X-Men: Anime Series

Look, I realize this show is like ten years old. However, Netflix saw fit to inform me of it being available a few months ago and I had to watch it. I vaguely remember this being some kind of experiment that Marvel and Madhouse embarked upon back in the early part of the LAST decade. Anime was getting even more hot, you see and Marvel had to get a piece of that action. Cause...Marvel. I definitely dismissed it then and I kind of dismissed it now, but given my uncanny (see what I did there) ability to watch just about it anything, I made myself watch this.

If nothing else I was curious. Well, it's definitely an anime. It made me go through some complex feelings that I'm going to work out here.

First off, I didn't like this. At all. At first I was trying to think, "Am I just not that into anime any more like I used to be?" or "Would I have liked this ten years ago when it came out?" I still like anime, but I don't consume it as much as I used to and I am now super picky about what I watch. All I have watched the past year was either Dragon Ball Super (DBZ holds an untouched place in my heart), Lupin III (I'm a huge Lupin fan. Maybe I never said that out loud before) and that's it. Oh, I did watch Yasuke on Netflix as well. That gives you an indication of my limited palette lately.

Anyways, back to the X-Men. It felt like run of the mill anime from that era. It's technically sound, but you take off the X-Men title and the character names and this could have been anything. If a studio gets the Marvel license to go nuts, I expect them to grab a few toys out of the toy box. In the very least, I expected Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Or Sentinels. Hell, ANYTHING X-Men related.

Instead what we get are some random ass, made up anime villains that stay with us for all twelve episodes. I was hoping this would be episodic, not a full serial. To me, it was slow moving or non-sensical. It jumped back and forth between the two.

Let's get to the X-Men they chose because I have THOUGHTS. It has inspired me to do a separate post eventually about my favorite team of X-men or who I would put on a team. As any fan knows, there have been so many different configurations over the past forty years.

In this series they chose Wolverine, Beast, Storm, Cyclops, Emma Frost and then added Hisako Ichiki (aka Armor). Hisako plays the Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, etc. role in this series. You know, the new X-man that gets introduced into their world and has to learn on the fly. As teams go, this one feels basic. Their power sets kind of compliment each other. There isn't much characterization to be found here as they are basically boiled down to their power set and a few tropes. Wolverine is the hot head, gruff one that is nearly indestructible. Beast is the smart guy. Cyclops is the all too serious leader. Storm is...just there. White Queen is the mean lady with a soft spot for her students. Armor is the newbie.

They don't even use their powers in compelling ways. Wolverine's claws are almost as long as his body, which is patently ridiculous. Storm simply shoots lighting for the most part and so on. The color palette feels muted in mostly dark blues and blacks. This show is just so boring an uninteresting. We don't see any of the trademark team up moves from the team. In fact, even the action is kind of boring and stilted. As anime fans, we have seen more and DEMAND more. This show does not rise up to meet the challenge. It does a disservice to the X-Men. 

The animation is good, I mean, that's what you expect. Without a compelling story or characters to drive it, it's just not worth it. At least in this show, I don't think it was a good mix. 

Unless you are like me and curious, I would avoid this show.