X-Men (Madhouse)
 

http://www.animax.co.jp/feature/imag...0/nowonair.jpg

http://www.animax.co.jp/marvelanime/x-men/

Starts 1st April 2011 at 10pm on Animax Japan. Trailer is on the official site, character designs will be on the site later today.

Official blurb:

Staff and Cast:

Director: Fuminori Kizaki
Chief Animation Director: Michinori Chiba
Character Design: Ai Yokoyama
Music: Tetsuya Takahashi
Art Director: Shigemi Ikeda
Animation Production: Madhouse

Cyclops: Toshiyuki Morikawa
Wolverine: Rikiya Koyama
Professor X: Katsunosuke Hori
Storm: Aya Hisakawa
Emma Frost: Kaori Yamagata
Yui Sasaki: Yoshiko Sagakibara
Jean Grey: Yuriko Hino
Hisako Ichiki: Yukari Tamura
Beast: Hideyuki Tanaka

Source: http://www.animax.co.jp/feature/intr...ode=NN10001160


Episode Titles:

Ep1 - The Return (Gathering)
Ep2 - U-Men (Mutant hunt)
Ep3 - Armor (Awakening)
Ep4 - Transformation (Second mutation)

i wonder if the wolferine is same and some how connected to wolferine anime

So there will be no Gambit? :\

Wolverine is Wolverine. There is only one.

I hope Hisako Ichiki plays a more central role in the story. I'd hate for one of Joss Whedon's creations to be reduced to a damsel in distress...

Character designs are up: http://www.animax.co.jp/marvelanime/x-men/chara.html

Kinda... lol....

Considering the team behind this series previously worked on Basilisk and Afro Samurai, I'm sure it'll suck just as much if not more than Iron Man and Wolverine. This Marvel Anime thing is really turning out to be crap. Lol Madhouse.

Who's the girl with the tailed beast cloak? Character designs don't look too bad imo. Madhouse should just stick with movies or animes with great directors and good budget.

Hisako Ichiki aka Armor. She's a somewhat ''recent'' addition to the team (she was introduced nearly 8 years ago) she had the fortune to star in one of the better X-Men stories, but considering this will be her first animated depute, it looks like her luck ran out ...ThankfullyBeing optimistic, I'm happy they actually attempted to shake up the roster and include a relatively new face instead of the regulars.

Of course, I'm not looking forward to the treatment her character will end up getting, if Iron Man was any indication.
I agree. I'm not even sure anymore what is up with Madhouse. The studio's output for the past year had been particularly awful, but the Marvel line up was especially painful to even look at. Horrible music, unimpressive animation, shoddy writing ... I question if there is even any effort from the creative force in making these shows aside from contract obligations.

It's called Redline, they spent a fortune on that and it bombed hard. Now that they were bought by NTV they may improve or collapse, only time will tell.

How did it bomb? It's not even out on DVD/Blueray yet. Everyone I know who's seen it is, says it's beyond awesome. If the sales are good, I don't see any problem.

@Arabesque, That's why I nefver heard of her. Not a bad design.

It's intended as a mainstream movie so DVD sales are only secondary, the important thing was how it did in box office and sadly it tanked.

It's a movie. It bombed at the box office. Don't expect DVD/Blu-ray sales to be even notable. Anime movies which have amazing animation and take themselves seriously as a film instead of relying on a franchise brand name do not find success. Ever. It's just the way it is in Japan.

Has Marvel discovered their co-production with Madhouse that these anime projects haven't resonated too well with Japanese audiences?

Damn that sucks. That's very problematic for Madhouse and for Koike who worked like a decade on it. I still hope the DVD/Blueray sales are good, so he gets at least a little recognition.

Animators in Japan who do stuff like always experience the same result though, so I would say they pretty much expect the outcome these days. As long as they managed to get the funding to make what they wanted in the first place, I think they're happy. Look at Yuasa's various TV series, Iso's Denno Coil, and Ando's Sword of the Stranger. All are colossal flops in terms of ratings/box office, dvd/blu-ray sales, and any remote general mainstream penetration. Denno Coil was just a huge flop that Iso pretty much left the industry.

Satoshi Kon is arguably the only anime director who managed to actually find serious recognition and relative success worldwide while doing what he loves in an uncompromising and high quality way. Oh and look where that got him. Struck down by the heavens. It is clear that fate is telling us that anime does not deserve to be a serious medium, and that people should just stop trying to pretend it is. Anime = half naked girls with big boobs scrubbing each other's backs in the bath while foam covers all their sensitive regions.

That's just sad. Another big problem imo is that Animators are dependend of Japan. It's pretty much the only country with an anime culture. I'm pretty sure most of the fans appreciate something more out of an anime. A good story, non G-cup girls etc. I mean, how can an animator experiment with a new anime, if it has to have fanservice. I hate how Japans taste in anime has changed over the years. Have people really become that horny and desperate, that boobs, pantyshots and generic crap are the way to succes. It's just wrong and disgusting. I don't have any problems with anyone enjoying those kinda shows, don't get me wrong. But I hate how big of an influence it has on the anime culture.

I don't think people became horny and desperate. I honestly just think that many normal adults don't really want to give anime as a medium a chance anymore because of the association with the fanbase. But said fanbase is also the most consistent form of revenue because they are suckers who have no quality standards and a lot of money which they will part with easily. So the gulf between artistic or creative shows (which would interest normal people who are not into otaku crap) and otaku shows grows more and more. The otakus don't really want shows like that, since it doesn't interest them, and so they won't support such shows. But the overbearing presence of the otaku culture makes it such that people who would be interested in those shows simply don't want to be associated with watching anime at all. Hence in the end, there is a very, very tiny audience left for those shows.

That's how I see it anyway.

That actually makes more sense :heh: I guess the people that grew up with 80's , 90's anime are the ones you're referring to. I wonder when the otaku took over. Was it early 2000 (around 2000-2002). Before there was hardly any moe and fanservice. Not as much as nowadays anime anyway. When did the target audience change from non-otaku to otaku? I cannot stand the amount of fanservice shows. I'm open for any genre, but the abundant fanservice and moe makes them really hard to watch.
I wonder what non-JP's fans standpoint on this is? I guess in the end it doesn't really matter. If you compare the sales from Japan alone to worldwide, I bet Japan still sells more.

You mean, other than Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii, right? I kind of wanted to add Hosoda to the mix, but I don't think he is that well-known outside of Japan and anime fans.

Otaku never took over, they always were the main audience for the kind of anime we are talking about here. Late night anime is simply an evolution from the OVA market in the 80's and 90's, neither the target audience nor the business model has changed much, the same is true about the amount of fanservice for that matter.

Anime aimed at an adult audience, with some notable exceptions, were never mainstream. On the other hand, there were more shows for kids and teenagers because up until the late 90's these anime had great ratings.

About what non-Japanese like, well Infinite Stratos is the first or second most downloaded anime this season, make of that what you will.