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Marvel Reenvisioning Canon For Japan’s Anime Market

Posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson

Marvel is teaming with Madhouse, the respected Japanese animation studio responsible for Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Ninja Scroll, to reenvision its comic book characters, their origins, and new characters for anime series. Iron Man and Wolverine have been tapped, but others characters were not specified. In a report by the NY Times, Marvel’s International President, Simon Philips, says the venture will create a “parallel universe” to the current canon.

He’s not exaggerating. In a press release from Marvel, Madhouse’s president, Jungo Maruta, confirms the scope, ambition and creative vision behind this partnership…

“We are incredibly excited to have this full collaboration with Marvel to create a completely new world that has never been done before in the Marvel Universe. This will be the first time there will be a full Japanese anime style for Marvel, and the Madhouse creative team is fully engaged to bring this to a worldwide audience.”

As of now, there are four planned series scheduled to air in 2010 on ANIMAX, Japan’s 24-hour anime network. Any plans to bring the series to the U.S. were not released, but it would seem inevitable, no? Everyone involved has boldly expressed that this will not be Westernized anime (or manga), it will be embedded and shaped by Japanese culture. As expected, these series will eventually spawn merchandise and tie-ins et al. I don’t follow anime too closely, but this is phenomenal forward-thinking on Marvel’s part, nearly comparable to open-sourcing their properties and reaping the benefits. And just pondering how Madhouse would take on Captain America or Silver Surfer is pretty damn cool.

Don’t worry. The above image of Iron Man was made using the Slashfilm office’s outdated Manga Machine.

Discuss: Lots to talk about with this deal. Your thoughts?

Comments

.sean

the whole Marvel Anime thing seems pretty cool :-)

Panda

Oh god that picture is disturbing man..

gah

Gotham Knight was awesome. As long as its not cute anime and it sticks to the story, sure why not?

krackajap

Since most people have probably never seen these before, I present you with the intros the Japanese made for the old X-men cartoon. They were 100% badass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUjJywCyY2A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtHh5Sw79I

I really liked the Cyclops/Jean scene of the second video.

krackajap

I'm very glad to hear Madhouse is involved with this. They are by far favorite studio. Other notable works from them include:
Shigurui
Boogiepop Phantom
Metropolis
Monster
Millennium Actress
Paprika
X

Captain Awesome

haha, Marvel just can't let DC one-up them. They are such "biters" (old skool slang chief)

That picture is hilarious.

Matt

Love anime and like marvel. Will be looking forward to this.

Tony

This is the best news I've heard all day. I could already imagine Iron Man to have a Gundam feel to it and Wolverine to be dark and brutal like Berserk.

jank

Let me just say that Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Ninja Scroll are the two best anime films ever created. Hell, two best films in general! And like Tony, you can definitely add Berserk to that list! This is awesome news indeed! And i thoroughly enjoyed X too. That one is just more of acquired taste, i think.

Hunter Stephenson

@ Captain Awesome

Actually, Marvel indirectly takes a potshot at DC in the NYT piece, emphasizing that these series will be more subversive and faithful to traditional anime than DC's recent Batman: Gotham Night.

I don't think America's MSM has grasped the deal's potential in their reporting thus far. There will essentially be an Eastern and a Western Marvel universe in the near future, and for anime in the U.S., this could be a huge leap towards anime's mainstreaming, specifically in the public space.

@krackajap

Thanks for linking. Let's hope Madhouse has better taste in music. ;)

If anyone else wants to toss a Marvel character into the Manga Machine, feel free to use the article's link and post your results here. Hulk would be a great one.

krackajap

Does Anime really need help to become more mainstream? Aren't the most popular kids cartoons already Anime? Also shows like Naruto, Bleach and DBZ are already really popular among teens.

Captain Awesome

Hunter,

Yeah I saw that after making my post. The problem with Marvel is they won't let these guys take these characters to the edges. Meaning you won't see Wolverine cutting guys up like Jubei did in Ninja Scroll. You're going to most likely see the usual Marvel GI Joe cut-away effect. These guys are too precious for Marvel to let a studio like that get really crazy with. I'd rather see a studio like Production IG (who I like better than Madhouse) do something like The Crow or even a Preacher anime film.

I do find it funny that after all these years. Marvel has finally allowed for DC to make them see the light.

Hunter Stephenson

@ CA

We may have different impressions. Madhouse refers to Marvel as incredibly open-minded and open to creative risk per this deal, and Marvel seems to have full-confidence in Madhouse's visions. My take: we'll be seeing bugged out interpretations of these characters, and I would expect Wolverine to get some blood on his hands as well. Obviously, these series won't totally go down the rabbithole and reach anime's notorious WTF-ville, but I have faith.

@krackajap

Teens are teens. They have always been a barometer for trends (note: in the U.S.), but the mainstream extends far outside their demo. For example, Iron Man = mainstream, Pixar = mainstream, Paprika = not so much. Is Miyazaki a household name here? I would say no.

I see your point regarding Bleach, Adult Swim et al and agree that anime doesn't need "help," especially outside the U.S. And many fans are clearly fine with its pop-cult profile staying as is. But Marvel's sizable, vetted investment in the medium/culture will get the entertainment industry's attention. Moreover, their decision not to Westernize these projects sets precedent. And in the future, if this partnership is fully realized, sites like Slashfilm will report more on anime in regards to mainstream film news. Anime still has plenty of room for growth and influence.

Captain Awesome

Anyone will say anything when you're getting a check. ;)

krackajap

Hunter,

You bring up valid points. Even to this day any sort of animation is still believed to be a strictly kids medium. Animation needs it's own Dark Knight to wake up the population and the high ups in Hollywood so they realize that it's a valid medium for mature storylines. My views on this are probably skewed by the fact that I live in Hawaii where anime is more accepted i guess. We've had quite a few anime movies make it into theaters here.

Jimmy

This will be awesome.

Captain Awesome

Also we need a female Iron-Woman with bouncing metal boobs and tentacles that shoot out of her robo-gina.

Captain Awesome

Hunter,

Now that I think about it. I woulld love to see Production IG do a "100 Bullets" series or animated film.

God, that would rule my sack.

TheDaftPunk

Those Japanese intros to X-Men were X-ellent. I would love to actually see an anime version of them. It's a shame these aren't coming stateside, studios really need to accept anime imo.

Pentarix

Bad idea.

erik

@Krackajap

Never seen those before, thanks for the links. I thought those were actually pretty badass (aside from the bad j-metal). If they do something along those lines and maybe even a little edgy like Captain Awesome noted aka having Wolverine hack dudes up, this could be very interesting. I really hope this works because it's such a great idea...lets all cross our fingers it doesn't turn out anything like their version of Spiderman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGxde2a2_iQ

gocitizen

The irony (man) is that if Marvel allowed the properties to Western animation and offered the same leeway, there are plenty of visionary artists and animators that could do great things with these characters. Marvel doesn't have a Bruce Timm or Max Fleisher, and apparently never will.

alas....part of the story of Western animation.

Matt

A giant bot for Spider-Man?!?! LMFAO
You silly asians, you!

clinton m. wood

i am sickend by marvel and disneay to turn there back on USA cartoons and comics theay should be houng for leating japanes take over cartoons and deastroue theam i think walte disney would turn in his frozen or not caskeat man i miss old x-men old hulk and old marvel god help us all here in the usa stan lee what the hell man you should bring back old x-men marvel cartoons . clinton wood the true american cartoon man.

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