Bonen no Xamdou – 16



Short Synopsis: Nakiami and Yango continue to travel together.
Highlights: Even when building up, this show delivers.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Ah, my suspicions came true with the arrival of the second half. This series is getting really good now, even in episodes like this one where hardly anything happens apart from building up. It’s especially a delight when the crew of the Zanbani shows up again: for the past episodes these guys have been the epitomes of doing nothing, and yet those short scenes between them have a huge power to them.

The majority of the episode talked about one of the white haired kids that the military managed to secure in the previous episode and the relationship between Yungo and Nakiami. Regarding the former, he shed a lot of light into what these people can do, they even can communicate through large distances. They also seem to be picky about the ones they want to turn into the Xam’d: the guy never even bothered giving his powers to the military guys, and yet he seems strangely interested in Haru (through the tips of Nazuma).

About the latter, there were some things that struck me above the bond that these two develop. Their journey made it clear that there’s a lot more stuff going on than just the main storylines of this series. It’s been a typical episode to bring a bit of life to the world that the series is set in, something you really don’t see often. More often with travel series, I notice that the life purpose of the unimportant side characters seems to be waiting for the travelling main character to arrive and solve his/her problems. But instead, the people that Nakiami and Yungo met had definitely their own problems, and just happened to meet the two. Especially the two kids, who Yungo talked to for a bit were very natural-sounding. Another series where I’ve noticed this effect was Porfy no Nagai Tabi, during its shortest arcs.

Artistically, this was also a beautiful episode. This really is a series that needs to be watched in HD.

6 thoughts on “Bonen no Xamdou – 16

  1. Just watched the episode. So much revealed. So much unresolved. The creators are evil. Like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit. Seems to work though. I’ll be there next week! 😀

  2. The animation is simply awesome. The characters feel natural. But the way the story is going it does not feel that the series is 26 episodes only instead it feels more like a 52 ep series. I feel like i am a complete stranger to this world and that is alarming as there are now only 10 episodes left. Either they are gonna have to start cramming information or there are gonna be a lot of disappointed ppl at the end of this show.

  3. Oh no way, this better not be a 26 episode series! This could possibly turn into one of the best animes ever. I find it amazing that some anime have a following and never get anywhere in the story *cough* One Piece *cough*. Either way this series is AMAZING!

  4. I don’t think this series feels too slow paced for a 26 episode series- RahXephon spent most of it’s time leaving the main mysteries and questions unresolved up until the last 3 episodes, and it turned out brilliantly. I have a feeling we’re going to see something similar here.

  5. Wow.. just wow not one negative comment on this anime? Where the heck am I at? I hate to break it to you but this anime is totally going to be 26 episodes and shove everything into the last 10 minutes with some mushy crap for a plot… the Xam’d wills it so 🙂

Leave a Reply