First Impression – X-Men

Everyone is so muscular and buff!

Welcome to another animation version of the X-Men! And the first episode from Madhouse studios and Marvel this season; can they pull off this better than Wolverine and Iron Man? So far, I would say they are closer with this project than the previous two. Thankfully the trailer lives up to the anime counterpart, I had serious problems with Iron Man and Wolverine trailers when they got released! They were not even close to the anime versions. Anyway onto the review!

Plot-wise, we get thrown right into the action with Jean Grey aka the Phoenix as she is about to go nuts with power and explodes. After that highly animated scene, we jump a year from that event when Professor X gets a call about a missing mutant girl in Japan and assembles the X-Men to search for her.

Awesome animation on the Phoenix!

Very detailed characters, Beast looks amazing!

Totally BAMF Wolverine! Not skinny at all.

We will get to see more of this dude soon.

Depressing death for Jean! Or did she really die?

So yeah, we get some high action with the first few minutes of the anime. I liked that we got a huge time jump between Jean’s “death” and current events. This is where things are strange for me as it seems that everyone now knows of the X-Men. So does this take place after the movies or this could be going with an original story too? Maybe the diehard comic fans can help here.

Welcome to Hogwards!

Mio from K-ON getting kidnapped by Samuel Jackson.

Professor X- “Mio from K-On went missing? NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Now to the main plot here, Mio er Ichika Hisako from Tohoku region of Japan gets kidnapped. Why is she important? Because she is a mutant of course! And apparently Professor X is friends with her father too. That pretty much is the reason they travel to Japan, much like the last two Marvel shows using Japan as a setting.

This is how Metanorn’s base looks like underground. All high tech!

If Beast was my teacher I probably couldn’t keep a straight face…

I died laughing during the metal detector scene with Wolverine as I figured this would happen.

Storm-“Why do you have young Japanese girls on your computer, professor??”

Professor- “Because, I… I Just love K-On! IT’S SO DAMN MOE!!!”

However, not everyone decides to just drop everything and help this missing girl. Scott aka Cyclops has been hardcore depressed for the whole year over Jean. Well, his girlfriend did kind of explode so I would be sad too! So, Wolverine decides to give him a pep talk and that just pisses Scott off more and they have an “argument” with super powers.

Wolverine- “Jean was getting fat anyway bro…”

Scott- “YOU ARE SO GOING TO GET OPTIC BLASTED!!!”

Wolverine showing off his own personal bling!

This was a great scene too! Even though I wish they had a bigger team.

The team gets ready to leave and Scott finally decides to join them. Professor X smiles and welcomes him back and the team heads out to find the missing girl. But you can bet we have not seen the last of the depressed Scott and Jean probably is alive somewhere!

Extra Mutants!

Of course, Scott is not looking at the stars here.

Wolverine is insanely buffed up here! And his hair looks so dumb!

Beast looks great! Nice job Madhouse.

Scott’s epic stare down with the sun.

End Thoughts:

Amazing first episode! Very simple storyline here, much like Iron Man and Wolverine; nothing really complex about a team of mutants who save the day from evil. Now my knowledge on the X-Men is not really high but I know a few things from the 90’s cartoons and the live action movies. From what I know, the Phoenix is a huge part of the X-Men storyline, for mostly Scott since that is his girlfriend. So, I really think she just sent herself away from the others to keep them safe.

Animation was top quality, even though everyone is sporting like a twenty four pack of abs! Which looks so strange on Wolverine, not sure if that is just Marvel adding a spin to the character design or what. I was mostly impressed with Beast! I was kind of waiting to see what they were going to do with his design. As for the girls Jean and Storm look nice! I was expecting like some moe-ish designs to them, ‘course they don’t look like HoTD chicks.

So, this was kind of a surprise for me as I was seriously let down by Wolverine and Iron Man, then again I was not really expecting anything that great from anime versions of Marvel shows and comics. I know the next huge project for this team up will be Blade, but I never liked Blade so I couldn’t really care much about it. They should try Hulk or Thor next! Well maybe or should they stop with Blade?

Overall this was good! However, I probably will just watch this series for my weekly “mindless entertainment” show. So, if you like Marvel and hated Wolverine and Iron Man, you should give X-Men a shot! You just might like it, or hate it… hahaha!

Preview

The X-Men arrive in Japan and fight demons! er mutants and search for the missing girl. And of course, show off their awesome powers too.

Thanks!