Bounen no Xamdou – Episode 14

Thoughts

After a long break (both in broadcast and longer in this blog), Xamdou/Xam’d is back.  The previous episode leaves us w/ Furuichi activating his Hiruko in preparation to, presumably, fight w/ Akiyuki.  This episode was about, well…. the fight.  Okay so that’s a poor summary, there was more then just the fight…. a lot more.

First off, we finally get to see Akiyuki in full-Xamdou form for the first time since episode 2.  In my opinion, the entire confrontation was rather… bizzare.  It might be that I haven’t seen Xamdou in a month, but it didn’t seem quite as powerful as the first reunion in episode 8.  I kinda expected a lot more attacks thrown between the two of them.  Alas it was primarily dialogue.

Furuichi’s attitude throughout the episode confused me.  Initially he was all about destroying Akiyuki so that he could have Haru to himself, but at the end (right before he performed ‘harikiri’) he was about to call him his best friend again.  Did that mean he felt remorse.  One potential theory is that before, Furuichi was letting jealousy and anger get the better of him, and his Hiruko took advantage of that.  After seeing Haru cry, he finally calms down.

I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before, but Xamdou hasn’t done a good job of conveying the emotions that the characters feel.  It might just be that in comparison to the summer series, Xamdou was brilliant, but now, in comparison to fall, it’s average.  On the whole, I did not expect the ending to be the way it was, this would’ve been a much better place to put the show in hiatus.

RATING: 7.5/10 (I was underwhelmed)
MID-SERIES RATING: 8.5/10

~ by tekky99 on November 15, 2008.