Iron Man

This is my first-ever review on an anime... but this anime is sooo bad and disappointing that I really need to say something about it...

Let's see... when I first heard of an Iron Man anime, I was REALLY excited to say the least - especially with the first Iron Man movie (which totally blows my mind)
Then I started watching it... all 12 episodes and let me tell you this, if someone ever hands you this anime and tell you to watch it... DON'T!!!...

I will only review on the story itself... not the mediocre art, not the badass music nor the terrible character... ... etc...

It started out okay... I kinda liked the opening... where it showed his achievements from a child to a teen then to an adult and how they inserted scenes of when he escaped from captivity using the first Iron Man suit he made.

When I watched the first episode... I was expecting it to be based in America... but... no... it ended up with Tony Stark in Japan? Strange as it is, I could still take it since technically this IS ANIME... lolxx....

Anyways... as the episode progresses... and it was when the ball starts rolling downhill... Fighting Mechs.... and what's this? Mind-Control? WTH? Are we watching X-Men now? I mean seriously is there any other BETTER ideas they could come up with?! Basing it in Japan is okay... but the whole crappy fighting Zodiac-who-wants-to-take-over-the-world is sooo unoriginal.... =.="
And the worst of it all is that they even brought up someone who is supposedly DEAD! What the heck? When did the episode go so wrong? How did it go so wrong? Why did it go so wrong?

And another thing I noticed is that most and I do mean MOST of the time Iron Man gets his ass handed to him so badly during the last six of the episodes that it's a miracle he's still THE Iron Man!
And the scene where the girl transforms/morphs/flashes... donning an armor... how did that happen? What technology is that? Nanotechnology!?Power Rangers?! Iron Man couldn't even do that! If he could, Tony Stark could just shout out loud whenever he wants to and ta-dah! Iron-Man Armor ON!

Normally there are animes that have good episodes and bad episodes (fillers for example) but this really takes the cake... It's so bad that and I quote "You rather have a buffalo take a diarhoea dump in your ear"

12 episodes they made... 12 episodes I watched... 12 episodes screwed so badly and in the crap hole they sunk...

Aside from the obvious connection between Marvel's ever growing ego and the development of the anime industry, iron man is a mediocre and pretty pointless show. Evidently the show suffers from having a mixture of both Western and Japanese cultures due to how the show is set in Japan yet Tony Stark could speak fluent Japanese without any decent explanation.

To many, this show is a great disappointment as it demonstrates a clear and hopeless contrast between the animated trailer promoting the anime and the anime itself. The animation itself feels moderately satisfying especially scenes such as the suiting up of the armor however, it does ... not live up to any of the films. It can be said that the company would not live up to the movie as they do not have the capital. However the false display from the trailer shows how much of a rip off the anime is. Hopefully the show would get progressively better if the director decides to show more of iron man instead of the characters.

Which brings me to another point which is the characterisation. It seems there is a lack of respect for the source material as the character of Tony Stark although feels like the actual character from the comics and the movie due to its actions, but to be honest feels less like the character.

Ok, so as the episode goes on, I hereby change my rating from a 8 to a 4, This is because as I've read the reviews of other critic of this anime I'd probably say that they may have a point as to how this anime is going. Mostly is related to the story that somehow according to one critic is a bit of a mediocre in some aspects. But I'd still say that it's worth the entertainment so 4 should it be.

But I'm more interested to discuss the theoretical science behind "IRON MAN," I know is an anime and it's mend for entertainment ... only, but you know let's just pretend that it's possible and dissect as to how will it be possible if we were tony stark, so let's start:

First let's start with the armor or the outer skin of IRON MAN. It is said that it is made with a special Titanium alloy, now, such alloy will require some degree of thickness, malleability and weight to be as resistant as the front armor of a tank and as light as an Aluminum sheet, such alloy is still years away from development. But, given that Tony was able to do it he'll have to find the right metal composition or develop certain composite materials, one way of doing it is to create a material that has the same molecular structure of the hardest mineral on earth-and yes you guess it, it's a diamond. But in order for Tony to combine the carbon structures of a diamond with certain metals would take him a lot of experimentation. Also the armor should be able to protect the inside from certain heat, cold, radiation, EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse), also it should also protect tony from any chemical, biological and electrostatic hazards .

Second, the internal components all have to be made out of the same materials as the outer skin, every bolt and screw should be able to take heavy punishment from extreme wear and tear, the electronic parts also has be protected from all kinds of elements like heat, cold, radiation, EMP, chemical, biological and electrostatic hazards, which means that Tony has to layered the insides of his armor with a combination of Lead, Asbestos, special rubber and plastics sheets. However, that'll make the armor look more like a space suit which would limit movement for Tony, so in order for him to be protected from such harmful external elements without bulking up, he'll have to layered his armor with a special non-conductive composite material that will insulate him and the internal components from within.

Third, the power supply, we all know that the main source of the armor's power lies in Tony's arc generator in his chest, but it is highly improbably that the arc generator to be self generating it has to some how have a fuel source. Theoretical physicists usually have a concept of a renewable energy source of that of the sun and it's fuel source is sea water which is highly renewable. So maybe Tony's arc generator does this kind of concept, except that the arc generator in his chest uses his own body fluids as its fuel source. Then again it might be some kind of Radioactive material similar to plutonium only much safer that he develop so that it can sustain his life for.....let's say about 30 years before replacing it.

Forth, the OS (Operating System) program, we all know that from the movie that it's JARVIS who serves as the OS program of the armor (but not in the anime). Such program requires a hardware that has AI (Artificial Intelligences) interface that will perform millions of computations in milliseconds, and software that Microsoft can't produce, it other words think of billions of computers place in one chip, that's the kind of OS program that Tony's armor requires.

Fifth, the cost, OK so Tony is rich, but really! how much will a prototype cost and in theory how long does will take for tony to create such armor? It is estimated that such project would roughly cost about 600 billion dollars and it'll take about 20 years (give and take) to create a prototype, Why? Because, it'll involved a lot of experimentation, research and development of new material.

So, in reality a suit like that may be possible, but it'll probably be around in the next century, when maintaining a large armed forces would be obsolete.

I've talked about Madhouse's Marvel anime a couple times before. There was Blade, which was decent, and X-men, which was a complete and utter pile of shit. Since we're focusing on hero anime this month, it seems like an ideal time to delve further into Madhouse's takes on super heroes. This time we'll look at the first Marvel anime, Iron Man. 

Story:

Our narrative opens with industrialist Tony Stark heading to Japan. His plan is to retire as Iron Man and get a reactor up and running that will provide free, clean energy to everyone in the nation. He needs plutonium to get it going, but it's ... totally clean. Don't question it. Things take a turn when Cobra... I mean Zodiac, a ruthless terrorist organisation bent on world domination arrives on the scene and begins making life difficult for Tony. We know all about them because they were in that Avengers cartoon I reviewed. 

Let's begin with what's wrong with the series, and there's a significant amount. The first noticeable issue with the narrative is that it's very clumsy and inconsistent. To use an example, Stark seems confused in the first two episodes when the name Zodiac comes up but in the third he's able to explain exactly what their organisation is like an expert with no explanation for how he learned all about it. Incidentally, the early villains introduce themselves as Zodiac but the others just show up and don't say shit. Like Zodiac just decided "he gets it, no need to do that any more." There's also an episode where Tony takes great pains to get into space including attaching boosters to his armour and hitching a ride in a jet but very shortly after that his armour goes out of control and he just goes into space without any difficulties. I guess that's all he needed, a lack of proper control. That makes things easier. Then we have the mastermind behind Zodiac. He takes great pains to try to deceive others and cover up his involvement but then he just says "fuck it" and makes a huge villain speech in front of everyone and we aren't talking about the situation changes and then he does it. The situation is the same when he's trying to frame Tony versus when he says "nope, I was evil the whole time."

There are also a lot of issues that come up from Tony behaving in a way that makes no sense, but I'll go into that in painstaking detail when I talk about how bad the characterisation is. I will say that another issue lies in how obvious the whole plot line is. You can easily predict every twist the story takes based on cursory experience with more action-oriented fiction. And it seems to be a deliberate decision because a lot of their reveals are just weak and lazily written as though the writers expect everyone in the audience to see it coming and are just rushing through it. It's like they didn't care. 

Characters:
I'll start with the lesser character issues before moving on to the big one, which is our hero himself. First off, the antagonists are dreadful. Madhouse tries to go with the "well-intentioned extremist" route we see used in strong portrayals of characters like Magneto, or Poison Ivy. The trouble is, they're really bad at it and we end up with villains who come across as bitter assholes who want other people to suffer because they have.

We also get the world's worst reporter as a major supporting character. Seriously, this useless dumbass has no journalistic instincts. She gets an interview with Tony and can't think of even the most obvious questions to ask him. Okay, he's announced he's retiring and that he wants to provide this free energy. You could ask "are you going to be subsidised for this energy and if so, how much will it cost the taxpayers?" "If the energy isn't going to cause any pollutants, why are you using plutonium?" "If we aren't going to be paying for this energy, how much is it going to be costing you and will it be sustainable?" You could also go with retirement based questions. "Who will be taking your place with the Avengers?" "Are you worried that your old enemies will decide to take revenge against you?" The point is, there are a lot of really obvious questions, Nanami. 

Now, let's move on to Tony. The big issue with him is that he comes across as completely insufferable and obnoxious. It's like whoever Madhouse got to write this hates Iron Man and decided to portray him as an arrogant, lecherous, entitled moron. And this is supposed to be our hero. The one we look up to and care about. 

Now, I did promise to go into details about the actions he takes that make no sense and they do tie into just how much of an idiot he comes across as here. There are a lot of examples and I want to talk about every single major one.

First off, he decides that he'll retire. Now, in the comics when he did that he gave he Iron Man suit to someone he knew, trusted and who had acted as Iron Man to help him keep his identity secret. Which made sense and gave us James Rhodes, a fantastic character, to carry on the legacy. In this, he has three different dudes and they all have to share one suit. Why not have suits for everybody? To make things worse, Tony meets them for the first time during the series. So, how did he decide on them? Did he just tell his intern, Karen, to give the job to the three strapping lads who would look best in the armour? We're expected to believe he cares so little for his legacy that he couldn't be bothered to meet his replacements until after they'd been decided. 

He also has his specialised new Iron Man Dio suit for these three guys to share, but he has no way to track it or shut it down if it goes missing or gets stolen. Which happens in the very first episode. He must have really trusted those three guys he never met before. 

Tony just has trash security in this in general. His computers get hacked multiple times. His shipment of radioactive material gets targeted multiple times. His station is targeted by hostile forces multiple times and in every single instance his adversaries seem to have no real difficulty and yet we never see him do a bloody thing about it.

The second big one comes when he decides he'll look into the loss of his plutonium shipment himself, in spite of the Japanese government telling him to stay out of it. Not only that, but he doesn't use his high tech helmet to record everything he sees in order to give him some evidence of what happened if things go wrong. Things get even worse when he starts pursuing the culprits in his car. Not in the powerful armour that can fly and easily catch a speeding vehicle, in his car. Now, you might be thinking "maybe he was just being discreet" but that argument doesn't work because he shoots missiles from his car at theirs. And he has to change out of his suit to get in his car and chase after them and then change back into it later which just makes it take longer for no good reason.

Art:
This is one aspect where I can mostly give the series credit. The Zodiac robots have interesting designs, the characters look good, except for Wolverine who has the same trash design he had in Blade. The action sequences aren't great. They tend to be pretty one-sided, usually with Tony taking a beating before something happens that causes him to rebound and easily dispatch his foe. They aren't bad though.

Sound:
The acting isn't bad. They got some strong actors, Itou Sizuka especially. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't allow for strong performances and we end up with good actors doing passably. The music is kind of dull. Which has been a general thing with Takahashi Tetsuya's soundtracks for all these Marvel anime. 

Ho-yay:
There isn't any. Tony is only lecherous towards women, including the ones who work for him because he is a major creep in this. 

Areas of Improvement:
1. Lose the whole retirement angle. This leads to a lot of dumb moments and it gets immediately forgotten about after the first episode. Just have the first big antagonist use his former experience with Stark to build his own Iron Man suit.
2. Stark shouldn't creep on his employees. Sure, have him be a bit flirtatious but let the man be a professional towards the women working for him. He'll come across as a lot less horrible that way. 
3. Keep things consistent. If you want to explain to us who Zodiac is after Tony's been confused about it, have it explained to him by someone who he asked to look into it. If you want to show him make it into space with difficulty, don't make it easy later. If the major antagonist is going to use subterfuge, even when he's in an advantageous situation, have him keep using it. It makes no sense to switch just because "well, the audience knows who he is now." This is basic. 
I know there are a lot more problems, but I think fixing those three would help immensely. 

Final Thoughts:
One thing I will say, this isn't as bad as X-men was. It's still pretty bad. It's full of holes, Tony Stark is a complete wanker in it and it's just not entertaining to watch. Ultimately, I give it a 3/10. If you want to see an animated Iron Man, I'd pick the old cartoon from the mid-90s over this. 

This Anime starts pretty strong and enjoyable and seems somewhat correct to the original material, I really liked that part of the series and wanted to keep watching

but then it drops the ball hard when I inserted the second dvd to my player! the anime turns into one of those forced romantic interest and annoying cliche fests and it no longer cares about the source material at all.

t was almost unbearable to watch the last episodes drag on, tightly embracing its tired cliches I do not recommend this serious to anyone, but if you must watch it please only see the first half of it!

This honestly feels like reverse Americanization, people always complain how anime gets dubbed into English and has a myriad of problems. This is the reverse of that its american content that has been remade for a Japanese audience.

Most of my distaste for this anime stems from the character of tony stark. He feels so fake and boring compared to the way he is portrayed in source material. He isn't sarcastic, rude or even intellectually challenging in the anime. His whole character is rewritten because in japan is different from america,understandable to a degree but he feels like a stranger in his own marvel universe. ... Then another complaint is his character art, for me his face and head are drawn bizarrely and i can barely stand looking at him with his glass doll eyes and weaselly little smirk.

The actual plot of the anime is very rushed, they gotta defeat zodiac who of course has 12 enemies for him to fight in only 12 episodes. You can imagine how much room they left themselves in this short series. A long with a very lack luster supporting cast you really just watch tony stark fly around and crash for a half hour while discussing politics 2 minutes of every episode.

The Plot is sloppy, the character are out of place in the franchise. When looking and watching this i hoped it would be better considering how popular the iron man movies have gotten. It feels so just void of its source material except the iron man suit.

I don't recommend this unless you like so so mediocre anime and are die hard iron man fans who must see any and all iron man media.