X-Men Anime Episode 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The X-Men do not arrive in Japan unnoticed as they visit Hisako’s family.  Her parents tell the X-Men of numerous child mutant kidnappings but since since mutants have been blamed for many strange occurrences in the region, most parents don’t report their missing children. Wolverine figures this to be the work of a group called U-Men. A call to the Ichiki home reveals a new kidnapping of a teenage mutant and the X-Men are on the hunt with Cyclops and Wolverine taking motorcycles one way as the Beast and Storm take a Humvee another way.  Soon, it is discovered that the call was actually a trap as the U-Men send robots to attack both X-Men teams. Cyclops’s rage nearly gets him killed but he’s saved by Wolverine.  Elsewhere, Storm discovers the U-Men base after tracking a robot there.

Although the X-Men defeat their attackers, the U-Men take the data obtained from the battles to build better robots. Meanwhile. Beast reports their findings to Xavier as he and Storm meet up with Wolverine and Cyclops at the abandoned research hospital Storm had found. They encounter the kidnapped boy mutant, who’s been operated on and who mutates in front of them into a monster. Beast says it is impossible to return the boy to normal but Cyclops thinks of Phoenix and hesitates in the battle that erupts. Storm and Beast attack but are defeated as Cyclops still hesitates. He finally blasts the monster and defeats him.  Before dying, he begs the X-Men to save the others.

Cyclops remembers Phoenix again and laments the killing of an innocent mutant. Wolverine punches him and reminds him not only of his duty as the leader of the X-Men, but also of his duty to the memory of Jean so that her death would have meaning.  Wolverine then holds out his hand to help Cyclops up but Cyclops picks himself up and to Wolverine’s amusement, orders the team forward without another word.  Moving deeper into the abandoned hospital facility, the X-Men find a laboratory and some pods.  In one of the pods is the girl Hisako.  In another pod, a blond haired woman lays.  Cyclops recognizes her as the woman he saw briefly in Phoenix’s mind just before Jean killed herself.

Thoughts/Review: 

I hadn’t intended on watching the teaser for the next episode (I normally avoid them) but I was pretty sure that the blond woman would end up being Emma Frost and the teaser confirms that.  In episode 1, I assumed that her projection was actually Mastermind and so I didn’t say anything.  When I stopped reading the X-Men comic books, I believe Emma Frost was still a member of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club and was officially designated as the White Queen. As such, she was often an opponent of the X-Men.  I don’t know if anything changed over the years but it will be interesting to see if she’s working with Mastermind (who was a member of Hellfire Club as well) or not.  I suspect she is but will have to wait and see.

The U-Men are a sick bunch but I did take a quick look-see and discovered that they too are a more recent addition to the Marvel Comics universe and not a Japanese creation. Anyway, the notion of harvesting mutant organs in order to attempt to create a weapon against mutants is pretty out there. As the scene with the modified mutant boy developed, I was partially reminded of a scene from Akira and partially reminded of a scene from Battlestar Galactica: Razor.  The bikes Wolverine and Cyclops rode reminded me of Akira as well but the robots the U-Men use reminded me of the robots in the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series.  It wouldn’t surprise me if this were on purpose as a tribute of sorts.

Speaking of motorcycles, what the heck is Cyclops doing using cheesy motorcycle weapons in the fight against the U-Men robots?  That the bike had some sort of beam weapon on the front didn’t bother me.  However, the supposed grenade launchers were a laugh. Seriously, what was this thing launching? High explosive bottle rockets? That’s about the only thing I could see getting out of those tiny launchers (OK, small grenades). While Wolverine took his claws into the fight, I kept thinking, “Why isn’t Cyclops just opening up with his eye-beam power?”  Eventually he did but his fighting style while on the bike didn’t seem like the Cyclops I remembered, even the angst-ridden version shown here.

And while we are on the subject of fighting, what’s up with Storm having so little stamina?  Her fighting came off more natural to me though I was surprised that creating some ice for the robots to crash into left her so weak.  Well, so weak until the story had to get her up in the air, at which point she suddenly has the strength to fly.  *_*  Then later in the hospital, she unleashes on the mutant boy turned monster, only to quickly run out of gas just so Cyclops is forced to do what he didn’t want to do and kill the boy.  I’m just not a fan of these kind of cheap plot devices because they don’t feel real to me.

At this point, I can’t say that the X-Men anime is impressing me that much.  Naturally, I’m going to be here for the long haul and hopefully this story will get better.