The greatest weapons ever created./Seriously, someone punch him in the face.

I watched the episodes seperately as I like to see how my thoughts change episodically as the series goes on. Not much of a difference, though…

Edit: Seems the show’s over and I have no posts on 9-13, so I’m just going to do a series review for it. Look out for Xam’d 8-12 as well (in double-episodic format).

Episode 7

Short Summary:

Serial killings are going on throughout the subway systemat night, accompanied by a strange song. Birdy manages to lure the culprit into a trap and destroys it, discovering that it’s a marionette gone berserk. Shyamalan furthers his plans to use the Riunka by becoming associates with the womand who’s had a bird guardian on her shoulder, who Birdy believes is from the federation. Nakasugi continues to act weird, sleep-walking and the such, and Senkawa’s sister gets wasted several times.

Thoughts:

Well, that did nothing to advance the plot whatsoever. The whole Naksugi being the killer angle was just a red herring, thought you could probably figure that out as they kept shoving it in your face so much that you had to think otherwise. Plus the animation just seems to be getting progressively worse, though I have ano idea where the budget must be going as there was no real action in this episode either. I could talk about this being an interesting individual case with the crazy marionette killing people with hugs of doom looking for its Mama, but even with that partial distraction from the other glaring problems in the show, my lack of enthusiasm for the series is definitely increasing. Nothing so far has measured up to the first and third episodes, and the lack of real plot developement since then is irritating. I just learned there’s a second season in the works, so maybe the writers are planning to drag things out with filler such as this, which would be a huge blow to the series as it had good pacing up until the whole “Let’s go to Birdy’s home planet and hurt dogs” thing. It’s really declining in quality, and next episode doesn’t look any better; it’s called “Ghost Village” where everyone seems to be going to Nakasugi’s other house (god forbid she’d have another “party” at her own home) and we’re looking more at the stupid love affair going on between Senkawa and her (which BORES me). Oh yeah, Muroto’s still useless and it’s nice to see how much of a lightweight Birdy is at drinking.

Girlfriend? Senkawa? DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Episode 8

Short Summary:

Senkawa and friends spend the first sixteen minutes of the episode exploring abandoned buildings. Then Nakasugi FINALLY turns into at least a partial form of the Riunka and starts vaporising things. Birdy chases her but somehow manages to lose the glowing harbinger of doom in the forest and the next day the authorities are everywhere in the aftermath of the disaster.

Thoughts:

That was just painful to watch for the first 16 minutes. Nothing significant happened AT ALL. Since when the hell did this show turn into “Days in the Life of Senkawa’s Friends: Scooby Doo Edition”? Do we really give a damn if there are footsteps on the ceiling? This shows about kick-ass alien fighting action and doomsday chemicals, it’s not supposed to be the retaraded love child of Ghost Hunters and Most Haunted. If the episode was meant to flesh out the characters so I thought they were even more annoying and generic then I believe applause is necessary; I’ve already forgotten half their names, but Bandanna man stikcs out as the only anime character who has made me wish to kill him within 20 seconds of hearing him speak. He juist doesn’t have any sort of volume other than SHOUT REALLY LOUDLY ALL THE TIME AND WHINE AND WHINE ABOUT EVERYTHING AND ENERGETIC PEOPLE ARE SOMEHOW LIKEABLE EVEN IF THEY’RE IRRITATING AND TALK ABOUT BULLSHIT. Ugh, I hope Nakasugi kills him, I really do, and I hope she makes it extremely painful. Senkawa also has one of the stupidest sounding ringtones ever.

But anyway, on to the good about the episode (bet you didn’t see that coming). It was interesting to see a plot hint about Shyamalan’s early life, he looks as crazy and sinister as a kid in rags as he does as an adult buisnessman. Nakasugi = crazy killer disintegration psycho, which = good. Not much else to say, though I did like the lok on mysterious bird woman’s expression when Nakasugi threw a shockwave of death in her face. The way they revealed her to be the Riunka makes me think they believe their audience is completely comprised of slowpoke.jpg’s as they made ot out to be SUCH A TWIST! Not sure how Birdy could just completely give up on looking for the Riunka though; we somehow managed to skip past a good chunk of the night to the morning where Senkawa’s just chillin’ with his friends while everyone’s questioned by the police, and Nakasugi’s completely back to normal. I guess doomsday items aren’t that much of a threat anymore.

Get me a really huge painful spear to shove into his stomach.