Madhouse’s exceptional X-Men anime will finally be here October 21st on G4. After watching the series this past Spring from Japan (you can read parts 1 and 2 of my review here), I’ve been dying to see what the North American audience reaction will be. According to Marvel, both the Iron Man and Wolverine anime series have been a huge ratings boost for G4 in the 11 PM – 2 AM time slot – “jumping +50% over the August 2010 time period average with homes and climbing +75% among Total Viewers.”
“Actor Scott Porter takes on the voice of Cyclops in “X-Men,” the optic-force blasting deputy leader of the team. In the series, the X-Men are reunited following the death of a teammate, and are summoned by Charles Xavier to track down Hisako Ichiki, a missing teenage girl in Northern Japan. There, they encounter the fanatical and anti-mutant group, the U-Men, and discover what was important enough for Xavier to bring them back together. The answer is something that could potentially bridge the gap between mutants and humans, or tear the two species apart forever. ”
Personally, I feel that X-Men has been Marvel’s strongest anime series thus far. The characters were pretty well fleshed out and the story had me hooked by the end of episode two (a feat for an anime considering they generally take several episodes just to “get going” on the plot end of things). I was also extremely pleased with the animation and artistic direction.
Episode One begins with Phoenix – how awesome is that?!?
Here’s the awesome intro that ran in front of the series in Japan:
So, make sure to check out the X-Men anime this October 21st on G4. Later this Winter we’ll also get to see Marvel’s fourth anime production – Blade.