X-Men


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So with episode 4, the moniker of the Amazing X-men is well placed if this adaption is anything to go by.

The two battle sequences were really strong. I felt the first battle sequence was well choreographed, directed and just in general a really good action set piece. Also I cant get enough of Cyclops's beam. I guess I love the sheer force of it, it is absolute.

Wolverine's mid-flight tangle was just nuts but was a good way of exemplifying the versatility of the X-men and how they adapt to less than ideal situations.

Besides the action, the plot is also developing nicely. There is now a clear direction related to the mutant condition which will inherently be interesting given the property.

The only thing niggling at me now is Hisako. Her fragile temperament is starting to annoy me especially as she has the power to place a geothermal suit of armour around herself.
 
QUOTE (franzoir @ Apr 23 2011, 04:55 PM) So with episode 4, the moniker of the Amazing X-men is well placed if this adaption is anything to go by.
I hope that's sarcasm there. The animation quality was absolutely hideous this episode. First of all, I could barely see half the fight scene with Wolverine in it and then there were various moments where Hisako was chubbier/fatter than she was suppose to be. Overall, while the amount of action this episode was certainly the most so far, it was poorly animated. It's like the staff can't keep that balance for some reason. I'm sure that if I could see what was going on, the Wolverine fight would have been gorgeous, but because I couldn't see it, there's really not much I can comment on.
 
QUOTE (Kit-Tsukasa @ Apr 23 2011, 10:21 PM) I hope that's sarcasm there.
Nope not at all. Wolverine fight was very blurry, but I dont think that it is down to the animation staff. Im more inclined to think it is due to the fansubbers. It just looked like they fansubbers failed to render it properly maybe because they are using old assed equipment.
 
QUOTE (franzoir @ Apr 24 2011, 12:23 AM) Nope not at all. Wolverine fight was very blurry, but I dont think that it is down to the animation staff. Im more inclined to think it is due to the fansubbers. It just looked like they fansubbers failed to render it properly maybe because they are using old assed equipment.
It might be both. The Animax channel that X-Men airs on is known to be very low quality for some reason.
 
Yeah the fight of Wolverine really wasnt good to see. A great shame.

But the rest of the ep was pretty good. The Story is interesting and has a lot of ways to go and a good chance for some twists.

The only real question is: Why the hell dont I get my Storm and Frost in 720p??? Every useless series is 720p but not here oO
 
Part of it is the animators' fault for making it so blurry and hard to follow. Still, most of it was the encoder's fault, I DLd a version from a different group and it looks a lot more crisp.
 
The guy tries to melt adamantium? Lol, good luck with that. And shouldn't Storm be able to sense where the abnormalities in nature come from? Looks like they're getting a lot of the special powers wrong...

Also can't say I'm liking the episodic nature of the show; say what you want about "Wolverine"'s silliness, but I think its overall formula of minimum story maximum action, with a very focused, narrow story worked a lot better (even if, as some will complain, the story wasn't all that good - though here we're now halfway through the series and there's no real story to speak of at all).
 
QUOTE (Ausdoerrt @ May 14 2011, 09:39 PM) Also can't say I'm liking the episodic nature of the show; say what you want about "Wolverine"'s silliness, but I think its overall formula of minimum story maximum action, with a very focused, narrow story worked a lot better (even if, as some will complain, the story wasn't all that good - though here we're now halfway through the series and there's no real story to speak of at all).
Then it was a wise move on my part, for dropping this snorefest.
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I had to after episode three, since it was just a mishmash of nothing to it. I do agree, Aus-san, despite the mediocrity that was Wolverine, it had good action and some semblance of a story. Ah well...hope you will get your story, at least three episodes out before it's over.
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Well, it's still fun to watch, but I consistently feel compelled to scroll directly down to the mandatory action sequence of the episode, usually somewhere 10 minutes into the episode.
 
About Storm. I think its easy to explain. Because of all this mutant-not-sensing and all the disturbances that happened when they went to that part in the mountains its not really surprising she couldnt sense anything.
The bigger question is why has Emma now a different hairstyle that doesnt look as good as before -.-
 
Episode 8...all I can say is my eyes bled. The animation quality in this episode was horrible, especially towards the end and during the preview. The fight was also relatively poor despite being action heavy. All the mist seemed like censoring and even if it wasn't I'm rather disappointed as to why even bother when it's already so hard to see to begin with. That's what I call poor quality control.

The story is still really flaky and unconvincing even though the action is enjoyable to watch. The whole U-Men thing from the beginning of the series seems like it was just tossed aside and Jean's tragedy seems like it is gradually also falling in the same pit. The show seems like it's trying too hard to weave together a lot of elements but unable to create a proper linkage to the big picture. With 4 episodes left and given how little development has actually been made, it's very hard to believe that this won't end rushed like Wolverine.
 
Yes the animation quality really is poor. Especially when they are in dark places its hard to recognize anything. That together with the fact that its only 480p is destroying a lot.

I too wonder how they wanna finish this in time. But I wonder even more why this only gets 12 eps, while Wolverine got 12 too in which nothing really happened. I mean the plot of Wolverine couldve been done in 4 eps too. Its was overly stretched and totally not rushed @Kit.
 
QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ May 30 2011, 08:05 AM) Yes the animation quality really is poor. Especially when they are in dark places its hard to recognize anything. That together with the fact that its only 480p is destroying a lot.
Yeah, I really hate how this show is upscaled from 480p to 720p, especially when it's easily the best one so far. It's sad since Iron Man is native 720p but was so much worse. Wolverine I believe was 480p upscale to 720p though.


QUOTE I too wonder how they wanna finish this in time. But I wonder even more why this only gets 12 eps, while Wolverine got 12 too in which nothing really happened. I mean the plot of Wolverine couldve been done in 4 eps too. Its was overly stretched and totally not rushed @Kit.
Because Stan Lee "said" so. He is still the Associate Executive Producer for these projects after all.
 
So X-men is finished. I really like the last episode. It was a cameo fest which was pretty sweet. I think I saw deadpool and the I.G Ironman was a bit of WTF. Overall everything was wrapped in a nice little bow and ofcourse Takeo has to die because Charles cant have a bastard child.

A few disappointments were Hisako replacing Kitty Pryde which was unsuccessful imo. Storm in this continuity was not considered omega level which is a shame but I understand why. She would be too OP like Takeo and Jean. Lastly, ofcourse the varying quality of the show in general.

Ultimately what won me over about this show was it is the second Xmen property since the 90s cartoon that was not afraid to focus on Cyclops. The first being Marvel Knights Astonishing X-men which was pretty awesome. Im pretty much tired of Wolverine taking the limelight in the films etc. Thank god he wasnt in First Class.

With all the cameos, I was expecting to see Magneto and while the red purple menace was never seen there is a nice nod to those who followed the films. I guess Xmen will continue.

Overall, I give it 6/10. Not as impressive as DC's anime feature Batman Gotham Knight anthology but by far Marvels best effort into the foray of anime.
 
X-Men's final episode cameo fest was indeed awesome. While they didn't really do much, it's nice to see some familiar faces.

On to the actual review though... Like Iron Man, and Wolverine, X-Men is the third collaboration project between Marvel and Madhouse and takes place in Japan. Given the track record thus far, X-Men's expectations were pretty damn low. Nevertheless, X-Men truly shined above Iron Man and Wolverine. The show actually had a mildly interesting plot and it made sense...well at least moreso than the previous two works. The biggest downfall of X-Men in the story department, however, was the lack of any deep diving. They mentioned secondary mutation, which I was expecting to have it play the dominant role in the story (e.g. Emma eventually getting hit hard by it, etc...), and also mentioned the U-Men, who literally kicked the bucket after 2 episodes. All in all, the plot was certainly more interesting but need more time to thoroughly develop. The show moved really slow in the first 6 episodes before finally getting into the nitty gritty. Professor X having a kid was probably the dumbest aspect of this show in addition to Jean being able to "communicate" from the afterlife. The cliffhanger at the finale (if you could call it that), is pretty much expected given all the Magneto references...though I don't see what the purpose was since there is little chance of any sequel here (if so, Madhouse is likely wasting its time at this point).

Animation was a crap shoot in this show. Dark scenes were impossible to make out (especially Wolverine's fight in episode 4) and the color tones were a horrible choice overall. All the characters were drawn as if they were on steroids, which probably was the biggest issue I had in this show. I mean Hisako is probably 13 or so, yet she looks as if she's a huge bodybuilder.

Seiyuu and music were nice in this show. Yukari Tamura as Hisako kinda hit the spot dead on here. The cast was well done overall and the music, while simply redundant mash-ups of each other wasn't bad either...though I prefer Wolverine's bgms much more.

Character development? What development, this was a complete toss out of the window, even for the "new" characters. Mastermind simply appeared and disappeared...so much for the "villain" of the show.

Enjoyment? Like I said, the bar was low for this show to begin with. But that doesn't mean that I would look forward to it every week. In fact, it definitely was on the lower end of that list.

Overall, X-Men had a very cliche story and ending with Hisako being the heroine of the show and ultimately the "most useful." The one good thing I liked is that they killed off Takeo. Had they not, I would've began to question the issue with Jean back in episode 1. Takeo's death signaled that at least when writing this story, they weren't going to make some huge unexplainable miracle happen. Nevertheless, I think that this should have been the 4th project instead of the 3rd since Blade does not look promising at all.

Preliminary Score: 6/10
Final Score: 6/10
 
I applaud yall's perseverance for sitting through the rest of the show. I personally got too bored of it; perhaps marathoning the original animated series before this one started airing was a mistake, since it's nowhere close to the one I grew up with.

QUOTE Nevertheless, I think that this should have been the 4th project instead of the 3rd since Blade does not look promising at all.

It's not like they do them in order of suckiness.
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As for Blade, I don't really know what to expect since I never read the comics and was introduced to it through the movies. I think the series will have a hard time living up to any expectations based on that, since the first Blade movie was pretty darn awesome.
 
Like the others already said this is the best Marvel-Anime for now, but still not great either.
The two biggest negative points where the animation and the rushing through everything. If it was 24 eps or so long it wouldve been a lot better and with good animation it wouldve been a really great show.
I really wonder why Marvel is doing this in the first place since their animes totally look like they dont even want to try making it great.

And Emma hairstyle change was bad too, really bad -.-

Overall a 7/10 from me.

@Ausdoerrt: From what Ive seen in the PV the series is a retelling of the first movie, so yes it will be really hard to succeed. And if I look at the other Marvel-animes I would say its impossible. Still I will watch it, or at least begin with it.
 
Meh, then I'll probably just rent the movie DVD and watch that instead
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