Bounen no Xam'd

 

Introduction:  I am going to be honest here, I 100% decided to watch this series because of the word Xam'd in the title.

Plot Overview: Takehara Akiyuki is a high-school student on the small island of Senten, which lies near the border of the Southern Continent and the Northern Continent which are at war with each other. One day while boarding the bus for school he helps sneak on a mysterious looking girl. Just as they arrive at the school the bus explodes, apparently a suicide attempt by the strange girl. After checking to make sure he and his friends are okay he rushes back onto the bus to find out what happened to the strange girl only to find her mortally wounded. Smiling when she see's Akiyuki she activates a strange device that was implanted into Akiyuki during the explosion transforming him into a strange creature called a Xam'd, a creature the girl holds as sacred.

Review: Bounen no Xam'd is probably the most infuriating anime I've ever watched for one reason and one reason alone, it doesn't explain what is going on at any time until a couple episodes later. You watch an episode and they start talking about things that they expect you to know before they are explained to you which just sort of wears you down after a while. And even then a lot of the stuff they do explain isn't explained that well or is explained in "I don't see it, but I'll take word for it" type way. Add to that it tries to cram in way too many major character, extremely awkward pacing, and some strange choices in character development and you get an anime that probably needs to be twice as long if they wanted it to come to the viewers at an understandable pace. Despite these faults though the concept is great, the art is vibrant and adds a lot of character, and the world building is very well done, so that's something.

Conclusion: It has it's flaws but if you are willing to rewatch some episodes after having some things explained to you Xam'd is a decent anime that has an interesting yet poorly executed concept.

Guardman's Grade: C+

Categories: Action, War, Drama, Tragedy, Fantasy