X-Men #01 — Delicious Manservice

April 1st, 2011

 

Bodies like that cannot be healthy.

Impressions:

Why do I bother? Oh right, to laugh at these character designs. Good lord. Hank looks like a yeti mated with a puma, Logan like a yeti mated with a gorilla, and I’m not sure there’s room on Scott’s body between all those muscles to also carry the angst. How else are we going to get our manservice in without having him stripped down to nothing but his pants, wet, and screaming his anguish to the heavens. This is probably the time where I point out that Professor X and Beast are the only males fully dressed for more than 50% of their total screen time. 

As for the usual bits, it looked okay… considering that the only thing they fought was debris from Jean going Phoenix. They didn’t even win against the debris, but I did laugh at Logan taking a girder in the face. Like Iron Man and Wolverine before it, Madhouse continues to not understand that the appeal of superhero shows is heroes being super, not heroes talking about their feelings and how emotional they are. It’s also impossible to take the show seriously when it’s making jokes about Wolverine getting caught in metal detectors between bouts of generic undirected angst from Xavier and Scott. A pre-established universe is not an excuse for development. If you want to do drama right, you better the hell actually develop it instead of just saying "things are bad now, and that makes me saaaaaad."

Anyway, I’d put it at about Wolverine’s level, but without an OP entitled "Feel My Claws," so in overall entertainment value, it’s a step down from what was already little more than a joke to begin with. A surprise, I know. The new character designs succeed only in making the show even harder to take seriously, but it is so chock full of melodrama that who even knows anymore. Thank goodness there’s only one of these Madhouse disasters left.

Preview:

Cyclops, you have laser eyes. Why are you shooting mini-rockets?

Posted in Anime | 11 Comments »

11 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • yuuji says:
    April 1, 2011 at 8:23 am

    well it is better than iron man at least…

  • Slicer says:
    April 1, 2011 at 8:33 am

    At least this probably makes the average Wolverine and the X-men look great by comparison! That counts for something right?

    • Aroduc says:
      April 1, 2011 at 8:41 am

      I don’t think anything can make rapist elf Tony Stark look great. This did have overall better production, it all just looked completely ridiculous.

  • shadow says:
    April 1, 2011 at 10:56 am

    here who is the macho alfa, the men wolverine or cyclop
    the girls here are only a small helph.

  • 6six6 says:
    April 1, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    This is obviously Japan’s way of getting back at America after Hollywood bastardized Dragonball Z, Street Fighter, King of Fighters, etc.

  • Haohmaru says:
    April 2, 2011 at 3:16 am

    I really don’t agree with you review. X-men doesn’t need to be emo you said. So there were no emo ep ever in the us comics, shows or movies? The ep was emo because Jean died. What do you expect? Every to be like all happy and in super mode 5 minutes later.
    Ep was a great hit IMO. Finally some decent to good animation and best of all finally some good character designs. And I really lol at your comments about them being to buf. Have you actually ever seen the Marvel character designs and how buf those are? And I don’t know if you’ve ever read any x-men comics but beast actually looks like some of his newer comic counter parts. But to each his own I guess.
    And for those that actually want the super hero action, check the preview for the next ep. Enough action there.

  • The Phantom says:
    April 2, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    LOL at all that melodrama and manservice, a sad day for the X-Men franchise indeed.

  • Light says:
    April 4, 2011 at 4:10 pm

    Well, i totally agree with Haohmarus comment about how the review. And even if i like the layout and content i wonder why you even look and review on anime when you seem not to like anything? Are you just dumb or are you a masochist?

  • Speedyshadow says:
    April 8, 2011 at 7:51 am

    Meh…the designs arent really that bad and i like how they designed Storm with her medium-short hair. But then again she lost her long hair, that’s what made her the motherly character in the X-men. This design made her look more like a tomboy.

  • Anon says:
    April 25, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    “Like Iron Man and Wolverine before it, Madhouse continues to not understand that the appeal of superhero shows is heroes being super, not heroes talking about their feelings and how emotional they are.”

    This is just a Marvel thing. The comics do it, the cartoons usually do it, and it’s always been a trademark of theirs. It’s why I’m a DC fan.

    “bouts of generic undirected angst from Xavier and Scott. A pre-established universe is not an excuse for development. If you want to do drama right, you better the hell actually develop it instead of just saying “things are bad now, and that makes me saaaaaad.””

    The X-Men comics in a nutshell. Just needs more killing off Jean Grey for drama over and over, and introducing new characters who end up drifting into irrelevancy and character decay within a few issues.