Bonen no Xamdou – 20

Short Synopsis: Not going to put that here due to spoilers on the anime blog aggregators.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Okay, so while the previous episode felt a little underwhelming, this one was utterly amazing. It’s here that you can really see how much the building up in the beginning has paid off, and for how many episodes the attack on Sentan Island was still mentioned. It really got the message through that people die during these attacks, and that made this episode, where the Southern Government suddenly crashes down on the Tessik Village all the more powerful.

What I found ironic is how only a few episodes earlier, the soldiers of the Northern government were too scared to shoot at a friend. And here they’re basically trying to kill off tons of innocent people. It seems to me that Toujiro has made sure to prevent them making the same mistake twice.

And again this episode demonstrates how awesome the monster-designs of this series are. Kujireika really seems to have lost it, but the imagination that went into her new character-design must have been huge.

The rest of the episode was mostly building up, though with this series, that’s always a good thing. What stood out for me is that Akiyuki and Haru are finally getting tied to the main storyline again. After all, the two at the beginning of the episode had no real reason to be involved in the war: they were just a travelling couple. Still, now that it seems that the white-haired kids have contacted him, he’s probably the first of the Xam’d to lose his face, and then get it back again, and somehow that is good for the objective of these kids. Whether the talking eye ball was part of their plans too, I don’t know, but there’s a good chance for that.