Get Xor'd
When it comes to Xam'd: Lost Memories, I feel as if I am woefully lacking in comprehension. Maybe I'm just dazzled by all of the money thrown at the production. There is detail everywhere, but is money spent on a jig-saw puzzle with no solution money well spent?
Something that Xam'd excels at is in depicting a world engaged in total war. Bombed out villages, viciously kinetic violence, tranquil and tense landscapes as-yet scarred by battle, rationing and rampant inflation. As a road trip through the fantastic and the desolate Xam'd is in some sense similar to Wolf's Rain.
A lazy and aimless journey, like Wolf's Rain.
I once heard someone attempt to explain the exclusive or function by way of the following analogy: You can have coffee, you have tea, but you can't have both. Well you can have shock and awe, you can have sense, but you can't have both, at least when it comes to Xam'd.
Just one of many dangling pointers. Is it because her mother had a Hiruko? Why doesn't her sister have the same communicative abilities? Is this even relevant? What defines a Tamayobi anyway?
And what about Nakiami's childhood? What is a Hiruko, exactly? Memory? Alive? Both? Why do traumatic emotions turn people into Humanforms? Are the albino children all of the Sannova lineage? And on it goes. Some of these open questions are nice to know, others are critical to enriching what is currently a disjoint narrative.
Never far from my mind, is whether the subtitles are hindering comprehension of the original script, or if the script is really just "We have no idea what we're talking about here."
For what it's worth, I think the core narrative, if you can call it that, is tenuously intact. Below is a text dump of what the series does give us, interspersed with my own comments.
It's one giant text dump, hardly a serious attempt at documentation. But unless greater clarity emerges, documentation is going to be haphazard at best. Additions and corrections welcome, of course.
Origins
- The imperial line had only one real responsibility: consume the souls of those who made the Great Pilgrimage. [Sweet job, imo tbh nel.]
- Lady Sannova and her ancestors had the not so sweet responsibility of delivering imperials.
- In exchange, they were allowed to collect Hiruko and create Xam'd. In reality, it's just more work.
- Xam'd were originally meant to referee the process of, er, consumption.
About the Hiruko
- Contradicting statement: Hiruko are supposedly from the souls of pilgrims, so how can they be devoured by the emperor? Or is that just a lie.
- Hiruko are only ever shown extracted from dead mothers. [Evangelion much.]
About the Xam'd
- A Xam'd who loses their sense of self will be ruled by the Hiruko.
- A Xam'd who forgets their name, or has no name, will exist in limbo, neither fully human nor fully transformed.
- The original Xam'd used to mediate the sacrifice have had their Hiruko take over.
- Xam'd that fight the emperor maintain a balance between Hiruko and human mind. Akiyuki is able to completely merge with his Hiruko before battling the emperor.
- Xam'd can turn to stone if damage is inflicted, the transformation process fails, or the Hiruko rejects the human for abusing its power.
Eviction
Things changed when Lady Sannova delivered a still-born baby: the current Hiruken Emperor. She was subsequently exiled. The monks attempted to give life to the baby by injecting a Hiruko, turning the emperor into a quasi-Xam'd. Quasi because the emperor lacked an existing identity, and among other things, a will to live.
The emperor has been described on a few occasions as a void. The above is why.
Lady Sannova repurposed the Xam'd to fight the emperor, to "answer the scream in the void." [How?]
Series: Sentan Island raid
To create Xam'd, a "host" (Nazuna) ingests a Hiruko seed. The seed is released by detonating an explosive that rips the host open, if not apart. In the series, detonations take place in the vicinity of transportation: a bus, a subway, and a raft.
Why a certain geographical area is chosen, is not explained. Likewise, how the released seed chooses its individuals is not explained. Willing to overlook this bit of arbitrariness because it bootstraps the rest of the show.
Akiyuki is chosen by the seed. Because he demonstrated compassion, Nazuna, in a probable act of mercy, has the Hiruko take over immediately and convert Akiyuki into a complete Xam'd form. Normally, a person will undergo a slower transformation that, if unsuccessful, will eventually turn them into stone.
Furuichi is also chosen, but for whatever reason, the Hiruko lies dormant for a period of time. Also unexplained.
Since Xam'd are now supposed to struggle against the Hiruken emperor, Xam'd Akiyuki attacks a Humanform. The Hiruko takes complete control as Akiyuki loses his sense of self. Nakiami intervenes before he can turn to stone, knocks out both Akiyuki and Haru, and takes Akiyuki away for treatment aboard the Zanbani.
Series: Ambushes
While Xam'd fight to destroy or free Humanforms, Humanforms seek Xam'd for capture. For what purpose is unclear, but one possible theory is that the emperor is searching for a formidable opponent. The emperor seems to be aware of Xam'd when their Hiruko activates. This is evidenced by the fact that Haru experiences a vision of the Diamond Tower while observing the Test-type Xam'd in episode 8.
(In episode 12, Raigyo shows Benikawa the Diamond Tower as captured by his Spirit Camera.)
The emperor can do more than just observe from the Diamond Tower. After a failed attempt at capturing Akiyuki and Raigyo, Nakiami is assaulted by the emperor's spirit, dispersed among the corpses of the mini Humanforms. As a result, she makes the decision to go back to her home village of Tessik. Akiyuki accompanies her, but during a stop at Sentan Island are separated.
During a confrontation, Akiyuki morphs into Xam'd form but is ultimately unable to revert back to human form before forgetting his name. The consequence is that his face is covered by a Xam'd mask, that no one ever attempts to remove. Would have been a nice touch, trying and failing to take the mask off.
Found collapsed at the Sentan docks, human traffickers ship him into the north, where he is eventually bought by a widower in Amau. The emperor's spirit, in the form of a floating eye, keeps him company throughout his journey.
At this point in the series, Akiyuki and Raigyo are the Xam'd most in tune with their Hiruko. Raigyo's involvement with the rebels probably represents a barrier to achieving a perfect merger, which may be why the emperor's spirit chooses to follow Akiyuki. That, and Raigyo is not a main character.
Series: Amau
With the day of soul consumption (The Quickening) approaching, the emperor's spirit urges Akiyuki to remember his name so that they may battle it out. When Akiyuki is unable to do so, he orders him to jump from a water tower. He is saved by Haru, who also calls out his name.
The emperor, having the power to observe all Xam'd from the Diamond Tower, should have known Akiyuki's name. It is shown that he only recalls it after Haru appears, implying that he forgot. This is convenient, because it shouldn't be hard to remember the names of 4 Xam'd: Kujireika, Midori, Raigyo, Akiyuki. They are the only Xam'd present at The Quickening / Great Pilgrimage, so by extension they are the only complete Xam'd in the world.
Series: Quickening Chamber
Lady Sannova comes to the conclusion that no Xam'd thus far can "answer" the emperor, and so plans to merge with the Mother Hiruko [huh?], becoming an extremely powerful Xam'd, to defeat him. The Hiruko fallout this would cause would turn most of the world's population either into Xam'd (unlikely) or stone (likely).
Nakiami convinces Lady Sannova to instead seal the Quickening Chamber, preventing people from sacrificing themselves for the next thousand years. In return, Nakiami will lie dormant in the chamber until it reopens.
This course of action does nothing for the emperor himself, and Akiyuki battles him in the skies above the chamber. Akiyuki is defeated, but the battle itself is meaningless. In a spiritual face to face meeting after being obliterated by an energy attack, Akiyuki gives the emperor his name.
Not unlike the Count in Gankutsuo getting a hug.
The emperor's Xam'd mask dissolves to reveal Akiyuki's face, and Akiyuki gets the Xam'd mask. What's left of the merger between Akiyuki's mind and his Hiruko lands on the roof of the closing Quickening Chamber. Failing to stop the chamber's closure and overcome with grief, Akiyuki turns into stone.
Nine years later, Akiyuki recovers his sense of self and reunites with Haru. Because this coincides with rumours of the resumption of war, it may be that the emperor returned Akiyuki's name, and is once again a void. Another theory is that the emperor passed away. Yet another is that the last scene played out in Haru's imagination. The last theory is weakened by the scene in which Nazuna's flowers blossomed nine years after Akiyuki turned to stone.