Why Now Is the Perfect Time For Marvel To Revisit Anime

Ever since the Infinity Saga concluded with Avengers Endgame, Marvel‘s success in TV and film has been checkered at best. Between stories of the franchise’s controversial handling of writers making their way into the trades and a steady stream of clumsier new entries made into the MCU canon, the once blemishless studio suddenly has the daunting task of both reinvigorating its storytelling and rekindling the goodwill it once had with audiences.

If recent comments by Disney CEO Bob Iger are to be believed, then, after years of innovative movies carefully building out a connected cinematic universe metastasizing into an oversaturated market of middling Marvel efforts, fans and Marvel staffers alike can anticipate a more balanced approach to Marvel’s release schedule and operational efforts from here on out. While claiming a new quality-over-quantity initiative is a promising first step and one that should not be taken lightly — a publicly traded company like Disney admitting defeat is as much a financial risk as releasing a flop blockbuster is (if not more so) — Marvel’s future in entertainment is still, mostly, a mystery. Questions like ‘What type of stories get included in the new limited quantity of Marvel releases?” and ‘What characters will be showcased and in what ways will that happen?’ loom as distractingly as ever.

As Marvel’s DC competitors brace themselves for a new era under former Marvel mastermind James Gunn’s watchful and brilliant eye, Marvel’s pressure to reinvent the wheel and, once again, innovate comic book adaptation storytelling is at a fever pitch. With MCU animated releases serving as a silver lining as of late and anime experiencing another golden age & more pop-culture permeating than ever, the creative decision-makers at Marvel should strike the iron while it’s hot and take this liminal era they’re in to experiment in the anime play-space and prove Marvel is still the brave studio it once was.

New Marvel Anime Would Correct Mistakes Predating MCU’s Post-Pandemic Chaos

Marvel Needs To Learn From Its Past Mistakes, Not Forget Them Entirely

In the late-aughts, smack dab in the MCU’s most promising era, Marvel and Japanese animation studio Madhouse joined forces to produce anime adaptations showcasing characters from all across the Marvel canon. Characters like Blade, Iron Man, and the X-Men all got the anime spotlight — Wolverine even getting his own standalone title. The general critical and fan consensus align in saying the entries are a mixed bag, with the X-Men and Wolverine titles standing out as particularly disappointing among the lot.

If Disney’s mission is to rebuild trust in its fanbase heading into Marvel’s next phase, then anime is the perfect place to start. Not only would focusing on anime address earlier demerits to the Marvel media track record, ones that the successes of the Avengers films helped bury under the annals of time, but it would double down on what, in recent memory, has worked most consistently for them. Since animators behind Disney’s more recent — and more successful — Marvel-themed efforts like X-Men ’97, I Am Groot, and What If…? have helped keep the brand afloat, new Marvel anime would reward them with a stylish sandbox to play in, within a genre associated with empowering its creators to unleash audacious stories unto the world.

Much of Marvel’s recent criticisms take the sameness and repetitiveness of newer entries to task. Whereas older MCU movies would tout themselves as the shared universe’s political thriller and another a fantasy road-trip adventure, those subgenre delineations started to disappear over time. Movies like The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania look and feel not-so-different from Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Black Widow. As fans know, genre-bending is more common than not in anime and Marvel can very easily reacquaint themselves with that kind of storytelling elasticity by embracing the anime medium at large.

Marvel Anime Would Parry DC Animation Efforts

Marvel Needs Its Own Anime If The Studio Wants To Compete With Suicide Squad Isekai

Even when considering Marvel’s dreariest cinematic efforts, there’s still hardly any comparison between the MCU’s lows and the depths the DCEU sunk to. With that said, for every confounding The Flash or Aquaman entry, DC had a handful of impressive animated works to help balance the scales. Starting with a separate New 52-inspired animated canon, then built upon with the Harley Quinn animated series, DC has always had unique offerings in the animated corner of its universe. Now, even under new production management, DC keeps prioritizing animation with My Adventures with Superman and the upcoming Suicide Squad: Isekai offering an anime-style twist to affairs.

If Marvel is hellbent on ensuring it remains the benchmark against which comic book adaptations are measured — or on exacting revenge for the smuggling of James Gunn to enemy territory — what better way to do so than besting DC at its own game before it can firmly plant its flag? Suicide Squad: Isekai, like other titles following Task Force X, may polarize audiences with its grim reverence and My Adventures with Superman has the challenge of co-existing with Gunn’s own Superman film. Compounded, these factors might leave some vulnerable spots in the proverbial DC armor for Marvel to strike, particularly by embracing similarly anime-inspired renditions of its beloved properties. Marvel has a real chance to strike gold and reclaim its crown, but the studio has to move fast to carve out its own niche.

X-Men Marks the Spot

X-Men ’97 Can Pave The Way Forward For Marvel To Embrace Anime

X-Men ’97‘sresounding success hasn’t just reinvigorated the X-Men — who have long suffered under the oppressive thumb of maligned filmmakers and dismal, depreciating films — but it’s resuscitated the overall Marvel conversation, shifting it to a more optimistic space than it’s been in the past few years. The show crackles with potential for the future and reverence for the past, all while wowing in real-time. Each episode is laden with the sewing of seeds that allude to comic book-inspired stories bearing fruit in possible sequel seasons.

Taking cues from the original X-Men: The Animated Series it revives, ’97 expands on its predecessor’s animation and storytelling, offering a uniquely paced and gorgeously rendered Marvel story. Its creative team isn’t shy about crediting anime for X-Men ’97‘s look and storytelling style. In an interview with ComicBook, directors Eli Yonemura and Chase Conley spoke about their thought processes regarding using anime as an impetus in executing X-Men ’97, especially now, freed of the budgetary restrictions that hamstrung the original series.

“You look at the Japanese animation that was coming out [when X-Men: The Animated Series was originally airing], and I’m sure that they were restricted by budgets as well. But look at them. Look at them. They’re gorgeous,” Yonemura told ComicBook, continuing, “We both grew up with that… it meant, ‘Oh. Good. So we’re all in the same mind frame here. Let’s just bring that to the X-Men. We’ve got this budget now thanks to Marvel. Let’s show some cool sh*t.'” Even Larry Houston, the original series’ creator, affirmed their muses, referencing his love of Ninja Scroll inspiring him in the ’90s. The anime style is clear in each X-Men ’97 episode, with more overt references and Sakuga action sequences offering some of the most thrilling moments of the season.

Both the adored original and the mega-popular revival share anime references and each now holds a mostly unparalleled place in the Marvel pantheon. With that in mind, one can’t help but wonder what holds Marvel back from fully embracing the anime genre for the first time since 2017’s little-promoted Marvel Future Avengers. Everybody knows “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” as the old adage — but Marvel could benefit from realizing that, if it is actively thriving, keep cultivating it.