Short Synopsis: The pieces start moving for the second half of this series.
Highlights: Furuichi’s development.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, so this was probably the last time I make use of the 10-01 raw providers. Their quality is horrible-raws level, but the worst is that their resolution is way too stretched in terms of height. It’s like having a 4:3 resolution with a 16:9 video. Thankfully this episode made up for it. It’s a typical intermezzo, but at the same time it really pushes the plot forward for the second half of this series.

Big development #1: Nakiami and Akiyuki leave the Zanbani, for Tessik Village. Benikawa turns out to have had an affair with the guy who controls the strange Xam’d tower, and she seems to be hiding much more about her past. “Writer of the Crimson Revolution”? Nakiami’s goodbye was really touching, and at the same time this has left a lot of potential for that second half, because Benikawa is just too important for the story for the Zanbani-crew to just become secondary characters.

Big development #2: Furuichi seems to be infected by an imperfect Xam’d, or something similar. It probably was awakened due to the way he kept pushing himself over the limits, but whatever he was, it made him see what kind of an idiot he’s been. I should have known that the creators knew exactly that he was being an asshole. They’d of course never let him be just a simple rival to stand in Akiyuki’s path, and so he successfully removed one of the few problems I had with this show.

Short Synopsis: The Zanbani is attacked by a number of humanforms.
Highlights: Only 11 episodes and the cast is already developing.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
I must say, I’m very impressed with this episode. The cast is already connecting to a level that takes most series at least five episodes longer. This episode was really meant to develop the cast of the Zanbani, to push them to their limits and use time that the previous episodes spent on fleshing them out, with some awesome results. I think that from now on, we can expect this series to really get fired off, and I’m really curious whether the creators are able to get the best out of this series’ potential.

This episode confirms what I’ve been suspecting: the Zanbani isn’t just a regular postal ship with a bunch of strange members on it. It makes perfect sense: why else would a postal ship carry guns and a Hiruko-priest? It’s the same as Eureka7, where the main characters pretend to be a bunch of trendy people on surfing mecha, while they’re in fact an underground rebellion. The question now remains: who is Benikawa, and why is she carrying out her mission with a bunch of children on board? It seems to suggest that she has a lot of personal issues in whatever she seems to be trying to do, if she really wants her friends and loved ones to accompany her.

I really loved the situations the creators put the characters in in this episode, every single character was awesome in this episode, and especially Benikawa got a lot of depth, as she started yelling at Yunbo because her motherly worries annoyed her. It’s also typical for her gun to suddenly stop working after two shots. She never striked me as the type to take good care of her guns, so it’s natural for them to get clogged up once in a while. Nakiami also completely lost it, after seeing so many killed Humanforms. We still don’t know exactly why she takes them so personal, but my guess is that she once lost a loved one, who became a humanform.

Kisel-jii also shined as he tried to perform maintenance on the ship (a role often neglected, but at the same time very important). Meanwhile Akiyuki and Raigyo played a surprisingly small role in this episode, and this episode mainly showed Akiyuki was he continues to grow and learn to control his powers. There’s also a strange chemistry between Ahm and Hinokimaru, as in a strange father-and-son relationship while they’re actually not related.

What I loved about this episode was the creator’s amazing ability to make every character count. Most of the time in anime, you see the focus falling on one or two characters, and the other characters could just as well merge into one big character, without much of a difference. In Bonen no Xamdou each character has his or her individuality. There were no two characters who did the same. It may be a pet peeves, but I love it when a series manages to accomplish this. I can really see Bonen no Xamdou turning into my favourite series, once all spring and summer-series finish airing. It all depends on what path Porfy no Nagai Tabi decides to choose, and whether or not some amazing short series pops up in the upcoming fall-season.

Short Synopsis: Raigyo gives Akiyuki a few “tips” on being Xam’d, and Haru tries to close off her past.
Highlights: Haru’s new haircut looks awesome. Nakiami’s… doesn’t. ^^;
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Often in anime, a change of haircut means that the person in question is about to enter a new stage of his or her life, and emerges as a different person. This was very much emphasized on this episode in Haru’s case: she continues to be held behind by her past, and in this episode, she attempts to close her memories off for the time being, and not being influenced by them.

The rest of this episode was a bit of background on Raigyo, showing how he became a Xamdou. It was very interesting to see the different cast members at that time. The girl wasn’t there, the boy was only just born, and Nakiami looked really young. Still, I’m surprised at how long she’s already been at the Zanbani: it’s been more than five years already.

This clearly was a building up episode. My prediction is that the next episode will start the introduction of what’s supposed to be the midway climax of this series. I’m interested at what the creators can do, and especially how Haru’s going to tie in everything. The girl definitely is my favourite character in this series at this point, and I’m really looking forward to see her growth.

Short Synopsis: Raigyo gets his proper introduction.
Highlights: Haru.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
A quiet episode this time, which was just meant to give Raigyo’s character some time to catch up in terms of background and fleshing out. Nothing much happened, even for a Xam’d-episode, As it turns out, Raigyo had been travelling the world for two years of his own free will, and in the meantime he brought back a bunch of souvenirs. The crewmembers on the ship apart from perhaps the captain are thrilled to see him back, so of course Akiyuki starts to suffer from an inferiority complex when he’s around. Fairly standard, although I guess that this was a valuable chance for Akiyuki to realize that he’s not special, and that there are more people of his kind.

In any case, I don’t think that I would have suspected this after just the first episode, but Haru’s really turning into my favourite character from this series. She doesn’t take anything for granted, and because of Akiyuki, she continues to doubt her superiors, and yet at the same time she doesn’t run around and throws tantrums to anyone who wants to listen.

Benikawa came with an interesting twist this episode: she actually plans to attack the Northern Government. That was quite a surprise to me, as she’s been behaving like a pacifist for the majority of the series. Well, it does make sense now, why the Zanbani has assault weapons, and why the members are so skilled with fire weapons. Benikawa’s pacifism turns out to be her habit of not getting involved in pointless fights that’ll only put the crew in needless damage.

I do have to say, though, that the website of Bonen no Xamdou sucks. When I want to look up something as simple as the name of one of the characters, it makes me wait more than a minute before the site has fully loaded. That’s way too long, for such a tiny bit of information.

Short Synopsis: Akiyuki finally gets the chance to meet Haru.
Highlights: So that’s who that mysterious guy in the OP was.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Excellent episode, among the best of the series so far. Although I spotted some strange coincidences in this series for the first time (like how did Akiyuki know exactly where Haru would be?), but these were small enough to be ignored. Especially since that scene of Akiyuki and Haru’s re-encounter resulted in some great character-development, now that it turns out that Furuichi became to hate Akiyuki for letting the white-haired girl blow up the bus, along with his classmates. It’s quite sad that he never allowed Akiyuki to properly talk to Haru in this way, but at least this way, Haru will have nobody to rely on. I predict some great growth from her.

The creators do need to pay attention to not let Akiyuki’s and Furuichi’s rivalry become overly cheesy, though. I’ve often seen such an attempt at drama fail, where childhood friends come to hate each other (Dragonaut, anyone?). Sure, I can understand how two close people can grow apart from each other, but for the rival to become one of the top officials of the evil empire (or something similar), it gets a bit hard to believe. One example where the childhood rivalry did work was Area 88, where the rival basically ruined the lead character’s life out of jealousy.

In any case, I loved this episode not just because of that, but everything that went on around it, from the crew of the Zanbani who was worried about Akiyuki and Nakiami, to the father and daughter that Akiyuki met in the previous episode to those strange people from the northern lands, who helped the southern government. I personally love a series with a huge amount of characters, where each of these characters has his or her own agenda and issues, and Bonen no Xamdou is also doing really well in that area.

Also, is it me, or did the background art in this series look better than ever in this episode? I’m also glad to see that the guy with the camera from the OP finally appeared. It’s obvious that it’s been a long time since he shaved, but I’m surprised that he was Raigyo, the Xam’d that Nakiami saved before Akiyuki.

Short Synopsis: Haru’s letters reach Akiyuki, and a possibility for the two of them to meet pops up.
Highlights: Another building-up episode, but this time the Xam’d and humanforms got some extra depth.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Another solid and enjoyable for Bonen no Xamdou. I think that this is the pattern we can expect for much of the rest of the first half of this series: mostly fleshing out the characters and building up the storyline, with your occasional action-sequence like the attack on Sentan-island and the Xam’d going berserk. The question is now whether the second half of this series can effectively make use of all the time that was spent on building up in the first half, but we still need to wait a couple of months before we get the answer to that. In any case, so far the first half has been wonderfully down to earth, and that’s why I like this series so far.

In the meantime, Haru’s still very worried about what happened to Akiyuki. As it turns out, the Xam’d was killed relatively easy, but the real purpose of it going berserk was to show that it wasn’t looking for trouble, it was just a pregnant woman who wanted to live, and at the same time show a strange pillar in the sky that only the Xam’d and Haru could see. The question is obviously: why could Haru see it and everybody else not? It’s probably got something to do with Akiyuki.

I also wonder what Haru’s going to do when she finally meets Akiyuki. Will she continue to stay with the military? Will she desert it and join the crew of the Zanbani (that would be rather lame, by the way)? Meanwhile, Akiyuki’s little adventure alone reminded me of the time when Renton went off on his own in Eureka7, although their reasons are totally different. There hasn’t been any real tension so far between Akiyuki and the crew, unlike with Eureka7, where the crew of the Gekko-go kept teasing Renton over and over again. Bonen no Xamdou is much more a coming of age story for Haru than that it is for Akiyuki.

This episode also again blurred the line between the Xam’d and the humanforms. It’s like humanforms are a lesser form of the Xam’d. The guy that Akiyuki meets in this episode: we’re still not sure whether he’s a humanform or a Xam’d, since his symptoms looked exactly like Akiyuki’s. But on the other hand, when even these common people are able to at least gain their senses back after having been Xam’d, then why is Sentan Island’s military having so much trouble to deal with just one of them?

Short Synopsis: Haru receives Akiyuki’s letter
Highlights: Haru, you seriously rock.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
I think that with the arrival of Akiyuki’s letter, the introduction of this series is finally over and the plot can start to really develop. The time for mourning about the tragedy of Sentan Island, and it’s time to move forward. Furuichi joins the military, and to my surprise Haru does so as well! I sort-of suspected that she wouldn’t sit still for the entire series, but to think that she’d actually join the army. That really makes her much more interesting than most other female love interests, whose majority seems to degrade into a damsel in distress.

Toujirou also doens’t seem to be the bad guy I originally thought he would be. There are a lot of parallels between him and Dominic of Eureka7: they’re both young leaders who have troubles with their subordinates. Toujirou in this case is fundamentally against these experiments with the Xam’d, and this episode gave him reasons enough to worry when one of these Xam’d that was supposed to be dead revives and starts rampaging. I guess that this is another way that a Xam’d can turn into, without the help of Nakiami. This begs the question: why can Nakiami safely control the Xam’d, while a scientist from her people can’t do the same, and ends up with the Xam’d going berserk?

Akiyuki’s fight against that humanform reminded me of Eureka7, where Renton suddenly realized that he’s been fighting humans. I’m surprised at how different this was done in Xamdou with its subtle approach. But then again, Akiyuki is a lot more mature.

I’m also reminded of another series, which disturbs me a bit. I just keep comparing Haru and Nakiami with Shirley and Karen from Code Geass, even though the former two managed to get about as much depth in six episodes as the latter did in 46 of them… It’s strange, there are of course a few similarities, but also just as much differences, but I just can’t seem to stop comparing them..

Short Synopsis: Ignoring her orders, Nakiami pays a visit to her former comrades.
Highlights: Mostly building-up again, but that’s exactly what this series is good at.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This episode continues to shed new lights on the world of Bonen no Xamdou. It seems that Nakiami joined the Zanbani when she was just young. If her country (I think it was called Tessik) wasn’t attacked for whatever reason that’s still undisclosed, she would be its leader, or at least the princess, since we don’t yet know what happened to her parents. I guess that when they lost their country, she and her comrades went their own ways, where she joined the Zanbani and the others went into the black market. I wonder, by the way. Could Tessik Village be the place where that old woman who is behind all of the Xam’d lives?

This episode yet again showed how much damage the attack of episodes 1 and 2 caused. The death toll is already at 1300 and still rising. It also confirmed that humanforms were originally just humans, as this episode shows how the scientist of the OP transforms the girl who lost her family in the previous episode into some kind of mismatched humanform. The interesting thing was that Haru stood right next to her. This might be a reason for her to become more involved with the war, now that she’s seen one of her friends as such a humanform.

This episode also featured some strange props that Nakiami’s former comrades had with them. A strange ghost-like thingy that’s supposed to protect an airship and some kind of thirty-year-old seed. Now let’s see what it’s purpose turns out to be.

Oh, and for some strange reason, I really liked Akushiba in this episode. He may be cold at times, but I don’t think that he just went to deliver Haru’s letter, just to defend his nickname. ^^;

Short Synopsis: Akiyuki gets used to living on the airship.
Highlights: Mostly build-up, but good build-up.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I liked this episode a lot. Don’t expect much action, since most of it was just building up, but the cast did get a lot of depth this time. It’s very good to see that Akiyuki moved out of the rebellious phase so quickly, and that he’s willing to adapt so quickly. It’s much like Jomy of Towards the Terra. At the same time, the people on Sentan Island are still mourning about the large amount of people who lost their lives. It’s good to see that the creators decided to put a lot of emphasis on this part. Too often we just buildings getting destroyed and people getting killed who never appear again.

At the same time, the mysteries surrounding Nakiami continue to grow. We still don’t know why she ended up on the postal ship. It seems that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with her own kind of people (war refugees without any place to return to and who ended up as pirates), and at the same time the postal ship isn’t exactly the best place to carry out her wishes of finding out more about the Northern Government. The ship also turns out to have its own priest on board: Tenshin. We also see that Nakiami collects the same strange packages of liquid that we saw in the first episode with the white-haired people.

This episode also convinced me that the creators are building up for some sort of romantic relationship between Akiyuki and Nakiami. Well, it was obvious right from the start, I guess. It’s a rather large cliché, but let’s hope that the creators manage to keep the romance away from what’s really important in this series. Note the picture that Raigyo left behind: the kids and the captain (whose names I’ve forgotten at the moment)’s faces were all crossed out for some reason, while Nakiami’s face was just fine, hinting that the two used to have romantic feelings for each other at one point.

Short Synopsis: Obligatory “I’m not going to cooperate with you”-episode.
Highlights: This was an obvious building-up episode, so nothing much stood out.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Well, it had to happen sometimes. You can see this type of episode in many different series, where the main character, as stubborn as he is, yells at everyone in his new environment and wants to go home. It’s not the most exciting episode, but it is essential for proper build-up and character-building, which is why it’s used so often.

This episode did make use of its 20 minutes by giving a proper introduction to the crew of the postal service ship. It still remains a mystery why Nakiami is on board, or why they involve themselves with these huge battles, but at least the most important crewmembers were fleshed out. Meanwhile, at the camp of the antagonists, the major villain (or at least someone who looks like one) turns out to be some kind of war hero, who survived a huge war, 17 years ago. Their role in this story still seems a mystery, though.

What intrigues me is the high amount of attention to Akiyuki’s friends, who he left behind. If Akiyuki really is going to work for a postal ship, then that means that he’s not going to see them again, and yet they’re really well-fleshed out characters. What could the creators have in mind for them? Don’t tell me that that girl is going to follow the airship when she receives the letter that’s about to be sent to Akiyuki’s parents?