Yes, we know.
One of the much awaited anime titles that comic book and anime fans have been waiting. After some delay this year, finally, Marvel Anime: Iron Man has just been released! This time around, Tony Stark is in Japan, taking care of business and here’s what happened.
The series kicks off in the Shizuoka airspace when two pilots noticed an incoming plane. It turned out to be Tony Stark’s private jet, and it is heading towards Japan. After the two pilots were astonished that Iron Man is in the jet, we are moved to Tony (Cue in Back in Black intro rift by AC/DC as seen in the opening scene in the Iron Man film) who is drinking wine.
The plane arrives in Japan in which a representative coming from Lab #23 welcomed him, and as Tony describes, young and beautiful. Tony was then brief on the things he will do in Japan by the representative… and tried to invite her to dinner. Yep, this IS Tony all right.
They two arrived in an another airport (presumably a military base), in which he was welcomed by the Minister of Defense. In the helicopter, they talked about a US base in Japan, that Tony’s decision in building the arc reactor in Japan was good and that this thing is the first step to world peace. After this, we learned that Tony is planning to retire as Iron Man (cough), and he has planned to create a mass produced type version of the original suit dubbed as Dio.
The two then talked about those people who wear the Dio suit that they will have shoes to fill in for Tony. The helicopter landed and Tony requested the minister to hold a public event for him. After this, we are now seen at the arc reactor itself being constructed in Japan and it’s almost complete, according to Dr. Tanaka, the one who welcomed Tony earlier. They started to talk about the plutonium for it to be completed and how the Japanese will think about the arc reactor. Therefore, Dr. Tanaka then told Tony a way for the Japanese to accept him, by being humble. We will see about that considering that Tony doesn’t have a slight idea about being humble!
PEPPER!
After this scene, we are back at the Stark estate in Japan in which Tony has just returned from his visit from Lab #23 and is looking at his old armor. Then, Pepper Potts has just officially made her cameo. She reports that the Dio prototype is finished and it was sent in Japan along with the pilots.
After the two chatted about the arc reactor project in Japan, the following day, we are seen in a local newspaper in which we heard an angry boss, getting angry to Nanami, a reporter who submitted an article that was rejected by his editor. He throws today’s headline about Tony Stark in Japan, so she was ordered to write a follow up story about it.
Back in a military base, we saw Iron Man Dio, the pilots and Tony. Tony then says if this prototype went smoothly, they would produce more, so they would do some test. One of the pilots asked if he will test it, Tony replied that since the armor is now theirs, they are the ones who should test it and he should not butt into this. We are now panned into the testing grounds in which the strength of the Dio suit is being tested, and it is unscratched. Tony started talking about the event to the minister and his plans regarding the suit’s flight exercise later on which will be kept secret even if one of the pilots willingly to volunteer to wear the Dio suit for the flight exercise. The only reply we had is a smile.
SNAAAAP!
Tony then leaves the base and at the gate, the press welcomes him, he leaves his car and answers their questions regarding the arc reactor and him being Iron Man. Nanami was asked by his colleague to ask Tony in which she tripped and fell on Tony’s arms, he tried to flirt and received a slap. Way to go, Tony!
He is indeed back in black.
In a public area, giant widescreen TV monitors are seen in which Tony is speaking about the show that the Japanese military and US military will show in the Japanese skies. After his introduction, we saw this: (Cue in Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC) planes flying on the sky, with Iron Man Dio leading them. Guess who is in the suit, Tony! So much for being humble! Well, that is our Tony, wanting to hog the spotlight!
While enjoying his flight, a strange light hit him while inside the suit, causing him to crash land somewhere and what a coincidence, that girl who slapped Tony was there! The group contacted Tony and asked his condition. He asked them to carry the Dio back in the station as he will go back to his house and head to the station. Since Nanami is already there, Tony asked her to drop him in his house. Nanami then set up a condition that she will interview him. So, Tony and Nanami is inside the car, and started talking and not actually conducting a proper interview! At the end, Nanami never got her proper interview with Tony.
In his house, he starts checking if there are any problems with the Dio in his computer, and it seems that there are no problems… or so we thought. Back in the station, the pilots are testing the suit. After one of the pilots shoot the target while inside the suit, his head started to ache and lost control over. Kinda like how Hikawa when he first wore the G3-X suit in Kamen Rider Agito he went berserk. They tried to stop him by blocking his path by closing the gates but it failed. Dio escaped and it is up for Tony to return in his old suit and face Dio.
Tony suits up and fights Dio who already destroyed almost 2/5 of the entire facility. The two Iron Men fought in midair and Iron Man hit Dio so hard that it landed in the beach. Iron Man went closer to Dio and opened the mouthpiece. Before Tony can do anything, a monster attacked him. Tony, you are officially now in Japan! In which every week, a monster attacks and five guys in spandex will fight it till it dies and resurrects into a giant monster and fight it again with a giant robot. Or a guy in a bug suit kicks it. Or a guy with almond shaped eyes and shoots lasers on his arms is fighting a giant monster wrecking havoc in the city. Guess what I am trying to say is, I can now consider you as a Metal Hero! Enough with the tokusatsu gushing and let’s get down to business!
The monster continues to attack Iron Man and he asked who is he, the monster replied, he is Scorpio and he is a warrior of the Zodiac. Therefore, there is a possibility that there are twelve of them. I smell that we have a monster of the week format coming in! Iron Man fights Scorpio and finally finishing him off with double repulsor ray attacks and exclaimed about his retirement. Iron Man returns to the pilot, the Dio suit is gone and the pilot is still there.
On to the review, back when the show is still on production last year, I have been waiting for it to be aired! When the first promo pictures of Tony and the Iron Man suit was first seen, I was amazed on the detail of the suit but was surprised that Tony is beardless. Good thing, they fixed it. I think I see why they delayed the release.
Back on the first episode, it was a rather odd start. If you don’t know who Iron Man is, you might have a hard time getting yourself into the title but if you are a fan of the comic books or any related material, it would be easy for you to get into it, all you need to do is try to connect where the anime takes place. Is it on the Marvel Movie Universe or some other universe? Since it is faithful to the comics, Tony is Tony!
As for the new characters, Dr. Tanaka seemed to have potential to be Tony’s Pepper Potts while he is in Japan. As for Nanami, I’ll need to see more of her later.
As for the suits, it looks… okay. There is nothing wrong in mixing CGI with 2D animation but there are some instances that those two elements must not be mixed. The Iron Man suit and the Dio suit looked good in some angle but in some instances, they looked ugly. Unlike the film version in which the suits are realistic at the same time, looked flexible, the suits while in midair felt like it needs to be oiled for it to be smooth in terms of animation. Aside from that, the CGI suits felt like, it came from a Western animated Iron Man title. I am starting to prefer the suits to be in 2D. For a Madhouse title, it looks disappointing in the suit animation (Finally!).
One of the reasons why the film got me into Iron Man is Tony’s transformation sequence. In the movies, it was detailed, while in the anime, unlike the original trailer in which we saw a 2D Iron Man suit flying around and fighting a group of bad guys and saw a detailed transformation sequence, in the actual product, we have Tony being suited up by the machine in almost an instant! No fancy effects like screwing him up and like that, just the machine just placed the armor and bam! We have Iron Man.
As for the story, it had potential. Knowing the power of the arc reactor back in the first film and right now, I smell that the next episodes, the Zodiac will try its best to destroy the arc reactor and try to frame Tony that his arc reactor was just a face of an evil plot. As for the story of the first episode, it felt like a regular tokusatsu episode in some point. I mean, we have the drama, then the conflict, then the monster will appear then Tony will fight the monster and defeat it.
Accordingly, the series will last for 16 episodes, and since it is episodic in nature according to the preview for the next episode, how can they handle it? We will still see about it.
Overall, the first episode of Iron Man felt in the middle because of the mediocre CGI suit action and the rather “rushed” arrival of the monster. The series has potential, but let’s see about that in the following weeks.