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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Bonen no Xamdou

13:52 / 25.04.08

XAMDOU

BEST QUALITY TRAILER I COULD FIND

Rumors that it may be related to Eureka Seven in some way but probably just rumors.

Anyone know anything more and when it's going to be on?
The only information i can find is in Japanese.

Mysterious Transfer Student

19:46 / 21.07.08

That was a surprise. After months of little or no news about this series, it was announced last week that English-subtitled episodes of Bōnen no Xamdou / Xam'd: Lost Memories will now be available on a pay-to-download basis via the Playstation Store for viewing on PS3 and PSP - two months ahead of the series' official Japanese release. In other words, and as far as I know for the first time ever, a Japanese anime series has been available to view outside its country of origin before being made available domestically. This seems like a calculated move on all fronts, given that the Japanese market for purchased anime seems to be diminishing and overseas sales are likely to become increasingly important.

On the strength of the first episode Xam'd looks like a prime candidate for this sort of treatment, with ravishing visuals and music (expensive!¥¥¥), both opening and end songs having English-language lyrics, and the mise-en-scene shaping up as an elaborate aerial fantasy that, character names aside, contains a minimum of the heady Japanese cultural elements that can make localizing many shows uphill work. As for the show itself, as already mentioned it looks gorgeous - but that's often the case with opening episodes of prestigious series as studios front-load their budgets and try to hook the audience with high-quality material. See the likes of Last Exile and Overman King Gainer, stunning looking shows that shared many visual elements in common with XLM and ended up going nowhere much. I have a good feeling about this one, that said, as the premiere's most impressive animation centres not on splashy eye candy but on the presentation and body language of likeable main character Akiyuki, who creates a great first impression as he frantically cycles across town, drags his hungover father out of bed and improvises to help a pretty stranger pass a military checkpoint.

Lots of screen grabs and more info about the episode here. Watch the (great) opening song here. (Likely to be taken down soon, so don't hang around.) Karaoke with me: RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAYYYYYY

Essential Dazzler

00:32 / 22.07.08

Hmm, this is very weird news, especially because all the anime news I've read recently has been about the slow death of all the American Distro companies.

I've been looking forward to this series for ages, might be just the thing to kick me out of my not-watching-anime funk.

Shame I don't own the hardware to legally download it.

11:01 / 22.07.08

I actually have the hardware to legally download but live in the wrong country. Japanese release has been announced for two months in the future but no European announcement.
Slightly off-topic but:

Yet another case of industry 'experts' forming new buisness models that actually push people in the direction of online 'piracy'. Feels very reminiscent of the time delay between US series making it to the UK resulting in huge numbers of people investigating and using BitTorrent when they wouldn't have even considered it previously. (Lost and Heroes particularly)

I would also object to spending 2GBP an episode on something that i am just renting. This would cost around 52GBP to watch the whole series.
If i wanted to rewatch the series as i often do i would need to rent it again or buy it both of which would seem ridiculous after i have already spent 52GBP.

Having said all that:

Supposedly the first episode was the most downloaded thing on the US store. I don't think American anime distributers have anything to worry about. If it had been shown on TV in Japan first it would have been fansubbed and downloaded and then fans would have perhaps boughts the DVD. Now I would argue they will actually get some fans to pay for it twice - once to rent then once to purchase.

Looking at this series as an example and some insider knowledge there is no death in distribution just a restructuring and a an attempt to recapture revenues through different methods. From what i can see distributors are just lagging behind trends rather than setting them and as they play catch up they are starting to find new ways to make money they are losing and new ways to make more profit from the money they make

Should be watching the first episode soon and will post my thoughts as it looks very good.

11:10 / 22.07.08

It'll be a few days before I get the chance to check this out, is there a concept synopsis for it (not that those will ever tell you much)...

11:16 / 22.07.08

Yeah. What's the high concept?

Mysterious Transfer Student

17:03 / 22.07.08

It's a little unclear so far... but that's how I like it. There's a place named Sentan Island, lying in uneasily neutral territory between the domains of two superpowers who play out a cold-but-getting-hotter war in the skies overhead. Main character Akiyuki, a high schooler, and his family and friends live peacefully on Sentan, only tangentially affected by the war. Meanwhile, a mystic order of some kind is sending out young acolytes on apparent suicide missions, armed with explosive communion wafers smuggled in their stomachs. And there's an independent/observer faction flying about, keeping tabs on the other powers under the aegis of 'Postal law' and harbouring an ace female pilot whose appearance is a dead lift from at least two Ghibli movies you've seen.

[+] [-] Spoiler

As it's been a while since I've seen a 26-episode series whose content actually matched its length, and didn't feel either overextended or crammed too full of ideas for its own good, I'm hoping that all these elements add up to something good.

More please, Bandini, on the topic of distribution and piracy - I've always steered clear of talking explicitly about sources for the shows we watch in-thread as IP law, ISP policy, et cetera, is constantly evolving and an innocent comment today could land someone a fat fine months later thanks to the immortality of the internet. It's definitely an interesting subject that feeds into all sorts of people's concerns - there's a related thread in Music just now, for instance - but not one on which I'm sufficiently well informed to talk fluently about. Certainly it seems unlikely people will pay handsomely for what amounts to a one-time rental service even if the product is brand new and well made, when unofficial releases can be had for nothing with only a minimal loss of quality.

17:35 / 22.07.08

armed with explosive communion wafers smuggled in their stomachs

Chuck Austen: GENIUS BEFORE HIS TIME.

Mysterious Transfer Student

19:58 / 22.07.08

Bloody Nora. When did he do that then?

Essential Dazzler

20:10 / 22.07.08

I have not read the comic in question, obviously.

I watched the OP about a dozen times last night it's fun, very kinetic. The character and mecha design looks engaging.

Will probably leave a first viewing until the weekend.

uncle retrospective

09:20 / 31.07.08

Could anyone point a brother in the direction of this? My web fu is letting me down in a big way.

Mysterious Transfer Student

15:26 / 31.07.08

I think there are DDL files floating around which might be findable using Shareminer; there are also, so I hear, fans who've posted torrent files on Tokyo Toshokan with their own re-renderings of the first episodes to improve on the audio and video quality, some better than others. But if I told you where to find them, and if you subsequently were to watch this show using any means other than a paid Playstation Store subscription and the appropriate hardware, that would be most unwise. Trust me, it's not worth the [Effort].

That out of the way, if you haven't seen this yet I'd perhaps recommend watching the first three episodes in one sitting to get a better feel for the setting and characters. Certainly there're sizeable stylistic debts to both Eureka Seven and Ghibli - just for the record, E7's character designer didn't work on Xam'd, but director Masayuki Miyaji was AD on both E7 and Spirited Away - but the show comes bearing a much heavier weight of backstory and terminology than its predecessor, understandable given that this is a 26-ep package to E7's more leisurely fifty and there are no breezy pop-culture references to make entry easier. In lazy equivalency terms, 'Holland's had a sex change, 'Dewey' might not be a bad guy and 'Eureka's kids' have been combined into one super-annoying kid, while pilot princess Nakiami so far lacks Eureka's charm. How Akiyuki feels about her, so far, is also a lot less definite than how Renton immediately felt about Eureka, and the show seems rather to be aiming for a Macross-style 'heaven and earth' love triangle with karate-kicking homegirl Haru.

My ambition for this thread and this show is to everyone to have stopped making E7 comparisons by page two. For now I'll just enjoy the ickiness of the Humanform Weapons, the well-written script - the scene with Akiyuki's parents in episode two makes me think that the writers know what they're doing - and the fine voice cast, including Katsuyuki (KAMINA) Konishi as dreadlocked dogsbody Akushiba and as Haru, the superb Fumiko Orikasa (best known as Mrs Directo).

uncle retrospective

20:11 / 31.07.08

Nice, Thank you. Looking forward to it. After a year off of watching anime I think it's time to jump back in.

uncle retrospective

11:02 / 04.08.08

Just seen this and loved it but the E7 comparisons will stick I recon, it's kind of the way you can't talk about a Panda Bear album without talking about the Beach Boys.
Anyway roll on more of it.

17:50 / 25.05.09

Anyone else watched this to the end yet? I really enjoyed it although there was a lot slightly too reminiscent of Eureka 7.