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matt_zimmerMarvel Anime: Iron Man
That beat Batman: Gotham Knight. To death. With a shovel.
After DC Universe's Anibatrix fiasco I was looking forward to this like I was a head cold. But man, even if the first two episodes were completely boring and the ending a bit of a let-down it kicked the snot out of Gotham Knight.
Let's get the complaints out of the way first. Tony Stark's character design is ridiculously ugly. Adrian Pasdar as the English voice is able to salvage the character but the design is repellent. I haven't watched the Japanese Language track yet so I can't tell how well his Japanese voice fares but Pasdar actually sounds like Tony Stark even though the character doesn't look like him.
Another complaint is that the story is too slow moving in places. Although that may be just due to the anime sensibility.
I really dug the newspaper reporter Nanami and was hoping she and Tony would eventually have a thing. She's so funny and cute that I was rooting for her the entire way through. When she got sick in "Outbreak" my jaw hit the floor.
I also really liked the romance between Tony and Chika. Tony was annoying in the first couple of episodes but like Chika I eventually warmed up to him.
Best episodes were the freaky sickness episode (Outbreak) and "A Duel Of Iron", which was the series high point. Worst episodes were the first two (Japan: Enter Iron Man / Going Nuclear). Series Overall: ****.
Japan: Enter Iron Man: Honestly, this was super boring. I'm glad I stuck with the series as it improved as it went along but this and episode two were dullsville. I like that Editor Homura seems to be based on J. Jonah Jameson. He's even voiced by Daran Norris in the English version who voiced Jameson on The Spectacular Spider-Man. **.
Going Nuclear: As I said, this was boring but I think Nanami is a cute and funny character. **.
Reap The Whirlwind: Disappointingly, this isn't about the Iron Man rogue. It's still a vast improvement from the first two episodes though. ***1/2.
A Twist Of Memory, A Turn Of The Mind: The Petrelli brothers reunited! I love that it appears all of these Marvel Anime projects will share a continuity, loose or not. It was awesome seeing Logan. I like the twist at the end of Yinsen being alive. I didn't understand the motivation of the race car driver. Surely he can't believe that if he kills Tony Stark, especially in so public a setting in front of hundreds of witnesses that he wouldn't go to jail, much less still be able to race. Plot hole. ****.
Outbreak: That blue vomit was absolutely freaky and scared me more than any sickness since The Stand's Captain Trips. Yikes. Great episode. ****1/2.
Technical Difficulties: The good: the computer virus scenario was imaginative. The bad: I could give a flying frak about the villain's motivation and tragic backstory. ***1/2.
Daughter Of The Zodiac: Diverting enough. I can't tell if I find Aki funny or annoying. Cute though. ***.
A Duel Of Iron: Best episode of the series. It had an exciting climax, a great cliffhanger and took things up to the next level. Excellent. *****.
Casualties Of War: I am SO disappointed Yinsen didn't turn out to be the Big Bad of the series. He really puts Tony through the wringer and I found his deathbed repentence unconvincing. It was good, don't get me wrong, but I could tell after watching this that the next two episodes would be let-downs and I was right. ****.
The Beginning Of The End: I liked this episode when I was watching it but in retrospect after seeing the series finale I don't think it's probably as good I as originally thought it was. I liked the last shot of Sakurai dying though. ***1/2.
The End: Major let-down. Bummer of an ending and simply not enough action. I don't know what I was expecting but after A Duel Of Iron I knew this series could knock it out of the park when it wanted to. Not terrible and it doesn't really diminish the series but I am really disappointed. ***
The Marvel Anime Universe: Re-Imagining Iron Man: Featurette about the making of the series. ****.
Voicing Tony Stark: Interview With Keiji Fujiwara: Interview with the voice of the Japanese version with subtitles. I find it interesting that the actor find links between this version and the live-action one. I don't personally see it but it's something to look out for. ****.
21st Century Hero: The Technology Of Iron Man: About the technology of Tony Stark's suit. **1/2.
Special Cross Talk: Marvel Anime's Iron Man And Wolverine: I found this roundtable discussion of the Japanese animators funny because it's pretty clear they have no real idea of how American superheroes work. It amuses me that people who worked on a 12 episode Iron Man TV series still have zero understanding of Tony Stark. To be perfectly fair, I don't much understand Japanese heroes either. I think the very different approaches to heroes is what made this experiment interesting. ***1/2.
DVD Menus: Static and mute. The language menu is easy to access though and choosing the English version sans subtitles is a breeze. **1/2..
Marvel Anime: X-Men
Another superhero anime that deeply shames Batman: Gotham Knight. What was Bruce Timm thinking?
This is better than Iron Man: Anime in some ways and worse in others. It had a MUCH better and stronger beginning than Iron Man. By a mile. And the ending was more satisfying too (I actually want to see a sequel now which is something the Iron Man toon didn't make me feel). On the other hand, there is no single episode as great as "A Duel Of Iron" on this set. Maybe that's understandable since Iron Man was a BIT less serialized but I wish we had gotten a knock-out like that one.
It's also great to hear Steve Blum, Fred Tatasciore, and Jennifer Hale return to the voices of Logan, Beast and Jean Grey respectively on the English dub. I still miss Wolverine and the X-Men greatly and it was a treat to hear some of the cast together again, especially since Blum and Tatasciore got the opportunity to play around with each other a bit. Greatness.
I also love that Emma Frost is a straight up good guy in this. You question her allegience a bit at the beginning because of what happened with Scott and Jean but by the end it's cleared up that she's innocent. Nicely done.
Best episodes on the set are the two where Sasaki CANNOT stop confessing to her evils ("Countdown" and "Revenge"). No real bad episodes but "Power" did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth for reasons I'll get into below. Series overall: ****.
The Return: Interesting premiere. The show definitely got off to a better start than Iron Man did. ***1/2.
U-Men: "Mutie" is one of those fictional racial slurs that makes me cringe. That and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Cardies" really seem to be reaching for a level of offensiveness that simply isn't there. DS9 calling the Cardassians "spoonheads" in the later seasons worked better because it was mean, personal, and you can tell the bigots spouting it off thought it was really clever. Offensive words are able to make the user, no matter how stupid or ill-bred they actually are, seem superior to their target if only in their own minds. Oh, and on an unrelated tangent how was the episode? I liked it a lot especially the reveal of Emma Frost at the end. ****.
Armor: I'm pleased they rescued Hisako so early in the series run and made her a part of the team (I was unaware she was a comic book creation until I watched the special features). I had been worried the entire series would revolve around trying to get her back. I mean, a missing kid may be a good hook for an Ashley Judd TV show (or not) but for a superhero toon I'm relieved it set up the premise rather than being it. ****.
Transformation: I like that the series periodically returned to the Xavier Institute. It made the mission seem global in a way that Iron Man's was not. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Iron Man: Anime. But it didn't really start to involve big stakes until the last couple of episodes. ***1/2.
Power: Cyclops really IS a turd, isn't he? There was NO need to involve the kid in a fight to the death at this stage in the game and a REAL hero wouldn't work out their love frustrations by abusing a child. The fact that he received kudos from the others afterwards really rubbed me the wrong way. ***.
Conflict: Another cool episode even though you can tell it's still just mostly set-up. Some cool action scenes though. ***1/2.
Betrayal: I cry foul! The episode title and preview made me think there would be a, well, BETRAYAL of some sort. Not even close. Were the producers referring to Sasaki? Because she was HARDLY ever allied with the team and nobody trusted her from the start. Still, it was a pretty great episode. ****.
Lost: Getting good. I don't recall Mastermind from any of the cartoons. Does he go by another alias? ****.
Revelations: It's funny that this episode is called "Revelations" when it's really the next that answers the big, juicy stuff. ****.
Countdown: Was I the only one getting Zapp Brannigan vibes from The Garden of Eden in Futurama's "Inna-Gadda-Da-Leela" from this episode? Sasaki KEPT having to confess to embarrassing stuff when confronted, each thing more wicked than the last, and it just seems to keep going on forever. Loved it. I also loved Beast calling her crimes "unpardonable". That is such a great word. It's long, sounds REALLY intelligent, and yet everyone knows what it means when someone says it. That's the best kind of "smart" word. I WILL admit that this show tends to over-explain things but I think that is more common to Anime than it is in regular superhero cartoons (or at least that's what I've gathered from the few times I've sat down and suffered through Pokemon). Best episode of the series. ****1/2.
Revenge: Wolverine's Berserker rage was a REALLY clever way out for him and Beast to defeat the villain and it also happened to be awesome and funny as heck too. It was SO great to hear Steve Blum and Fred Tatasciore playfully riffing with each other again. I forgot how much I missed that. ****1/2.
Destiny: Do I wish there had actually been a major villain to fight in the last episode? Yeah. Iron Man had the same problem. But unlike Iron Man I felt the personal ending was earned. Plus, the show went for broke with cameos globally from characters from all over the Marvel Universe so no complaints from me. I loved Iron Man but this show had the better ending. And where's Magneto?!?! ****.
The Marvel Anime Universe: Re-Examining The X-Men: I like this interpretation of the X-Men and I didn't know Armor and the U-Men were from the comics. Cool featurette. ****1/2.
X-Men: A Team Of Outsiders: This is about the concept and characters. I think the most interesting thing for me was Warren Ellis' observation that as a weather goddess and now a queen, Storm no longer faces the kind of bigotry the other X-Men still have to put up with, so it sets her apart a little. I had never considered that before but it's true. ****1/2.
Special Talk Session: Marvel Anime's X-Men And Blade: I think the creators here have a better handle on the characters than the Iron Man team did. I also was VERY pleased to learn that the hopeful ending was purely on the Japanese animators and that Warren Ellis was originally gonna serve us a bummer. SUCH a modern comic book problem and I'm glad the Japanese animators had the good sense to actually make the ending satisfying. ****1/2.
DVD Menus: Similar to the Iron Man Menus. **1/2.
