X-Men (Marvel Anime #3)
Plot Summary:
The X-Men are a team of elite super-powered mutants gathered by Professor X to protect ordinary humans even as they are persecuted by them. In the wake of the death of one of their own, however, the team has stopped operations for a whole year. Then Professor X receives word of a mutant girl's mysterious disappearance in Japan. Sensing that something larger is afoot, he reassembles the team and sends them to investigate. They uncover a connection between her disappearance and an anti-mutant group known as the U-Men.
Staff:
Director: Fuminori Kizaki
Series Composition: Mitsutaka Hirota
Character Design: Ai Yokoyama
Chief Animation Director: Michinori Chiba
Art Director: Shigemi Ikeda
Music: Tetsuya Takahashi
Animation Production: Madhouse Studios
Cast:
Toshiyuki Morikawa as Cyclops
Rikiya Koyama as Wolverine
Aya Hisakawa as Storm
Hideyuki Tanaka as Beast
Yukari Tamura as Hisako Ichiki
Kaori Yamagata as Emma Frost
Yurika Hino as Jean Grey
Katsunosuke Hori as Professor X
Format:
- Airs on Animax Japan at 10pm every Friday in Japan
- 12 episodes in total
Ep1 Impressions
I'm back! I'm..... kinda.... speechless.
Where do I start? This is not only not a bad first episode, but it's probably one of the stronger first episodes I've seen from most series this year.
There are several things which are pretty outstanding about this X-Men anime.
First and foremost, the backgrounds are gorgeous. The art director was definitely given time and resources to really design the various sets and locations. It's pretty much OVA quality backgrounds all over the place. Detailed and attractive.
Next is the animation. Now this isn't like, the most amazing animation ever or something, but it's good stuff. You can tell that the animators really bothered with each frame to detail the characters and really flesh out the art. This is something completely absent from Iron Man and Wolverine. There are details on the faces and clothing, subtle movements in the air and as they move, detailed shading and shadows to create a sense of depth, etc. In other words, it looks like a real anime, like you would expect a normal action anime with a reasonable budget to look.
Then there's the actual directing. It's interesting to see that after two duds, we're finally looking at a Marvel Anime episode which feels like it's actually being directed with a vision and purpose instead of being thrown together. The episode opens with the climax of their version of the Dark Phoenix storyline, with the death of Jean Grey. It's an action packed sequence which shows off a good sense of dynamic action and exciting flow.
Then after the opening, it continues a year later, with the main members of the X-Men split up doing their own things, until they are summoned together by Professor X. There's a real sense of the show building up the various characters properly, showing off their talents and powers, as well as their personalities and interests. There is also proper foreshadowing and well, let's just say, competent narrative plotting.
It's really weird to be saying all this, because a lot of this is what you would expect from any decent television show to begin with, but after Iron Man and Wolverine, it's so odd to actually see them bother to try and do at least ONE series properly. This is definitely a case of having super low expectations based on the last two shows, and being surprised by something which is actually....... normal and slightly above average.
Shocking.
