Anime

Marvel's Experience with Anime: When, How, and How Well Marvel Did It

Marvel's Experience with Anime: When, How, and How Well Marvel Did It

Marvel has had a lot of experience with turning their properties into anime. Let's see how they did.

Marvel Anime

Marvel has had some experiences with anime, both positive and negative. In chronological order, the first attempt at anime that Marvel did was called Marvel Anime. It was a series, and it had four elements: Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade. Thus, each of the characters (or groups of characters in the case of X-Men) got twelve episodes, all of which were connected to Japan in some manner.

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Tony the Iron Man, who is a genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist, goes to Japan to do business, but the prototype he has to show off goes rogue and requires Tony to suit up to stop it. As the plot thickens, Tony is expected to also stop an evil organization, and Tony's old presumed-to-be-dead friend might be working for it… There is a lot that happens in Tony's arc of Marvel Anime. It also seems to have an acceptable rating on IMDB, although it did not manage to outdo X-Men or Wolverine in that department.

Wolverine, who is a mutant with a great ability to regenerate, goes to Japan to save his beloved from a marriage she does not want. Coincidentally, her father, who is pushing her into that marriage, is a head of a criminal organization, so Wolverine has to deal with that as well.

The Wolverine series seems to have the highest ratings out of the four arcs on IMDB, so it is probably worth a watch.

The X-Men series is dedicated to a group of mutants trying to maintain peace between humans and mutants. They also travel to Japan, and they are the only ones in this series whose goal is transparently focused on a group of criminals. No runaway brides or business: they just need to stop a group of criminals who harvest organs from abducted mutants. There is also an illness that seems to strike mutants in Japan.

A few of the X-Men episodes are rated the highest among the series, getting the rating of 7.6 on IMDB.

Finally, Blade, who is half vampire and half human, travels to Japan in pursuit of the vampire who killed his mother while also encountering an evil organization he is meant to defeat. You might notice that each of these series seem to have an evil organization, and every one of them is a different one. Japan seems to be overrun with those in the Marvel Universe. Blade episodes do not make it into the highest-rated episodes on IMDB, but with an average score of 6.7, the whole series cannot be considered a failure.

Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers

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It seems Marvel was satisfied by how well the series did or, at least, not discouraged by the result, and in 2014, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers was aired. The DISK is a device created by Iron Man and Dr. Nozomu Akatsuki to stop and detain villains. Unfortunately, Loki, a villain in the Marvel Universe, manages to disrupt the DISKs presentation and free all the villains present while trapping superheroes inside the DISKs. The children of Dr. Nozomu along with some other kids find a way to release the superheroes for a limited period of time, and they travel to find the rest of the DISKs.

It is basically Pokemon but with Avengers. And it did not do well with an average score of 4.4 on IMDB.

Marvel Future Avengers

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Marvel tried once again in 2018 with Marvel Future Avengers, in which three Japanese teenagers are trained and experimented on by Hydra. Not the most family-friendly premise. They are lied to that they are training to become heroes, but once they realize that it's a lie, they try to escape, and one of them succeeds, going to the Avengers for help. Eventually, the three are reunited under the wing of the Avengers, and since then they are actually trained to become heroes. This anime gets to 5.6 on IMDB, which is still not great, but at least it's better than the previous attempt.

It feels important to mention that Marvel did not just use Western creators to make anime; they made sure to work with Japanese studios, and even though Western creators can be found among the teams, it looks like everything was directed by Japanese specialists.

It was not just a case of Western people stumbling around in a medium they did not understand. At the same time, you have to admit that none of the stories sound exceptionally Japanese. The heroes are the same Western heroes that they have always been, too; new characters were created, of course, but the stories are still about Western people coming to Japan. All in all, the main Japanese element in the stories is that they are styled like anime and maybe the setting of Japan.

In the end, Marvel's anime is only just okay. At the very least, Marvel's interest in anime proves that Marvel views it as a culturally important phenomenon… or, perhaps, just a financially promising field. Both these beliefs can promise more entertainment from Marvel for us, anime lovers.

Marvel has had a lot of experience with turning their properties into anime. Let's see how they did.

Marvel Anime

Marvel has had some experiences with anime, both positive and negative. In chronological order, the first attempt at anime that Marvel did was called Marvel Anime. It was a series, and it had four elements: Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade. Thus, each of the characters (or groups of characters in the case of X-Men) got twelve episodes, all of which were connected to Japan in some manner.

Marvel's Experience with Anime: When, How, and How Well Marvel Did It - image 1

Tony the Iron Man, who is a genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist, goes to Japan to do business, but the prototype he has to show off goes rogue and requires Tony to suit up to stop it. As the plot thickens, Tony is expected to also stop an evil organization, and Tony's old presumed-to-be-dead friend might be working for it… There is a lot that happens in Tony's arc of Marvel Anime. It also seems to have an acceptable rating on IMDB, although it did not manage to outdo X-Men or Wolverine in that department.

Wolverine, who is a mutant with a great ability to regenerate, goes to Japan to save his beloved from a marriage she does not want. Coincidentally, her father, who is pushing her into that marriage, is a head of a criminal organization, so Wolverine has to deal with that as well.

The Wolverine series seems to have the highest ratings out of the four arcs on IMDB, so it is probably worth a watch.

The X-Men series is dedicated to a group of mutants trying to maintain peace between humans and mutants. They also travel to Japan, and they are the only ones in this series whose goal is transparently focused on a group of criminals. No runaway brides or business: they just need to stop a group of criminals who harvest organs from abducted mutants. There is also an illness that seems to strike mutants in Japan.

A few of the X-Men episodes are rated the highest among the series, getting the rating of 7.6 on IMDB.

Finally, Blade, who is half vampire and half human, travels to Japan in pursuit of the vampire who killed his mother while also encountering an evil organization he is meant to defeat. You might notice that each of these series seem to have an evil organization, and every one of them is a different one. Japan seems to be overrun with those in the Marvel Universe. Blade episodes do not make it into the highest-rated episodes on IMDB, but with an average score of 6.7, the whole series cannot be considered a failure.

Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers

Marvel's Experience with Anime: When, How, and How Well Marvel Did It - image 2

It seems Marvel was satisfied by how well the series did or, at least, not discouraged by the result, and in 2014, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers was aired. The DISK is a device created by Iron Man and Dr. Nozomu Akatsuki to stop and detain villains. Unfortunately, Loki, a villain in the Marvel Universe, manages to disrupt the DISKs presentation and free all the villains present while trapping superheroes inside the DISKs. The children of Dr. Nozomu along with some other kids find a way to release the superheroes for a limited period of time, and they travel to find the rest of the DISKs.

It is basically Pokemon but with Avengers. And it did not do well with an average score of 4.4 on IMDB.

Marvel Future Avengers

Marvel's Experience with Anime: When, How, and How Well Marvel Did It - image 3

Marvel tried once again in 2018 with Marvel Future Avengers, in which three Japanese teenagers are trained and experimented on by Hydra. Not the most family-friendly premise. They are lied to that they are training to become heroes, but once they realize that it's a lie, they try to escape, and one of them succeeds, going to the Avengers for help. Eventually, the three are reunited under the wing of the Avengers, and since then they are actually trained to become heroes. This anime gets to 5.6 on IMDB, which is still not great, but at least it's better than the previous attempt.

It feels important to mention that Marvel did not just use Western creators to make anime; they made sure to work with Japanese studios, and even though Western creators can be found among the teams, it looks like everything was directed by Japanese specialists.

It was not just a case of Western people stumbling around in a medium they did not understand. At the same time, you have to admit that none of the stories sound exceptionally Japanese. The heroes are the same Western heroes that they have always been, too; new characters were created, of course, but the stories are still about Western people coming to Japan. All in all, the main Japanese element in the stories is that they are styled like anime and maybe the setting of Japan.

In the end, Marvel's anime is only just okay. At the very least, Marvel's interest in anime proves that Marvel views it as a culturally important phenomenon… or, perhaps, just a financially promising field. Both these beliefs can promise more entertainment from Marvel for us, anime lovers.