XAM'D Lost Memories Collection 1 [Blu-ray]

Xam'd is is a mecha, action/ adventure series and whilst not perfect, it can certainly sit up there on a pretty gold pedastool with the best of the genre.

The first thing youll notice about Xam'd is how stunning the animation can be. I really was blown away by its detail and natural flowing feel... the action is fantastic and everything really comes together nicely appearence wise.
The second thing youll probably notice is how generic the main character is... dont worry too much though, he has a fantastic set of suppoting characters to pick up the pieces.

Story wise this actually plays out like your standard man turning into monster flick... except instead of a monster its a freaky organic mecha... thing. Our main character spends most of this volume coming to terms with the fact that he has this Xam'd creature/ mecha inside of him and its quite interesting to see how various characters approach him and see him, especially his old school friends.

The main character... who's name I can't remember (oh dear) is pretty generic... he has this never give up attitude towards things, is a hard worker and is determined to overcome any obsticals. But as I mentioned at the begining of the review, its the supporting characters that really shine through in this series. A majourity of this 1st collection is set on a postal ship and all of the crew/ workers on board are majourly likeable and none are really all that steriotypical. And the characters that seem to be set up as eventually becoming the villians are strangly enough just as likeable as all the good guys.

This series seems to mostly be quite serious in tone but it does still have a nice sense of humor and nice welcoming feel to it for the most part. So things never seem too bleak.

This first set ends just as the story is really getting into the swing of things and youll be left begging for volume 2 I assure you.

The music seems just above average really. Only one track which cropps up twice in the anime so far really jumped out at me. But it must be said that I loved both the opening and closing songs (aswell as the animations that accompany them)

I've only watched the dubb so far for this release but I plan to watch the japanese track soon. The dubb is great, pretty much what youd expect I guess... not mind blowing but definatly great.

So... my one issue is the main character really... as I really don't care about him all that much, probably due to his very overused type of personality. Which, given the amount of anime I seem to be watching these days, is really beggining to grate on me. Luckily the supporting cast, animation, overall story and beutifully designed characters/ environments really do make this series something far above average.

This is the 3rd title I'm considering for my best purchase of 2011 (alongside "Casshern Sins" part one and "Birdy The Mighty" part one) and I would highly recommend that this set be picked up by any mecha and/ or action fans out there.

Thanks for reading.

When a young boy on peaceful island becomes the victim of a terroist attac, he transforms into xam'd, a powerful mecha capable of extreme power.Now he must discover the depth of his power and the role he plays in a world where metal and rock meet flesh, desire , and destiny. It's olso about a freind's betrayl. It's action.

The company who released the first volume, Manga Entertainment, have cancelled the project and at this point in time do not plan to release any further volumes.

I'd definitely recommend it as a show to watch, but there's not much point buying the blu-ray just for the first volume then having to downgrade to standard definition for the rest of the show.