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Summary:
Following Akiyuki’s trail, Nakiami finds his backpack in Zuizo’s home, but there’s no one actually around. He, Zuizo, and Kio are already on their way to Tsumebara Pass, and first they have to pass through a harbor town where Akiyuki notices that there’s a Sentan Island ship docked. Disembarking from that ship are Haru and Furuichi as part of a group tasked with searching for a missing ASP squad. Coming with them is a special Ongoro-User who can help detect Humanform weapons, but Furuichi doesn’t trust him because he thinks the guy is a Humanform user. Once they’re inside the mines at Tsumebara Pass, Haru starts talking about the families waiting for the missing Mainsouls, and that in turn causes Furuichi to wonder if she’s still waiting for Akiyuki. He then leaves Haru at a tunnel junction and tells her to stay there since she likes waiting so much. Back outside, Akiyuki learns that Kio harbors a grudge against the Humanform Hunters for killing her mother and for abandoning the town. He decides to entrust Roppa with her while he heads towards the mines, and before Akiyuki goes, Zuizo warns him that whoever he’s meeting might betray him once they see his arm. Akiyuki, however, is confident that Haru is different from other people.
Meanwhile, Haru is on her own walking through a tunnel and happens to trip over the arm of an ASP suit. She has just located one of the missing suits, but the Mainsoul pilot is nowhere to be found. Furuichi rejoins her and helps open the cockpit, and inside they find flowers growing everywhere. Right as they are thinking that the Mainsoul could still be alive, a Humanform weapon suddenly appears behind them. Haru realizes that this is actually the Mainsoul because the creature is still wearing military boots, and she tries to talk to it, but Furuichi resorts to shooting it. He makes Haru run away while he tries to keep the Humanform weapon at bay, so she dashes all the way out of the mines. At the entrance, she is surprised to see Akiyuki running towards her from across the bridge, and the two meet at the middle. Their reunion is cut short though after Akiyuki notices the Humanform weapon that had followed Haru out of the mines, and he manages to protect her from its attack. Akiyuki has no choice but to unleash his arm when the Humanform weapon subsequently charges at them, and he turns it completely to stone in one strike.
A slightly injured Furuichi emerges from the mines right as Akiyuki is finishing off the Humanform weapon, and although he’s initially surprised, Furuichi points his rifle at his old friend because he now realizes that the Xam’d on that bus back then was Akiyuki. When Furuichi accuses Akiyuki of no longer being human and instead being the friend of monsters, Akiyuki claims that he’s still himself and that Furuichi is the one who’s changed. Furuichi counters by questioning why Akiyuki abandoned their island, and he blames Akiyuki for letting that Northern refugee onto the bus. He wants Akiyuki to return to the island and surrender to the Far East Autonomy, but Akiyuki refuses, and that just pisses off Furuichi more. Before Furuichi can shoot Akiyuki though, the body of the defeated Humanform weapon suddenly explodes, destroying the middle of the bridge and leaving a large gap between the two sides. Another Xam’d then appears and pins Furuichi to the ground, and that gives Akiyuki the opportunity to escape. Haru tries to stop him so that she can give him back his armband, but by this point, it’s already too late. Before he disappears as well, the other Xam’d changes back into his human form and tells Furuichi that failing to value the lives of others cheapens your own life.
Furuichi and Haru return to the military ship sometime later, and Furuichi goes directly to Kakisu to tell him about what happened. He identifies one of the Xam’d as Akiyuki and refers to him as someone who used to be his friend. Haru, on the other hand, gets slapped by their commander for acting on her own. In town, Nakiami finds Kio, Zuizo, and Roppa, the latter of whom leads her to the injured Akiyuki. She helps rewrap his arm, and afterwards, Zuizo tells Akiyuki that they have to live. Zuizo also reveals that Kio isn’t his real daughter – he had only saved her after her mother was attacked – but Akiyuki had already figured this out. Before she departs with Akiyuki, Nakiami gives Kio some medicine for her father’s arm. She and Akiyuki eventually make it back to the Zanbani later that night, and the ship launches immediately thereafter because there are Northern ships coming. Unbeknownst to the crew, the same man who saved Akiyuki earlier is now barreling towards the ship on a motorbike, and he barely manages to make the jump onto the ship’s open hanger before it takes off. The crash attracts Akiyuki and the children, and they recognize the man to be none other than Raigyo.
Preview
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Now that was a good episode. I loved the music again, but the plot and characters are what’s really shining. This was the first meeting of the two sides of the story (definitely not the last), and I really enjoyed it despite Furuichi acting like a total asshole the entire time. I hope Haru has nothing more to do with him after all this, but I suspect Furuichi’s character is being set up this way to be redeemed again later. In any case, the surprise of the episode was the sudden appearance of Raigyo (voiced by Fujiwara Keiji), and he got all the cool scenes like leaping onto Furuichi and doing that crazy bike jump onto the Zanbani at the very end. My initial impression of him was that he’d be like a fatherly/mentor figure for Akiyuki, but the preview seems to imply that Akiyuki won’t be so happy that he’s back. Regardless, having another Xam’d around should be interesting, especially since he supposedly went crazy/berserk in the past…
wow
so far looks good, will be better when i watch it tomorrow, and who that cheerful little boy?
God, Glasses boy needs to get trashed and then die. Seriously, asshole doesn’t even cut it. Akiyuki needs to get a handle on his power like Raiygo has and then go kick Fus stupid ass all up and down the island.
Whose Raiygo ? O_O
@ Endz
Raiygo is the father from the last episode, and yes I agree with GP Akiyuki needs to have control over his power.
Wow, Raiygo pwns 😀
Raigyo’s xam’d looks badass
A very good episode. I especially liked the part where Akiyuki and Haru met and Furoichi gets to be a “stupid a**”. After seeing this episode I am not really sure where the story will be going, at least in the immediate future. After this episode i’ll bet things will get boring for a little while. I just hope I am wrong cuz this seems to be a pattern with other animes but I guess the boring episodes are what makes us appreciate episodes like these even more. So far I m totally hooked to this show.
Raigyo is not the father. The father is Zuizo.
Raigyo is the previous Xam’d that Nakiami worked with, the one who supposedly went berserk. See the end of episode three.
Furuichi is turning asshole, as predicted. What’s that green gem stuff all about ?
I have this feeling “Raigyo” will die along the way in the series. Given the ED – Seems he was a soldier ( blood on his hands…. ), hence his statements to “Furuichi” sort of like “Been there, done that” kinda thing.
Glasses boy – “Furuichi” is gonna be there for the long haul, just to annoy us all.
He’s always been bested in everything else by Haru and Akiyuki, so perhaps he thinks he can climb the military ladder now.
My bad i must have bad memory or something, i figured out who the little boy, i mean the girl was….
HARU AND AKIYUKI SHOUL GET TOGETHER AT THE END!!
I think they should’ve given Furuichi more reason to hate xam’d and humanforms, of course they’ve had the humanforms destroy their hometown and all, along with many of their friends dying, but I don’t think that was enough to “change” him to the point of drawing a gun on Akiyuki, but whatever… I think if they had someone of his family killed in the initial attack (mother, father, or sibling) then that would’ve actually given him a good reason for him to be the ‘hated’ character of the cast but still this is an incredible anime…
DARAMADOC4U
They don’t give him more reason other than his bitter/jealouy over haru and Akiyuki so that you can hate him I think. Why give him any sort of “good” reason to hate Xam’d and humanforms? If they do that, then we’d, or most, would feel sorry for him and so forth.
Not having one and just being an asshole to Akiyuki for still being alive of all things is enough for us to hate him with a passion. Like any good antagonist should be, hated with a passion!
Now, I really want a Akiyuki x Haru ending. Episode 7 and now 8 back up the idea that she’ll play a bigger role in the overall plot (she can hear Xam’d voices and also see things others can’t), so this bodes well for a Haru ending.
I think that if by episode 12-14, if we don’t get any sorta “romantic” development with Akiyuki and Nakiami then we probably never will. This doesn’t mean I hate Nakiami, but to have her end with the main character is cliche and has been done to death countless times.
amazing episode. Was definitely worth sitting through those few boring ones.
GAHH!!! GOO HARU X AKIYUKI!! To meet again just because she always believed in him is touching. And I wonder why Nakiami and Raigyo both tell Haru that Akiyuki is “Your Xamdou”? Maybe there’s something more to Haru and Akiyuki than meets the eye.
Funny thing is 8 episodes in, and Akiyuki’s full Xamd mode is only shown once.
@GP: I feel more inclined to think that Nakiami and Raigyo already had a thing together before he left, and Akiyuki is just a friend and a Xamdou that she helps, nothing more.
awesome, now they have set up Hari as a perfect death bait character.
We only need Furuichi to kill her out of RAGE or when his XAM (which he probably will get one sometimes) went berserk.
Then we will have Akiyuki vs. Furuichi Xam’d battle. Then Nakiami will get to beat the crap out of both of them.
@Unkinstreet
Nah, I don’t see any hints at Nakiami x Raigyo. If anything I believe (as the preview to 9 shows) that he’s probably got more to do with the Captain.
Anyone else think that the overall animation quality took a slight dip this episode (except when the action rolled around)? Just a small complaint as the character interaction more than made up for it.
Still, Furuichi’s jealousy seemed a bit contrived even from the start (it’s not like he was sending out signals that he was interested in Haru at the beginning), and his willingness to point a gun at Akiyuki just seems way forced here. I agree that if Furuichi had suffered a more personal loss during the attack (like the girl classmate did), his actions would be justified. His betrayal of Akiyuki to the Commander just solidifies Furuichi’s fate as the rival, I guess.
I’m not sure where they’re going with Raigyo’s return to the ship. Just feels way too fast for this plot twist to occur so early in the series (I expected mid-way through, at least), but this show continues to surprise me. All the female crew members seem quite taken with him, haha (even Nakiami with her poker face). It’ll be interesting to see if Akiyuki learns anything new to control his Xam’d powers with him around to act as teacher. Aside from his arm, Akiyuki hasn’t gone full Xam’d since the start of the show so maybe this will speed his training along. Who better to teach him than Raigyo (his alternate form is pretty neat though what’s with all the water?).
Raiygo ftw…
and Furuichi can just go to hell.
What I think is going to happen is that with Raigyo returning, Akiyuki is going to see him perform all the jobs he has up until now. Raigyo will do it better and Akiyuki will get jealous, realizing that he actually liked being needed, even if all the stuff he did was mundane.
Then Raigyo will level with him and become some sort of mentor and help Akiyuki actually communicate with his Xam’d. Then they’ll be all, best buddy-like. We could also see some NakiamixAkiyuki going on during that time as well.
Ultimately, somehow Raigyo is going to be killed off, possibly by a full-suited ASP Furuichi will kill him causing a rift between Furuichi and Akiyuki to be unresolvable. Haru will be caught in the middle, and will have to make her decision. Either that or replace Raigyo with Haru, who was willing to help Akiyuki and Furuichi kills her.
I don’t know, really. Xam’d just keeps throwing surprises at me, though I’m happy with its refreshing story. They really could take this anime ANYWHERE.
Also, the reason they didn’t give Furuichi a reason to hate, or at least a justifiable one, is that they may want him to be a non-redeemable assmuncher. I mean, like he said, Human-forms killed their friends and wrecked their town. He has enough reason to hate them, though not on a personal level. Once he saw Akiyuki as a human-form, there was no point in holding back. Akiyuki became synonymous with the humanforms.
People are complaining Furuichi doesn’t have a good enough reason to hate. Maybe thats the point?
I really like this episode plotwise, but was it just me, or did the animation style/quality drop this week?
lol doing a barrel roll always works… ALWAYS!