Bonen/Bounen (亡念) no (の) Xam’d/Xamdou (ザムド) / Xam’d: Lost Memories?

(I’ve not really decided what to call / how to spell this show)

So it’s between this and Birdy the Mighty Decode (which I still haven’t watched an episode off. I had the first episode streamed the other day but my computer died. I took it as some kind of sign) as my Nijuu Mensou no Musume of this season i.e. “BONES show which I decide to start watching last minute (which eventually turns out to be one of my favourites from the season?)”. Of course I could end up watching both, then again, I could’ve watched both Chiko and Soul Eater…

Is it just me, or is “teenager transforming into humanoid fighting machine” the new “teenager piloting giant mecha robot“?

Anyways, what did BnX’s (shortest way for me to call it) first episode had going for it? For one, it’s the only show I’ve sampled this season that quite directly reached out of the screen and said “WATCH ME“. Maybe it’s because the shows on my watchlist now are all laidback-enjoy-as-they-come shows, but that was generally the impression I got from this episode around the moment SHUT UP AND EXPLODE started playing (best OP title this season, whether or not you like the song).

The setting is all sorts of alternate reality/sci-fi/RPG-mystique (yea, I’m having huge trouble trying to describe it) and the first episode did a great job at NOT explaining any of the flying contraptions(?)/ mysterious cults(?)/ postal workers(?)/ war setting(?)/ everything else in it. Kinda like Darker Than Black all over again where the viewers are left to feel out the details by themselves through the characters and their interactions as opposed to having the protagonist have out of place monologues feeding us explanations (ironically, I noticed he speaks a lot to himself, just in a “Oh shi- I’m gonna be late for school” kind of way). People will either start bitching about this show being confusing or be forced to shut up and explode watch it as it is.

Though it seems the story will be about “school kid gaining power to stop the war(?)/save the world(?)”, there’s enough ‘WOW factor’ in this episode that warrants me putting this on my ‘lazy Summer watchlist’ as I’ve been calling it up to now… Or I could just wait till next season when (so I’ve read) this show officially airs on TV or something so that I don’t have to feel bad about watching it despite not owning a PS3 nor paying for it (uh-oh, morality issues)