Shelf Life

I Am Xam

It took me several episodes to get into Xam'd, because I wasn't familiar with the story or the large ensemble cast of characters. In Xam'd, certain people get infected with something that causes them to mutate monstrously and have super strength. This made me wary, because I tend to strongly dislike superhero stories. It took me a few episode to catch on that the mutations are more like Ashitaka's arm in Princess Monoke than something out of Guyver.

Then I was hit with several incredibly depressing episodes in a row. Thankfully, an episode of Xam'd finally ended happily, with two characters in love flying into the sky on a machine that looked like something out of Nausicaä. Flying is often symbolic of love in Miyazaki movies. In fact, there are a lot of Miyazaki design influences in Xam'd, although most of the artwork is more reminiscent of Eureka Seven.

It's tough to describe the plot without revealing major spoilers from the first set, but in short, Xam'd is about the frustrating messiness of the human condition, the horrors of warfare, the pain of living, suicide, racism, and the morality of who decides who lives and who dies. There's heavy drama, but the show manages not to be a total downer because a lot of the characters have true-to-life loving relationships with other characters, as friends, family, or would-be lovers.

What I will say is that everything seems to build towards a prophesized apocalyptic event called "the Quickening." A princess-like character named Nakiami is destined to be involved, and several militant groups are warring to either ensure or disrupt this high casualty world-altering occurrence. Normally I cringe at prophecies, but I liked this story because only the obviously crazy cultists seem happy to accept their so-called "fate."

Xam'd got better with every episode I watched and I started to feel really, really bad that I missed Part One. Unfortunately, the ending is a disappointing mish-mash of plot and pseudo-philosophy, but at least the ride is worthwhile.

I've said in the past that a series is only as strong as its villains, and Xam'd has a great one. Conflicted nationalist Tojiro is a bad guy to be sure, but he's not all the way bad. He claims he's evil, but there's clearly more to him than that. Chris Hutchison plays Tojiro with a certain sexy gravelly quality that works very well.

The dub isn't perfect; Corey Hartzog plays a young boy named Yango, and although he's acting very hard, he cannot match the performance of the Japanese seiyuu, who sounds like a real kid instead of an adult playing a kid (Yuutaro Motoshiro was probably 11 or 12 when Xam'd was recorded).

This show had a big budget, even bigger than Moribito, which I raved about earlier. The all-English catchy opening theme by Boom Boom Satellites made me think that Xam'd was made with an international audience in mind.

This is a surprisingly decent show with a lot of high human drama. Although I'd recommend it to a lot of people, it's not the sort of thing you just kick back with some popcorn and watch for fun.[TOP]

It was money well spent! If you told me last year that a show based on a video game could be this amazing, I would never have believed you. Plus I was a little suspect that the show might just be fujoshi fodder for reki-jo (history girls). Instead, I found Sengoku Basara to be super high budget fun that anyone could enjoy.

As a nerd, I don't think history needs to be made cool by adding flashy designs, and to my eyes, samurai were snappy dressers to begin with. So at first glance, Basara looks like overkill. Set in the Sengoku era (aka the Warring States period of Japan), the various major players have anachronistic touches incorporated into their already ornate uniforms. Date Masamune, the "One Eyed Dragon" has motorcycle handlebars on his horse, for example (and he doesn't even need them!). It's quickly obvious that overkill is the whole point, and the handlebars suddenly seem entirely appropriate. This is history turned up to 11.

The series jumps right into a load of backstory that Japanese people would probably know from school, but had me searching Wikipedia. In real life, Oda Nobunaga was a military leader who began to unify Japan. In Basara, Nobunaga is the evil “Devil King” who other warlords are slowly banding together to stop. Although many of the battles are based on real history, not all of the outcomes are the same. This allows Basara to be much cooler than your average Civil War reenactment.

All of the warlords have animal symbols, nicknames, and a weapons specialty, which makes it easier to keep them straight (I have a hard time remembering Japanese names (or any names at all, frankly)). They introduce themselves with little corny battle speeches in the first episode as the camera pans over a map. Honestly, if I hadn't traveled through Japan, I'd find the show even more confusing. Having some idea of where Odawara is located compared to Tokyo added to my enjoyment of the show.

Much of the series focuses on Sanada Yukimura, a dual spear-wielding young man who serves Lord Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai, with the same kind of over-the-top manly loyalty that Rock Lee has for Guy-sensei in Naruto. Unlike that ridiculous duo, Yukimura and Shingen express their affection viscerally, exchanging comically manly punches that send each other through walls with no apparent injury. Yukimura soon encounters Matsumune, they fight to a draw, and thus is born a rivalry for the ages. At first I wasn't sure how to react to such flamboyant displays of testosterone, but it only took one episode to win me over.

This is the highest budget show I've seen in a while (probably higher than Xam'd). No expense has been spared to bring the viewer cavalry battles over lush countryside. Even the lavish costumes are never off model. The soundtrack features a lot of inspirational Japanese drumming, so much so that I wanted to buy the OST immediately.

The dub is excellent. Chris Ayres sounds especially manly as the Tiger of Kai. (That was Chris Ayres?!) That said, I'm confident the Japanese cast reads like a who's who of male seiyuu.

I only have two complaints. Firstly, the military strategy can be a tad hard to follow. The show goes to some length to explain the battle tactics, with maps and arrows and all, but I was occasionally befuddled. For all the strategy talk, Basara is never dull for more than a minute before another energetic manly punch is thrown. Secondly, the limited-animation chibi extras are nigh on unwatchable. They just aren't funny.

By the way, Basara isn't just pretty faces for fangirls, there's also a female ninja with a low-cut physics-defying cat suit. Truly, something for everybody.[TOP]