Week in Review: X-Men G4 Premiere

The first two Marvel animes, Iron Man and Wolverine, were good starts. Iron Man at least anyway. I've been hearing some really positive things about the X-Men one, now that it has aired in the States also, I can say what I thought.

The story follows the aftermath of the death of Jean Grey. The X-Men have disbanded. However, when a teenage girl is kidnapped, Professor Charles Xavier calls in the team once more.

Sure, the Phoenix is probably the most overused plot point in the X-Men shows, though it's only used for the flashback, which is a good thing. The last X-Men show was the canceled Wolverine and the X-Men. After a season, the show didn't come back sadly. So we have to this for now. Of course, when Japan takes our characters, we can only hope for the best. They produced Iron Man, which kept the core concept well. Wolverine on the other hand, did NOT keep the core concept, changing Wolverine himself into someone who would better fit in with something like Bleach. So when you adapt something as big as the X-Men, you can't afford to mess up. We want to see our characters kept to the core, with a hint of anime style. And the X-Men premiere succeeds.

I actually found the premiere similar in tone with Wolverine and the X-Men. This episode was surprisingly slow-paced, there wasn't any big fight, it's basically the X-Men coming together. If handled wrongly, this could have been dull, but thankfully it's handled right. The character dynamics from the comics are here, from Wolverine's constant chatter with Cyclops, to Beast and Xavier being the two big brains of the group. It's good stuff.

One of the few negative things about this premiere was.......Cyclops. Man, he was awful in Wolverine and the X-Men, but here he's just about the same, if not worst. Why is he now always painted as this mellow-in-self-misery guy? You just feel like you want to slap him. Thank goodness it looks like we won't have to deal with that for the rest of this series, unlike Wolverine and the X-Men, where he was just plain awful the whole time. Wolverine.....now that is what I'm talking about. Now it's hard to even imagine what that other Wolverine was, this is the REAL deal, complete with Steven Blum as his voice. A true highlight of the premiere. Storm on the other hand is vastly different than all of her previous incarnations. She's more care-free than her serious goddess-like character from previous appearances. She still is the voice of reason though. Beast is portrayed similar to that of his Wolverine and the X-Men, albeit cooler. He's going to be a major player in this one, something the other show was lacking. Professor X is the same as always, no difference. Which is a good thing.

Like I said, there's really no fights to speak of. That was surprising, usually the first episode of anything is pretty explosive. The dialogue here is pretty solid. (save for the ridiculousness of the humans in the classroom scene, nah, scratch that. All non-Mutant people look pretty ridiculous) Watching Wolverine arguing with Cyclops is worth the watch itself.

Overall, the X-Men anime is off to a great start. The characters are for the most part, adapted from the comics. It has potential to be a great X-Men show, maybe one of the best. Plus, after the Wolverine anime, it's good to see our clawed friend back in action with his real voice.

9/10.