- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: TV-14 (V)
- Run Time: 650 Mins.
- Discs: 3 (3 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Sentai Filmworks
- Blu-ray Release Date: February 7, 2012
- List Price: $89.98
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BestBuy.com
Purchase XAM’d — Lost Memories: Complete Collection on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for More Blu-ray Titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:3/5]
The only conclusion I can reach after watching all 26 episodes of XAM’D is what wasted potential. A sweeping anime series that combines elements of sci-fi, mecha, and fantasy, with perhaps a nod to television’s Firefly, the series is awash in vast worlds, numerous characters and open-ended dramatic development. An anti-war drama centered around an independent postal ship caught in the middle of all the fighting and a young man, Aiyuki, who is implanted with the soul of a mystical beast known as a XAM’D. He must learn how to control the beast within him, with the help of a girl named Nakiami or turn to stone.
The issue with XAM’D is there are so many characters and so much inference of war going on, but the viewer never gets a clear picture of the background behind it all and a total development of each character’s back story. As a result, by a third of the way through this series, it is easy to become very lost in the numerous subplots, some of them seeming very disconnected at times from the starting point. In fact, the most compelling story was when Aiyuki after first being turned into a XAM’D was trying to get back to his girlfriend Haru. After that, all really collapses into disarray.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
While this is a generally acceptable AVC 1080p transfer, it is one of the weaker transfers for a series I have come across for Sentai Filmworks in recent memory. There is an element of softness that generally plagues the overall image and definite instances of motion artifacts and aliasing around the line art that crop up periodically.
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
The audio mix is vastly superior, be it the original Japanese track or the English dub, both of these lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) mixes surround the listener in an active sound-world. It is ambient and dynamic, often voices move from directly behind you and pan forward into the center channel. Sounds move off to the far sides or into the surrounds. Low frequencies are deep and resonant without being overpowering. The Japanese track has a slight advantage with having fuller sounding dialogue, but both offer clean dialogue without any clipping.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
There is nothing special here in the way of commentaries, featurettes or OVAs, only clean opening and closing animations, disc credits and additional Sentai Filmworks trailers.
The supplements:
- Original On-Air Opening Animations
- Clean Closing Animations
- Original On-Air Closing Animations
- Disc Credits
- Also Available from Sentai Filmworks
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Too many holes, unanswered questions and undeveloped characters leave this potential filled series wanting and one of the weaker ones to come along in while. It’s too bad, really, because XAM’D could have been a welcome change from the usual genre fillers.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B0066O10DK[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com
Purchase XAM’d — Lost Memories: Complete Collection on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for More Blu-ray Titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
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