Let's start with the Miyazaki influence. In many respects Xam'd feels like a cross between Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Each features an environmentalist message and strong female protagonist with a connection to all living beings. Here the role of San/Nausicaä is played by Nakiami. From her desire to live in harmony with creatures feared and ostracized by society, to her character design and even her flying kayak (which looks and operates like Nausicaä's mehve), Nakiami is not particularly original. This isn't a problem: San and Nausicaä are, after all, from films over a decade old. Nakiami, rather than coming off as an overused knockoff, is refreshing, and easily one of the best characters in the show if not of any anime in recent years. Fortunately, even though she isn't the "main" character, she gets more airtime and development than anyone else.
Xam'd's look and sound is also heavily influenced by Miyazaki. The animation is essentially Ghibli on a tighter budget, and the result is beautiful. While it's not Princess Mononoke, most of the time only the exacting eye could tell you how it falls short. The soundtrack has some excellent tracks that feel like they've been ripped right out of Nausicaä. See, e.g., Xam'd theme song; Taiyou no Soba. Xam'd also features one of the best OPs and better EDs I've heard, see Boom Boom Satellites: Shut Up and Explode, and Kylie: Vacancy, as well as an amazing voice cast (English). Blake Shepard in particular, who plays Akiyuki, could be the next Johnny Yong Bosch, and the more seasoned Luci Christian is perfect as Nakiami.
Alright, good job Xam'd, but what do you have to offer beyond repackaging some Ghibli themes, characters, and production values? What does your story offer, and what are the rest of your characters like? This is where matters get complicated. From the beginning, Xam'd's plot is pretty good; a bit unoriginal but plenty to work with and to get your attention. There is a war - the Northern Government and Southern Continent Free Zone are having at it while Sentan Island, home of our young protagonist Akiyuki Takehara, remains neutral. There is also a strange, ostracized people, the Tessik, who seem to bear a spiritual connection to the Xam'd. One day, all hell breaks loose. During a field trip, Akiyuki and his best friends Haru and Furuichi are caught up in an explosion caused by a Tessik girl, a thing called a hiruko flies into Aki's arm, and he becomes Xam'd! Not long after this explosion the Northern Government attacks and Akiyuki is forced to fight off a human-form monster (a hiruko-infused human similar to Xam'd). Victorious but unable to control the raging hiruko within him, Akiyuki begins to turn to stone until Nakiami (another Tessik girl) arrives to save him and takes him aboard the international postal ship, the Zanbani, where his journey begins.
These first few episodes raise a number of great questions that are unfortunately never satisfactorily resolved. Why is there a war? Why are the Tessik ostracized by everyone else? What is a hiruko, why do they exist, why do they turn people into Xam'd, and why are they so lonely? Why does the Quickening Chamber operate as it does, and why (without huge spoilers) do things have to end the way they do? Failing to answer key questions isn't the best way to tell a story, but it gets worse. While I have to applaud the relatively large cast of well-developed, memorable, and generally likable characters (e.g., Haru, Midori, Furuichi, Fusa, the badass, raunchy Ishuu, and too many others to name), I was surprised at how empty and bland Akiyuki turned out. In the first episode he comes across as this cool, opinionated, rebellious type with a lot of character, but as the plot progresses his development is oddly pushed to the side, and he ends up being defined almost entirely by the characters around him. By the end it felt as if Nakiami were the true main character, and Akiyuki functioned solely as a vessel for the Xam'd. Perhaps this was intended, but it isn't a good way to make me care about what, if anything, happens to him in the end.
In a way Akiyuki is symbolic of the show as a whole: promising some complexity in the beginning, but relatively static in the end. This was especially true with respect to the various "deep questions" (see, pseudo-philosophy) raised only to receive a shallow response or no response at all. For instance, the Xam'd all say "I want to live." Aki's dad says early on "A question without an answer is truth. Yet people must continue to question themselves. It's in their nature." There is a long speech about "this is your enemy, that is your enemy, blah blah blah." What do these things mean? Hell if I know. As far I could tell, they didn't bear the slightest relation to the underlying plot. Perhaps the worst of all was the climax, which at least offered some answers but couldn't have been more mundane. Then we're all supposed to be emotional and involved, and I'm busy looking at my list for something else to watch while episode 26 plays in the background. By the end the show had just devolved into a mess, with too much going on, too many characters getting attention while Akiyuki got virtually none, and too hasty and lackluster of an explanation. Do I want those ~12 hours of my life back? Absolutely not, because the first 20 episodes were so enjoyable, even if they were sullied by the last 6. At the same time, that is the worst kind of disappointment: climbing to the top, only to plummet back down in the end.
