(L) X-Men (Madhouse)

[Triple_R]

Just watched the second episode.

Very solid. Logical continuation off of what Episode 1 gave us.

Good plot pacing. Very easy to follow, but not overly slow.


I very much like the handling of Scott's character, and of Logan's, and of how their relationship is being handled in this anime so far.

This anime has managed to make me care about the character of Cyclops in a way that precious few comics have. I think that this anime has captured an essential appealing quality to the character. He has a bit of an idealistic streak in him, and he is very passionate, but he tends to know when to cut his losses and make the tough hard choices. At least, that's how his character came across to me when Cyclops was at his best in the comics, and North American cartoons.

Storm and Beast have also been handled well, serving their respective roles nicely.

The horror of what the U-Men are doing to these Japanese mutants is effectively presented, and the emotions feel intense but believable (maybe just a touch too melodramatic at times, but nothing horribly overdone, imo).


I'm really liking this anime so far, and I'm definitely looking forward to more.

[Samari]

The second episode was alright. Not bad. I don't like how Storm gets really weak after a few lightning blasts. Cyclops didn't seem like the character he should be either as leader of the X-Men when he should have blasted that monster away instead of hesitating. Cyclops is a good commander in the comics and knows how to do his job even when there are difficult choices too make. Looks like they took that important aspect away from the character, which was disappointing. Not sure how long I'll still with this series now that I think about it. The lack of X-Men like Colossus, Gambit, or Nightcrawler (fan favorites) is really kind of a downer.

One last thing I'd like to add:

Spoiler for ...:

Dang those are some tig ol' bitties.

[delirium]

Originally Posted by Samari

One last thing I'd like to add:

Spoiler for ...:

Dang those are some tig ol' bitties.

Those are called fan service.

[duckroll]

Newtype has credits for the upcoming episodes of X-men.

Spoiler for Episode Credits:

Ep3 - Armor [Awakening]
Script: Mitsutaka Hirota
Episode Director: Shunichi Yoshizawa
Storyboard: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Animation Director: Minami Yoshida


Ep4 - Transformation [Secondary Mutation]
Script: Hideo Takayashiki
Episode Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Storyboard: Tomoyuki Niho
Animation Director: Shinya Segawa


Ep5 - Power [Unity]
Script: Mitsutaka Hirota
Episode Director: Naomi Nakayama
Storyboard: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Animation Director: Ai Yokoyama


Ep6 - Conflict [Fierce Battle]
Script: Hideo Takayashiki
Episode Director: Yukio Nishimoto
Storyboard: Ken Ootsuka
Animation Director: Mika Yamamoto

[Mr.Amazing]

[QUOTE=Samari;3565937]The second episode was alright. Not bad. I don't like how Storm gets really weak after a few lightning blasts. Cyclops didn't seem like the character he should be either as leader of the X-Men when he should have blasted that monster away instead of hesitating. Cyclops is a good commander in the comics and knows how to do his job even when there are difficult choices too make. Looks like they took that important aspect away from the character, which was disappointing. Not sure how long I'll still with this series now that I think about it. The lack of X-Men like Colossus, Gambit, or Nightcrawler (fan favorites) is really kind of a downer.

I kind of like the fact that Storm's powers take a toll on her, but I agree that Cyclops' lack of leadership so far has been dissappointing. I don't like the fact that Logan is constantly having to keep reminding Cyclops to fight. His compassion is admirable, but his choice to save Storm came way too late. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the Japanese girl will fit in to the group. It will be nice to see fresh faces on the team. I mean if you want nightcrawler Gambit and Collossus you might as well just watch the 90's cartoon, or Xmen evolution again.

[delirium]

Originally Posted by duckroll

Newtype has credits for the upcoming episodes of X-men.

Spoiler for Episode Credits:

Ep3 - Armor [Awakening]
Script: Mitsutaka Hirota
Episode Director: Shunichi Yoshizawa
Storyboard: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Animation Director: Minami Yoshida


Ep4 - Transformation [Secondary Mutation]
Script: Hideo Takayashiki
Episode Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Storyboard: Tomoyuki Niho
Animation Director: Shinya Segawa


Ep5 - Power [Unity]
Script: Mitsutaka Hirota
Episode Director: Naomi Nakayama
Storyboard: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Animation Director: Ai Yokoyama


Ep6 - Conflict [Fierce Battle]
Script: Hideo Takayashiki
Episode Director: Yukio Nishimoto
Storyboard: Ken Ootsuka
Animation Director: Mika Yamamoto

Armor's power are obviously activating in Episode 3. Episode 4 seems to be about Emma Frost's secondary mutation, that being her organic diamond form. Unity appears to be about the X-Men uniting and kicking ass as a team, and perhaps Conflict is about the Hellfire Club's motives being revealed or something along the lines. I seriously hope it doesn't take them six episodes to draw the U-Men arc to a close and further the Hellfire Club story.

[Arabesque]

Looks like I've got nothing more to add to the discussion of this episode that hadn't been said already (other than constantly blaming this thread for getting me excited about a Marvel Anime!) so I'll comment on the next episodes

Originally Posted by duckroll

Newtype has credits for the upcoming episodes of X-men.

Spoiler for Episode Credits:

Ep3 - Armor [Awakening]
Script: Mitsutaka Hirota
Episode Director: Shunichi Yoshizawa
Storyboard: Akitoshi Yokoyama
Animation Director: Minami Yoshida


Ep4 - Transformation [Secondary Mutation]
Script: Hideo Takayashiki
Episode Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Storyboard: Tomoyuki Niho
Animation Director: Shinya Segawa


Ep5 - Power [Unity]
Script: Mitsutaka Hirota
Episode Director: Naomi Nakayama
Storyboard: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Animation Director: Ai Yokoyama


Ep6 - Conflict [Fierce Battle]
Script: Hideo Takayashiki
Episode Director: Yukio Nishimoto
Storyboard: Ken Ootsuka
Animation Director: Mika Yamamoto

Spoiler for :

As we can gather from the preview, episode 3 will be an Armor episode, focusing primarily on her awakening. Should be interesting how they handle her characterization.

Episode 4 should be an Emma Frost episode, considering that she's the only character in the shows lineup that actually has an established Secondary mutation. Now they might show a different mutant with a secondary mutation, but that's doubtful (perhaps it could shed some new light on the matter?)

Episode 5 sounds like a Cyclopes episode where he breaks out of his funk and takes a stronger leadership stance, or at least it seems like it will be about the X-men realizing themselves as a team once again and banding together. I'm interested in Yoshiaki Kawajiri working on it, considering that he's a great animator and had previously worked on the (relatively) best episode of Iron Man (ep.4) and his work should be better here with an actual budget to work with.

Episode 6, from the title, will most likely be an action episode, meant to showcase how the team will now function more fully and combat-able. The staff working on it seems promising, Ken Ootsuka in particular. Let's hope they didn't run out of money before then though LOL.

I'm noticing that a lot of great animators are working on storyboarding in this anime, where it might be better if they took the position of episode directors as it would help produce a better looking episodes.

[Samari]

Originally Posted by Mr.Amazing

I mean if you want nightcrawler Gambit and Collossus you might as well just watch the 90's cartoon, or Xmen evolution again.

Yeah except the problem is that I've already seen those.

Oh well, I can always pick up a comic book.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Samari

Oh well, I can always pick up a comic book.

Unless they've changed something in the last few years, even doing that won't net you Gambit.

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by Arabesque

I'm noticing that a lot of great animators are working on storyboarding in this anime, where it might be better if they took the position of episode directors as it would help produce a better looking episodes.

I don't think animators working as episode directors would help produce better looking episodes at all. Unit directors are basically in charge of overseeing the production of the actual episode, and communicating the vision of the series director to development staff of that episode on a day to day basis while that episode is in production.

What produces better looking episodes is the budget allocated to the series, which is translated into resources and time. For resources, having more animators in-house, and a good animation director (or multiple ones) for each episode will allow quality animation to be produced in shorter amounts of time. For time, having more time to produce each episode will allow the staff working on an episode to create more detail and correct mistakes in the animation and art.

What I've noticed so far on the credits on X-men is that quite a number are animators who have not taken on the role of animation director before. While this could usually be a cause for concern, the director of the series himself was originally an animator himself. Fuminori Kizaki seems to have a good grip of the production process, and Michinori Chiba is a very experienced animation director. By having him supervise the overall animation direction process for the series, as long as the animation directors they pick are good animators, even if they lack experience in animation direction they should be learning a lot from this project.

As for the episode directors, they are pretty seasoned staff as well. Yukio Nishimoto and Hiroshi Ikehata are definitely directors will are able to get quality results from good storyboards, so having quality animators storyboard episodes is a pretty great idea imo. Especially since the show is action heavy, their animation background helps pace the scenes better, and lay the action set pieces out in a clear and detailed way.

Naomi Nakayama working on Kawajiri's episode will be very interesting, since he also worked on several episodes of Iron Man as storyboarder and episode director, but most of the output in Iron Man was definitely hindered by poor writing and poor animation/art. Since the production for X-men is much smoother in general, and of a higher standard, it could be pretty impressive if they work well with this team.

I'm personally most interested in seeing how how episode 4 turns out, because Ikehata is a solid episode director, and he's working with a very fresh team on this episode. Niho is a fantastic animator, and this would be his first time storyboarding an episode. I always like seeing good animators move "up" in the production chain so to speak, so I can see what other skills they're capable of showing off. Segawa is one of the animators I was referring to previous who has not done animation direction before, but he has worked on quite a number of projects with a strong animation culture, and he did animation on episode 1 as well, so similar to Katanao Akai (ep2's AD) it's a case of the core animation team under Chiba stepping up to help supervise the animation since he cannot be the AD for every single episode.

Now on to more spoilery elements of the discussion:

Spoiler for Newtype summaries for Ep3-6:

Ep3: The X-men find Hisako and Emma Frost inside the base of the U-men. Hisako claims that Emma is her teacher, who came to rescue her. They don't believe that because Cyclops still remembers that it was Emma he saw in Jean's vision before she died.

Ep4: Emma undergoes a secondary mutation when her diamond body power activates as she shields Hisako from a laser blast shot by a dying enemy. To study this phenomena further, they decide to bring Emma back to Professor X in New York. Hisako asks to go with them as well.

Ep5: Professor X decides to make Emma Frost an official member of the X-men, and Hisako a probationary member. Cyclops starts going all emo and voices his suspicions to everyone. Lolz.

Ep6: Having settled their misunderstandings with Emma, the X-men are united stronger than ever. Under the command of Professor X, they return to the Tohoko region of Japan. But there, the remnants of the U-men are awaiting them...

[delirium]

Originally Posted by Samari

Yeah except the problem is that I've already seen those.

Oh well, I can always pick up a comic book.

Or can you?

Spoiler for nightcrawler ;;:

Nightcrawler died in the siege of Utopia by Bastion's forces. Sorry to break it to you.

Collossus isn't so popular at the moment, but may be in the upcoming Uncanny X-Men arc concerning Breakworld. He and Kitty Pryde should play an integral role in it. If you want some Nightcrawler, spoiler aside, check out the recent Wolverine stand-alone series reboot. It features him to some small degree helping Wolverine out to some degree.

Gambit is seemingly okay though. Check out X-Men: Second Coming, X-Men: Divided We Stand, and X-Men: Utopia. and Messiah Complex. Not in that order, of course, but yeah!

[Samari]

Originally Posted by delirium

Or can you?

Spoiler for nightcrawler ;;:

Nightcrawler died in the siege of Utopia by Bastion's forces. Sorry to break it to you.

Collossus isn't so popular at the moment, but may be in the upcoming Uncanny X-Men arc concerning Breakworld. He and Kitty Pryde should play an integral role in it. If you want some Nightcrawler, spoiler aside, check out the recent Wolverine stand-alone series reboot. It features him to some small degree helping Wolverine out to some degree.

Gambit is seemingly okay though. Check out X-Men: Second Coming, X-Men: Divided We Stand, and X-Men: Utopia. and Messiah Complex. Not in that order, of course, but yeah!

Meh. Don't really care about "you know who". And you know he'll come back at some point anyways. And that goes for practically anyone that is gone for a while in the comic book world. I'm sure Jean Grey will come back at some point too. Colossus on the other hand is one of my favorites. Along with Gambit.

[kenjiharima]

A good episode. One thing I found funny is that Cyclopes instead of blasting those robots with his optic blast he missile them...He's really a douche even in the anime version.

[Funkatron]

I thought he used the missiles because it was hard to aim his head to shoot AND drive his motorcycle at the same time?

[duckroll]

Using lasers and missiles from his bike allows him to move and shoot multiple targets at the same time. There is also a lock-on function. When enemies are lined up in a row, or if there is only one target, he wouldn't need to use stuff like that. Cyclops loves toys anyway, why do you think he pilots the Blackbird. Lol.

[Samari]

Originally Posted by kenjiharima

A good episode. One thing I found funny is that Cyclopes instead of blasting those robots with his optic blast he missile them...He's really a douche even in the anime version.

That was retarded. Sorry if I piss off any hardcore anime fans, but when I saw that I immediately thought "Geez, why must anime implement robotic weapons and the like with every single thing?". Next time they won't even need their powers, they'll just be in Gundams.

If I'm coming off as a hater, please let me know.

[klare]

just watched the first 2 eps, i think this is much better than Ironman (i did not dare to try Wolverine)

i like the character design, the art style and the atmosphere they created

things that i not so like: the weaker Storm, the overly emo Cyclops, the name of U-Men

[delirium]

Originally Posted by Samari

Meh. Don't really care about "you know who". And you know he'll come back at some point anyways. And that goes for practically anyone that is gone for a while in the comic book world. I'm sure Jean Grey will come back at some point too. Colossus on the other hand is one of my favorites. Along with Gambit.

The only way Jean Grey can come back is if they utterly remove the Phoenix Force from her, which seems unlikely as it's being said that she is now apart of it in a sense, that the connection between the two has gone beyond the relationship they shared when Jean Grey was merely host to it. Either way, that's what they have to do. That or they could bring Jean Grey back into full swing as a cosmic power dealer for the cosmic line of Marvel titles, yet it seems that is unlikely as the Annihilators title that seems to have replaced Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova is doing rather poorly in terms of story.

Jean Grey would have to play the villain for a short time. In doing so, the cosmic line of heroes that died after the events pertaining to the 616 universe and the Cancerverse could come back. They along with other cosmic powers can beat the Phoenix Force into submission, and in doing so they could perhaps write it so that the Phoenix Force finds Jean Grey to no longer be a suitable "host" and separates from her, if there is any Jean Grey left at this point. She could then return as a normal mutant, but what place could she hold with the X-Men? She could perhaps as I've already said, join the line of heroes that exist outside of Earth, but she has been replaced by Emma Frost as Scott Summer's love interest. I don't seriously remember that fantastic of a character beyond her character's role as love interest to Scott Summers and as a plot device for the Phoenix Force.

They have to remove remove the Phoenix Force from Jean Grey. The very fact that they developed the Phoenix Force more than Jean Grey after all this time is proof enough that it will be very hard to write the character without it, and that is the very dilemma at hand. I for one hope they don't do anything with Nightcrawler for the time being, at least until something is done with the whole repercussions of the House of M story arc, and the Phoenix Force.

Originally Posted by Samari

That was retarded. Sorry if I piss off any hardcore anime fans, but when I saw that I immediately thought "Geez, why must anime implement robotic weapons and the like with every single thing?". Next time they won't even need their powers, they'll just be in Gundams.

If I'm coming off as a hater, please let me know.

You're not coming off as a "hater". It is ridiculous to use technology rather than their own powers.

[orion]

Originally Posted by delirium

You're not coming off as a "hater". It is ridiculous to use technology rather than their own powers.

If using too much of your powers lead to exhaustion, then you need to rely on technology. Saving your best for the final battle.

[Kon the Magnificent]

So, it's more than likely that Jubilee will be shot from this series too, right?