Anime Slipstream: A magnificent anime blend of epic proportions

I don't often say this, but "Xam'd: Lost Memories" is possibly the greatest new anime known to man.

"Xam'd" is easily one of the most beautiful robot action shows I've ever seen. Anime fans can easily attribute the show's success to Bones, the anime studio who worked on this series. The director also worked on a well-received series, known as "Eureka Seven". This show turned a love story between two teenagers into a strong message of protecting the environment.

The new show, "Xam'd", is a wonderful marriage between the visuals of "Eureka Seven" and a Hayao Miyazaki film. Both sport an urgent message to protect the environment. Both feature violent robots. Both pieces of animation are truly inspirational.

At first, the series follows the ordinary life of a high school boy named Akiyuki. The show covers his day-to-day routine with his parents, both divorced. After following a hectic schedule, he arrives just in time to meet his friends, Haru and Furuichi. Together, they board a school bus for the class field trip to Sentan Island.

As he is about to board the bus, Akiyuki notices that a shy young girl in rags is in line to get on. He manages to trick a police officer into giving this girl permission to board. Once he leaves the bus, though, his life takes a sudden turn for the worse.

The girl is actually a suicide bomber who detonates herself in the bus. After a devastating explosion, Akiyuki tries to talk to the dying girl, whose belly is bleeding with green liquid. The youngster apologizes before implanting a gem inside his forehead. The gem transforms Akiyuki's entire body into a white robot monster.

The next episode is a sheer masterpiece of otherworldly proportions. Akiyuki's best friend, Haru, desperately tries to help her mutated friend as he defeats another gigantic cyborg creature who dropped down from the sky.

Although Akiyuki is still tormented, he still recognizes Haru as the only friend who remembers him. A mysterious young woman also flies in to calm Akiyuki and to help bring him back to his human form.

Haru collapses out of exhaustion, as the woman takes the boy away. It's such a surreal scene. Yet, the animation is so fluid and smooth that we can't help but believe in it.

This show is a melting pot of the lost emotions and pain that we all hid throughout the Iraq War. Whatever the case, it is one of the most powerful anime series from Japan, because it all feels so real to us.

I admit that the story is a little bare bones. The hectic dialogue often takes a back seat to all the robot fights in the show. However, it looks incredibly beautiful and well animated. "Xam'd" is a conflicting love story. It forces this relationship onto you in the midst of dangerous terrorism and biological weaponjs. In spite of all this destruction, Haru still holds a close relationship with the creature boy, even when he leaves the battlefield.

As noted on the Anime News Network, "Xam'd" originally debuted on the Playstation Network at E3 in 2008. It's received plenty of exposure in Japan. Hopefully some American broadcasters will consider airing this show, because it is amazing to watch.

However, I'm a little hesitant to say that this is one of the best action series ever made. Anime reviewers often commented that the story ends too abruptly with stories that remain unresolve. Still, if you were a big fan of "Eureka Seven," I guarantee that you have to at least watch the first two episodes. "Xam'd" literally grips your interest like a vice.

The show is available to watch on The Anime Network. You can buy this series at amazon.com.

Images courtesy of photobucket.com

Movie review: Eureka Seven movie soars to imaginative heights

The new "Eureka Seven" movie is filled with baffling transformations and provocative twists, but the ending is breathtaking.

For anyone who hasn't seen the series, the plot of "Eureka Seven" centers around two teenagers, Renton and Eureka, who team up with the rebel group Gekkostate to save the world from being destroyed. The movie, however, places these characters in an alternate universe, with most of them having completely different attitudes.

The film opens with the military capturing Eureka, an innocent alien girl and childhood friend of Renton. Fortunately, the military left Renton's cute larvae animal, Nirvash. The animal grows into a humongous robot, which Renton uses to fight as a corporal in the military. However, when Renton discovers Eureka in a gigantic alien Eizo, he discovers a boatload of military conspiracies.

Although it's a little difficult to follow all the plotlines in the film, "Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers" will definitely confound longtime fans of the original series. All the characters from the original series are so different in the film, thanks to some particularly shocking plot twists. For starters, all the old members of Gekkostate are actually 17-year-olds in the bodies of rapidly aging adults.

This is the most stunning transformation in the movie, turning the laidback Gekkostate members from laid-back surfers in the TV series to angry adults who want to stop all time permanantly with the help of Renton and Eureka.

People may have a tough time imagining the Gekkostate leader, Holland, as a snotty, bratty villain. However, considering how often he beat up Renton in the TV series, this change is completely understandable.

There are plenty of awkward dubs. Some parents may cringe when the teenage Eureka asks Renton if they could sleep together, just as they did when they were kids. Some of the script lines are just as strange. No one would even expect the world of Neverland to get mentioned in a film that has more to do with flashy visuals and science mumbo-jumbo.

Despite the oddity of the entire film, it all makes sense somehow. Renton and Eureka learn to love each other, no matter who tries to join them in their sadistic, violent plots. Best of all, Eureka learns to let go of her selfish attitude in order to help Renton live. "Eureka Seven" is a masterpiece in demonstrating how cooperative love can look so damned beautiful on the big screen.

Best of all, Johnny Yong Bosch gives possibly his best voice acting performance as Renton. Fans have sometimes cringed during the first few episodes of the English dub of "Eureka Seven," when he spoke in a horrible, over-feminine voice with no aggression. In "Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers," Bosch projects all his dramatic lines with breathtaking power and emotion.

The ending, to say the least, is a visual feast for the eyes. It's a heartwarming love tale, about a renewal of love over the reign of destruction and chaos. True, "Ponyo" was more refined than "Eureka Seven." However, no relationship is more compassionate than the one between Renton and Eureka.

Image courtesy of eurekasevenmovie.bandai-ent.com