I’d like to introduce you to our newest robot, Miss Mecha! She’s going to be covering mainly the anime beat, so please, welcome her and check out her stuff. Without further ado:
American viewers will either Love…or Hate the new X Men Anime
Greetings BSR readers! Allow me to introduce myself as Miss Mecha, here to bring you anime news from Japan. Nippon has been my second home since 2006. I’ve lived in Tokyo and Saitama and spent many days wandering through the streets of Akihabara and the lesser known Nakano Broadway. Though I’m currently living in the United States, my job allows me to travel back and forth between the US and Japan so I’m lucky enough to venture back to my favorite places in Tokyo every now and again.
I’m here today to tell you about the new X Men Anime on Japan’s Animax satellite network. I managed to get a hold of the first episode that premiered on April 1st and decided to give it a go. I want to let you know going into this article that I tried to watch it with as open a mind as possible. Why do I need an open mind for this? Well, let me explain.
I’ve been an X Men fan since I was about six or seven years old. I started watching the 90s cartoon and reading the comics when I was very young, and my subsequent love of comics and geeky things in general probably directly stemmed from my early watching of X Men (along with heavy influence from Star Wars and the Power Rangers, of course).
Since I really care about the characters, I knew it would be really important to go into this with an open mind, because I suspected they would really take regional liberties with the characters to make them more appealing in the Japanese market. Honestly, I couldn’t have been more spot on with my guess. It’s a decent conversion to anime, but fans of the original comic and characters (especially those who don’t like anime) will probably want to steer clear of this series. G4’s Attack of the Blog reports that they’ll be airing the series later this year (presumably with their own subtitling or dubbing). I’m thinking, however, that they may want to reconsider their decision to bring the series over later this year if enough people catch wind of just how regionalized the series is. Honestly, I don’t think the US ratings would be that good.
Here’s why:
DETAILED SPOILERS BELOW!!!
The episode opens with your fairly typical anime scene of gripping action and excitement. Brilliant colors and sharp stylization that are characteristic of any anime are very apparent. In general, Madhouse animation company has produced some absolutely stunning series and films, so I wasn’t surprised that the quality of animation is great. The screen pans up and across the faces of our newly anime-ized X Men….and Wolverine looks like a complete psycho, might I add. He looks a little too strange and different from the Logan I prefer…but it works for this series. The women have shining eyes and huge breasts – again, this is no different from what you’d expect in any anime (and to be fair, Jim Lee had em drawn pretty big back in the day as well, so this is not really a “change” per se).
Pan further up and there’s Jean Grey turned into The Phoenix and ready to explode everything in her path. She starts flinging objects at our heroes and Wolverine slices through a big chunk of rock – so far pretty typical showcasing of the X Men Powers, but with that slightly shiny “glow around the edges” that you see in many action anime series.
Professor X fails to make contact with Jean, and explains that this must be the work of Mastermind. Scott, who loves Jean in any universe, jumps in to risk his life in an attempt to save her. Here’s where we have the first really obvious sign of Japanese influence. The scene cuts to the clouds, where an “innocent” Jean pleads with Scott to kill her before she hurts anyone else. Here we see the inner innocence of Jean, which is a common element associated with blue sky and clouds in anime. As expected, it’s too late to save her, and Scott must suffer as he watches his love be torn away from him. Now, this is ridiculous, but I honestly can’t help but laugh during this scene because Cyclops looks like a pretty-boy, muscly, Japanese-cool-guy while he’s obviously supposed to be suffering and making me sad. His shiny hair flicks back as he cries out, “I LOVE YOU!”
Okay, so here is where I’ve probably lost any of you that don’t enjoy anime, and to be honest, I totally understand why you wouldn’t be crazy about this. It’s very much the kind of show that will do well in Japan…which means that it might not do very well with the masses in the US. The dialogue is especially rough for those who aren’t used to Japanese speech patterns. It’s fun to translate from a “learning Japanese point of view,” but American fans will miss the things that you’d get from prior, established X Men cartoons. Familiar phrases and coined trademarks of the X Men franchise will not be found in these scripts, because the slang and emotion need to be conveyed in a way that makes them accessible and enjoyable to a Japanese audience – AKA: tons of their slang, none of ours. Alas, no “Hey Bub!” from Wolverine here. Admittedly though, the writers do make him a bit snarky in their own way. At one point he sarcastically asks Cyclops if he’s renewed his license since he hasn’t flown the X-jet in a year…and this feels like a truly Wolverine moment. Cyclops assures him that he’s always been a more stable pilot, anyways. After that scene I felt a bit more assured that they’re trying to keep the inner core of these characters intact.
Throughout the episode, characters are introduced in a jumbling manner that is a bit rushed. Again, I have seen this before in so many anime. This haphazard-speedy-introduction of characters is something I always complain about when I watch the first couple of episodes of an anime, so I’m going to give the show a few more chances to prove itself. Beast is thus far my favorite in this version of X Men. He teaches a squid to communicate with humans..and it’s kind of neat.
The weakest character so far – Storm. They just haven’t made her a strong, second-in-command type like they have in other series. New to the series we’ll see Hisako Ichiki, a young Japanese girl from the Tohoku region of Japan. The X Men need to save her from mysterious kidnappers, and her mutant powers have not yet been revealed.
In the end, my assessment of the show is that it’s pretty average so far. It does have some cool action sequences, and the plot shows promise as they begin to talk about “mutant hunting” but I have to admit I’m a bit skeptical about the outlook of this show. Come on Madhouse animation company! Don’t let me down!
You can see the trailer here:
For more info, stay tuned. I’ll be watching each week as more episodes are released.