(L) X-Men (Madhouse)

[Lumir]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

But could argue he wouldn't have felt that way to begin with if Charles had been in his life from the start. Maybe they could have found ways to avoid the painful experiences that helped to shape his current thoughts (though we haven't seen much of his thoughts in the anime other than a flashback and him being berserk ). It'd be a decent hindsight explanation for her to run with. Think it's harder to say how Takeo would feel or act in the present if Yui hadn't made some downright stupid decisions.

Really his life has been some painful experiences, wiping himself from others memories, and living in a bubble while being given suppressants. It's no wonder he's resentful.

As true as that is in all boils down to her not telling Charles. It seems everything was fine until takeo (aka legion) started manifesting his powers unwillingly. Either way it was her mistake for not letting Charles know as soon as she found out she was pregnant. If I were Charles Id be quite unhappy as there should have been some communication. I mean the boy was at least 5 or 6 years old when his powers began to manifest, and SHE STILL NEVER LET CHARLES KNOW! WTF!

Originally Posted by orion

I agree. He has a right to be resentful. But if Charles was there sooner, it prob could have been avoided. Takeo didn't receive any training to control his talent, just drugs from his mother to make him more human and isolation.

I wouldnt go so far as to say he has the right, yet I could understand his anger ect... Also if we look at Jean Grays situation, Charles got to her at a young age helping her control her powers and such and such until her powers went Omega class. Then, not even Charles and all he taught her could save Jean. Omega class mutants are extreme beings with extreme situations, usually their powers are at such a level that controlling them seems unfathomable, and as we seen usually takes everything and more to control such powers for mere instances.

Anyways this version of Legion had it much easier then the legion he is based on. Check out what the original legion suffered compared to this version at the wiki.

Oh man I think ive gone off and rambled on to long...

[Arabesque]

Before I get to this weeks episode

Originally Posted by duckroll

Yeah the Wolverine/Storm fight was great. When the action went side view for one entire cut, it looked like a Marvel vs Capcom fight with assist attacks. Pretty sweet.

I re-watched the fight again, and lo and behold, there was an entire part that looked like it was seriously out of a game lol Yeah I guess that the staff was really having fun with this anime Really glad to see that even with an outsourced episode, you can get little things like this.

Unfortunately, can't really say the same with this episode ...

Originally Posted by duckroll

|This episode is not outsourced.

I don't know, if I didn't read/look at the credits, and you said that one of these two episodes was outsourced and the other wasn't, I'd think that it was this episode :/

The only good looking parts in the episode (animation-wise) was the Wolverine bit, from him bursting out of his shirt to stopping from filleting Beast (and even then, I question the whole X-Cut bit, since the preceptive didn't look right at from that camera angel ) but it was still not as good as the past episodes and other Wolverine fights in this anime, since Neuron is such a poor match up to him.

Neuron's power is so ill suited for any elaborate fight scenes, that the moment Logan went berserk, it was over. So it was nice looking, but not up to par with Episode 4, 7 and 10 fights.

Other than that, Armour gets a chance to shine as well ... too bad they didn't spare some higher quality animation to go with it :/ I mean yeah, it was good enough, but the fight ends with a still frame (however short it is) of her punching Liquid-man in the face in the classic Shonen-esque shot of the lead landing the finishing blow on the bad guy. and compare it with the Wolverine bit ...

I did like Scott's illusion bit at the very start, with the rest of the team being crucified on those X-Crosses. It reminded me very much of comic book covers, which is a nice touch.

Originally Posted by duckroll

Hmmm, I watched the episode again in HD, and I found I liked it a lot more. The pace was good, and I suppose the animation is a lot more enjoyable in higher quality. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood to enjoy it properly yesterday.

I think that the reason you didn't like it much has to do more with the writing being weaker in this episode than any other. It was at times very Marvel Anime-ish.

And yes, the writing was my biggest problem with this episode, or to be more exact, Yui's stupidity.

FlareKnight, orion and Lumir already covered the majority of the points, so I will try and not repeat the same thing over again. I will say that I get that Yui was apparently trying to do the best thing for her son, and that she went through a lot and sacrificed her morals and believes for her flesh and blood, and that is in some way admirable about her.

Too bad she didn't need to do any of that.

It's really astonishing how idiotic the thought process is here ''Oh no, my son has awakened as an Omega-Class mutant in an incident that which made him afraid of his own power and might eventually consume him.'' So instead of contacting his father, who by the way has made it the goal of his entire life to help Mutants like Takeo, his own son (who also after learning about him, decided to travel by himself to Japan almost immediately to see him, knowing nothing at all about what was going on there, other than Yui was hiding it from him, so had she told him earlier, he wouldn't have any reason to not go there and help his own son) she decides to close down the mutant institution and try and handle it herself, which I interrupt in that she was so butthurt that Charles had left her to help Mutants, so she didn't want any of help (a very pity and idiotic reason, since asking Xavier to help his son, a Mutant in need, doesn't mean they needed to get back together) not to mention that she wasn't thinking of her sons best interest by asking the person who had the most expertises in this case, and is a Mutant as well with a similar base for his power). But after a while, she decides that getting help from the shady organization who deal in human trafficking and mutant organ harvesting is still better than asking help from her ex-lover, the father of her son, the man who made it his life mission to save Mutants and has dealt and trained Omega-Class mutants before.



I will say that I liked Scott coming to terms with Jean's death at last, despite us already knowing that he would do just that at this point, alas the rest of the writing in the episode couldn't have been as nice as that moment.

Originally Posted by Lumir

Anyways this version of Legion had it much easier then the legion he is based on. Check out what the original legion suffered compared to this version at the wiki.

After reading around a bit, I think he is a bit of a mixture between Legion origins with Proteus, but without of any of their complexities. Guess we need to see what sort of person he is next episode ...

Originally Posted by Lumir

Oh man I think ive gone off and rambled on to long...

Well, what Yui did was a seriously stupid thing to do, and really upsetting since she didn't need to make things escalate to this point at all. So you aren't wrong in feeling frustrated at all about it.

[Funkatron]

Love conquers all!!

And with that, the series is over. The best of the Marvel Anime projects yet (even if Yui was an idiot and Storm only kicked butt in the end). Lets see if Blade can top it.

[Roxasvsriku]

Spoiler for End:

What was Iron Man doing there? Anyways it was an alright last episode, but overall I felt Madhouse did a great job with this one. Poor Takeo. Also possible season 2 with Magneto's return?

[Lumir]

Originally Posted by Roxasvsriku

Spoiler for End:

What was Iron Man doing there? Anyways it was an alright last episode, but overall I felt Madhouse did a great job with this one. Poor Takeo. Also possible season 2 with Magneto's return?

Exactly my thoughts! Its to bad takeo had to die. I thought he might make it but man talk about a crazy power. Poor Charles, he raised many mutants like his own children and his very own child he had to try and destroy!

The series was not super special but it was good. Overall I did like the approach they took with the animation, story, ect. Looking forward to that season 2 if there is one! Magneto had check mate =).

[Triple_R]

Overall this anime was, by far, the best of the Marvel Comics-based anime shows of the past few years.

It wasn't perfect. As others have pointed out, some of the villains were overly one-dimensional, and Yui's decisions were... highly questionable to say the least.

Nonetheless, all of the villains tended to provide good physical challenges, at least, and perhaps at an emotional level, one can understand Yui's decisions. My own sense is that Yui was afraid she'd essentially lose Takeo to her former lover if she notified Charles of Takeo's existence. Charles would naturally want to take Takeo with him back to the Xavier Institute in America, and that would force Yui to choose between either parting ways with her son or moving to America herself (which she clearly was strongly against as she ended her romance with Charles for just this reason).

Yui was undeniably quite selfish here, wanting the best of all worlds, and in the process she almost destroyed THE world. Still, I can at least understand her decisions at an emotional level. Almost anyway...


Personally, I very much liked all of the cameos in this final episode. In particular, I was surprised to see...

Spoiler for Cameos!:

Captain Britain and Iron Man

This anime dug pretty deep into Marvel Lore for the first of these two, and the other one was a surprise because he's a pretty prominent non-mutant super hero.

I felt that, over the full course of the anime, all of the core protagonists were given a chance to shine (Storm had more 'weak' showings than I'd like, but at least she did get to kick butt in battle a few times as well). And the overall narrative was a satisfying one, with a good gradual start to ease you in, and an appropriately epic ending. The pacing was mostly superb.

This anime started extremely well, and I think that it ended extremely well too. It meandered slightly in the middle sections, but not to any major degrees.

Overall, I'm going to give this a 8.5/10.

Being a Marvel/DC Comics fan in my youth (and an X-Men fan in particular) I'll admit I'm a bit biased here, though, lol.


I'd love to see a sequel to this, with perhaps Magneto in the role of main antagonist.

[FlareKnight]

I have to say this has definitely been the best of the Marvel anime that they've released so far. The only major negative was the bizarre and stupid decisions made by Yui. But if we just throw her to the side the rest was pretty much fine. I mean sure Storm could have been used a lot better, but really it could have been worse.

In the end Hisako was a pretty nice character overall. Was useful to help show off more about the X-Men, but also grew to be a strong character in her own right. Being tied tightly into the plot helped too. Besides the fancy glowing armor was solid .

Even though the series dealt with ugly things like outright hate against mutants, organ trafficking, inhuman experiments, in the end love and friendship saved the day . Though really it wasn't badly handled.

I wasn't really surprised by the Iron Man cameo. They've done a decent job doing that for all the series so far. Wolverine helped out Iron Man, Scott gave Wolverine a lift in his anime, and Iron Man helped out during this crisis. Was nice thought to see some of the X-Men that weren't part of this series like Nightcrawler and Rogue.

Good job Jean. I mean really she helped the Professor when he was struggling to even get to the location, helped Scott during the mind battle, and woke everyone up at the end in this episode. Staying busy even though she died in the first episode.

Nicely done leaving it open to a sequel down the road. Think this could have the most success there since there really is a number of situations they could run into with the Magneto bit at the end being the most obvious. Plus with a large cast plenty of room for character development. But who knows.

Funny scene at the end with Scott handing the necklace to Hisako. Wolverine pretty much had to break it up since Scott was getting a bit too much attention from the girls there . Might as well point out how they are kind of stranded thanks to their back-up jet crashing. The budget for that year is taking a hit .

[duckroll]

I liked the ending. It wasn't "epic" or filled with action, but there was quite a lot of heart in it. It felt like a very anime way to tackle a Marvel comic situation, which was interesting to watch. The cameos throughout the final episode made it feel more interesting too. It's kinda a kick in the balls by Madhouse to put in that Iron Man cameo though. He looked so good there, you really have to wonder what happened with the actual Iron Man anime.

I hope they do make another season if they get a chance. I would definitely watch it.

[wingdarkness]

^Wow duckroll, looks like you've changed you're tune...And yes Ironman's incredible split-second of awesomeness almost makes you wanna poison dart somebody at Madhouse for that CGI disco-$hit they tried to pawn off on us as good...

Back to Xmen, the last 2 episodes were boss, plain and simple...I mean you had one physical battle with Mastermind's goons taking on the X-men, then another mental battle with Mastermind pwning the Xmen and Charles son, and then there's the metaphysical battle taking place within Scott's mind that actually wraps up Jean's offscreen story arc, all the while Takeo is hulking out having an infinite level go at Charles' mind before he even lands to help in the fight...EVEN STILL with all this $hit happening Takeo is raeping all of reality destroying what seems to be the entire effin' universe...Wasn't epic? Pfft...

I don't know what can beat that...Not that it was hard, but Xmen finally brings some much needed honor to the Marvel Anime experiment...I doubt Blade is gonna be able to rockout harder than this, but let's hope he loses his serum and certainly tries...The final 2 episodes were so good, I gotta up this series to a 8.95/10...


Oh and Scott Summers >> Wolverine (FIRST TIME EVA!)

[Triple_R]

Yeah, this may actually be the best I've seen Scott Summers, in any entertainment medium (comic book, movie, video game, anime/cartoon).

This is the first time where I felt that Scott was a strong enough character for Wolverine to legitimately consider him his Leader.

[magnumcyclonex]

Oh man...Wolverine rage was awesome last week. Loved the gruesome part of Neuron's destruction. And then today's ending was just fantastic. Loved the stinger. Hope they do it better than the live movies we had a couple years ago.

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Yeah, this may actually be the best I've seen Scott Summers, in any entertainment medium (comic book, movie, video game, anime/cartoon).

This is the first time where I felt that Scott was a strong enough character for Wolverine to legitimately consider him his Leader.

Yeah, that was really nice to see and they even do it with the show's great Wolverine to boot too which makes it even more well done, excellent job.

Good point on the stinger magnumcyclonex, hopefully this gets the good reception it deserves when it finally airs here and maybe it'll push Madhouse over the edge to do another installment.

[Arabesque]

Spoiler for X-men Episode 12 of ... Archangel? Colossus? Rouge!? Nightcrawler!!? DEADPOOL!!? CAPTAIN BRITAIN!!!? MAGNETO ON THE LOOSE!!!? SEASON TWO WHERE!?!?!?:

I have to say that I sort of share some of the sentiment duckroll has for the finale. It was certainly ''epic'' in scale and what's on the line, but I was expecting it to be more action filled as the previous episodes were. Instead, we had a bit of where the team struggled to land a hit, with reused animation from the opening -_- so in that regard, the episode disappoints.

That being said, I think that it does do quite well from the emotional side. Takeo/Legion/Proteus problem couldn't be solved by hitting him, but by reconciling with all his bent up anger. Watching Professor X blaming himself for his son's suffering, and trying desperately to not kill him (despite knowing that he needs to) and only trying to shut his mind as a last resort (and even wanting to die with him) was honestly good stuff. Sure some moments such as Scott jumping in to give away his life made me groan a bit (though Emma's comeback was good, and I can understand why he wanted to do it (understanding what Jean wanted him to do back a year ago)), Yui telling Takeo to kill himself with her () was simply annoying, but it was all withing the range of acceptable.

I did like how Hisako ended up being accepted into the team, and having saved the day by opening up Takeo's heart to his father was nice. The cameos were also pretty neat (much like Triple_R said, I was amazed they included Capitan Britain in there I mean ) and the ending where they all stand together as one team (and laminating on the fact they crashed two planes in a day ) was honestly the best way to go for this show.

One thing I hated was that Yui lived. And is holding hands with Professor X ... rage~

All in all, this was a decent, solid action show. I mean, when you have competition like the previous two, it's not really hard to come out as the best Marvel Anime, but even then this was as a stand alone show it looked good, had actual decent music placement (with a sup-par OST tho) and okay writing. I would recommend it to not only X-Men fans, but even to any action fan looking a short series to get some fun out of.

8/10 as an anime, and a 12/10 for a Marvel Anime.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

It wasn't perfect. As others have pointed out, some of the villains were overly one-dimensional, and Yui's decisions were... highly questionable to say the least.

Saying the least indeed. She thought that asking her ex-lover, the father of her child, was worse than going to deal with an illegal organization that harvested mutant organs.

How did she get a Phd, I will never know ...

Originally Posted by Triple_R

My own sense is that Yui was afraid she'd essentially lose Takeo to her former lover if she notified Charles of Takeo's existence. Charles would naturally want to take Takeo with him back to the Xavier Institute in America, and that would force Yui to choose between either parting ways with her son or moving to America herself (which she clearly was strongly against as she ended her romance with Charles for just this reason).

Yui was undeniably quite selfish here, wanting the best of all worlds, and in the process she almost destroyed THE world. Still, I can at least understand her decisions at an emotional level. Almost anyway...

Even then, was Charles going to lock him in a cage and feed him rats, all the while forbidding her to see him, ever? Considering what he had seen of him in the show, I don't see why he wouldn't have allowed his own son to go and see his mother from time to time, and hell, once he had learned to control his power, what would've stopped him from going back there? Nothing at all.

Yui was a moron, plain and simple. I can understand wanting the best for her son, but the way she went about made no sense at all, why wouldn't she want to tell X about the child, why not have him learn to control his power?

She went he hard way due to being unable to put aside her own feelings for her son. What's worse, this Charles Xavier had an actual ethical code for using his power! He was an actual good guy, what the hell Yui!?

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Funny scene at the end with Scott handing the necklace to Hisako. Wolverine pretty much had to break it up since Scott was getting a bit too much attention from the girls there . Might as well point out how they are kind of stranded thanks to their back-up jet crashing. The budget for that year is taking a hit .

I raged at that. What the fu*k Madhouse, you set up Loako for all of a passing moment in one episode, and then you have her go all gaga over Scott!? he does have some nice abs, mmmmm~ And the whole Logan going ''at least I get a tearful reunion with Jean''? Raeg!



I liked that he gave her the necklace tho. And yeah, they will be needing to be cutting back on a lot of thing this next year well, I guess Logan can go back to running around naked again ...

Originally Posted by duckroll

It's kinda a kick in the balls by Madhouse to put in that Iron Man cameo though.

I hope they do make another season if they get a chance. I would definitely watch it.

Worse, he looked better in that nanosecond he was there than the entirety of the Anime T_T

Honestly, this is the only Marvel Anime I would ever look back to a rewatch, and having a second season would be pretty great. Though I don't think it's likely considering that Madhouse is doomed ...

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

I don't know what can beat that...Not that it was hard, but Xmen finally brings some much needed honor to the Marvel Anime experiment...I doubt Blade is gonna be able to rockout harder than this, but let's hope he loses his serum and certainly tries...The final 2 episodes were so good, I gotta up this series to a 8.95/10...


Oh and Scott Summers >> Wolverine (FIRST TIME EVA!)

Man this show must've been made in Bizzaro world or something for this to ever happen. I still can't believe I liked Scott here than Logan, and I watched the whole show!

As for honor for the Marvel-Anime ... well, the show was great, but having two crap shows (and Blade looks like a joke so far) will make what ever honor won here go diminished down the line

[Kallen4life]

kinda predictable and too much sob-sob for me, but it's alright I guess .. really nice art in this anime, Jean's face in that one frame was like 10/10 perfection



the post-credits stinger takes the cake for me though

7+

[kenjiharima]

Cyclopes in the ending made another bad call gonna attack Takeo while Prof.X is inside his mind, but there was no choice we need to kill off anime characters, yet they where knocked down lol.
Surprise Prof.X can probe all mutants around the world without cerebro! O_o

Give it an 8

Alot of other mutant Omake appearances Xmen fan favorites to boot. DeadPool and Magneto


After Blade anime this needs a season 2.

Edit:

I think if season2 aired that's the time where they kill off Yui.

[Kallen4life]

Deadpool was really random for me there


or is he an X-man nowadays ? :Oo

[Mr. DJ]

Captain Britain, Iron Man (THE ONE WE WANTED IN THE SERIES BEFORE THEY CHANGED IT DAMMIT!!!) and Deadpool sighting! *squee!!!*

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by kenjiharima

I think if season2 aired that's the time where they kill off Yui.

If they would do that I'd laugh the entire episode . I mean seriously there are no good reasons to keep her alive. Have her get mugged by angry parents who's children were experimented on by the U-Men or something.

Originally Posted by Arabesque

What the fu*k Madhouse, you set up Loako for all of a passing moment in one episode, and then you have her go all gaga over Scott!? he does have some nice abs, mmmmm~ And the whole Logan going ''at least I get a tearful reunion with Jean''? Raeg!



I liked that he gave her the necklace tho. And yeah, they will be needing to be cutting back on a lot of thing this next year well, I guess Logan can go back to running around naked again ...Worse, he looked better in that nanosecond he was there than the entirety of the Anime T_T

I mean really doesn't Madhouse think Hisako is a bit young to be setting up multiple relationships ? Scott gets his uniform damaged a bit and she's just pulled right in.

Might be necessary to go X-Men casual style for a while . Have to replace 2 jets which isn't going to be cheap.

[wingdarkness]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Yeah, this may actually be the best I've seen Scott Summers, in any entertainment medium (comic book, movie, video game, anime/cartoon).

This is the first time where I felt that Scott was a strong enough character for Wolverine to legitimately consider him his Leader.

Originally Posted by Arabesque

Man this show must've been made in Bizzaro world or something for this to ever happen. I still can't believe I liked Scott here than Logan, and I watched the whole show!

As for honor for the Marvel-Anime ... well, the show was great, but having two crap shows (and Blade looks like a joke so far) will make what ever honor won here go diminished down the line

Yeah Scott was the man, which makes all the bishie hate of pre-production eat crow...He was so gonna kick Emma's a$$ at so many points in this show, she probably went diamond-mode just taking a $hit just to be prepared for red beams^^...His whole demeanor, and presence in the show was so on-edge and bada$$ I had to almost check the credits...Anyone who was a closet Cyclops fan scared to peek their heads outta the sheets, has honestly the best interpretation of the character I've ever seen...I mean simply stated, he was f**ing cool...

Oh yeah Blade does look pretty hokey, but just a couple months ago I wasn't expecting crap from the Xmen series, so I'll be aiming high, looking low...

Originally Posted by Kallen4life

Deadpool was really random for me there


or is he an X-man nowadays ? :Oo

Yeah, I did a double-take after seeing that aswell...Like no, that's not him...I mean I don't know much about Deadpool other than he seems to be the Nathan Fillion of Comicbook heroes in the sense fanboy sites swoon over him even though he doesn't have much out-front presence, but I was like damn, dude an Xmen?

[kenjiharima]

Hisako probably likes abs. While attitude wise she likes wild guys like Logan.

Seeing Logan with Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, X-23 I guess Hisako and him for season 2. She's just being mushy with Scott, but all the time she has been with most is Logan.

Hope season 2 we see more of Logan ("teaching the young") and Hisako either training or more interactions. I felt they focused too much on Scott.