We just finished this series last night so I wanted to write up a review while it's still fresh...

From the first episode, I could tell this was a quality release. The animation, soundtrack, dialogue: they're all well constructed and well thought out. Something about the series made me *want* to like it even if it turned out poorly. Fortunately I can say it didn't.

The series is quite unique from my experience. The world that we're shown is different than any other I've seen in an anime and at times seemed quite complex. The story moves slowly but surely toward conclusion and although there are conflicts and battles, it is the emotions of the characters that pull you forward. Each episode was well-crafted and reveals just a piece of the story, enough to make you want to watch 'just one more'. I didn't feel like it contained any filler episodes whatsoever. For me this is a huge plus as the storyline, by the conclusion, felt well-rounded and complete, if somewhat abrupt toward the ending...

The abruptness of the ending would be about the only negative aspect of this anime. Although I felt like the various character's storylines as well as the primary story itself were wrapped up neatly, it was a little difficult to understand some details in the final episodes and the ending itself, while bittersweet (in a good way), felt like it could have used a little more 'fleshing out'.

Overall, this was an excellent anime and will be a permanent addition to my library. The quality of this release is just far too good to pass up. I'm not a huge fan of the bittersweet endings of some anime but the conclusion was positive enough that it left a happy, if somewhat painful, feeling in my heart at the end.

BTW: I watched a dual-audio version (not available currently from this site) and can say that the Japanese VA was much better. The subs of the version I saw were from the blu-ray rip and were very well done. (show less)

Bounen no Xamdou is like the combination of all great animes that ever existed, and what comes out is a brilliant refreshing story, awesome characters and an epic opening theme song. The show jumps to the beat of all that is awesome telling the tale of a few characters caught in a war between two powerful opposing fronts. The mecha are original and fascinating and the main character has a uniqueness that caught my attention from the word GO. It starts out when the main character's peacefull little home town is attacked by terrorists, the battle that ensues is awe-inspiring and the creatures are bizarre in every way. The anime features two co-inciding story's after the attack, this shows us two perspectives and wonderfully links every character to form the plot think 6-degrees of seperation (Every one is a friend of a friend). At the beginning we know exactly who the bad guys are but as the story continues every one turns out ot be fighting for their own good reasons. It is a wonderfull anime and nobody will regret watching. The sound track is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G the tunes keep the flow going and help the story progress, the beat to the show is fast and every episode contains something new. In one sentence Bounen no Xamdou is an explosion of entertainment. I have never seen anything like it before and I bet neither have you! (show less)