X-Men

Back in the late 1990s, every Saturday morning, I watched one of my all-time favorite cartoons, and read a lot of Wizard comic magazines. The X-Men theme song came and so I turned on the television and watched "X-Men: The Animated Series." I mean, they done it all from comics, 3 TV shows, 3 movies, a Wolverine spin-off, and a prequel called "X-Men First Class." But I've never heard of an "X-Men" anime before? Are they serious? Do we really want to see the heroes speak Japanese? Well, I think G4 did a little okay with Marvel Anime, but I'm not sure it will last long. The anime version of "X-Men" as disappointing as it sounds, I haven't gotten watched the episodes. I've seen the rebirth of Thundercats and Star Wars Clone Wars, but I don't think comic book shows should be as great as Witchblade or any comic that has "anime" on it. It should've have been written off as of consideration. I thought Marvel scrapped the anime thing for good, but let's sure hope the last Marvel anime series, Blade comes out on top or a frustrating departure to the film series starring Wesley Snipes.

Bottom Line: I think when Marvel Anime's done, I wish there will be no more anime on U.S. market. "X-Men" is good, but a decent photo finish. Probably, G4 should bring back shows from the dead instead of new shows instead.

I am a big fan of Japanese anime and I also like the X-men universe, so I thought I would like this a lot. But after watching X-men there is no good thing about it I can think of.

The animation is obsolete, something I would have expected from animes in the 80's maybe. I was so confused, in fact, that in order to complete this review I went back a few times to make really sure I saw the 2012 version and not some knock off.

The story makes no sense, with insane and cardboard bad guys, ridiculous female characters and really boring and bad dialogue. The difference between the powers and behaviour of female heroes compared to male ones was immense and totally uncalled for. All of the Japanisation of X-men had the problem that they made all characters behave like Japanese people, actually, but this was the worst. Imagine that Storm got tired after each attack and the other two: Armor and Emma Frost, could do only defensive things and maybe give a punch or a kick sometimes. Even Jean, the character that dies in the start of the series, can only do one thing: die to protect her friends. Useless in almost any battle, they are there to be protected and talk about feelings.

What I think bothered me most, though, is the lameness of it all. After anime of terrible beauty and horror and others brilliant ones about friendship and camaraderie, after twisted tales of amazing character complexity, the Japanese think they could reintroduce X-Men to their country using this crap: empty dialogue, cardboard characters, stupid plot, stunted violence.

Conclusion: You want something Japanese with super powers, just watch Akira! This series is a stain on the anime community.

I really enjoyed this visually stunning X-men series. Everything looked great. I thought the story had a more mature theme then most animations of the X-Men and I thought most of the characters' personalities were spot on as I've been a comic collector of X-men for 30+ years. Storm tho I felt was a little underutilized and the exception as her personality wasn't as regal as should be but not too far off. Also Emma wasn't as "frosty" as she could be but leaned more towards her "teacher" personality. Wolverine was done the best. Arrogant and kind of an ass with his witty remarks but always with a big heart underneath his rough words and seeing his berserker persona was a real treat. Cyclops struggles were true to his personality. Beast and Xavier were as true as well. Armor was a pleasant addition. Mastermind with the addition of newly thought out enemies to back him was very good to witness. Battles were visually stunning and enjoyable and showed some different things and that's saying a lot, especially showing one way to stop wolverine I've never seen before that was interesting and I have almost every comic with him in it. Great ideas. Well thought out story leads to an epic ending. The biggest reason I write this review instead of giving my rating and moving on? I thought the average rating fair tho I gave higher and was stunned a whooping 9 out of 11 people giving reviews for this was below the overall average. Take that into account. Please don't let the few loud haters keep you from giving this great 12 episode story a try.

Of all the 4 Marvel anime series, this was the most interesting one.

Not great, and it definately could have been better, but I enjoyed it much more than the other 3 Marvel anime series, which were mostly style over substance.

It was okay. Not perfect, but watchable. The animation and the designs were good and the characterization was much better than in all the other Marvel japanese animations. (And don't get me started on that terrible Disk Wars series.)

Unless you are an X-Men purist, this is a rather acceptable series.

Anime is not for everyone. The Japanese have a totally different way of approaching entertainment than America does. Whether it's music, fashion, movies, music and even cartoons. I'm not a big Anime fan. I think it's all long winded and they stretch stories out that into 60 episodes that could have been told in 25. I have a few anime cartoons that I love but for the most part I'm not a huge fan but when I heard about Marvel making X-Men into an anime series I was a little anxious to see it. I love everything about the X-Universe so I wanted to support.

Now, I actually like the series. I enjoy it because the same story continues throughout the entire season, unlike in America where it's a different story every episode. The way the storyline is set up helps you connect more with the characters and the plot. There are some inhibitions but no one is ever 100% with every single film or TV show they watch so that's to be expected. Overall, I thought it was done very well. There were a lot of elements to the series that give past X-Men fans something to smile but Madhouse Studios definitely revamped it to appeal to their faithful anime followers. You have mutated monsters, more technology, mutation can get to a level to where it gets deadly without proper control, etc. There are a lot of elements that are refreshing to watch and the action is definitely fun to.

Sometimes I think that adults that watch cartoons seem to forget that these shows are made for kids. The dialogue is going to cheesy and sometimes stupid but it has to be for kids to understand. Some of these reviews are just weird to me. I wonder what people were expecting to get from this. The series pretty much stayed true to it's identity, it's an anime cartoon whose foundation started from the X-Men world. I just took it for what it was and it made me enjoy it more. I even bought the DVD. I definitely would recommend this for people to watch. It's not everyone but if you watch without the expectation that it's going to be like the other X-Men animated series that are American made, you'll enjoy it more.