To start off, I love Eureka Seven. It was one of the original “great,” shows I watched, and still resonates with me to this day. That being said, after widening my palate, I couldn’t in good conscience consider it a “10/10 masterpiece” due to plot related short comings at times: shaky world-building, inconsistent characterization and motivation, and a rather lackluster conclusion.
Enter Xam’d, a show with more than just superficial similarities to E7, so naturally it would be a great watch, right?
Well kinda.
Aesthetically, the show is downright beautiful. Top notch animation, an absolute banger OP/ED, nice character designs, neat locales & monster/mech design, etc. Honestly no complaints at all in the art or sound department.
The show starts off with a great first few episodes, which introduce a (seemingly,) rich world with lots of interesting conflict. The plot raises a lot of pressing questions at the outset, then proceeds to answer literally none of them.
I can’t count the number of times I was begging for context for the gibberish that was being presented about the people, places, and things of this world. Instead of extrapolating on concepts introduced, new characters & dynamics are introduced until all we’re left with is a convoluted narrative mess with no direction.
Akiyuki & Nakiami were compelling protagonists at the start of the show, but wound up feeling rather hollow with poorly fleshed out motivations.
Surprisingly, Haru is really the only character to receive convincing growth & progression throughout the story, and is really the saving grace of the show.
In regards to plot-holes, they may be the only thing the story does consistently. I would say watch for spoilers from this point on, but it’s now like the show does anything with the following concepts: the pregnant test-type Xam’d, the specifics of the emperor, why Nakiami had to take the role she did during the climax, the exact nature of the Haruko and their parasitic existence with human hosts, Sannova and her followers actual role in the current climate, Kakisu’s motivations with his mother, the reasons for the war between the north & the south and Raigyo’s & Ishu’s role in it, what Akiyuki’s father was treating/in the vial he gave to Haru etc.
I seriously at times felt like I was missing entire episodes worth of content. The show could’ve easily doubled in length and still not have been able to address everything aforementioned.
There’s a shocking lack of actual action as well. I think our boy actually turns into a Xam’d a total of 3 times, which was rather disappointing.
It’s a damn shame, as this show had all the pieces to capture the same magic and even surpass E7. Rather, I was given was some migraine-inducing eye candy, and a nostalgia trip.
“I have a vacancy in my heart.”
