Summary

• Marvel's late-aughts flirtation with anime may have been hit or miss, but the landscape has evolved since then.
• With the recent success of projects like X-Men '97 and the growing popularity of anime around the world, it seems like the time is right for Marvel to return to the medium with renewed vigor.
• By leveraging the creative freedom and stylistic flair inherent in anime, Marvel could not only bolster its animated offerings, but also carve out a distinct niche in the ever-growing world of superhero storytelling.
• Embracing anime could be the key to Marvel's continued dominance over DC, offering a much-needed fresh perspective on beloved characters and stories that will attract new audiences.

Since the Infinity Saga ended with Avengers EndgameMarvel's success in television and film has been rocky at best. Between stories of the franchise's controversial handling of writers entering negotiations and a steady stream of clumsy new entries into the MCU canon, the once-impeccable studio suddenly has the difficult task of reinvigorating its storytelling and rekindling the goodwill it once had with audiences.

There have been some disappointments (MCU). We wish some of our more recent releases had performed better. It's reflective, not as a personal issue, but I think in our zeal to basically significantly increase our content to primarily serve our streaming offerings, we ended up stretching our people way beyond—in terms of time and focus—way beyond where they were.

If recent comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger are to be believed, then after years of groundbreaking films carefully building a connected cinematic universe, metastasizing in a market oversaturated with middling Marvel efforts, both fans and Marvel employees can anticipate a more balanced approach to Marvel's release schedule and operational efforts going forward. While claiming a new quality-over-quantity initiative is a promising first step and one that shouldn't be taken lightly—a publicly traded company like Disney is as big a financial risk as releasing a failed blockbuster (if not more so)—Marvel's future in entertainment remains largely a mystery. Questions like "What kind of stories will be included in Marvel's new limited releases?" and "Which characters will be introduced, and in what form?" pop up as distractingly as ever.

As Marvel's DC rivals prepare for a new era under the watchful and brilliant eye of former Marvel mastermind James Gunn, the pressure is on for Marvel to reinvent the wheel and once again innovate comic book adaptation storytelling. With the MCU's animated releases serving as a silver lining lately, and anime experiencing another golden age and permeating pop culture more than ever, Marvel's creative decision-makers should strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of this liminal era they're in to experiment in the anime space and prove that Marvel is still the courageous studio it once was.

New Marvel anime would fix mistakes made before the MCU's post-pandemic chaos

Marvel needs to learn from its past mistakes, not forget them completely.

At the end of the decade, right in the MCU's most promising era, Marvel and Japanese animation studio Madhouse joined forces to produce anime adaptations featuring characters from across the Marvel canon. Characters like Blade, Iron Man, and the X-Men gained prominence in the anime—Wolverine even earned his own standalone title. Critics and fan consensus agree that the entries are a mixed bag, with X-Men and Wolverine titles standing out as particularly disappointing among them all.

If Disney's mission is to rebuild trust with its fanbase heading into Marvel's next phase, then anime is the perfect place to start. Focusing on anime would not only address shortcomings in Marvel's media history, but also those that the successes of Avengers the films helped bury themselves in the annals of time, but they would double down on what, in recent memory, has worked most consistently for them. Since the animators behind Disney's most recent—and most successful—Marvel-themed efforts, such as X-Men '97, I am Grootand And if…? helped keep the brand afloat, Marvel's new anime would reward them with a stylish sandbox to play in, within a genre associated with empowering its creators to unleash bold stories upon the world.

Many recent Marvel critics question the sameness and repetitiveness of the latest entries. While the older MCU films billed themselves as the shared universe political thriller and the fantasy road trip adventure, these subgenre delineations have begun to fade over time. Films like The wonders and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania look and feel not so different from Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Black WidowAs fans know, genre-bending is more common than ever in anime, and Marvel could easily familiarize itself with this kind of narrative elasticity by embracing the anime medium in general.

Marvel anime would impede DC's animation efforts

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

Even considering Marvel's darker cinematic efforts, there's still no comparison between the MCU's lows and the depths to which the DCEU has sunk. That said, for every mess The Flash or Aquaman Early on, DC had a handful of impressive animated works to help balance the scales. Starting with a separate animated canon inspired by the New 52, and then building on 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 continues to prioritize animation with My Adventures with Superman and the next Suicide Squad: Isekai offering an anime-style touch to the subjects.

If Marvel is hell-bent on ensuring it remains the benchmark against which comic book adaptations are measured—or on getting revenge for smuggling James Gunn into enemy territory—what better way to do that than to outdo DC at its own game before it can firmly plant its flag? Suicide Squad: Isekailike other titles after Task Force X, it can polarize audiences with its dark reverence and My Adventures with Superman has the challenge of coexisting with Gunn himself Superman film. Compounded, these factors could leave some vulnerable spots in DC's proverbial armor for Marvel to attack, especially when adopting similar versions of its beloved anime-inspired properties. Marvel has a real chance to strike gold and reclaim its crown, but the studio needs to act quickly to carve out its own niche.

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  Isekai Suicide Squad

  Harley Quinn, the Joker, and the Suicide Squad wreak havoc in ISEKAI*, a new original anime series from Warner Bros. *ISEKAI(異世界): Term for “another world” in Japanese.

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  My Adventures with Superman

  Clark Kent builds his secret identity as Superman and embraces his role as the hero of Metropolis, while sharing adventures and falling in love with Lois, a famous investigative journalist who also takes Jimmy Olsen under her wing.

X-Men marks the spot

X-Men '97 Could Pave the Way for Marvel to Embrace Anime

X-Men '97of The resounding success not only reinvigorated the X-Men—long suffering under the oppressive rule of maligned filmmakers and dark, derogatory films—but resurrected the general conversation about Marvel, shifting it to a more optimistic space than in the past few years. The show brims with potential for the future and reverence for the past, while also impressing in real time. Each episode is loaded with seeds that allude to comic-inspired stories that bear fruit in potential sequel seasons.

Taking cues from the original X-Men: The Animated Series he revives, '97 expands on the animation and storytelling of its predecessor, offering a uniquely paced and beautifully rendered Marvel story. Its creative team isn't shy about crediting the anime. X-Men '97visual and storytelling style. In an interview with ComicsDirectors Eli Yonemura and Chase Conley spoke about their thought processes on using anime as an impetus for execution. X-Men '97especially now, free from the budget constraints that crippled the original series.

“You look at the Japanese animation that was coming out (when X-Men: The Animated Series originally aired) and I'm sure they were also constrained by budgets. But look at them. Look at them. They're beautiful,” Yonemura told ComicBook.com, continuing, “We both grew up with that… it meant, 'Oh. Good.' So we're all in the same mindset here. Let's just bring that to the X-Men. We have this budget now thanks to Marvel. We're going to show some cool stuff.'” Even Larry Houston, the creator of the original series, affirmed his muses, referencing his love for Ninja Scroll inspiring it in the 90s. The anime style is clear in each X-Men '97 episode, with more obvious references and Sakuga's action sequences offering some of the season's most exciting moments.

Both the beloved original and the mega-popular revival share anime references, and each now holds an unparalleled place in the Marvel pantheon. With that in mind, we can't help but wonder what's stopping Marvel from fully embracing the anime genre for the first time since the under-hyped 2017 film. Marvel's Future Avengers. Everyone knows that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," as the old saying goes—but Marvel could benefit from realizing that if it's actively thriving, keep cultivating it.