Madhouse's 2011 X-Men Anime Is Gorgeous to Look At, but Painfully Slow to Get Going

Finding Out an X-Men Anime Even Existed

I was looking up the anime intros for the American X-Men series when it aired in Japan, and that is how I stumbled onto something I never expected: in 2011, Studio Madhouse animated its own X-Men series. "That's exactly what I thought when I found out," was pretty much my reaction, right along the lines of wondering how an X-Men anime could even exist. Once I knew it was out there, I got my hands on it right away.

The series is only 12 episodes, so it plays out more like a miniseries than a full season, and the episodes are regular length. That makes it an easy watch to get through, without too much ground to cover before reaching the end. I spent the past couple of weeks working through the whole run before sitting down with my thoughts on it.

Studio Madhouse's Animation Is a Visual Treat

The first thing worth saying is that Studio Madhouse is amazing here. The character models are incredibly detailed, the movements are fluid, and the art style carries the whole series. Visually, this is a treat from start to finish.

The action scenes are all tremendous, even though there weren't as many of them as I was hoping for. The character designs look exactly like what you'd expect from the X-Men. Picture the classic, detailed 90s look Jim Lee brought to the team, but given an anime twist, and that's essentially what this looks like.

The Story Picks Up Right After the Dark Phoenix Saga

What's interesting about the story is that it isn't really an adaptation pulled from the comics. It opens with the final moments of the Dark Phoenix Saga, including Jean's sacrifice, and builds its own story from there. Cyclops's whole arc through the series is built around him being depressed over losing Jean.

The roster of X-Men featured is kept pretty low: Xavier, Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Storm, and Emma Frost make up the main cast. That may disappoint people who want a bigger team, but it makes sense for a story this short. You can't have a giant roster of X-Men without sacrificing character development if you're only telling the story across 12 episodes.

The villains bring some surprises later on that I don't want to spoil, because the second half of the series, really the last three or four episodes, has tons of cool surprises and cameos from other X-Men who weren't part of the main cast.

American X-Men Fluent in Japanese, Plus a New Character

The X-Men in this story are still unmistakably American. It isn't one of those adaptations where the characters get renamed or turned Japanese. Charles is still Charles, Scott is still Scott, but they happen to speak fluent Japanese and travel to Japan to tell this story.

Like a lot of these anime adaptations, the series adds a new Japanese character to the cast, and there's one in particular worth mentioning: a Japanese woman who joins the X-Men with a power that feels very anime in its design. I don't recall her being in the comics, and I'm pretty sure she isn't. She appears to have been created just for this series.

Her role in the story is similar to what Kitty Pryde was in the Pryde of the X-Men OVA, what Jubilee was in the earlier X-Men anime series, and what Rogue became in the live-action movies: a young woman who's in over her head with mutant powers she has to learn to control, with Xavier and the rest of the team helping her develop them.

The Slow Burn Pacing Is My Biggest Complaint

Visually the series is cool, and the music is pretty solid too, not the best I've heard but not the worst, with some genuinely epic battle themes. But this is where my criticism comes in: you have to be very patient with this series, because it has a slow start and is very slowly paced. I mean very slowly paced.

I'm not somebody who needs constant action in every episode. Plenty of series I love take their time if the characters are likable, and the characterizations here are well done. Wolverine behaves like Wolverine, Xavier behaves like Xavier, Cyclops is great, and I didn't notice any character who felt out of pocket. Emma Frost comes across as a bit of a tweener, someone who used to be a villain but helps the X-Men out, which has always kind of been her thing.

The problem is the show has a lot of what I'd just call boring moments while it builds up. Around episodes seven and eight, a little more than halfway through, things start to pick up, and by nine and ten things really get good. Then you have the final two episodes, where everything gets genuinely interesting once we find out what's actually going on.

The Back Half Delivers, But It Doesn't Erase the Slow Start

I was way more dialed in during the second half of the series, not just because the action picked up but because we finally learn what the plan is and who the villain actually is; everything gets revealed. If I were being critical, I'd have scaled back the slow burn or found a more interesting way to tell the story, because it does seem to take forever to get to the point. When it finally gets there, though, the action is genuinely satisfying.

Does the back half make up for the slower parts earlier in the series? I have to be honest and say probably not. For all the problems that its season 2 finale had, I think X-Men '97 handled this same kind of material much better, finding a better balance between action and building up a story. This series feels unbalanced by comparison, and even with the cool stuff near the end, I don't think it makes up for how slow the build was.

Final Verdict: Beautiful to Look At, but It Needed More Sizzle

That doesn't mean I'm steering people away from it. I watched the whole thing, I didn't hate it, and it was fine for what it was, but it wasn't as spectacular as I was hoping for. I think it needed a bit more sizzle to the steak. I'm probably never going to watch it again, but if you're an X-Men fan who wants beautiful visuals and a sense of what an X-Men anime could look like with Studio Madhouse's animation team behind it, I think you'll enjoy it. If you're into Sakuga, meaning animation art, you'll get a kick out of how this series looks.

The last episode has a real final battle feel to it, complete with an end of the world anime vibe that I appreciated. There's even a post-credit scene setting up a sequel series, but there was no season 2, and it's a pretty interesting hook, one that shouldn't surprise you if you've read the comics. It is interesting to have the X-Men with so much Japanese flavor, but once that impression settles, I think the series leaves a lot to be desired.

Have you seen this one before?