Review: Marvel Anime: X-Men

Before starting my rewatch of the animated X-Men adaptations, I had no idea this anime even existed. According to Wikipedia, the show was one of six animated collaborations between Marvel Entertainment and Madhouse studios (four series and two films in total). Airing between 2010 and 2012 in Japan and North America, the project also included Iron Man and Blade, as well as a solo Wolverine outing – which I'll get to next.

I've no idea how familiar the creators were with its direct predecessor Wolverine and the X-Men, but coincidentally or not, X-Men Anime also begins with the apparent death of Jean Grey and revolves around a mystery involving the trustworthiness of Emma Frost. It's also something of an inversion of X-Men Evolution, for whereas that show ended with a brief glimpse of Jean turning into the Phoenix, this one starts with it.  

In a short flashback, Phoenix-possessed Jean self-destructs in front of her teammates as a desperate last resort, leaving Cyclops devastated and the X-Men disbanded. It's a strong opening, and one that really captures the destruction and chaos the Phoenix wrought in a way no other adaptation has – but as it turns out, this series has virtually nothing to do with The Phoenix Saga. All that matters is that Jean is dead and Cyclops is heartbroken, and believe it or not, she doesn't return to life by the final episode.

The plot starts properly when the core members of the X-Men – Cyclops, Storm, Beast and Wolverine – are contacted by Professor X and asked to return to the mansion. He has a new mission for them, one that involves a trip to an isolated area of Japan that he finds impossible to scan with Cerebro. Something is blocking his efforts, and on arriving in the Tohoku region it becomes clear that something is very wrong: not only are there deformed fish in the streams and dead trees on the riverbank, but twenty young mutant children have gone missing.

Naturally, mutants are copping the blame for the trouble (and local police aren’t pursing the case for this precise reason), though the team is surprised to find such a large percentage of mutants amidst what is such a small population – especially since Cerebro is unable to penetrate the area. And so the investigation begins...

There are twelve episodes in all, each only about twenty minutes long, so things whizz by pretty quickly, with all the staples of anime that you’ve come to expect: gravity-defying boobs for the women, a tendency for men to get their shirts shredded to reveal six-pack abs, prolonged montages of reaction shots from characters (usually punctuated with gasps or grunts), and lots of uncomfortable butt poses.

What Works:

Perhaps the best thing about this anime is that for the first time ever, an X-Men story has simple, self-contained plot that involves only a handful of characters instead of the usual "go overboard and include everyone" mentality that's prevalent in nearly every other film or television take on this material. Granted, it does veer into "the fate of the world is at stake" territory by the final episode, but for the most part this remains a very intimate and small-scale investigation within a fixed location and with a singular goal.

The animation is beautiful, in both bringing characters to life and in setting the scenes. For the first time Cerebro actually looks like a functional high-tech machine rather than a fancy helmet with tubes attached, while the Danger Room is suitably expansive and durable. The Xavier Institute looks gorgeous, and provides a striking contrast to the snow-covered mountainous region of Japan where the X-Men mission takes place. Plus, there’s that old horror necessity: an abandoned hospital.

Of all the characters, Beast's design is particularly great – he's not the usual blue simian of past adaptations, but an immensely robust cat-person, and the show really captures his agility and strength. In fact, this is probably my favourite version of Beast; not only in his appearance but in the portrayal of his innate gentleness and bedside manner.

As with Wolverine and the X-Men, Emma Frost (her cleavage intact) plays a larger role here than in any of the preceding adaptations, and once again the question of her trustworthiness becomes an important part of the story. In this case, Scott is immediately suspicious upon meeting her since he's certain she was involved in Jean's death. In Jean's final moments Scott glimpsed Emma levitating behind her, presumably controlling her actions through telepathy, though Emma steadfastly denies this claim.

Obviously one of them must be wrong – but which one? To be honest, the answer to the question isn't particularly interesting, but Emma again serves as an interesting spanner in the works – all the more so because she has the absolute faith of newest recruit Hisako Ichiki, one of the missing girls who has been previously trained by Emma. At the same time Emma provides guidance to Hisako, she remains an enigmatic presence within the X-Men dynamic.

She's such a compelling – almost archetypal – Ice Queen figure that it's difficult to do her wrong, and there are some good character beats throughout (a flashback in which her peers comment: "such cold eyes") to offset the inevitable Male Gaze.

And there is a LOT of it...

Partial Success:

If you thought Wolverine and the X-Men needed a bit of context for newcomers, then prep your ignorant friends for getting flung into the deep end. Aside from a brief voiceover courtesy of Professor X that quickly outlines the plight of mutants and the purpose of the Xavier Institute, this show makes no concessions for viewers that aren't already deeply familiar with these characters and their world.

Which for many long-time fans, is probably a good thing. There’s only so many times you can watch a wide-eyed teenage girl be introduced to the X-Men premise… and admittedly, they manage to do that here as well, in the character of Hisako Ichiki.

Professor X gets his own little subplot that eventually feeds into the main storyline, in which a recurring dream about a little boy he can’t reach and the introduction of a cagey scientist called Sasaki Yui leads to the revelation (and I’m sure you won’t find this remotely surprising) that they had a son together.

Said son is called Takeo and – as an Omega Class psychic – is the cause of all the strange occurrences in the area. His mother colluded with the U-Men to get a suppressant for his abilities by harvesting the organs of other mutants, but Mastermind of the Inner Circle has long-since infiltrated the research facility in disguise and not given Takeo his dampening meds.

The idea of a frightened mutant child being held in isolation and a mutant whose powers are so dangerous he must be contained for the safety of the world have already been seen in X-Men 3 (with Leech) and an early episode of Wolverine and the X-Men (with Nitro) and it’s not dealt with particularly well here. Charles has no emotional attachment to a son he’s never met, Takeo himself spends most of his screen-time as a giant eldritch horror, and it’s ultimately Hisako who stops his psychic onslaught upon the world, but tapping into his memories of them as children together, and appearing as an especially insipid backlit example of a kindly angel come to help the tortured monster.

Spare me...

So on the one hand, at least the world-wide threat is kept at a personal level, on the other, we don’t really get a chance to feel that personal level. It’s also structured very strangely, with the truth of Charles’s son coming to light in episode seven of twelve, and no real context for who Mastermind is or what he’s trying to achieve by hijacking Takeo’s abilities.

***

Then there’s Cyclops. As with Wolverine and the X-Men, this story starts with the apparent death of Jean Grey. This time around, she’s not resurrected on-screen, but Scott’s character follows the same trajectory as it did in the preceding series: grief-stricken, wallowing in pain, and tentative about returning to the field until the combined encouragement of his teammates (or scorn in the case of a certain someone) brings him back into the fold – perhaps before he’s ready for it.

Between attacking Hisako in the Danger Room and engaging in several screaming arguments with Wolverine about how to best handle man-pain, one wishes that his teammates would just let the poor guy grieve. As in Wolverine and the X-Men, a good portion of Scott’s character arc is him struggling with the responsibilities laid upon him after Jean’s death, and Wolverine telling him to get over it, though in this case he actually does.  

In a rather strange note, Scott’s arc ends with him regretting not killing Jean (as she begged him to do) in order to end her suffering, thereby leading to her self-destruction. Okay… it’s an odd way to depict the acceptance stage of grief, but we know that despite Scott making peace with himself and hints of a hook-up with Emma, it’s just a matter of time before Jean comes back anyway, so hang in there dude.

What Doesn't Work:

As I mentioned earlier, the wrap-up of the entire plot is a bit weak, with concepts such as secondary mutations and Damon-Haller syndrome and Omega class psychics introduced throughout the episode, and not given particularly clear pay-off. Likewise, this story involves groups such as the Inner Circle and the U-Men, each with their own agendas that don’t entirely seem to match up with the other’s.

Elements such as the mutant shield that was blocking Cerebro is given a perfunctory explanation, but other things like the strange natural phenomena goes unaccounted for. And who on earth knows what Sasaki Yui’s deal was – this character exists totally in thrall to what the plot requires of her.

And as for Hisako Ichiki… look, at this point I believe it’s a mandatory requirement for any X-Men feature to include a teenage girl, usually as an audience surrogate who can be introduced to the premise through her eyes. Popular contenders for the role as Kitty, Rogue or Jubilee, and what’s an X-Men story without a tagalong teenager bring put in the way of danger by adults who should know better?

But that doesn’t make up for the fact that Hisako is pretty annoying and essentially useless, whose high-pitched voice is clearly that of an adult pretending to be a child. Contrary to my initial assumption, she’s based on an established character in the X-Men canon, and though there are some nice scenes between her parents and her best friend (an unprejudiced human) her contribution to the story – in appearing to Takeo – is pretty contrived.  

Mixed Bag:

Wolverine doesn’t play a particularly big part in this show, and is definitely a supporting character after Cyclops (don’t worry, these roles will be reserved in the next anime). Their dynamic is as contentious as usual, though it feels like they’re on more equal footing this time around: Scott in Wolverine and the X-Men and X-Men Evolution was much younger, and so often felt like he was getting unnecessarily picked on by Logan. Here, he’s in a better position to hold his own.

Here, Logan is in his Grumpy Uncle persona, only occasionally going full-on Berserker – but let’s be honest, he’s here because he always has to be here. It’s called Wolverine Publicity for a reason. Still, at least there’s one good line he shares with Cyclops: "If I'm the calm one in this tag-team, something is really wrong."

Storm is also here, and it’s a pretty quintessential case of the Token Girl. She gets a great introduction in which she saves a cruise ships from a boatful of pirates, but not much else. Why does Storm always get shafted?

There’s also some pretty disturbing imagery at times, involving painful mutations and prolonged death scenes.

Miscellaneous Observations:

This project doesn’t really fit into any kind of continuity with previous X-Men adaptations, and much of what’s presented here is built on the assumption that you already know about these characters and what they stand for. Basically, don’t introduce a newbie to the franchise with this.

The first word of dialogue is: “Jeeeeeeeeean!” Bless. Though later on, Hisako squealing “Emmmah!” gives the meme a run for its money.

Jean’s grave epitaph reads “she will rise again,” which is pretty hardcore. I’ll have that on mine, please.

Wolverine faces down his oldest foe: the metal detector at the airport.

There are some quick voiceless cameos toward the end: Rogue, Nightcrawler, Colossus… whoever this guy is…

In Conclusion:

I started this X-Men adaptation rewatch back in – wait for it – 2015 with Pryde of the X-Men, and the last time I updated was in 2016. So apologies for my greater-than-normal levels of procrastination. And it’s still not over! I plan to look at the Wolverine anime next, followed by the 2000 – 2019 film franchise (or at least the decent instalments).

But I’m back, and having watched this series for the third time in an attempt to refresh myself on its particulars, I have to say it was refreshing to watch an X-Men adaptation that involved a small team (only four key members) on what is initially a low-stakes mission. It’s a nice change in scale from the usual end-of-the-world plot, but it doesn’t diminish the importance of the mission itself, as they remind themselves on leaving in the Blackbird: “one girl in Japan is waiting for our help.”

Unfortunately the rather wobbly storyline and one-dimensional characterization doesn’t serve what could have been a simple but solid mystery, featuring mutant powers and a few good action sequences. The tone veers into Lovecraftian horror a couple of times, only for the final scene to feature Hisako declaring: “love and friendship can triumph over evil.”

Mmkay. It was fun to see familiar characters in the anime style, and it’s got a few intriguing ideas strewn throughout – let’s just say there was a reason it’s taken me four years to write this all up.