kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. Knowing me, you know I'm obsessed with three things: anime, Harry Potter, and, of course, all things X-Men. So, when I found out there was an X-Men anime that aired in 2011, and I had no idea it existed until now, I wanted to beat myself up for not knowing about it, before I said, "Let's give it a watch." So I did. And now, without further ado...

So...this is technically a part of an anime series known as Marvel Anime, which was a series of four anime series and two direct to video films that were produced in collaboration between Marvel Entertainment and the studio that brought us One-Punch Man, Madhouse.

Each series was twelve episodes long. They followed the stories of Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade, and went in that order. Each of these series is a stand-alone, meaning that you don't have to have seen the previous series in order to watch the next one. Which is great, because I couldn't find episodes of Wolverine anywhere. And believe me, I tried.

Additionally, each of the series was guided by writer Warren Ellis, who set the majority of each series in Japan. Does this make it count as anime? We shall see, my friends. We shall see.

So our story opens up where the third X-Men movie ended, with the death of Jean Grey. The writers and animators did take a few creative liberties with it, such as having Emma Frost appear behind Jean Grey, and instead of Jean Grey being controlled by Phoenix, she's controlled by a group known as the Inner Circle. So Jean Grey dies and the X-Men, which now consists of Storm, Beast, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Prof. X, all go their separate ways.

The X-Men are later reassembled by Professor X and are asked to travel to Japan following the abduction of a mutant named Hisako Ichiki. They rescue her and Emma Frost, who both join the X-Men, but are also confronted by the U-Men and members of the Inner Circle.

And...that's basically it.

So, score: um...X-Men, I hate to do this, believe me, I do, but...1/10.

Why: Well, it's relatively simple, really. This can't call itself an anime. It's a cartoon, at best. The animation isn't great, the music is meh at best, and the storyline just doesn't seem to carry itself well. I honestly don't understand how this is called an anime. Is it because it was made in Japan? I honestly have no idea.

Look, this did look promising. It was an "anime" (I'm using that term very, very loosely) that didn't have anything to adapt from, which gave the writers a lot of room for creativity. But there were too many points where you had to have read the comics in order to know who some of the characters were. The movies never referenced the Inner Circle, or Hisako Ichiki, for that matter. So unless you read the comics, you'll have no idea who those characters are going into this.

Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as they do explain who everyone is in the anime. But is it really fair to the viewer to have it be expected of them to have read or watched the source material first? Not really.

The characters don't really look like themselves, either. I mean, maybe I've seen the movies too many times (which is a possibility), but they really don't look like they should. For example, Beast looks like an overgrown bear, and sounds like one when he growls. It's not very...what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, threatening. Heck, they should have changed his codename to Bear in this. Because that would have made more sense than Beast in this.

There is little to no humor in this series. Which is really, really sad. I mean, it's X-Men. We have Wolverine in this, for Pete's sake. The least we could get is a classic one-liner. The writing just seems...lazy, like the voice acting. At least, that's how it seemed in the English dub. I couldn't find the original Japanese.

Heck, the only characters in this who are even remotely interesting are Hisako Ichiki and Beast. Hisako Ichiki has a unique power (she creates this armor made out of psionic energy and can manipulate it as she wants), and Beast is...well, Beast. He's probably my favorite character in all of this, and that's saying a lot.

I was expecting so much out of this, being the big X-Men fan I am, so I felt like I was punched in the gut when I watched this show. I think any X-Men fan would feel the same way.

Despite all this, though...I really am hopeful that if they do a second season (which they probably won't) or a remake of this, it will be much better. But as of right now, those seem pretty unlikely.

Well, that's X-Men: The Animated Series. Sorry it was short, but when there isn't really much to talk about, there isn't really much to talk about.

Get ready for Anime Monday #21!