Summary:

As the Sentan Island military forces fire at the giant test-type Xam’d, Haru hears a woman’s voice come from it saying that it wants to live, just like Akiyuki had done. Haru and Furuichi’s ASP Suits have now been equipped with guns, and they pursue the Xam’d, but Haru doesn’t follow the others when they fly over water to catch up. Instead, she tries to tell the others that the Xam’d isn’t doing anything, and she watches as the baby Xam’d creates a shield to protect its mother. Haru then sees a tower in the distance with a large eye on top, but when she tries to tell Furuichi, he has no idea what she’s talking about because he can’t see it. When the Xam’d sprouts large wings of light in preparation to fly away, Furuichi won’t let it and shoots it until its body becomes covered in stone. In the aftermath, Prois takes Haru home. When Haru brings up how the Xam’d was pregnant, Prois doesn’t think much of it and instead points out that the Xam’d are like Humanform weapons, except with more killing power.

Meanwhile, onboard the Zanbani, Akiyuki receives the pile of letters that Haru sent him. In them, she wonders where Akiyuki is and talks about how time has stopped for her ever since he left. Haru also mentions how his parents are waiting for him to come back home and how she’s trying to join the military so that she can get off the island. As part of this, she’ll be at Tsumebara Pass in a few days, and she asks Akiyuki to meet her there. Haru closes out the letter by revealing that she still has his armband, and she expresses her desire to see him soon. Because of this letter, Akiyuki goes and asks Ishu to let him use the Beat Kayak to go to the Tsumebara Pass. Ishu doesn’t care what he does, but she refuses to let him have the Beat Kayak and suggests that he thank Nakiami before he leaves. Unlike Ishu, Nakiami initially opposes the idea, however she eventually decides to let Akiyuki go on the condition that he take Roppa with him. Before he parachutes down, she also advises him that the Hiruko likes his heart to be independent, that he should live alongside others, and that he shouldn’t forget what Tenshin said.

The wind carries Akiyuki off-target, but he still finds his way and proceeds through a forest. When Akiyuki comes across a rock structure that’s shaped like a Humanform weapon, Roppa notices and snarls at a man nearby. Akiyuki tries to ask this man about a possible shortcut, but the man reacts fearfully to the mention of the Tsumebara Pass and transforms into a Humanform weapon. It charges at Akiyuki, so he releases his right arm and slices off his opponents’ arm. Despite this, he tries to reason with the Humanform weapon, but it charges at him again, and this time it’s brought down by a bullet. The shooter is an older man who is accompanied by his daughter, and she returns Akiyuki’s arm to its normal form after noting that it’s worse than her fathers. The man – whose name is Zuizo – reveals that his daughter Kio was the one who wanted to save Akiyuki because she didn’t want people killing each other in front of her mother’s grave. The two of them end up taking Akiyuki in for the night, and Kio explains that people in the area started turning into Humanform weapons after an attack by the North recently. Zuizo and his wife were both affected, but Zuizo isn’t a Humanform weapon yet.

Meanwhile, Haru and Furuichi have headed out via an airship to the Tsumebara Pass with the mission to search for a missing ASP Squad. As he’s walking through the ASP Suit hanger that night, Furuichi finds Haru staring out of a window with Akiyuki’s armband in her hand. Back on the Zanbani, Nakiami has noticed that the tracker that was put on Roppa has stopped responding, and since she’s worried that something happened, she decides to set out in the Beat Kayak in order to bring Akiyuki and Roppa back .

Preview

The battle with the Xam’d didn’t quite turn out how I expected (it was rather one-sided), but I came away from it with a few observations. One is that Haru is apparently special in some way since she could see the tower with the eye in the distance, but Furuichi couldn’t. Another is that the writers/director are really trying to drive home the point that Xam’d are very human still – even showing this one as pregnant – and Haru will be one of the voices opposing violence against them. In contrast, it looks like Furuichi will be ruthless against the Xam’d and will likely oppose Haru being reunited with Akiyuki once he realizes that Akiyuki isn’t completely human anymore. This should also fall in line with what all the pent-up emotions from seeing Haru carrying that armband everywhere, and he might even try to kill Akiyuki as the preview for next week implies. Speaking of which, maybe next episode will finally reveal how the North is turning people into Humanform weapons.

On a different note, now that Haru’s letters have reached Akiyuki, it finally occurred to me that the girl at the beginning of the OP is her since she’s throwing a letter that Akiyuki catches at the end. Unfortunately, that also probably means she’ll remain separated from Akiyuki and that she’ll cut her hair at some point. 🙁

26 Comments

  1. I guess all three were affected by the blast, I would not be surprised id Furuichi ends up being Xam’d.

    And yes, Haru is special … she could hear Akiyuki Xam’d, I think it might be interresting seeing how Nakiami will deal with it.

    Drakron
  2. On a different note, now that Haru’s letters have reached Akiyuki, it finally occurred to me that the girl at the beginning of the OP is her since she’s throwing a letter that Akiyuki catches at the end. Unfortunately, that also means she’ll remain separated from Akiyuki and that she’ll probably cut her hair at some point.

    I thought of that too but doesn’t the girl (in the OP) sport a different hair color? I thought it was a little lighter than Haru’s

    deadguy
  3. “On a different note, now that Haru’s letters have reached Akiyuki, it finally occurred to me that the girl at the beginning of the OP is her since she’s throwing a letter that Akiyuki catches at the end. Unfortunately, that also means she’ll remain separated from Akiyuki and that she’ll probably cut her hair at some point.”

    I figured it was Haru about 2 eps ago. I also thought that she cut her hair until my brother pointed out that she’s wearing a helmet which could also explain the shortness as seen with this SS :https://randomc.net/image/Xam%27d%20Lost%20Memories/Xam%27d%20Lost%20Memories%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2006.jpg. Who knows maybe she will maybe she won’t (I’m hoping not)

    zeromax
  4. I just watched all seven episodes today. Nice show, but I hope it doesnt turn out like Darker than BLACK (another BONES anime) where it introduces great characters and interesting plot points, yet leaves them all unanswered come the final episode.

    Damian
  5. I’m curious if there are more reasons that Roppa was sent with Akiyuki- he can obviously sense Humanforms but there must be more to it than that…
    Am I the only one that thinks Prois knows that Haru can recognize Humanforms on a deeper level and she’s trying to keep Haru from discovering anything else?

    Sayna
  6. @nyaa~~
    They mean at the very beginning of the op (around 00:09 if the episode starts with the directly with the op)
    You can see a young woman with short brown hair wearing a soldiers uniform closing and trowing a letter.

    Kyral
  7. @Sayna: Perhaps Roppa can help Akiyuki gain control of his Xam’d should he ever lose control of it.
    The plotline is getting more interesting but like Omni, I feel that the action scenes are a little too undramatic.

    harby
  8. After seeing moar of this, I’m thinking that Akiyuki and Nakiami are more like brother/sister or mother/son. I was thinking that they would later get more romantically involved but after seeing this episode. I doubt it. probably be akiyuki and haru in the end.

    Marvin
  9. The fight with the Xam’d was kind of a let down in that Haru didn’t really do anything aside from refuse to fight when she realized the Xam’d (and its child) were once human (still the right decision, but I was expecting Haru to be all badass with her ASP mecha).

    I and a few others here had already figured the soldier girl in the OP was Haru from around episode 2-3. 🙂 She probably does have a helmet, cap and/or wearing her hair in a bun (like Prois) since we don’t actually see the top half of her head in the OP.

    https://randomc.net/image/Xam'd%20Lost%20Memories/Xam'd%20Lost%20Memories%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2019.jpg

    This scene made me smile. Not sure where Akiyuki and Nakiami’s relationship will be headed, but hopefully her aloofness will soften and she opens up the more time they spend together, and from there, who knows?

    And what’s up with coldly-matter-of-fact girl (the black haired kid) toward the end? That job already belongs to Nakiami! 😛

    As for Furuichi, figures he’d end up as somewhat of a rival to Akiyuki. Why are the “rivals” to the protagonists in a lot of anime shows always seem to wear glasses? (Bleach’a Uruyu, Hellsing’s Anderson, etc.).

    https://randomc.net/image/Xam'd%20Lost%20Memories/Xam'd%20Lost%20Memories%20-%2007%20-%20Large%20Preview%2001.jpg

    Looks like Haru has a FAMAS (French) rifle in this shot. And some of the soldiers featured in earlier episodes have STEN (British) style guns with the horizontal magazine. The old-timer Xam’d guy looks like he has a Springfield rifle. Just some interesting things I noticed.

    Reiter
  10. Really nice episode in my opinion. I especially like the way they are building the long distance relationship between Haru and Akiyuki. Nakiami and Akiyuki’s relationship also seems to be progressing. Was it just me or did Nakiami showed some awkward vibes when she bumped heads with Akiyuki (not so much from him though). The way she looked at him all wide eyed as if she was seeing him for the first time. Anyways i hope the rumors about Haru cutting her hair is not true even though I am one of those that belives its gonna happen. I gues its just wishful thinking on my part. Lets hope they meet (Haru and AKiyuki) or atleast get a glimpse of each other in the next episode (I seriously doubt thats going to happen though).

    hawkeye
  11. Love the episode… I too think thats haru at the very begining… and that she will cut her hair. As to why she cuts it thats a puzzle to me… maybe something tramatic will happen to her or someone she knows (hopefully no one will die) What im more curious about is who this star is they mention in the preview… is it xam’d or someone even more important???

    Persona0
  12. @Chris
    I think it was mentioned (during the scene with the meeting between the military and civilian officials) that the white haired girl (Nazuma, I think her name was) died in the hospital from her injuries so I don’t think we’ll be seeing her again. But her white-haired brothers and sisters (the disguised bird-beaked-“lifestealers”) will most likely show up sooner or later.

    Now that it’s mentioned, it is strange that Prois would offer Haru a ride home and take a personal interest in her (and not for just the fact that Haru is the only girl in her ASP training unit). Maybe Prois does realize that Haru can hear Xam’d voices and see the tower with the eye (Sauron vibes there, heh) and so, is keeping a closer watch on Haru.

    Reiter
  13. With Kio, there are now three characters with sky-blue eyes that can hear the will of the Xam’d and/or quell the Hiruko to return a Xam’d to human form; Haru has demonstrated on two occasions that she can hear the Xam’d, Kio returned Akiyuki’s arm to normal, and Nakiami has done both. It seems like a good bet that eye color is an indicator for people having some sort of spiritual connection to Xam’d and Humaniforms…

    Alhazred23

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