing more about spying outside Nakiami’s room with Akushiba), but I didn’t sense anything romantic either going between Raigyo and Nakiami (just two adults talking). The picture of the girl usurper/spiritual leader probably will be the main antagonist since the show lacks one so far (aside from a faceless Northern government, and maybe the Tessik scientist or the old Tessik woman and her followers; the Commander doesn’t really count since he seems like a decent guy just doing his duty).
The last preview shot with Raigyo and Benikawa was certainly misleading, haha (she leaned in close just to sniff him and tell him he stunk and needed a bath). But the preview shot of Haru seemingly with cut/shorter hair certainly is telling of her continued character development. I like Haru’s character but wish she stood up to Furuichi’s pigheaded behavior more forcefully (which she just now has started to do).
Looking forward to the next ep (Akiyuki’s training looks to be up soon), and the animation quality appeared more consistent this time compared to the last episode (weird looking faces and uneven eyes and such).
In every way, this series is a grown-up, mature version of Eureka 7. In some ways, that was what made E7 good – the emotional internal conflict was dissimilar from most animes – but the development was so drawn out and took away so much from developing vital plot information that in the end I grew bored and dropped it at episode 47.
Thus, I
Does anyone else love the Op? Lots of times i will just rewatch it like 3-4 times and i am a person who usually skips them.
Well back on the ep one thing that i am worried about is that i feel like haru is not going to be as important in the later episodes. I am basing this from the Op which doesn’t show any scene with Haru and Akiyuki together and doesn’t show much of Haru at all. What do you guys thing?
Jako: the thing is that if you take a look at the promo-art here:
http://www.xamdou.com/
It suggests the complete opposite, where Haru and Akiyuki are most definitely the central characters in this series. And who knows, perhaps the creators have a new OP planned for the second half. 😉
also btw psgels what happened to the shoutbox
I started watching it after reading about it here. I didn’t think much of it when I glanced it over at first, but it turns out to be pretty good.
It has a nice, laid-back atmosphere even if it’s set during an impending war. The friend/love-rival turned enemy was cliche, but it was done decently throughout several episodes.
I hope that the rest of the show turns out to be just as good. Thanks for keeping up the reviews. It’s always great to drop by here and see what’s new. ^_^ v