The movie is a continuation of Marvel Anime, a joint project between Marvel Comics and Japanese animation studio, Madhouse, responsible for beloved animes such as Death Note, Trigun and Ninja Scroll amongst others. They even did two of the segments in Batman: Gotham Knight (specifically, my two favorites, the Scarecrow and Deadshot segments).
In this project, they did four short anime series based on Marvel characters: Iron Man, Wolverine, Blade, and X-Men. The reaction has been sort of…mixed, to say the least, to all of them. But sales were apparently good enough to warrant a full-length anime movie starring Iron Man.
Iron Man A.K.A. Tony Stark has just built a new satellite named “HOWARD”, after his father, which will be able to connect with any satellite and computer system in the world making an effective anti-terror monitoring system. However, before the launch, the site is attacked by a new villain called the Technovore. He also wears a suit of armor but unlike Tony’s, his is a liquid metal that he can control with his thoughts. Unfortunately, Tony’s long time friend, James Rhodes A.K.A. War Machine is presumed dead in the aftermath.
S.H.I.E.L.D., specifically its director, Nick Fury, is suspicious of Tony’s involvement in the attack and brings him in for questioning. When Tony refuses and escapes, he sends S.H.I.E.L.D.’s best agents, Black Widow and Hawkeye, to bring him in.
While the movie is beautifully animated, hand-drawn this time unlike the earlier Iron Man anime which had a CGI Iron Man suit, the story’s kind of confusing, particularly the villain’s motives. At one point, he wants to “liberate humanity”, then later on, he wants to destroy humanity. While I don’t want to reveal who the villain really is, he’s actually a very prominent bad guy in Iron Man’s rouges gallery. But his appearance and characterization are so utterly different, he might as well be a brand new bad guy.
I only heard the English voice cast, but only a few actors really stood out for me. While Matthew Mercer was all right as Iron Man, my favorites were Norman Reedus as the Punisher and Clare Grant as Black Widow. Grant actually sounded very close to Scarlet Johansson who played Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. While Reedus, who most people know as Daryl from AMC’s The Walking Dead but I know him best as Scud from Blade 2 and Murphy McManus from The Boondock Saints, does a surprisingly good job as Punisher. I was afraid he would sound too teenager-ish, but his voice was just right for the brooding anti-hero.
Also, the one thing that really bugged me was that they never really explained what was the deal with Technovore’s suit. (MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!) While Tony ponders that it might be some form of nanotechnology, he dismisses it as seeing that it’s “too simple” of an explanation. But it’s clear from a few scenes that the suit has a mind of its own either from a very advanced A.I. or, my personal theory, some sort of alien technology. Either way, they never explain why it lashes out at its owner from time to time.
My reaction to this movie is, well, “meh”. It’s not horrible, the fights scenes are cool to watch, plus the idea of Iron Man teaming up with Punisher was an interesting idea I’d never seen before but the way the story flows is weird. It’ll be intense action at one scene then weird somber reflections of humanity the next. You know you’re watching an anime when there’s those long moments of no dialogue or action and all you hear is just ambiance in the background.
Also, I’m still upset this movie and the Iron Man anime were not THIS.
This was the teaser when they made the announcement that Marvel had teamed up with Madhouse and were going to create an Iron Man anime. I don’t even know what’s going on in this scene but nothing of that epicness happens in either Iron Man features.
Iron Man: Rise of Technovore’s definitely worth a watch but buy it only if you really love seeing Iron Man in action. (I do :P)
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