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Xam'd: Lost Memories (TV).


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bahamut623



Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 1463
PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:43 pm Reply with quote
Xam'd: Lost Memories

It's E3 this week and one of Playstation 3's announcements is it's new video download feature coming soon (tonight actually). Anyway, I downloaded a trailer assuming it to be some game named Xam'd: Lost Memories...and much to my surprise it was a trailer for Bonen no Xamdou (with the English name I just mentioned). This trailer is much longer than the one that has been released and features a song by Boom Boom Satellite which I can only assume to be the OP song. At first I thought it was a game tie-in, but all the credits shown were for Bones staff. The first thing it says is "Playstation Network Exclusive Animation"
If you have a PS3, go to the PS3 store, and go to the E3 section and download a trailer entitled Xam'd: Lost Memories.

This confirms it: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/890/890097p1.html
And here is the gorgeous trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sno5ZmRStZ0
Now I'm more excited for this series than ever. I'm really hoping they'll do a simultaneous Japanese/ US release, and release the episodes on the PSN when it airs in Japan. I'm not sure if it'll be exclusively on Playstation in Japan as well (and not air on TV at all)

There's no release date, but hopefully it'll be soon.
(And just a small observation: is it just me or do the military uniforms closely resemble the uniforms from Eureka Seven??)

edit: I took the liberty of changing the topic since there is already a discussion about this in the Talkback forum. So I decided to make this a discussion thread for the series itself.


Last edited by bahamut623 on Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Zoe



Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 898
Location: Austin
PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:51 pm Reply with quote
I just downloaded the trailer off the PSN--it looks really nice.

For people without PS3's, there still may be hope if you have a PSP. PSP owners can buy SD content through the PC store, though it's unknown whether this will be one of the available titles.
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bahamut623



Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 1463
PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:50 pm Reply with quote
So I saw the first episode, and I have to say "Wow!!". The animation is pretty breathtaking at times, and overall it looked like movie quality animation. This has been the best first episode of any series I've seen all year.

The look feels like Eureka Seven(it has a similar color palette) meets Nausicaa(still the hardest name to spell in all of anime). It almost feels like this is Bones' ode to Ghibli...one female character is very reminiscent of Nausicaa not only in her appearance but also because of her little flying machine (which also closely resembles Spike's plane from Cowboy Bebop), and there's one scene of the main character riding a bike that instantly reminded me of Kiki's Delivery Service.

The story was very entertaining, albeit it a tad bit confusing. We never get a clear picture of the current state of the world the series takes place in. What I gathered is that there's some sort of Cold War, and the main character's homeland is sort of a neutral zone. And then there's a mystical/fantasy side that's shown a bit at the beginning, and then pops up again at the end. Most of the episode is character introduction, but it never once is boring, and is beautiful to look at the whole time. Then the action and suspense really rev up at the end and the episode ends just as it's about to get awesome, so I can't wait for the next episode.

Overall, incredible episode. It was exciting, beautifully animated, and it seems to be a promising story. The background music was great as were the OP and ED.

As for the pricing...yes it seems a bit much at around $4 for a rental, but the show was good enough that it was well worth it, and it left me with no qualms about continuing to pay for it (though I still hope they lower the price). Also keep in mind that as of right now this is the only source of revenue for this show. It hasn't even aired in Japan yet, so that might be part of the reason for the price.

So to all the PS3 owners in the US, I strongly encourage you to give it a try.

edit: Even though I did mention the pricing and distribution method, I rather this thread remain a discussion about the show itself and not any debate about it being too expensive etc.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:18 pm Reply with quote
The first episode certainly started off good. It opened up with an, uh, interesting scene, introduced the main character and one of the main girls and ended with a great hook. Next episode should really show off what the series can do because it looks like things are about to get rough and messy. It's hard to comment on the plot much as we know exceedingly little because it was mostly just introduction and set up, but it looks like it will be interesting. And weird.

Akiyuki seems like a good lead. A normal highschool kid without being boring or too much of a "nice guy" or prankster that it seems a bit forced. Haru looks like she'll be a fun character. She immediately reminded me of Shirley from Code Geass and sounded like her too. Sure, enough, its the same voice actress. It's hard to say much about the rest of the characters as they had little screen time.

It's hard to justify spending $4 per episode (over $100 for the whole series) without a hard copy. In fact, I'm not going to try, no matter how good it is, that's a rip. So I'm just going to enjoy some cognitive dissonance in regard to how much I'm actually spending. The first episode was very impressive and I want to see all of it. Now.
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Jedi General



Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:32 pm Reply with quote
Just watched the 1080p trailer off of PSN. Looks terrific and I'm certainly going to be checking out the first episode, although 26 episodes at 4 bucks a pop is certainly too high. Not sure if if I really want to pay $100+ just to rent a series.
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Westlo



Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:56 am Reply with quote
OP/ED are fantastic and the animation quality is far above a normal tv series. Bones are doing this and Soul Eater at the same time as well as working on the Eureka Seven movie, they are the studio when it comes to animation quality.
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Jedi General



Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:54 pm Reply with quote
Damn. The first episode was just too darn good. Fantastic animation, artistry, and musical scoring and so far the story has a lot of potential. I guess I am going to have to spend $100+ to rent this series now. Anime cry I'll have to disagree on the opener and closer though. I'm not saying that the animation sequences in the opener and closer aren't great--they're terrific--but the songs don't particularly impress.
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bahamut623



Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 1463
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:35 pm Reply with quote
The rental thing might make me appreciate the series more...I mean I watched it three times in two days, and I never do that! And each time I noticed new details (like little nuances to the animation, etc.) and grasped the plot a bit better. Hmm...maybe I'll do that with more series.
Anyway...I've justified it by thinking of it in terms of food. Say you buy lunch at work or school every day. Chances are you spend twice as much as you would on Xam'd everyday...and that only lasts you 10 or 15 minutes and it's gone forever. So think about it like that! You're spending less than you would on lunch, on something that's potentially more satisfying (if your lunch sucks). Or...imagine you take your family out to dinner. Depending on where you go...on one night you might spend over $80..and that's one night.
If I do watch the whole series through PS3, I would definitely not buy individual DVD volumes if and when they're released...but I would get a thinkpak/box set type of thing somewhere down the road.
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G-mofactor



Joined: 11 Jun 2008
Posts: 797
Location: Atlantis to Interzone
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:05 pm Reply with quote
This is quite exciting.
Although, I do not own a PS3 nor a PSP due to my limited budget.
I am quite pleased that Studio BONES have made another marvelous anime, which a lot people are craving for a TV broadcast or a DVD release.
The trailer itself is worth watching as well.
I have been looking forward to the anime for quite sometime now, and to add in to my excitement, BOOM BOOM SATELLITES, is chosen for the series' opening.
I hope more updates will be released once other episodes are also being released as well in the future.
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Zoe



Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 898
Location: Austin
PostPosted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:02 pm Reply with quote
The animation is amazing. I wonder if the move to PSN prompted them to up the quality or if they always intended it to be like this.
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Kvicksilver



Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 25
PostPosted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:09 pm Reply with quote
bahamut623 wrote:
The rental thing might make me appreciate the series more...I mean I watched it three times in two days, and I never do that! And each time I noticed new details (like little nuances to the animation, etc.) and grasped the plot a bit better. Hmm...maybe I'll do that with more series.
Anyway...I've justified it by thinking of it in terms of food. Say you buy lunch at work or school every day. Chances are you spend twice as much as you would on Xam'd everyday...and that only lasts you 10 or 15 minutes and it's gone forever. So think about it like that! You're spending less than you would on lunch, on something that's potentially more satisfying (if your lunch sucks). Or...imagine you take your family out to dinner. Depending on where you go...on one night you might spend over $80..and that's one night.
If I do watch the whole series through PS3, I would definitely not buy individual DVD volumes if and when they're released...but I would get a thinkpak/box set type of thing somewhere down the road.


Well, food is completely different from entertainment. Besides, buying food is a necessity, and it never usually costs that much. In fact, I'm not even sure how you made that comparison, it's completely unrelated. You rarely feel bad about wasting money on food, maybe if it was made or overpriced.
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bahamut623



Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 1463
PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:47 am Reply with quote
Zoe wrote:
The animation is amazing. I wonder if the move to PSN prompted them to up the quality or if they always intended it to be like this.


I'm not sure...but depending on how far back Sony's involvement goes, they might have helped to make it look that good(by helping out with the budget or something). I would love to see it released on Blu-ray so it can maintain that same quality. Bones is certainly on a roll this year, which is giving me high hopes for the Eureka Seven movie!

Kvicksilver wrote:

Well, food is completely different from entertainment. Besides, buying food is a necessity, and it never usually costs that much. In fact, I'm not even sure how you made that comparison, it's completely unrelated. You rarely feel bad about wasting money on food, maybe if it was made or overpriced.


The point I was trying to make is merely that $2-$4 once a week doesn't seem like much when you compare it to things you spend that much on every single day. If you can afford to buy lunch, toll fare, or subway/bus fare every single day (or say...a PS3!)...then $4 just once a week is no big deal. It only seems expensive when you compare it to other anime distributed in similar means. But I'll say no more about it. Like I said, I don't want the focus of this thread to be the pricing.
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Oneshott



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:19 pm Reply with quote
Just watched episode 1, and wow. The animation is top notch as well as the color schemes used which can be expected from Bones. I'm excited to see the next episode and this anime looks like it's going to be a really good one.
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Courbet



Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:59 am Reply with quote
Ok not got much time so I will keep things short, however episode 2 has just been uploaded and it continues with ultimate quality, its just breathtaking to watch, the character designs and everything are a nice balance of good-looking and quite realistic and as some others have mentioned its symbiosis of Nausicaa and Eureka seven but seems to be slightly more serious tone than Eureka.

I hope people keep uploaded this because to me this is the IT show of this summer so far. Truly good with the potential to be a masterpiece!
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quikbeam1



Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 150
Location: Behind you
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 3:07 pm Reply with quote
so far, i have seen the first two episodes. the show definitely has potential. also, it downloads quickly, which is always a plus. I have really liked the first two episodes. but i still think its a little early for me to pass judgment on the show. while i dont mind the renting idea, i would like it much more if you could buy the episode and keep the actual episode. other than it lasting 24 hours after you view it the first time. i wouldnt really mind paying a little bit more than the rental fee if i was allowed to keep the episode.
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