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...

First off, I will edit this review if necessary as the episodes go along, so stay tuned! I quite like Iron Man, and hope this will turn out well. I've dropped the score from a 9 to an 8.

Story: The story seems promising, with plenty of room for good development if done well. However, it seems to revolve around the premise where people keep wanting to steal Tony Stark's technologies, as with the live-action movies of Iron Man 1 & 2. Something different would have been better, but I guess there's always people who want that kind of technology. *shrugs* As of episode 2 ... onwards, the anime shows that Tony's chest having the glow of the core, so the producers did thankfully try to make the anime as close as the movie.

Art: I felt it was decent and the designs of the suits and characters were quite good.

Sound: The opening and ending themes for this anime was just music, instead of the regular openings that contained lyrics. This was a rather refreshing change and I personally liked the opening and ending music as they brought different tempos and the sense of urgency at times. Sound effects were excellent, but again die-hard Iron Man fans won't hear the more awesome live-action movie sound effects of the repulsor rays, but a remixed version of the sound effect.

Character: This was the more disappointing part for me, personally. Character introductions were not done as well as I would have liked, and the introduction of a certain female lead felt too abrupt. (I'm sure you all can figure it out by yourselves!)

Enjoyment: The first episode made my heart race and I was quite entertained throughout. The fight scenes felt good, and the little cliffhanger at the end of the episode made me want to watch the next episode. However, given the fact that Tony has to fight a new Zodiac sign at episode 2, one can guess he has 10 more signs to fight. This reduced the suspense the anime could have given to the viewers and thus reduced my overall enjoyment.

Overall: As I've stated earlier, it does look promising. I do hope the next few episodes will help shape up this anime to be one of the more well-liked anime in this current season!

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.

As you may know, I’m not one of those people that get pessimistic about the Marvel/Madhouse collaboration anime series. It’s a bit of a head scratcher and it does seem like a good idea at the time to introduce an American comic book character to Japanese audiences in anime form and since the Iron Man movies and Marvel itself has been in full popularity, it would make sense for them to cash in or foray into anime territory. Now seeing that this is the first of the Marvel Anime that ran, you figure this would be a new experience to me, but it isn’t since ... I already reviewed the Blade anime, considering I put that one in more importance than the others.

Tony Stark is a physicist, an engineer, and the CEO of a major arms manufacturing company. On a battlefield he is injured from his own weapons and taken prisoner by terrorists. In order to keep his own heart beating, he creates the Ironman Suit and escapes. Once free, Stark decides to dedicate his life to pursuing world peace with the Ironman technology, so he moves to Japan to use the resources of "Lab 23," home of the world's first Arc Reactor. Wanting to devote himself fully to this research, Stark decides to retire as Ironman and announce the mass-production of suits to fulfill his duties. But at the announcement ceremony he is attacked by the mysterious organization known as "Zodiac," and his plans have to change.

The plot of this show takes place somewhere in the Iron Man movie universe like it’s filler that the first movie cuts itself from and that’s what it felt like to me. It felt like something the writers just made up on the spot as it never really progresses but it’s just the “this evil organization wants to take over the world with Iron Man’s power” storyline that makes the whole anime weak in the story development and the fact most of it is very uninteresting and can put you to sleep most of the time. Believe me, I fell asleep twice watching the series. Plus, I’m getting some vibes that is almost similar towards the movie, but slightly altered and less improved, much like Ho Yinsen, the scientist who helped Tony with the design of the Iron Man while he was held hostage in a cave by terrorists.

Tony Stark as a character in here isn’t much like him in other counterparts. He just seems more downplayed and uncharacteristic as if you feel nothing about him nor care nothing about what happens to him. The other characters are basically stock characters with the ally who gets used to him later on, the scientist who may or may not be a love interest despite Pepper Potts being in the anime, too, although it wasn’t applied that Stark and Potts were a couple yet in the show but I digress, there’s nothing remarkably interesting about the characters in here.

The animation / art & designs of the show that Madhouse made ranges from OK to mediocre, starting with the design of Tony Stark, in which he kind of looks like an unmasked villain (if he had a cape, that is) you see in Sailor Moon or any other shounen anime. It all looks so shiny like the characters are either plastic-looking or that they bathe in body wax. The music is very stock guitar/ “epic-sounding” music that is much like action American cartoons nowadays, which is what it’s supposed to do but it all sounds a bit lacking to me.

The English dub did brought an unusual voice to the character of Iron Man and that is Adrian Pasdar playing the title character. Now I’m not expecting a Robert Downey Jr.-like performance (just like I wasn’t expecting a Wesley Snipes-like performance in the Blade Anime) but he was a bit stiff in the first part of the series and a bit mediocre in the second half. That and knowing Wolverine makes an appearance in this and it’s voiced by Milo Ventimiglia, just to them to know ‘yes, Wolverine has an anime coming up, too’. Oh, and both of the actors I mentioned were also in that show “Heroes” and they play superheroes. *awkward laughter* OK, I’m done. In short, the dub was less than stellar but it’ll do.

FINAL VERDICT: Yeah, this is boring. That’s the simple way of putting it, I don’t know if I should call it bad or anything like that. However, if you’re curious about the anime and you frankly want to go in without any expectations at all, then go right ahead.

I'm honestly shocked that this series is any good at all. I don't like Iron man much, I've never read the comics, and I don't find that adapting american comics, with their repetitive nature, works very well. And yet, this first episode provided great pacing, a story which, although somewhat typical, doesn't play out in too predictable a manner. The pacing is particularly important to this anime, because it compensates for the cliche parts of the stories by telling them very, very quickly. The art was great. The art style, which is apparently a mix of USA and Japanese animation styles, was off-putting at first, ... but I eventually got used to it. The episode looks great, especially during fights, which are in typical, highly kinetic anime style. The sound is fantastic, and it makes a great partner for the pacing in keeping the episode's faults from becoming obvious. If you're a fan of the comics, you should know that Tony Stark has been heavily japanified. He's no longer such a jerk, and he talks with his hands in a way that might look bizarre coming from an ordinary westerner. For my part, I like Tony Stark a lot better in this anime than I do in other media, so I don't view the changes as negative. The great sound, pacing, and a more likable Tony Stark makes this my favorite form of Iron Man. The only question is: can the energy that made the first episode so enjoyable survive all twelve episodes?

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 have to say, when i started this anime I wasn't expecting too much. I've seen the old 90's American Cartoon and while horribly cheesey, it does live up to the comic book, even with his super powered mullet. Then there is the current horrible series airing on Nick now, Iron Man : Armored Adventures, which to say the least... stinks. Its full of huge plot holes, but hey its something for kids?

Ah, So to the Review...
I rather enjoyed it. For a reader of the Iron Man comics, its probably going to make you want to die a little, but its still enjoyable. I think ... for the average viewer, ones who have seen the first Iron Man movie, Its something to see and enjoyable to watch.

So here I'm Mention the Cons and Pros of the series. Why the cons first? Because I want you to see what I thought was done wrong, and finish with what they did right.
Cons:

Taking Place In Japan: This is the biggest error I've really found with the series. It doesn't really make sense, even if Tony was building something there, to live there doesn't make any sense, other then to give Tony a reason to be there. He'd probably fly in for visits, but Tony's not really a hands on kind of guy, hes more of a 'Oh really.. you wanna build an arc reactor.. hold on.. *builds arc reactor* Here you go...All done' . He'd build and then expect them to run it.

The Arc Reactor: Here a plot hole that fits with the movie verse and the comic. Tony wouldn't share Arc Reactor Tech with Japan or anyone for that matter. Its his own tech, and in both movies, Tony really doesn't wanna share it with anyone. Its something he's built and doesn't want to share. Its his... MINE!

Relationship with Dr.Tanaka: Okay, really. No. This doesn't fit with Tony Character at all, even after he changed. Tony is clearly in love with Pepper by the end of the first movie, and the fact that he would fall in love with woman he meets, makes no sense to me. Yes, she's nice and smart, but totally not Tony's type. Tony needs a strong woman, and Dr. Tanaka is more a follower. Not that I didn't like her character, there needed to be someone smart, but the love story kind of seems thrown in.

What was with that Hair: God Tony's hair, not as bad as the mullet he got in the 90's but still, it looked like someone pulled it off some guy from the 70's and stuck it on his head. Tony hair is clearly black. And Yinsen, Dude he grew hair, and killer eyebrows. I mean, him being not bald like in the movie was okay, but the eyebrows. It ain't natural.

Pros:

Entertainment: This show was very entertaining. While it didn't have may on the edge of the seat with each episode, I kept coming back. Other then two filler eps, that didn't do anything for the storyline, everything was explained and wrapped up nicely.

Artwork: Despite Tony's hair and Yinsen's eyebrows of doom, I found the over all art style, wonderful. I was most blown away in the 200 plus anime I've seen, this the first anime I've seen where the Japanese had Japanese looking eyes, and Tony's eyes were clearly different because of his Race/Country of origin. The colors were nice and other then the very cheesy transformation over all, good. And when one had to try to live up to the movie transformation, I think they tried hard to please.

Storyline: I have to admit, Zodiac is a very cheesy name. But it is in the Comic. So I give them props for that. They tried very hard to take something that was already established, and make it there own, even adding their own suits. I was quiet fond of Sakurai and his Samurai looking Iron Man suit, he was a good character to match Tony. All plots were concluded at the end, and every episode was good.

Overall: I think If you were a fan of the Iron Man Movies, Then gives this a watch. Its not gonna blow you out of the water, but you'll enjoy it. :) I know I did.

First Impression & Bias:
So Stan Lee, if asking for coffee was not enough this time your asking for a Ironman adaption? Well, I know why you didn't show your face in this show that is for sure!
Now, I actually expected something solid out of this. I never really watched that many marvel shows, and hell if I ever read them. Yet, despite being a novice to the realm of American comics, this show was boring and predictable from the start. If the horrendous animation was not bad enough, for some reason they made Tony Stark a not so lovable character.
Expectation: 6
Episode Scores: -,-,-,-,6,5,8,7,7,7,7,4
Actual: 5

Analysis:
So ... Tony Stark sets off to get his ass owned in Japan, and boy does he. Building his 'arc reactor' to bring world peace he is constantly portrayed as the evil against Japan and fights the evil Zodiac! Yes, the evil Zodiac has a thing against Stark as they screw him over every episode and result in a bad guy of the week style. Some are not that bad actually, while others are just bad. The animation of the show in general is fine, but the fights are bland and just plain boring. The events surrounding the evil robots are cool and engaging yet when it comes to fight you roll your eyes as either Ironman or his foe gets instantly steamrolled.
The whole show is episodic, yet the things that stick around are like maggots. The novice reporter who does nothing but stalk Tony around, nonchalantly appear, and somehow either gets in the way or lends him a hand doing menial chores. As to her existence I can only surmise it is to annoy the hell out of views and add a 'capable' woman who isn't afraid to stick her head into danger. The assistant whom Tony falls in love with, this time, has brains, but pissed me off just as much for some reason. There is also the main villain, whom remains unnamed for spoilers, that despite being the role model for peace in Tony's eyes in some poor thought up way totally reverses his character. To tell the truth the only character that I enjoyed was Sakarai.
Conclusion:

For being an attempt to bridge marvel into anime this is pretty much a failure. While the fans will be crying to sleep for a while it will never impress anyone. It didn't impress me, and I am giving this an average out of 10.

okay first of all up to episode 8 has been aired so the scores may vary later.

i started on this anime with doubts seriously cause those sort of cross overs from marvel comics to movies/series/anime usually suck and destroy the image of the superhero by putting him/her in nave situations with a repetitive storyline every episode whic can be summarized in "stupid villain come , stupid villain gives long lecture on how he/she is gonna kill superhero , super hero come , superhero kicks his butt , rinse and repeat".

i was amazed though , this anime is really well done , arts is awesome , ... soundtrack is amazing , it is really enjoyable , story maybe a little bit too close to that of the original movies but with a nice twist , so overall i think this anime is worth the watch, its awesome and i really recommend it.

its a shame its only 12 episodes , its a good anime and the storyline has good potential , well maybe its better off this way so it wont end up with more filler episodes like naruto -_- , i gave it a 7 causee its too short they're probably gonna have to wrap it up in the remaining 4 episodes in a hurry..

they're gonna start on Wolverine by january , im gonna ake sure i watch that too.

now i cant wait for the same guys to do metal gear solid , man i wish someone would do it already..

First of all, reader must know that REVIEWS BY PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED THE WHOLE ANIME IS VOID. Knowing this, i will try my best to enlighten you with a great review of what this anime accomplished. You have to understand that making iron man into an anime is no easy task. There have been millions of comics, tons of cartoons, and two movies about iron man so making something genuine will be very difficult. However, the people responsible for the script and construction of this anime, in collaboration with marvel; did a very good job in making this anime as unique as it can ... possibly be. Now the review: i'll start with the enjoyment because i believe it is the most important part...

Enjoyment:
This is the key part of a review, the most important. An anime might have great sound, art and a solid story but if it is not enjoyable then it becomes worthless. This anime is actually quite enjoyable. It not powerful enough to keep you hooked till when you can't stop but it certainly does a great job of entertainment. The fight scenes are not half bad, accompanied with good music and hot blooded action, it all works out.

Story:
We all know the story of iron man so ill skip to the anime. The story itself is not bad at all. It is hard to come up with something in just 12 episodes but they seem to have given us a decent story. It was easy to follow and very simple and straightforward. While most expect something more intricate, the majority of us can appreciate a simple story line at times. Nothing really special there but enjoyable.

Art is not important, however they seem to have done a good job with the animation of iron man and other mechanical figures in the anime

Sound:
Believe it or not, good sound makes an anime more enjoyable. Having good music can make moments seem more intensified than they really are. It can also make sad moments cling on to you and so on. The sound and music in iron man are decent enough, no complaints there.

less.

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.

.:DISCLAMER:. I'm not that good at reviewing, but I just want to give my thoughts.
When I joined Crackle, I saw that there was an anime based off of Iron Man and thought it would be funny to watch. I decided to marathon all twelve episodes.
I noticed that there were some pretty awkward cut-offs in the first episode, and going on there were a few in the other eleven. Sometimes I couldn't follow along because the scenes would just jump to something else. A lot of things in this anime seemed to be very convenient, Iron Man would have a problem and then pop! There's a ... solution.
The art I thought was pretty decent and consistent, but the (kinda) 3-D models for Iron Man sometimes didn't fit in.
I also knew who the big bad was from episode one. I didn't like that. When it was revealed I was just sitting there with an un-amused expression going, "Yeah, I knew it."

Ah, Iron Man! There's never enough of you.

I viewed the English version, although I'm interested in the Japanese version (mostly because in the aftermath of Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark, Adrian Pasdar sounded off for all his efforts).

Tony Stark sets his sights on Japan in search for clean energy, ready to retire Iron Man, but things are never so easy for a superhero, now are they? Faced with a new group of enemies - calling themselves the Zodiac - and unlikely allies, he tries to win over the people of Japan and save himself, his company and the world in the process.

The art and ... animation were well made, the story progressing nicely. The audio was a bit on and off especially when in and out of the armor, which was weird, but it could be the English version only.

(About English audio: Adrian Pasdar stumbled a bit in the beginning, sounding stiff, but grew better into his role. I liked him in "Heroes" - which meant I couldn't stop laughing when Wolverine popped by, voiced by Milo Ventimiglia, also seen on "Heroes" playing Pasdar's brother.)