Anime and I generally don’t get along, but given a familiar IP like the X-Men, I was intrigued to see what could be done. As a fan of the 90s X-Men cartoon and videogames (Clone Wars was amazing), this new anime had a high standard to achieve. And while the action in this anime is exciting and a visual treat, comprised of many dazzling Japanese animation methods, I felt that not enough time was spent on fleshing out the story. The characters are also glazed over, but, for anyone that knows much about the X-Men it’s not a big problem. Ultimately, X-Men purists may find a lot with the anime that’s disagreeable or disappointing, but if you are a casual X-Men fan — as I am — the anime is a mostly fun and decidedly fresh take (in terms of animation) on the X-Men.
The series is split into a dozen episodes that follow the X-Men to Japan to try and stop the U-Men, who are harvesting young mutants to claim their organs in an attempt to create a super army. The U-Men have kidnapped Armor. Reminisicent of Jubilee, the young and often grating Armor is a key part to the story. The storyline as a whole is largely familiar territory, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it never quite achieves greatness, but does indeed stay appealing throughout. Story takes a back seat to a lot of fantastic action scenes involving veterans like Cyclops, Storm, X-Men, and Beast.
Visually, the animation is intriguing and solid — it’s interesting to see the X-Men reimagined in such a way that they’re noticeable different than what you’re probably used to, but they’re nonetheless instantly recognizable. If anything, I thought a little more creative freedom should have been allowed to really give the characters a more unique look, enough that you might have to almost take a guess at who is who. Still, the art style is cool and the voice acting, Japanese or English, is commendable.
As for technical quality, expect a 1.78:1 widescreen that looks very good on DVD (may want to wait and see if a Blu-ray release gets announced though). Audio tracks include Japanese and English, and for the purposes of watching (and being a fan of foreign film), I watched in Japanese with the English subtitles to better fit the atmosphere that writer Warren Ellis and the folks at Madhouse were looking to achieve.
There are a few extra features that are worth a look, too. They are:
-Re-examining The X-Men (Disc 1, 9m6s) – Writer Warren Ellis and three members of the Marvel team talk about the series, the appeal of the X-Men, and transitioning it to anime.
-X-Men: A Team of Outsiders (Disc 1, 10m37s) – The same folks from the first feature talk about how the X-Men are the ultimate heroes. Despite being generally hated by humans, they risk themselves to protect them. A brief look at the characters in the anime is here too.
-Special Talk Session: Marvel Anime’s X-Men And Blade (32m) – An interesting behind the scenes look at the crew at Madhouse in their offices talking about the project.
To the summary…