Marvel Anime (Part 3): X-Men

Hello, my friends.  We’re already a third of the way through, but we still have much more to explore as we dig into another entry of…

So far in this series, Japan has seen an Armored Avenger work to create free energy for all while fighting an evil organization who specializes in robotic creatures while our favorite Canucklehead fought the country’s top crime boss in order to win back his true love.  Now, he’s fighting alongside a certain uncanny team as we now reach the series known as…

The third entry of this series first debuted on Japan’s Animax channel from April 1 to July 10, 2011 before America eventually got it on G4 from October 21, 2011 to January 6, 2012.  Afterwards, it was released on DVD on April 24, 2012.  What sort of crisis awaits our heroes in this world that “hates and fears them”?  Let’s dive in and find out.

We begin Episode 1 “The Return” on a pre-title scene as our team finds themselves within the wrath of a former teammate named Jean Grey (voiced by Jennifer Hale, reprising her role from “Wolverine & The X-Men”) as she’s become the all-powerful being known as Phoenix.

While Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm (voiced by Danielle Nicolet), Henry “Hank” McCoy a.k.a. Beast (voiced by Fred Tatasciore, reprising his role from “Wolverine & The X-Men) and James Howlett a.k.a. Logan a.k.a. Wolverine (voiced by Steven Blum, reprising his role from “Hulk vs. Wolverine” and “Wolverine & The X-Men) proceed to strike, dodge and slice their way through the oncoming debris…

…their field leader Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops (voiced by Scott Porter) is calling to his sweetheart Jean in order to have her regain control over herself.

During the ruckus, Beast contacts Prof. Charles Xavier (voiced by Cam Clarke) and informs him that Jean has gotten out of control.  Overseeing the battle via Cerebro, Charles believes that a group called the Inner Circle is responsible for corrupting her.

With the threat of her going supernova and wiping her teammates out growing by the second, Cyclops rushes towards her and tries to help Jean regain control.  However, Phoenix responds by lifting him into the air and begins to attack him with her telekinesis.  Meanwhile, members of the Inner Circle watch the chaos from afar.

Suddenly, Scott suddenly finds himself in a psychic plane as Jean informs him that she’s gained enough control over herself and asks for him to kill her.  However, Cyclops refuses and begs her to regain command over herself.  Just then, he notices someone controlling Jean from afar as he recognizes her as Emma Frost (voiced by Ali Hillis of Naruto fame).  With her lover unwilling to give her a mercy kill, Jean proceeds to sacrifice herself as she perishes in a bright explosion.

In the rainy aftermath, the X-Men stand over Jean Grey’s grave as Cyclops holds her necklace in her hand.  Distraught with grief, he proceeds to yell out towards the heavens.

And so, the scene ends with the Inner Circle’s leader hiding out from afar as he grins with devilish delight.

Following the opening title sequence, we cut to a year later at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning in Westchester County, New York.  We learn from Charles’ narration that his school was meant to teach young mutants and serve as a safe haven from the “fear of persecution”.  It also turns out that the X-Men, who once fought to help bridge peaceful co-existion between mutants and humanity, have disbanded following the Phoenix Incident.

We then discover Charles as he stops by the memorial slab made in honor of the late Jean Grey.

He then slips into a dream where he’s comforting a group of young mutants who are all crying.  He promises them that even though they’re all scared, he’ll give them the protection they need.

Just then, he notices a boy who’s crying.  As Charles tries to comfort the young lad, he suddenly notices that he can’t read his thoughts.  He tries to reach out to the boy, but is unable to.  As he wakes up, Xavier realizes that he’s had this dream before as snow begins to fall onto his compound.

Meanwhile, a young girl is getting pursued by a small group of robots.  After getting shot with a dart, it turns out that she’s a mutant as she displays her powers.

Following the reveal of the person behind the hunt, the scene ends with the dart injecting the girl with a tranquilizer as she falls down and becomes unconscious, allowing her pursuers to capture her.

We then cut to a week later at the Xavier Institute where Charles has received a call and gets informed about the recent abduction.  With a new crisis for his team to take care of, he lights up the mansion’s sub-level and sends out a call to reassemble.

Elsewhere in the world, a cruise ship is in danger of being attacked by a gang of pirates.  Fortunately, one of the passengers happens to be Storm who quickly takes care of the sea ruffians by summoning a blizzard and freezes them in their tracks.

As the passengers cheer their approval of her saving their lives, she then gets the call to reassemble as she becomes eager to rejoin her teammates.

We then cut to the site of the X-Men’s last battle as Scott has spent the past year mourning over Jean’s death.  Despite getting the call, he doesn’t answer it.

Over at a university, Beast is teaching his class about how a squid’s intelligence can be made to equal that of the average human and beyond.  After placing a microphone into the tank, he suddenly get the call as he excuses himself from his lecture.  After getting informed that the squid will continue his lesson, the students burst out in laughter.

At that moment, they’re suddenly silenced when the microphone picks up the squid’s intelligent voice as the scene ends with it casually continuing the lecture.

Over at an airport (where we get a double Easter Egg about a flight to “Madripoor” departing through Gate “X-23”), Logan has been stopped at the metal detector due to his Adamantium skeleton.  Despite assuring security that he doesn’t have anything in his pockets (due to already having discarded everything he has on him during multiple passes), the female guard keeps insisting him to empty them.  As such, he shows off his claws as proof.  Just then, he gets the call as he tells the guard that he won’t be taking his previously intended flight after all as he prepares to head back to New York.

Later, Charles is delighted to see Ororo, Hank and James arriving back at the Xavier Institute.  However, Storm notices that Scott hasn’t come back as Charles informs her and her teammates that Cyclops isn’t “quite ready to return”.

Once inside, Xavier informs his team about the abduction in Northern Japan (known as the Tohoku region).  He informs his squad that a girl named Hisako Ichiki (voiced by Stephanie Sheh) was kidnapped and that she’s also a mutant, since her powers began to develop when she was young.  Even though the X-Gene is genetically in her family, she was born to human parents.  When Logan asks why they can’t just let the local police handle the case, Charles explains that every single person who investigated has wound up dead.  According to a piece of information from Hisako’s dad, there’s been a surge of mutant activity in the area.  For some reason however, Cerebro is unable to pick up any sign of mutant life there.  As such, Xavier instructs his team to head off to Japan and find the missing girl.  From there, the scene ends with Ororo saying that they’ll go take care of the situation, but they’re not the same without Scott.

While Storm and Wolverine head out to convince Cyclops into rejoining the team…

…Beast checks over Cerebro and tells Charles that he couldn’t find anything wrong with it.  In addition, Xavier says that the Tohoku region is the only part of Japan that’s getting blocked for some reason.  As Hank theorizes that someone maybe cloaking that area, Charles feels that this is somehow connected to Hisako’s kidnapping.  From there, the scene ends with McCoy questioning whether it was a good idea for Logan to get Scott back since the two of them have a rocky history, to which Xavier assures him that Ororo was sent alongside James.

Meanwhile, Cyclops is unwilling to rejoin the X-Men since Jean’s existence was what helped him fight.  Storm informs him that they’re only trying to find a missing girl, but Wolverine begins to agitate Scott by saying that he’s become enveloped in his own self-loathing.  This irritates Cyclops enough for him to shoot Logan with his optic blast.

James recovers and gets his claws out while his Healing Factor cures him of his recent damage.  Before he can engage Scott, Ororo steps in to stop their meaningless brawl.  She then tells Cyclops that he has to rejoin the X-Men, since they’re the only ones who can save the missing girl and it’s what “Jean would have wanted”.  After letting Scott know that he knows where to find them, Ororo and Logan take their leave.

That night, Cyclops thinks back to a peaceful time from his past where he shared a tender moment with Jean.  In it, she tells Scott that in comparison to the stars, they must live their lives to the fullest since they’re very brief.  With the sun rising over the area and the thought ringing in his head, he’s rediscovered his purpose.

Later at the Xavier Institute, the X-Men are prepping the Blackbird Jet for launch as they’re about to head out on their mission. Just then, Wolverine’s heightened sense of smell picks up the presence of a familiar figure.  They soon discover that Cyclops has rejoined them and is ready for their objective.

And so, Episode 1 ends with Charles watching from afar as the X-Men depart for Japan.

We open Episode 2 “U-Men” in an underground base where certain individuals have picked up our heroes approaching Japanese airspace through their sensors.  As such, they prepare their robots to engage them.

Back on the Blackbird, the X-Men have arrived in the Tohoku region and are closing in on their ultimate destination.  Now that they’re closer to the blacked-out region, Beast uses his tablet to serve as their personal Cerebro and scan for any mutant activity.  However, the results are the same as it’s unable to pick anything up.

We then have a quick scene where Sublime (voiced by Troy Baker) contacts his boss, who turns out to be the leader of the Inner Circle, in order to let him know that the X-Men are arriving and that he’ll make sure that they’re taken care of.

Afterwards, the X-Men arrive at the Ichiki household as Mr. & Mrs. Ichiki (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas & Laura Bailey) show them where their daughter was abducted.  It turns out that they normally drive their child to school, but their car broke down on that fateful day.  They considered keeping her home, but a vital test was too important to skip.  So, they let her take the school bus.  After school however, the bus dropped her off earlier than expected, so she had to walk back to her house.  From there, Sublime and his robots would proceed to kidnap her.  As the X-Men would find out, this isn’t the first time that a mutant has suddenly disappeared in the area.

Back at the house, Mr. Ichiki explains that at least 12 mutants (most likely more) have vanished.  However, those families are too afraid to file a Missing Person Report to their local authorities since they’ll feel ostracized by the community for having a mutant living among them.  Not only that, the surrounding area has become very bigoted towards mutants over the past few years.  As Mrs. Ichiki answers a phone call, our heroes wonder if there’s any anti-mutant groups that operate nearby as Wolverine suggests the U-Men, since he’s heard of some notable sightings throughout the country.  Just then, Mrs. Ichiki arrives back and delivers more bad news.  She says that Mr. Fujiwara’s grandson (who’s also a mutant) is missing.  He works at their local store and he disappeared while making a delivery.

As such, Cyclops will take Wolverine and ask the boy’s employer while Beast and Storm talk to his family.

Later, Scott and Logan meet the lad’s boss and confirms that the young boy works for him.  However, it turns out that he was actually abducted weeks ago when he was making a delivery towards a resident over in the mountain range.  After he tells them that he’s heard rumors about the kid being a mutant and that he wouldn’t have hired the lad if that was the case, Cyclops displays just enough anger towards him while Wolverine gets his claws out.  Fortunately, Scott gets him under control as they proceed to head out towards the mountains.  During the ride up, Cyclops thinks about the seemingly never-ending prejudice towards mutants and once again remembers Jean’s death.

At that moment, Scott contacts Hank & Ororo and tells them to meet up at the foot of the mountain.  Beast then tells him that the kid’s disappearance wasn’t reported to Mr. & Mrs. Ichiki by his grandfather.  It turns out that the Fujiwaras were so ashamed of their son being a mutant that they hoped to keep his condition a secret and that whoever called the Ichiki folk about the disappearance is unknown.

Just as Cyclops believes that the mysterious phone caller has set them up, he and Wolverine are proven right as a large flying craft appears in the sky and starts firing at them.

From there, Scott turns his motorcycle around and unleashes a barrage of mini-missiles onto the opposing craft.

Not only did it withstand the blasts, but it also sends out its army of U-Men androids in order to engage our heroes.  Unbeknownst to them, one of the opposing robots has activated its camera for the U-Men to see from their base.  From there, they proceed to fire at Cyclops and Wolverine.

Meanwhile, Beast and Storm find themselves getting pursued by another group of U-Men androids.  Fortunately, Hank manages to sideswipe one of their pursuers in order for it to take out another oncoming robot.  As the chase makes its way onto the ice, the hunting androids also have a camera to display this whole scene for the U-Men.

While Cyclops and Wolverine manage to both blast and slice their firing foes to pieces…

…Storm summons a ice wall to rise up.  Two of the androids get destroyed, but the remaining foe turns around and retreats.

Afterwards, Ororo takes to the skies and proceeds to follow the escaping robot.

With the main flying craft blasted out of the sky, Cyclops and Wolverine continue to shoot and slice the opposing androids.  As he continues to fire away, Scott gets caught up in his thoughts as he ponders how no mutant will ever be safe as long as the U-Men are still around.  Suddenly, he gets shot off of his motorcycle as a robot stands over him and prepares to finish him off.  Fortunately, Logan comes to the rescue and slashes the robotic foe to oblivion.  Afterwards, he scolds his field leader for not being “calm and steady”.

From there, Cyclops fires his concussive blast onto the remaining batch of approaching androids.

Meanwhile, the lone remaining android has made it back to the U-Men’s base by the time the sun starts to set.  Storm notices that the tunnel that the robot escaped into is covered by a hologram as she then discovers that it’s adjacent to a desolate building before flying off to regroup.

After a quick scene where Wolverine reminds Cyclops to not get mentally off-track…

…we cut to the U-Men where their fallen androids provided them with information about our heroes’ powers as Kick (voiced by Dave Wittenberg of Digimon, Naruto and .hack fame) prepares to take what they’ve just learned in order to ultimately combat the X-Men.

Back at the Xavier Institute, Charles gets contacted by Beast and is informed that the U-Men are behind Hisako’s kidnapping.  Professor X tells Hank that the U-Men harvest mutant organs in order to have their powers and abilities replicated.  From there, Beast tells Charles that Storm has found their base and they’re also on their way to meet up with Cyclops and Wolverine.

With a hunch in where he thinks his X-Men are heading, he decides to contact the Sasaki Institute.  However, the phone number is discontinued since the building has since been closed.

A short time later, the X-Men make their way into the abandoned building, which turns out to be a desolate and rundown medical facility.  Just then, they get approached by a crawling figure who’s moaning in pain.  It turns out the be the missing delivery boy as Cyclops approaches him and tries to let him know that things are going to be OK.

Unfortunately, the boy mutates into a gigantic and grotesque monster.  In his mind, Scott compares this to when Jean Grey lost control and transformed into the destructive Phoenix.  Unaware that he’s getting attacked, Cyclops gets saved by Wolverine who jumps in to fight the creature.

Scott tells Logan not to hurt it since he’s just a boy, but Storm and Beast disagree.  In fact, Hank takes out a pair of high-tech glasses and scans the creature.  He confirms to Cyclops that the boy’s genetic structure has become badly damaged and is unable to be saved.  After Scott’s personal distraction gets him smacked by the creature, Storm strikes back with her lightning.

However, she becomes exhausted from the constant exertion of her powers.  This allows the being to grab her as Beast jumps in and attack it in order to rescue his teammate.  However, he gets punched back as a result.

Fortunately, Wolverine manages to trip the monster up and gives Cyclops the opportunity to finish it off.  However, Scott starts to hesitate as Logan yells at him to take the shot.

Ultimately, Cyclops proceeds to fire his optic blast as the creature is finally defeated.

After transforming back into his previous mutated form, the boy tells Scott that he had to take the kill shot.  Afterwards, he informs the X-Men that there’s still others within the building and that there’s still time to save them.  From there, the boy gives into his painfully, mutilated body and dies.

Shortly afterwards, Wolverine steps in and punches Cyclops.  He berates his field leader for getting distracted and that Jean would’ve been disappointed with Scott’s constant groveling.  From there, they head out to try and find the remaining captured mutants.

Our heroes ultimately make it to the central hub where they find Hisako sleeping within a chamber.  However, Episode 2 ends with the X-Men discovering that Emma Frost is also among the captured mutants.

As we begin Episode 3 “Armor”, Cyclops explains to his teammates that Emma, the Inner Circle’s “White Queen”, was behind Jean’s death during their final fight.  Storm wonders how that’s possible since they never saw her there, but Wolverine believes him.  He says that because Emma’s a telepath, she mentally caused Jean to kill herself.  As such, he gets out his claws and prepares to kill her in her sleep.  However, Scott stops him and says that their first priority is rescuing the young girl.

After Beast opens their pods, Emma Frost wakes up while the U-Men watch over our heroes through their security camera.  Kick wants to unleash an attack, but Sublime keeps up his order of data collecting since they don’t want to get surprised by an ability that they didn’t do research on.  After Kick is reminded that Wolverine is responsible for the crippled condition that he’s currently in, he ultimately agrees.

Back in the central hub, the X-Men confront Emma about her possibly being behind Jean’s death.  However, she says that she didn’t do it and that she’s not part of the Inner Circle anymore.  When Beast asks Emma what made her quit, she says that she was a different person when she initially joined.  Eventually, she couldn’t live up to Mastermind’s standards and ultimately left.

Just then, Hisako wakes up to Emma’s company.  After she wearily walks over to her, Beast senses that the two of them have known each other for a while.  As Emma explains, it turns out that Hisako’s parents hired her to be the girl’s personal tutor and help her with her mutant powers once they fully emerge during her puberty.  Emma also explains that her parents did try to call the Xavier Institute for help, but the school was shut down since it was in the middle of the X-Men’s yearlong disbandment.

As such, they ultimately contacted Emma to help their daughter out.  She goes on to explain that she once ran her own mutant academy, which she went back to after quitting the Inner Circle.  After Hisako’s parents got in touch with her, Emma taught the girl via telepathy and over the internet.  During a flashback, she tells Hisako that she’s planning on coming to Japan in order to finally meet her.

However, Emma’s plans changed once she was informed that Hisako was kidnapped.  Once she flew over, she couldn’t get in mental contact with the girl (confirming with Beast that the area is in “a telepathic dead zone”) and was ultimately captured by the U-Men.  Even though Cyclops doesn’t think that she would’ve been subdued that easily, Emma says that she was attacked by cyborgs and her telepathy doesn’t work on them.  Also, getting herself caught would help her reach the young girl.

After she fully explains her situation, Emma lets Hisako know that the X-Men are a trustworthy group.

After a quick scene where the U-Men continue their data research, despite Kick wanting to unleash their attack…

…we cut back to our heroes where despite Emma’s explanation, Cyclops still has his doubts about her.  Despite that, the X-Men prepare to help Hisako reunite with her parents.

Just then, they’re confronted by a large group of androids.  As such, Storm (who’s still weary from their recent fight) stands back to guard Emma & Hisako while Beast, Cyclops and Wolverine proceed to engage their robotic foes.

Meanwhile, Storm hides out alongside Emma and Hisako.  At that moment, Ms. Frost tells the young girl that the time for hiding is over and that it’s no longer “somebody else’s fight”.

Back at the Xavier Institute, Charles fires up Cerebro and tries to scan the Tohoku region.  All that he’s able to get is an image of the same boy from his dreams, but also a vague glimpse of a familiar woman.  Afterwards, he gets blocked out as the scene ends with him wondering if the familiar boy from before has a connection with someone named “Yui”.

Back with our heroes, they manage to finish off the androids.  As they attempt to escape, Beast wonders if their robotic foes were more concerned with analyzing them instead of actually combating them.  From there, Wolverine slices at a grate and creates an exit path for our heroes to go through.

Back with the U-Men, their scanners have lost track of the X-Men since they’re not using the normal hallways.  From there, Kick decides to head out and combat them.

We then have a quick scene where Emma’s telepathy has fully re-emerged from the drugs that were used to suppress it as she senses a nearby enemy, confirming with Beast’s hunch that the U-Men were analyzing them while they were using their powers.

Afterwards, our heroes arrive in a grotesque operating room.  Just then, Kick shows up and explains that the nearby tanks are used to store the various mutant organs.

He then proceeds to attack our heroes as he launches a hand at Cyclops and pins him to the wall in a way where he can’t reach his visor to fire his concussive blast.  Wolverine tries to attack, but Kick traps him in an electromagnetic plane.  Beast tries to lunge at his foe, but he gets smacked away.

Storm prepares to engage their foe, but Kick tells her that she’s still battle-weary from recent events, to which Ororo reluctantly agrees and disengages.  Emma tries using her telepathy, but Kick is able to resist as he prepares to harm Hisako.

Fortunately, Beast managed to reach Cyclops and helps him fire his optic blast, severely injuring their foe and freeing Wolverine in the process.

Before the X-Men can get their chance to escape, Kick quickly recovers and preps to go after Hisako.  As such, Emma decides to sacrifice herself to order to protect the girl while Kick lunges at them.

At that moment, Hisako steps in to protect her mentor as she envelops herself in a psionic armor and catches Kick by surprise (due to her never displaying her special abilites at great lengths in front of the U-Men) as she fends him off.

Kick fires back in retaliation, but his shots have no effect on her (with the exception of further enhancing her psionic armor) as Hisako uses her power to punch him with enough destructive force and eradicate him from existence.

Shortly afterwards however, a massive surge of psionic energy erupts from within as she loses control over herself.  Emma explains that she’s not properly trained in handling this level of power before attempting to get Hisako under control.

Seeing this as a parallel to what ultimately happened to Jean, Cyclops steps in and tells her that she’s the one who controls her own ability and not the other way around.  However, Hisako ends up smacking him away.  Fortunately, he gets up and still tries to convince her to regain command of her powers.

Before she uncontrollably harms Scott again, Emma finally steps in and telepathically tells her to “believe” in herself as Hisako manages to calm down and regain control.

As Ms. Frost congratulates her student in a tearful embrace, Wolverine, Storm and Beast become fully convinced that Emma wasn’t behind Jean’s death.  However, Cyclops is still not willing to give her his complete trust.

Meanwhile, with the base compromised, Sublime is forced to abandon the facility as he ultimately flies away.

Meanwhile, the X-Men proceed to free the captured mutants as Beast contacts Charles and informs him of the successful rescue mission.  With the police arriving to help out, the young mutants are placed on a bus in order to get carried back to their families.

Just then however, it’s revealed that Kick managed to survive his explosive demise as Episode 3 ends with him attempting one last kill shot on Hisako while Emma steps in to withstand the blast.

As Ms. Frost prepares to receive Kick’s surprise blast to open up Episode 4 “Transformation”, not only does she withstand the surprise attack, but she and everyone around her are stunned to discover that she’s developed a secondary mutation in the process.  From there, she uses her newfound power to guard her allies from another of their foe’s blasts.

Kick then unleashes a barrage of laser fire to distract the X-Men while he goes after the rescued mutants on the bus.  Fortunately, Hisako activates her psionic armor and beats him up.  From there, Cyclops and Wolverine deliver the finishing blow as Scott hits Kick with his concussive blast while Logan makes the final cut, putting him down once and for all.

After the battle, Emma transforms back into her original body.  Beast takes out his high-tech glasses and scans her, saying that it’s not uncommon for mutants to develop new powers as they grow up and these abilities can emerge during times of “emotional stress or anxiety”, but he doesn’t rule out the U-Men’s experimentations on her as a possible reason for her new ability coming to fruition.

With the morning sun shining brightly across the land, the X-Men arrive back at the Ichiki household as Hisako happily reunites with her parents.  She’s also tearfully greeted by her human friend named Kyoko (also voiced by Laura Bailey).

As Mr. & Mrs. Ichiki, Hisako and Kyoko prepare a celebratory lunch for our heroes, Beast exclaims that he wants to take Emma back to the Xavier Institute since it contains the necessary equipment he needs to run some proper tests on her.  Cyclops opposes the idea, due to his lingering doubts as he believes that she telepathically blocked Cerebro from scanning the area.  Emma counters his argument by saying that she’s not interested in hiding mutants and that there’s no telepath on the planet that can possibly jam Cerebro’s system.  As such, she agrees to go back with the X-Men if the tests can help prove her innocence to Scott.

After Hisako overhears their conversation and learns that Emma won’t be able to stay with her as originally planned, she decides to join the X-Men on their flight back to America, since she’s just starting to get the hang of her powers.  Afterwards, Ms. Frost asks Mr. & Mrs. Ichiki for their permission to let her go with the X-Men.  As such, they ultimately agree.

Later, the X-Men, Emma & Hisako take their leave as they begin their trek back to the Xavier Institute.

However, the X-Men aren’t able to get too far into their flight as they’re suddenly confronted by an unidentifiable creature.  As it starts to punch the cockpit window, Wolverine heads out to take care of it.

Before the monster can completely punch through the window, Logan manages to reach it as the two of them proceed to fight while “Another Day of Battles” (the end credits song to “Wolverine”) plays on in the score.  The two combatants fight on top of the Blackbird before they continue their brawl amongst the nighttime skies.  Eventually, Logan manages to break free and deliver a knockout slash within the clouds as he captures the creature and brings it back inside the Blackbird.

Shortly afterwards, Beast looks over the fallen creature as Emma remembers seeing it within the U-Men’s labs.  Wolverine then mentions how his foe couldn’t effectively control its powers.  Exactly like the doomed delivery boy, he was imprisoned by the U-Men while they twisted him with their experiments.  Hisako asks Hank if he’ll be able to save the tortured mutant, to which Beast informs her that he’ll do everything in his power to try once they reach his labs.

Later, the X-Men arrive back at the Xavier Institute as Charles greets Emma and Hisako to his school.  Afterwards, Beast proceeds to work on saving the badly mutated boy.  Just as everyone starts to head out and get some rest, the boy starts screaming in agony and pain.  Unfortunately, his mutilated body breaks down and dies.

A short time later, the X-Men meet up in the break room as Cyclops believes that Emma and the Inner Circle are somehow connected with the U-Men’s experiments.  Ms. Frost shoots his argument down since A. She’s already left the Inner Circle, B. They don’t butcher mutants and C. They have no operations within Japan.  Storm agrees with her since the Inner Circle disbanded following the battle that cost Jean her life.  Just then, Beast arrives and shares the results from his examination over the deceased boy’s corpse.  It turns out that he suffered from a virus that attacks the mutant genome, causing his power to surge uncontrollably throughout his system.  From there, Hank asks Emma to come with him in order to conduct her examination.

While Beast proceeds to begin his thorough medical observations on Ms. Frost…

…the rest of the team proceeds to relax in the recreation room.  They’re then approached by Charles who tells them that despite their recent venture, Cerebro is still unable to scan for mutants within the Tohoku region.

Later, Xavier find Hisako waiting outside for the end of Emma’s examination.  He asks her if she’s familiar with the Sasaki Academy, to which she says that she may have heard of it before as a child, but she’s unsure.

Sometime afterwards, Beast and Emma come out of the examination room.  Hank tells Hisako that despite some inconsistencies involving Ms. Frost’s secondary ability, she’s 100% healthy.

We then have a quick scene in Xavier’s office to close out Episode 4 where Charles tells Beast that despite rescuing Hisako and stopping the U-Men, the X-Men have some tall tasks awaiting them, since a mysterious virus and a blacked-out Northern Japan still have to be dealt with.

As we open Episode 5 “Power”, Hisako finds herself going up against a Sentinel.  She tries to get away, but the gigantic automaton fires its arms out and grabs her despite the psionic armor.  After carrying her up to its face, it proceeds to fire a powerful beam from its mouth as Hisako gets hit and falls down towards the deep crevasse.

Fortunately, it turns out that this was just a training exercise in the Danger Room.  Emma reminds Hisako that she’s still getting used to her powers, but Cyclops’ stern leadership kicks in as he criticizes Ms. Frost for not helping her pupil have complete control over her abilities sooner.  After he mentions that putting off her training will ultimately see her siding with a “morally-questionable crowd”, Hisako chastises him for constantly belittling her mentor and demands him to apologize to Emma.  However, Scott says that Ms. Frost isn’t a member of the X-Men and that she’s still new to the team as he takes his leave.

Meanwhile, Charles and Beast discuss how despite being captured by the U-Men, Emma has no signs of the mysterious virus within her.  As for the mutants who were also initially taken prisoner, Xavier has Hank prepare an anti-viral drug to combat the newfound disease.  Once the antidote is made, Charles will send the X-Men back to the Tohoku region in order to finally take care of the current situation.

After a quick scene where Cyclops is in his bedroom looking over Jean’s necklace and a bedside picture of her…

…we cut to a team meeting where Charles officially makes Hisako a junior member of the X-Men.  He also offers Emma the opportunity to join the team as well.  Still showing his suspicion towards her, Scott still doubts her about Jean’s death and wants Xavier to mentally scan her mind in order to make sure that she’s being truthful.  However, Emma refuses to share her private thoughts.

Meanwhile, Beast and Hisako work on creating the anti-viral serum.  She asks why Cyclops has been so judgmental of her and Emma, to which Hank responds with the fact that Scott is still emotionally wounded and that she should give him some time in order for him to “find his way”.

Back at the meeting, Charles states that he’s not going to read Emma’s thoughts if she doesn’t allow him to before officially making her a member of the X-Men.  After stating that he wants Xavier to remember this day when Ms. Frost ultimately betrays them, Cyclops takes his leave.  Afterwards, Wolverine lets her know that the X-Men believe her story as Storm wonders who else could have been behind Jean’s death.  Emma says that it’s possibly the Inner Circle’s leader, Mastermind, since he’s a skilled illusionist.  Ororo then brings the fact that they haven’t seen him since that fateful battle, while Charles mentions how despite the Inner Circle having ceased all activities as well, it’s possible that Mastermind is biding his time in order to unleash a more sinister plan.

At the same time, Cyclops arrives at the lab and informs Hisako and Beast that Emma has been given membership to the X-Men while she’s been given a junior membership.  Afterwards, Scott tells her that it’s time for her to continue with her training.

Over in the Danger Room, Cyclops tells Hisako that she’ll be fighting him for this training exercise.  His reasoning is that there’s no risk when combating against imaginary foes and if there’s no danger, she’ll always be holding back.

With Logan, Ororo and Emma watching from afar, the training begins as both participants will be engaging on the Blackbird while it’s up in the air (but without the fierce winds that would force them off, of course).  However, she’s reluctant to fight her own teammate.

Despite that, Cyclops doesn’t give her that choice as he starts firing his optic blasts towards her.

Hisako proceeds to run around the Blackbird as she tries to dodge the oncoming concussive blasts while still refusing to fight back, despite Scott reminding her that he’s not holding back.  Meanwhile, Wolverine and Storm feel like their field leader is taking the training too far.  Just as Ororo prepares to shut the simulation down, Emma tells her not to interfere since her pupil still hasn’t unleashed her true potential.

With Hisako trapped on the nose of the plane, Cyclops tells her that if she doesn’t get control over her powers, then she’ll end up as an eventual victim.  As such, she activates her psionic armor and withstands his constant optic blasts.

Before long, she starts fighting back and manages to score several hits on Cyclops with each passing second.  Just then however, she starts to lose control over her powers.  Scott tells her to clear her mind and focus as hard as she can in order to master her ability.

Just then, it dawns on Wolverine and Storm that this exercise is meant to help Hisako from going down the same self-destructive path that Jean ended up on.  As such, she finally manages to control her power, bringing the training session to an end.

Despite a successful result, Hisako finds no joy in it since she feels that her own ability is making a monster out of her as he tearfully runs out of the Danger Room.

Shortly after she makes her way towards the outside balcony, she’s met up by Storm who gives a brief demonstration of her power by summoning a blizzard before making it dissipate.  Afterwards, Ororo tells Hisako that she didn’t know what to do when she first got her powers, but that Charles taught her how to “know her own heart” in addition to controlling her ability.  Storm also says that the X-Men are meant to bridge the heartfelt relationships between mutants & humans and that if Hisako denies her own power, then she’ll never become the person that she’s meant to be.

Just then, Emma joins them and tells her pupil that Cyclops wants her to maintain control over her own ability.  Despite a convincing speech about being brave despite knowing that she’s a mutant, Hisako doesn’t feel like she’ll ever be as strong-willed as the rest of the X-Men.  As such, Emma asks her pupil to follow her.

A short time later, it turns out that Ms. Frost is going to let Charles scan her mind and that she wants to display everything he sees to his teammates.  As such, Xavier begins to read Emma’s thoughts, displaying various points in her life where she developed her telepathy.  Eventually, it was during one of her birthday parties that she caught the attention of the Inner Circle’s leader, Jason Wyngarde a.k.a. Mastermind (voiced by Travis Willingham) who manages to have her join his sinister group.

After one fateful event where she was made to use her telepathy in order to force a man into signing his assets over to the Inner Circle, only to unintentionally have his life spiral out of control towards his own demise, Emma tells Jason that she’s leaving his group.

The last projection shows her when she decided to go back to teaching young mutants.  It turns out that the day she met a mutant boy on a swing set was also the same day that the X-Men were in the fateful battle where Jean sacrificed herself, proving that she was nowhere near the fierce confrontation.

With her troubled past made clear, Emma tells Hisako that she’s made her mistakes but she also changed for the better and that she’s confident that her pupil will improve as well.  A tearful Hisako then tells her mentor that she’ll do her best in making the X-Men proud of her.

Afterwards, Cyclops tells Emma that he was wrong to doubt her and that he finally has her complete trust.

We then cut to the X-Men preparing for their newest mission:  With their batch of anti-viral serums, they must head back to the Tohoku region and treat the previously captured mutants.  Just then, Hisako and Emma emerge in their new outfits as the junior member decides to go by her new codename: “Armor.”  With the entire team gathered, they get informed about a valley within a remote mountainous area of Northern Japan that’s hosting a large amount of mutant activity.  Hopefully, they’ll discover why Cerebro is unable to scan the area and what’s causing the virus to infect mutants.  As the team heads out, Emma quickly asks Charles about someone that came into his minds during the recent mental scan named “Sasaki”.  However, Xavier doesn’t talk about her as Ms. Frost heads out.  And so, Episode 5 ends with the X-Men beginning their flight towards Japan as Charles thinks about all of the various oversea obstacles that he hopes his team can overcome.

We begin Episode 6 “Conflict” with Sublime contacting Mastermind about the X-Men arriving back in Japan.  Jason tells him to keep their foes busy until “the others arrive” as the scene ends with him talking out loud about needing a little more time until “everything I need” is ready.

Meanwhile, the X-Men arrive at the Ichiki household as Hisako shows off her new outfit to her parents and Kyoko.  After Emma and company express their approval towards her own growth under their watch, Beast says that he’s more than ready to heal the abductees.  Just then, Mr. Ichiki says that there were a few incidents that have recently popped up.  From the fish and trees dying near the local river to a bridge getting mysteriously destroyed, it’s unknown as to what’s causing these unusual disasters.  While Beast takes care of the vaccinations, Storm and Wolverine will head out to the river while Cyclops, Emma and Armor will investigate the bridge.

As Hank (with Kyoko assisting him) begins to administer his vaccine to the U-Men abductees…

…Wolverine and Storm ride out to examine the river.  With the stream initially looking healthy, Logan’s heightened sense of smell picks up something foul upstream: Sulfur.

As such, they discover hundreds of dead fish lying in a liquid that’s “more sulfur than water”.  They soon find out where the sulfur is coming from as they notice a nearby pool of active lava with Storm wondering about the cause of this.

Meanwhile, Cyclops, Emma and Armor arrive at the destroyed bridge.  Even though Emma says that Magneto could easily cause this kind of destruction, she automatically rules him out since he’s in a maximum-security prison.  Either way, Cyclops is convinced that opposing mutants are behind these disasters.

As they drive back to the Ichiki household, Hisako asks Scott about something that Beast told her involving him “nursing an old wound”.  With Cyclops still feeling the emotional scars from Jean’s demise, Emma tells her that there’s some things that people aren’t able to comfortably talk about.

After the X-Men regroup at the Ichiki household, Cyclops wonders if the unnatural sulfur & the twisted bridge are somehow connected with Cerebro’s sudden inability to scan for mutants within the general area and the emergence of the new virus.  As Hisako and Kyoko head off to prepare dinner, Beast arrives back and informs the team that he successfully administered every last abductee.  He then tells them a revealing piece of information that he acquired from one his patients.  It turns out that there’s a facility located right within the blackout zone.  As such, the scene ends with Cyclops proclaiming that they’ll head out to investigate at sunrise.

With the dawn of a new day, our heroes fly off towards their destination.  As they soar above the mountain range, Emma is suddenly attacked by a mental noise that only she can hear.  At that moment, the Blackbird’s controls begin to cut out.  As if that wasn’t enough, a missile is fired up at them as they proceed to get hit from the shot.

Fortunately, the X-Men survive the plane crash.  Just then, they hear some weird noises as Armor learns that this is the piercing noise that’s causing Emma’s mental pain.

Just then, Charles’ telepathic link to his team is severed as he senses grave danger for them.

At that exact moment, the Blackbird begins to get enveloped by abnormal snow.  Wolverine asks if Storm can deal with it, but she says that she can’t since her powers are weather based.  Shortly after it gets partially encased, the telepathic noises cease and allow Emma to recover.  Wolverine suggests that they dig the Blackbird out, but Beast says that even after they do so, their plane will require some repairs.

Just as the X-Men are about to head out, a laser blast triggers an avalanche.  Fortunately, Cyclops saves his team with his optic blast.

They soon find out the reason behind the avalanche as a mech-suit comes in to engage them, with Sublime piloting it as well.

Cyclops fires his concussive blast, but Sublime’s mech is able to absorb the intense energy and fire it back at our heroes.  While most of the team is able to dodge or deflect the attack, Scott ends up getting hit by his own shot as he’s sent flying across the field.

Afterwards, Wolverine gets his chance to attack.  However, several canisters are fired out towards him as they magnetically attach themselves to him via his Adamantium skeleton and begin to heat up.

As Storm soars in, Sublime proceeds to send up a specific device.  Ororo tries to attack with her lightning, but it ends up absorbing her strike and sends it right back at her, knocking her out of the sky.

Instead of going on the offensive, Beast hides behind a rock and uses his high-tech glasses in order to scan the mech for any possible weaknesses.

Meanwhile, Sublime finds Hisako in his sights and prepares to blast her out of existance.  Fortunately, Emma uses her secondary mutation and shields Armor from the blast.

After reverting back to her original form, Ms. Frost tries to attack with her telepathy.  However, it has no effect at all as Sublime is about to strike her.

Fortunately, Hisako uses her psionic armor and saves Emma from the attack before tussling with Sublime.

However, he manages to throw her to the ground with enough force, causing her to deactivate her power.

Meanwhile, Beast discovers that the mech suit has an energy source at the top of its spinal column.  As such, he runs out and lunges at it.  Despite getting quickly thrown off, it turns out that Hank had a surprise in store as he attached a mini-bomb to the mech suit.

The explosive manages to damage Sublime’s mech suit as it starts losing power and even frees Wolverine from a toasty imprisonment.

From there, Armor recovers and reengages with Sublime.  This time, Emma shifts into her secondary mutation and kicks an opening towards the cockpit as Cyclops recovers in order to unleash his optic blast.

Despite his weakened condition, Sublime still tries to fight back.  Fortunately, Wolverine brings those hopes to an end as he slices up the legs and causes the mech to fall unceremoniously to the ground.

Afterwards, the X-Men notice a device attached to Sublime’s arm as Beast discovers that it’s able to track down mutants.  Cyclops wonders how that’s possible since Cerebro isn’t able to pick up any signs in the area, but Sublime tells our heroes that they won’t need to find a certain mutant since it’ll find them.  From there, he activates his device’s own self-destruct sequence as our heroes get far away in time before it explodes and kills himself.  As such, the X-Men discover that the U-Men aren’t the ones who’re preventing Cerebro from scanning the area.

From there, the scene ends with Mastermind discovering that Sublime failed in his mission and is now dead.

As night falls, the X-Men are forced to walk through a forest in the middle of a blizzard.  Fortunately, Wolverine’s scent picks up some human activity in the distance.

It turns out that a log house is within the woods as our heroes ask the female resident if they can come inside and wait out the snowstorm, to which she ultimately agrees to.

As our heroes warm up by the fireplace and are given hot tea, Episode 6 ends with Hisako suddenly realizing who the woman is.  It turns out that she’s Dr. Yui Sasaki (voiced by Gwendoline Yeo), the former headmistress of the Sasaki Academy.

As we begin Episode 7 “Betrayal”, our female scientist tells our heroes that’s she unaware of any of the strange phenomenon that have been occurring in the area.  Afterwards, Yui states her appreciation towards Hisako’s newfound X-Men membership.  After Armor brings up the fact that Professor X asked her about the Sasaki Academy, a somewhat surprised Yui replies with “Charles asked…?” before she gets properly asked about her former school.  She tells the X-Men that even though it wasn’t as big as the Xavier Institute, it was a place where young mutants could come and receive proper education in addition to giving them a safe haven from the hatred of humankind.  After it eventually shut down, she went on to use the building for medical research on mutant physiology.  Just then, Hisako brings up the fact that she can’t remember her friends from the academy.  Despite her partial recollections, she vaguely recalls a young boy and asks Dr. Sasaki if she knew him.  However, Yui says that she had so many children in her care that she’s not sure either.

Just then, her assistants come in for their meeting.  From there, Yui introduces the X-Men to her research team: Koichi Kaga (also voiced by Troy Baker), Jun Sanada (also voiced by Travis Willingham) and Riko Nirasaki (voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn).  Afterwards, she excuses them and lets them know that they can start without her.

With the blizzard having now passed, Beast exclaims that they should get the Blackbird out of the snow.  As Wolverine and Storm proceed to join him, Hank tells Cyclops to stay put with Emma and Hisako in order to “keep them company”.

After half of the team heads out, Scott and company are informed that Yui’s main laboratory is underground.  Afterwards, Hisako exclaims that she used to go to public school.  Once her powers began to develop, she came to the Sasaki Academy after her regular sessions was done for the day, so she thinks that maybe this vague young boy was from her normal school.  Afterwards, Emma asks Dr. Sasaki about her past with Charles Xavier.  Yui exclaims that she only met him once over 15 years ago.  Afterwards, she excuses herself to her lab.

Shortly after she leaves the room, Hisako exclaims that despite her vague memories, she remembers Dr. Sasaki being more friendly.  Emma adds on to the argument and believes that Yui wasn’t as truthful as she was letting on.  She explains that without having to use her telepathy, she picked up the fact that Dr. Sasaki called Professor X “Charles” despite claiming that she only met him once a long time ago.  Ms. Frost also mentions how Yui used Xavier’s name in conversation, giving her a hunch that she’s covering something up.

Back in the mountain range, Beast, Wolverine and Storm arrive at their trapped Blackbird.  Ororo states that whatever’s holding their plane isn’t regular ice and that the snow that formed around it isn’t even cold.  After a quick examination, Hank exclaims that it contains a crystal-like mineral.  With their jet absolutely trapped within the substance, Beast decides to contact Professor X and have him send their back-up Blackbird.

Back at the Xavier Institute, Charles is informed by Beast that they met Dr. Yui Sasaki during their venture.  Afterwards, Professor X concludes his call by letting Hank know that he’ll send the back-up Blackbird jet out to them.  Just then, he gets contacted by Yui and asks him to send the X-Men on their way in order for her to continue her research in peace.  However, Charles states that she’s actually aware of the various circumstances that have been going on in the area.  He also brings up the fact that he’s somehow “telepathically blocked” from that part of Japan and only sees a young boy, exclaiming that she’s somehow involved and asks about a possible connection that she may have with him.

Yui explains that the young boy is named Takeo.  She then reveals that not only is he her son, but that he’s Charles’ kid as well.  She also explains that the image of their child has entered Xavier’s thoughts when he previous scanned her mind and she had that particular mental thought in her head.  She also says that because Charles is unable to see his face, it means that their son has also died.  Afterwards, the call ends with Yui promising to explain everything in greater detail to him someday and for him to cease with meddling around in her personal business.

Back at the Blackbird, our heroes suddenly hear a loud rumble.  Initially beveling it to be another avalanche, it actually turns out to be a massive snowball that’s rumbling towards them.  As such, Wolverine heads out to deal with it as he punches it into pieces.

Suddenly, he gets kicked as it turns out that someone was within the snowball.  It’s revealed to be Rat (also voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) as he’s quickly joined by Marsh (also voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), both of whom are members of the Inner Circle.

From there, a fight breaks out as Wolverine tussles with Rat, the latter of whom has a retractable blade in his arm.

Meanwhile, Storm and Beast try to attack Marsh, but he’s able to dodge their attacks.  Just then, an actual avalanche begins to form.  With the massive amounts of snow bearing down, Marsh transforms himself into water and makes his escape with Rat following suite.

As such, the scene ends with the X-Men forced to take refuge on top of the Blackbird in order to avoid the avalanche.

Meanwhile, Yui gives her three assistants a certain compound in her underground lab.  While Jun heads out with his sample, Riko proceeds to inject it into herself.

Back up in the cabin, Hisako has been rubbing her right palm for a while.  After Emma and Scott notice, she explains that it’s a bruise that she’s had for a long while and that neither she nor her parents have any idea as to how she got it.  Hisako also states that it’s started hurting ever since they arrived in the cabin and that she never felt any pain from it anywhere before.  As such, Armor heads out to find Yui in order to see if she has anything to take care of it.  Shortly afterwards, the scene ends with Emma wishing to talk with Cyclops about “something personal”.

We then have a quick scene at the Xavier Institute where a second Blackbird jet is primed and ready to head out to Japan.  However, Charles decides to use the plane and fly out there himself.

Back at the cabin, Emma wishes to read Cyclops’ mind in order to help him achieve “some form of closure”.  She explains that she was informed by Wolverine of Scott’s hesitation within the U-Men’s base, believing that Jean’s death was behind it.  Even Hisako has expressed some concern to him as Emma explains why it’s their business as well.  Since Cyclops is the field leader, he shouldn’t be mentally distracted with her demise while important team matters are at hand.

Meanwhile, Beast, Storm and Wolverine are walking back from their recent venture.  Logan expresses his suspicion that someone else is with Yui besides her three assistants. Ororo also mentions about the odd behavior that the doctor displayed to them while Hank also brings up the fact that her lab is right in the middle of these mutant disturbances and that there’s no way that she wouldn’t know what’s going on, which is also his main reason for leaving Scott and Emma behind.

Back at the cabin, Emma proceeds to read Cyclops’ mind.  From his peacefully tender moment to the day of her demise, Ms. Frost visits a few key moments from Scott’s past.

The mental journey ends with Cyclops coming face-to-face with his greatest opponent: himself.  After his opposing self fires his optic blasts at him, Scott wakes up and starts sobbing from the painful experience.

Also, Emma now understands why Cyclops initially blamed her for Jean’s death.  When he asks who the “other me” was, she explains that it was his subconscious, which still blames him for letting Jean die.  Scott says that he didn’t know how to move on without her and he ended up placing unneeded fault upon himself.  Emma says that what happened is already done and that Xavier’s dream must be forged in order to help others.  Cyclops then thinks about what Jean told him all those years ago about how tiny their own troubles are in “the grand scheme of things”.  As such, the scene ends with Scott acknowledging his thanks to Emma.

From there, Episode 7 ends with Yui getting confronted by an unknown creature within her underground facility.

As Episode 8 “Lost” opens with Dr. Sasaki’s scream of terror alerting Cyclops, Emma and Hisako to her aide, Ichiki finds the doctor deep within her underground facility.  Just then, they’re confronted by what Yui initially ran away from as the creature fires corrosive acid at them.

Afterwards, it starts attacking them with its own lightning.  Fortunately, Armor activates her power and protects Yui from the strike.

Just as Koichi and Jun appear to see the terror unfolding, Cyclops and Emma arrive as Scott tells her to look after the two assistants while he takes care of the monster.

Unfortunately, it uses its wings in order to fly around the facility and avoid the concussive blasts.

Just as Wolverine, Storm and Beast arrive back at the cabin, they hear and feel the rumble from below as they head down to help out.

Back down below, the creature continues to evade Cyclops’ attacks before it manages to get within striking distance of Yui.  Fortunately, Hank arrives in time as he kicks the monster before Logan and Ororo join him.  Afterwards, he scans the monster with his high-tech glasses and confirms that it’s also infected with the same virus that attacks the mutant genome.  Even though Beast says that he’s developed a serum to counter the disease, they need to capture the creature in order to administer it.

While Armor and Emma uses their powers to protect Yui and her two assistants…

…Cyclops proceeds to blast the creature from its perch while Storm unleashes a barrage of lightning onto it.

However, it recovers and pins Ororo down before attempting to shoot its acid onto her.  Fortunately, Wolverine comes in and pulls the creature towards the walkway.  This allows Armor the opportunity to come in and finish it off as she jumps in and smashes it.

Shortly afterwards, the defeated monster disintegrates as it’s revealed that the creature was actually Riko.  While Jun looks over in anger, Koichi freaks out and runs off.

Meanwhile over the Pacific Ocean, Charles is fifteen minutes away from his destination.  He then starts to think about the first time that he met Yui at the Sasaki Academy and how just like him, she saw all mutants as regular people.

Eventually, the two of them became romantically involved with each other.

At the end of his trip, Charles asked Yui to come back with her to New York.  However, she declined due to her duties at her mutant institution.  When he eventually returned to Japan however, Dr. Sasaki refused to see him.

From there, he thinks back to the recent revelation on Takeo being the son that he ended up creating with Yui.  Xavier realizes the reason as to why she didn’t go back with him to America, since she was hiding the fact that he helped her give birth to a son.  As such, the scene ends with him determined to see Yui again in order to “get some answers”.

Meanwhile, Riko is resting in recovery.  Just as Beast is about to inject her with his anti-viral sedative, he discovers that her arm has already seen numerous injections.  Even though Yui tells him that Riko is diabetic and requires insulin, Hank isn’t entirely sure with her answer and asks her about this being a condition that she should already be aware of.  However, Dr. Sasami says that she tries not to delve into her assistants’ personal matters.  From there, Beast injects Riko with his serum.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and Wolverine find Riko’s room in shambles and discover the compound that she was injecting herself with.

A short time later, Koichi is back in his room and in a nervous wreak over what happened to Riko.  It turns out that the compound was supposed to “cure” him and his colleges of their mutant powers.

However, he’s unaware that Cyclops and Wolverine are standing right outside his door as they let themselves in while Logan says that he realized that Koichi was a mutant due to both his heightened smell and how Kaga reacted from the realization of what happened to Riko.

Koichi explains that he and Riko joined the Sasaki Academy when their powers manifested.  After the school was shut down, they joined Yui as her research assistants.  Cyclops wants to know what it was he injected into himself, but Kaga says that he can’t say “without Dr. Sasaki’s permission”.  Afterwards, Wolverine asks about Jun.  Koichi says that Sanada has only been with them for nine months and that Dr. Sasaki brought him on due to his research skills.

Unbeknownst to them, Jun was overhearing all of this before walking away.  After learning about the situation at hand, Cyclops tells Koichi that he needs to be treated by Beast.  However, the scene ends with Kaga losing control over himself.

Back with the rest of our heroes, Beast begins to question Yui about the various circumstances happening in the area and how her facility seems to be at the center of it all.  Dr. Sasaki says that she doesn’t know and that she’s not familiar with the virus.  However, Hank doesn’t believe her and says that she’s pleading ignorance over it all, especially since she specializes in mutant research.  Yui says that she never intended for Riko’s current situation, and she excuses herself due to her “not feeling well at the moment”.

Meanwhile, Koichi’s hideous transformation becomes complete as he bursts out of his room while Cyclops and Wolverine give chase.

Shortly afterwards, Yui is confronted by her mutated assistant as she manages to recognize him from his slightly-mutated face.

As our heroes converge, the monstrous Koichi picks up a suddenly unconscious Dr. Sasaki as Cyclops tells his teammates who the creature really is.  However, it doesn’t proceed to assault her as Scott believes that it still has the knowledge of Kaga’s student-teacher relationship within him since he’s known her for so long.

Just then, Armor powers up and charges right at him.  However, it easily pins her down.  Fortunately, Yui is just conscious enough to tell Koichi to stop.  As such, he lets Hisako go and puts Dr. Sasaki down.

Unfortunately, the mutated Koichi unleashes an ear-piercing screech before hitting both Cyclops and Wolverine as Scott smashes into a particular room.

It turns out that he landed in the storage room where Dr. Sasaki’s flawed compound is kept.

Thankfully through the combined majority efforts of the other remaining X-Men,…

…our heroes manages to subdue Koichi as Armor tosses him across the hallway while Storm unleashes her lightning on him and brings the fight to an end.

Just as Emma shifts back into her normal form, she suddenly notices Mastermind from across the hallway as he transforms back into Jun, letting her realize that he was behind the whole scheme.

Following the battle, our heroes discover that Koichi has transformed back into his human body as they proceed to give him medical attention.

Later, Beast has injected Kaga with his anti-viral sedative.  After noticing that Koichi also has several injection marks on his arm, Hank demands to know what he and Riko have been putting into their bodies.  As Cyclops shows off the “liquid concentrate” that he found in the storage room, Yui is shocked to find her secret getting exposed as Beast demands an explanation.

Meanwhile, the rising sun shines on the Blackbird as Charles approaches his destination.  He then proceeds to use his telepathy to scan the area until he comes across something that he’s never seen before.  It turns out that some “entity” was able to reach his own thoughts and cut off his psychic link to the X-Men.

From there, Episode 8 ends with a mysterious rift opening up and consuming the Blackbird, sending it into a strange & mysterious void.

As Episode 9 “Revelations” opens, Yui tells the X-Men that she wasn’t trying to kill mutants, but cure them.  She explains that she developed her viral serum with the intent of nullifying the X-Gene, thereby turning mutants into regular humans.  Her reasoning is that she was fully aware of the human race’s hatred towards mutants and believes that there’s ultimately no way to fully convince every person to accept those who have the X-Gene.  She was getting close to finally perfecting her serum when the X-Men arrived, which is why she lied to them about not knowing about the freak activities in the area.  However, Hisako tells her that her work doesn’t cure mutants, but kills them.  Even Beast mentions how the Inner Circle never tampers with genetics.  At that moment, our heroes suddenly realize that Emma isn’t among them.  Wolverine also notices that Jun is missing as well.  As such, Cyclops, Storm, Armor and Logan head out to find them while Beast keeps Yui behind.

Meanwhile, Charles is trapped in a psychic void as he’s unable to contact his team and the Blackbird’s controls aren’t responding.  With various illusions and sounds surrounding him, Xavier believes that only a telepath could create this particular space.  As such, he begins to fight back on a telekinetic plane.

From there, the scene ends with his opponent taking shape just enough for the two of them to begin a battle of the minds.

Meanwhile, Jun arrives at a large set of doors as Emma has followed him and demands to know what’s past those giant barriers, since there were some security measures on the way down.

She then goes on to explain a revelation that she’s had about her secondary mutation.  When she shifts into her diamond form, she’s unable to use her telepathy.  Fortunately, that also means that she can’t become suspectable to telepathy herself.  This leads into her knowing that Jun is actually Mastermind.

Meanwhile, the X-Men continue to search for their teammate.  Wolverine manages to trace her scent towards a hidden door and prepares to slice it down, but (in a comedic manner) Cyclops manages to locate the hidden switch to open it as our heroes press on.

Back with Emma, she demands to know what the Inner Circle’s leader is up to.  While under the guise of Jun, Mastermind explains that he made his way to the Tohoku region when he heard about a spike in mutant activity.  Because of the telekinetic blackout over the area, he managed to trick the U-Men into believing that he was also a mutant-hating human.  Thereby, he received their Intel about a “great, untapped power” that was taking shape.  From there, Emma pieces it together and says that after Jason found out about it being deep within Yui’s facility, he disguised himself as Jun and became her research assistant.  Now, Jason has finally located this grand power behind the massive doors.  Afterwards, Mastermind confirms with Emma that he was the one who made Cyclops think that she killed Jean Grey during their last battle, since he was still mad that Ms. Frost left him & his Inner Circle and hoped that the X-Men would’ve finished her off.

From there, Jason proceeds to unleash his telepathic powers while Emma shifts into her diamond form.  As Mastermind drops his disguise, he tells her that since she’s unable to use her telepathy while in her present state, she can’t stop him.

Despite that, Emma tries to attack him, but Jason is able to dodge and block her strikes.  Suddenly, something trips her up as she shifts back into her regular form.  She then gets restrained and pulled back to a ventilation shaft as it turns out to be Marsh who proceeds to strangle her.

Fortunately, the X-Men arrive as Cyclops blasts Marsh in order to save Emma.  With her teammates arriving, Mastermind becomes Jun once again as Ms. Frost warns her colleagues that Sanada’s the culprit and that his current identity is an illusion.  Jun tried to convince them that Emma attacked him for no reason and possibly has the virus in her.  However, Wolverine’s heightened sense of smell picks up a familiar scent from long ago and even picks up an unfamiliar smell coming from behind the giant doors.

Unfortunately, Mastermind is able to use his mind control on Logan as he makes him attack his teammates, due to him seeing them while with the U-Men.  As the X-Men dodge his strikes, it ultimately falls upon Cyclops to get James under control.

Meanwhile, Storm contacts Beast & Dr. Sasaki in order to let them know about the current fight between Scott and Logan.  After Ororo informs him to get down to the sub-basement level immediately, Yui shockingly remembers what’s also down there.

Back down below, Cyclops continues to fight a mind-controlled Wolverine.  Just as Emma is about to go after Mastermind and stop him, she and Hisako are captured by Marsh as they’re pinned to the furnace grates.

Fortunately, Beast arrives as he frees the ladies from Marsh’s grasp while Armor grabs her foe and throws him.  Afterwards, Hank manages to dodge the opposing attacks and kicks Marsh away.

Meanwhile, Storm comes in and assists Cyclops by entrapping Wolverine within a wind funnel, allowing Scott to fire his optic blast and knock Logan out.

Shortly afterwards, Yui arrives and warns the X-Men that Jun is making a break for the giant doors.  Cyclops fires his concussive blast at him, but Marsh shoves Jason aside and takes the hit for him.

This gives Emma the opportunity as she shifts back into her regular form and uses her telepathy to disable Mastermind’s psionic field in order for his true identity to become known to her teammates.

After Ms. Frost informs Cyclops that Jason caused him to believe that she killed Jean, Scott eagerly prepares to fire at him.  However, Beast tells him to wait since he thinks that they’ll need him in order to handle the mysterious presence behind the giant doors.  As Rat joins in, Episode 9 ends with the X-Men and the Inner Circle preparing to come to blows once again.

As Episode 10 “Countdown” opens, both sides begin to brawl against each other.  While Wolverine and Storm proceed to fight Rat, Cyclops orders Beast and Emma to guard Yui while he engages Marsh.  Armor also helps out in protecting Dr. Sasaki as she’s able to fend off Marsh’s strikes.

As Mastermind walks through the damaged safe doors and makes his way inside, Emma informs Yui about the leader of the Inner Circle.  Ms. Frost explains that Jason’s mutant group protects other mutants, but they don’t believe in cohabitation with humans since they wish to create a “New World Order” where mutants run the world.  He also cast an illusion over himself so that Dr. Sasaki thought that he was Jun Sanada.

Meanwhile, Logan and Ororo’s double-team begins to work, but Rat refuses to go down.  Even when Wolverine has him in a hold, he still tries to fight James off by impaling him with his spikes.

Back in the infirmary, Riko and Koichi wake up as they wonder how they got there in the first place.  Suddenly, they hear a loud rumble from below.

Meanwhile, Charles continues to fight through his psychic limbo as he engages his unseen foe in a telepathic tangle.  The adversary then tries to disorient Xavier by spinning the Blackbird into an aileron roll.  He nearly gives up, but the thought of his X-Men viewing their leader as less-than-strong propels him to fight back as he steadies the plane and starts to create his way out.

Back with our heroes, Storm uses Wolverine as a conductor for her lightning as she zaps Rat and finally defeats him.  Fortunately, Logan’s Healing Factor kept him safe through the voltage.

Meanwhile, Beast, Emma and Armor continue to protect Yui as Cyclops finally manages to chase Marsh away with his concussive blasts.  With the Inner Circle’s lackeys out of the way, the X-Men turn their attention towards Mastermind.

Just then, Riko and Koichi join our heroes in order to ask Dr. Sasaki why they were in the infirmary and the laboratory has been partially destroyed.  With Yui not able to tell the truth to them, Beast proceeds to explain about the doctor’s own virus that was supposed to eradicate their mutant powers, but instead turned them into mutated abominations.  He also tells them that they’ve healed thanks to his own vaccine.

Afterwards, the group heads inside the same room that Mastermind entered as they confront a particular apparatus.  It turns out that this is the device that was interfering with Cerebro and any telepathic scan in general within the Tohoku region.  Beast explains that it detects any attempt at scans for the mutant gene and either blocks or scrambles it entirely.  As such, the X-Men express their shame towards Yui since she was aware of the recent activity in the area and was trying to cover it up, with even her assistants having already knew about the incidents as well.  From there, they turn their attention towards stopping Mastermind.

Emma then proceeds to inform her teammates on what Jason told her while he was under the guise of Jun.  He came to the region due to the area’s rise in mutant activity and heard about a “great, untapped power” that he wishes to harness, so he disguised himself as Jun in order to get closer to it.  Just as our heroes prepare to enter the main chamber and find out what Mastermind has in store; Yui finally talks about this grave power that lies nearby.  She says that this horrid potential actually comes from an innocent boy.  She goes on to explain that he was the reason that she made her custom virus.  Discovering that this great power is coming from a mutant, Beast recalls Sublime’s dying words and finally realizes why they had their own device to track mutant activity within the psychic blackout.  It turns out that the U-Men worked for Dr. Sasaki all along.  She explains that her custom virus couldn’t work without living mutant tissue and that the U-Men were able to help her in that particular supply, which is also why she had the area under a telepathic blackout in order to prevent Charles from finding out.  Upon hearing this shocking news, the X-Men become appalled at the levels that she sunk herself to as they demand to know what she’s hiding behind those doors.  Distraught from her secrets being unraveled, Yui ends up leading our heroes towards their answer.

As they make their way towards the door, Hisako suddenly feels the pain from her bruise beginning to grow.

Once our heroes go inside the main chamber, Mastermind is found waiting for them next to a young boy who’s within a containment cell.  Yui tells the X-Men that he’s her son Takeo (voiced by Steve Staley of Digimon, Naruto & Bleach fame) and that he’s also Charles’ kid as well.  Not only do our heroes get stunned by this revelation, but it turns out that Riko and Koichi didn’t even know that fact since they thought he was only a patient.  Jason explains that Charles and Yui met at a conference in Japan before falling in love for each other and ultimately created Takeo in an act of passion.  While Dr. Sasaki ran her mutant academy and raised her son in secrecy from Xavier, an event involving her kid ultimately caused her to close the school.  Ultimately, it was her son that Yui tried to create her own virus for in order to strip Takeo of his mutant powers and that she would recruit Riko & Koichi as her mutant assistants.  Ultimately, she was forced to hire the U-Men to help her out and Mastermind found out during his secret alliance with them.  Jason then explains that Takeo is an Omega-Class mutant, just like the late Jean Grey, and he plans on using Yui’s son to help mutant-kind rule over Earth.  Because of his access, Mastermind spent the past several months studying Takeo’s mind in preparing his scheme.

Just then, the Inner Circle’s “White Bishop” arrives as Neuron (also voiced by Dave Wittenberg) attacks Koichi and Riko, ultimately slaying them by simply snapping his fingers.  He then explains his ability to Yui where he enhances a person’s neural senses to unbearable levels, to the point where the most basic of sounds and the slightest of touches become extremely painful.

Meanwhile, Charles finally manages to fly out of the psychic void.  However, the strain from the struggle causes him to pass out as the Blackbird starts to rapidly descend towards the ground.

Back below ground, Neuron cuts off Beast & Wolverine from their teammates by surrounding them within his self-made shell and starts attacking their own senses.  From there, Mastermind begins his master plan and starts to influence Takeo into unleashing his own power.

As Armor’s bruise begins to once again surge in pain, the Tohoku region becomes enveloped in a purple sky.

Just as Cyclops is about to attack Mastermind, Marsh returns and manages to trap Armor, Storm, Emma and Yui within his grasp.  As such, Episode 10 ends with Jason’s influence continuing to surge within Takeo as his grand plan begins to unfold.

While Episode 11 “Revenge” opens with Scott unable to strike back at Mastermind without Marsh harming all four ladies, Wolverine and Beast continue to get bombarded by Neuron’s sensory amplification.  Even when Cyclops tries to sneak in an attack, Marsh quickly notices and restrains him.

As her bruised hand continues to hurt, a wave of memories suddenly flash as Hisako realizes that she does remember Takeo.  She explains that they used to go to the Sasaki Academy and that he was a close friend to her.

As Yui tries to convince Takeo to stop before he unintentionally destroys the world, Cyclops wonders how her son could possibly do that.  Mastermind explains that Takeo is able to warp reality.  Because of that, he was also responsible for the sudden surge in mutant activity within the region.

It turns out that Jason is using his illusions to make Takeo believe that he’s in intense pain in order for him to unleash his power upon the world.

As the boy continues to twist apart his containment cell and the chamber with his mind, Hisako suddenly remembers a key moment in their past.  It was during a snowball fight with the other students ganging up on him that Takeo unintentionally turned their snowballs into fireballs and bounced them off of his own force field towards the surrounding area.  During the chaos, it turns out that this is where Hisako got the bruise on her hand, which turned out to be a small burn.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the flames managed to reach the building and set it (along with the surrounding neighborhood) on fire.  This would be the last time she ever saw Takeo.  Emma then tells her that since he’s an Omega-Level telepath, he’s able to alter people’s memories.  Yui then explains that she had Takeo erase Hisako’s memory as well as everybody else’s since she feared that he would’ve been taken away from her.  Because of the incident, she closed the academy and kept him isolated in order to study his powers.

At that moment, Mastermind finally manages to help Takeo unleash the full potential of his powers.

Meanwhile, the Blackbird continues to rapidly descend from the skies.  Despite being unconscious, Charles suddenly receives a telepathic message from the grave as Jean tells him that his team needs him.  Thankfully, this wakes him up as Xavier manages to regain control and resumes flying towards his destination.

Back in the main chamber, Armor thinks about how Takeo has been sheltered and kept alone throughout most of his life due to his immense power.  Determined to make sure that Mastermind doesn’t get to use him for his own means, she proceeds to activate her psionic armor and break out of Marsh’s grasp, freeing her teammates in the process.

Afterwards, Hisako charges right at Marsh and punches him towards the ceiling, allowing Cyclops to finish him off with his optic blast.

From there, Scott proceeds to engage Mastermind in a personal battle.  However, Jason envelops him in an illusion.  In it, he sees his fellow X-Men crucified across a war-torn battlefield as he notices his beloved Jean crying.

When he asks her how this nightmarish landscape came to be, she says that it’s all his fault for not rescuing her in the first place.

Back in reality, the X-Ladies can only watch as Mastermind works his mental powers on Cyclops.  Storm tells Emma to help Scott out, but Ms. Frost says that she can’t use her telepathy while she’s in diamond form.  She also says that she’ll risk getting taken over mentally if she shifts back to normal.  As such, Armor tries to attack, but Jason is able to multi-task as he telekinetically rises up pieces of the floor in order to fend her off.  Afterwards, he then brings out several cables and mentally uses them to tie up both Storm & Yui.  From there, Takeo’s surging power causes a huge piece of the ceiling to collapse towards Emma.  Fortunately, Armor recovered and manages to save her mentor.

Back in the mental state, Cyclops continues to get hounded by Phoenix for being responsible for the destruction of not only his teammates, but mutant-kind as well.

Meanwhile, Wolverine is able to see Scott trapped in Mastermind’s mental grasp and comes up with an idea on how to attack Neuron.  As soon as they get blasted with another shot of sensory amplification, Logan wants Beast to repeatedly hit him.  As such, James proceeds to taunt Neuron and gets attacked as planned.  From there, Hank proceeds to constantly punch him.

Thankfully, Wolverine’s plan begins to pay off as the constant abuse sends him into a Berzerker Rage.  With the sensory amplification no longer affecting him, Logan proceeds to charge right at Neuron and stab him to death with his claws.

Back within Mastermind’s mental hold on Cyclops, Phoenix is preparing to finish Scott off for his future sins to the mutant race.  Just then, a calm presence takes hold as he’s then surprised to see Jean emerge and tells him to finally let her go.  Despite his hesitance and Phoenix trying to sway him, Jean’s words manage to convince him as Scott finally decides to move on.

This actually allowed Cyclops to regain control as he fires his concussive blast at Mastermind.  While Jason is shocked to discover that his mental illusion has been broken, Cyclops looks at Jean’s necklace and thanks her for being crucial to him but now, he needs to lead his team.

Just as Mastermind is about to retaliate on our heroes, he’s suddenly entwined by several cables.  It turns out that Takeo has been agitated past the point where he can be controlled.  As such, Jason meets a gruesome end as he gets telekinetically crushed by the cables.

Afterwards, Takeo finally breaks free from his containment cell and delivers a psychic blast towards the chamber’s ceiling.  With the infrastructure collapsing, the X-Men and Yui are forced to escape.

Meanwhile, Charles sees the psychic power shoot towards the sky and turn it into an intense red color.  Despite the immense level of psychic turbulence threatening to tear the Blackbird apart, Xavier pushes onward to join his team.

Back with our heroes, they manage to get outside as they see Takeo’s psychic body grow to a towering level.  The X-Men exclaim that if his reality-warping distortion field isn’t dealt with, it’ll continue to grow and bring about the end of the world.

As such, Cyclops orders his team to spread out and prepare to strike.  However, Armor isn’t willing to attack her childhood friend, so Scott orders her to look after Yui.  Unfortunately, Takeo unleashes a piercing screech which delivers an unbearable pain into their minds.

Just then, the Blackbird flies in and crash lands onto the ground.  Fortunately, Charles managed to use his own retractable escape pod to land safely.  And so, Episode 11 ends with him finally confronting the son he never knew he had.

As we open Episode 12 “Destiny”, Xavier sends out a telepathic message to the citizens of the world.  He lets them know that even though Earth is facing “its darkest hour”, they mustn’t give in and that they should instead help each other out during the chaos whether they’re human or mutant.  He concludes by saying that this is the chance for everyone to serve as heroes and prove themselves as the better man.  Among those hearing the message are notable heroes of X-Men lore: Archangel, Colossus, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Deadpool and Captain Britain, all of whom immediately take action to protect the populace.

Back with our main heroes, Yui informs Charles that the giant apocalyptic being who’s threatening the world is actually their son.  As such, she runs up and tries telling her child to stop.  However, Takeo is still on a psychic rampage as he fires at his mother.  Fortunately, Hisako uses her psionic armor to protect them as she withstands the powerful strike.

In retaliation for attacking his own parents, Wolverine runs up and stabs Takeo.  However, it doesn’t hurt him as he manipulates reality so that Logan ends up stabbing himself.

Storm tries to fight back, but Takeo actually manages to freeze her own lightning.  After he shatters it, she has the dreaded realization that he’s able to negate their own abilities.

Beast tries to lunge in but gets knocked back.  Afterwards, Emma tries to telepathically tell Takeo that he doesn’t have to do this.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t accept as he unleashes his mental prowess onto her.

Finally, Cyclops tries firing his optic blast.  However, his powerful shot gets redirected towards him as he gets hit by his own beam.

Afterwards, Takeo goes right back to attacking his own parents as Hisako’s own psionic armor continues to get battered.  While she continues to withstand the blasts, she thinks backs to her youth when Takeo wasn’t the monster that he’s become and instead was her friend.

Fortunately, a simple yell from Charles gets Takeo to stop his assault.  From there, Xavier proceeds to use his psychic powers and engage his son within his mind.

With the threat to the world held in check, Cyclops sees this as their opportunity to take care of Takeo once and for all.  However, Armor stops him and asks to give Charles some time to help her childhood friend.  While Emma initially sides with her by saying that slaying Takeo while Xavier is in his mind will kill him as well, she gets convinced by both Cyclops and Wolverine that this is beyond the childhood friendship and that Earth’s fate is in danger.

Over on the mental plane, Charles tells his son that despite his intent to unleash his power upon the world after a hurtful and lonely life, he wishes to offer his son some comforting help.  Despite an initial sign of trust, Takeo instead lashes out with a telepathic strike.  Charles then tries to calm his son down by saying that he didn’t mean to abandon him, especially since he didn’t know that he even existed.

Back in reality, Takeo regains enough consciousness to send Yui and the X-Men into unconsciousness.  Even though Cyclops is initially the last one standing, even he can’t resist the power as he falls unconscious as well.

Back on the psychic plane, Charles is withstanding Takeo’s psychic outburst.  He tells his son that he can’t get turned away, but he won’t let his kid endanger the world.

Meanwhile, the unconscious X-Men get an unexpected visit from the grave as Jean tells them to get on their feet and fight for the world in order to “serve as an example”.

As she tells them that humans and mutants are coming together to help each other during the crisis, we get images from around the globe where Archangel, Colossus, Rogue, Deadpool, Nightcrawler and Captain Britain are saving several citizens.

Even to the point where other non-mutant heroes, such as Iron Man, are joining in to combat the chaos.

With her vision having successfully brought the X-Men out of their unintended slumber and reinvigorated them, Cyclops thinks to himself how he mourned over Jean’s death for so long that he couldn’t remember what his team stands for and what his purpose is as their leader.

Just as Scott prepares to go sacrifice himself in order to finish Takeo off, Emma stops and reminds him that mutants and humans are working together on an unprecedented level.  She also states that Jean would want him to be alive in order to see that vision come true, so she makes him wait a little longer for Charles to do his job.

Back on the psychic plane, Xavier continues to withstand his son’s mental attack.  He tries to tell Takeo that he’s sorry for not being beside him when he was growing up and yet he still wishes to help.  With his son still unwilling, Charles is left with no choice as he fights back with his own mind.

Back in reality, the X-Men see Xavier’s psychic strike unfolding as Emma explains that he’s shutting down Takeo’s mind, followed by his body.  Unfortunately, that means that Professor X would be trapped in his son and die along with him.  From there, Yui runs up to her son and says that she should be the one who pays for her actions instead of Charles.

With Xavier willing to die alongside his son, Hisako walks up to Takeo’s psychic body and shows him the burn on her hand.  She tells him that even though he caused this bodily harm to her on accident, it doesn’t define who he is since he’s still her childhood friend and that there’s still time for him to change.

As such, she activates her psionic armor and begins to enter Takeo’s mind.  She manages to cast a shining light within his now-dormant thoughts and offers her hand in friendship.  Thankfully, he accepts.

Within this shining light of clarity, Charles says that Takeo was trying to desperately reach out to his father through his dreams and he regrets not being there for him.

With Takeo having made peace with his father, his psychic body breaks up as he spares the world from his wrath.

Despite the planet being saved, Yui feels the overwhelming guilt of her actions and prepares to take her own life with a serum that’s powerful enough to kill a normal human.  Just then, she’s visited by her son in a bright light.  With him at peace, he says good-bye to his mother and vanishes.

With Charles back in his body, he tells Yui that his son’s final wish was for him to be at peace and for his parents to find that peace as well, in addition to carrying on with their lives.  From there, Takeo’s remaining spark proceeds to fly up into the sky and vanishes.

Afterwards, Xavier and Dr. Sasaki talk to each other about how they failed as Takeo’s parents: Yui for hiding him from the world out of paranoia and Charles for not being there to teach him how to use his inherited powers.  Afterwards, Armor is praised by her team for helping out Takeo and ultimately saving the Earth.

As Storm tells her about a new and better world that awaits both humans and mutants, we once again get quick glimpses around the globe where our mutant heroes are thanked and praised for their good deeds as they stand side-by-side with the human race.

After thanking Armor for clearing any lingering doubt that he had on her, Cyclops proceeds to give her Jean’s necklace as thanks for “saving him”.  After Hisako tells him that he must always be nice to Emma, Ms. Frost says that they’ll “talk” and plant the seeds for a future romance.

From there, the scene ends with Wolverine reminding his team that their back-up Blackbird is still in damaged disarray and that they must fix it in order to get back home.   However, the team is in too good of a mood to let that get them down.

And so, the series ends on a post-credits scene where a plastic cage is in shambles as it turns out that Magneto has escaped, concluding with the phrase: “The X-Men’s Battle Continues…” (or “The Battle of the X-Men Continues…” if you watch the Japanese footage).

Now that we’re done with the overall plot summary, let’s dig into my character analysis and being with my personal favorite X-Man: Cyclops.  When he goes for a whole year mourning over Jean’s death and then takes nearly the entire series to finally let his guilt subside in order to finally move on with his life, he represents humanity’s struggle to maintain stability with our own selves.  It can be difficult when you’ve become firmly accustomed to someone or something for a very long time only to see it wiped out of your control and be forced to start over again.  Never has this been encapsulated in moments when he hesitates to shoot an innocent mutant just because it’s trying to squeeze the life out of Storm or when Mastermind’s illusion nearly makes him consumed by his own self-doubt when it conjures up Phoenix in his mind and has him as responsible for mutant-kind’s possible downfall.  Due to having put his faith and trust into both Emma and Hisako, Cyclops grows as a leader and as a person in order to see his team finish their task at hand.  While Jean’s timely emergencies may seem like a plot device to put him and the X-Men on the path the story needs them to be on, they never seem forced by any means.  Getting promoted from a small role in our previous entry to having an ample number of things to do, Scott Porter turns in a fairly solid performance.  His range of scared timidness and un-healthy displays of worry to confident and caring helps Scott shine brightly throughout the series.

Next up, we reach our telepathic heroine of the feature: Emma Frost.  Casting doubt onto Scott about her loyalty was a good move since early on in her comics existence, she was famously part of a villainous high-status group called the Hellfire Club.  In the years since, she’s switched sides and became a hero, but let’s dive into her character arc.  Growing up, she was somewhat ostracized for her mutant ability until Mastermind came along and made her feel accepted.  Of course, she ultimately left when one of her actions unintentionally caused a man to ultimately become deceased.  After opening her own mutant academy, Emma found a better calling as a tutor until her time as Hisako’s teacher led them into the predicament that unfolded before them.  Judging from what we learn from her here, she seems to have grown up without much ambition in her life.  While being a part of the Inner Circle initially helped her feel like she belonged somewhere, she left after witnessing the group’s less-than-noble business ventures.  Once she became a teacher, only then did she discover her true potential in life.  As a tutor, she helps Hisako develop her powers at a comfortable pace and never pushes her to extreme lengths like Cyclops did in the Danger Room.  In that sense, it feels like her teaching method is that she’ll pick Hisako up when she falls, but only guide her in the right direction in order to get her on the path towards complete confidence in her abilities.  As far as her secondary ability kicking in during a time of crisis, it’s essentially an early piece of character development that’s established fairly early on and comes into play as the series progresses.  Also, the reason I didn’t call it her Diamond Form initially is that the series itself doesn’t call it that until Emma confronts Jason-as-Jun.  She’s also important in helping Cyclops move on from Jean’s death, since he saw her image on the day that his beloved sacrificed herself.  Only when she grows more comfortable with the X-Men is she willing to open her secrets to them and only through talking & working alongside Scott does she help him progress with his life, especially with a subtle hint that they may pursue a relationship with each other at the end.  If I were to describe her characterization here, it would be “Trust”.  Before joining the X-Men, she would only put her faith into her students, Hisako and her family.  As the series progresses, she earns the respect of most of the X-Men easily, but has to work extra hard in order to convince Cyclops of both her innocence and her own dependability to him.  By the end of their venture, Emma is prepared to help Scott move on together.  Ali Hillis’ performance is a unique combination of sternness and caring.  She never resorts to yelling to make her point and is sophisticate enough with her tone to match this heroic White Queen.

Now we reach a young gun whose journey molds her into an unlikely hero with Armor.  Because of the X-Men’s yearlong absence, they’re unaware of her need for guidance, thus allowing Emma to enter the picture and serve as her personal tutor.  Through Ms. Frost, Hisako is able to use her psionic armor, but not to the extreme and confident levels that she’ll grow into over the course of the series.  Because of her capture by the U-Men, the wheels are set in motion to see her grow up sooner that she hoped.  While Emma always had good intentions with her teachings, it’s unknown if she would have eventually gotten around to helping Hisako completely control her powers if the U-Men never interfered.  As her venture with the X-Men helps her harness her power’s full potential, her past history (which was set up really well with subtle hints and clues) is tied in with Yui’s plight and the evil machinations of our two separate groups of villains.  Had Takeo had a better grasp of his own powers as a child, then Hisako could have grown her friendship with him even more and help him towards a stable life.  Throughout the piece, Armor is caring and respective towards her adult peers.  Instead of chastising Yui like the rest of the X-Men do when they find out about the deceptive tactics that she sunk herself to just to help her son, she’s more disappointed in Dr. Sasaki.  After all, she only wants what’s best for human and mutant-kind.  While she does completely come into her own by breaking out of Marsh’s grasp (and helping to defeat him in the process), Armor’s finest hour (and complete realization of her abilities, most likely) is helping Professor X get spared from dying after he shuts down Takeo’s mind and body.  With her past finally realized, her undying friendship helps her childhood friend find completion before he moves on.  As such, she gets rewarded and respect for her growth.  Stephanie Sheh is pretty effective in helping the character shine throughout her first (and so far, only) media appearance outside of the comics.  She had a full decade to hone her tones in preparation and she helps Hisako shine, ranging from nervous & tearful to determined & confident.  On a side note, I was amazed in finding out that she was co-created by Joss Whedon (the man behind Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible and many other skillful stories) during his run as a writer on Astonishing X-Men.  I can only imagine how he felt when he saw his comics creation on an anime.

As we continue my character analysis, we reach the X-Men’s head honcho: Charles Xavier.  While he is a prominent figure to the team, he becomes more essential as his importance is explored.  With the mystery of a boy in his dreams established near the start of the first episode, the reveal of who the child actually is begins to unravel following a rescue mission that leads him and his team into a dark secret hidden within the Tohoku region.  If there was any word that summarized his character arc: it would be “Father Figure”.  He serves as the guiding light for his X-Men as well as any mutant who came to his school in the past in wanting to master their abilities in addition to a sharp education.  However, he soon realizes that a past meeting with Dr. Yui Sasaki (who also enjoys teaching young mutants) led to a romantic fling between the two.  Because Yui kept their son a secret from him, he had no idea for several years that he even helped give birth to a potentially powerful child.  After surviving psychic limbo during his flight to Japan, his final test sees him confronting Takeo and trying to embrace a son that he never knew about.  With Hisako’s help, he finally helps his son connect with him, if only for a brief time.  I’ll get into more parental details with Yui, but Cam Clarke is fairly solid in the role.  While his delivery can sound somewhat monotone, it’s still emotional enough to carry the weight for his performance.

Staying in parental territories, we now come across Dr. Yui Sasaski.  Because of her relationship to Charles and that she also works with mutant genes, she serves as this universe’s version of Dr. Moira MacTaggert.  While the comics had Moira as Scottish, Yui is appropriately Japanese.  As we learn more about her, it slowly becomes apparent that she’s ultimately the main reason for the X-Men’s overseas plight.  After we get to know her throughout the series, it becomes clear that she unintentionally set this dreaded series of events in motion the night that she and Charles had their night of passion and never told him that she became pregnant.  Because she was concerned for Takeo after he unintentionally caused extensive damage with his powers, she became a worried parent and tried to help her son be rid of his powers.  However, she brings up an age-old lesson that your intentions (whether good or bad) will always lead to consequences.  In that vein, she enlisted the U-Men to help her receive the resources she needed to come up with her flawed compound.  In that vein, I’m not sure whether or not she was aware of their nefarious schemes when she entrusted them with helping her.  Probably not, but she ends up paying a costly price when A. Her sedative turns her two mutant assistants into mutated monsters & B. A greater evil was lurking around under her nose due to her secret partnership with the U-Men just so Mastermind could use her son for his own scheme.  After the U-Men are dealt with during the first half of the series, she becomes more prominent as the mutant machinations continue to unfold.  In the end, she admits her mistakes as a parent & as a geneticist and joins Charles in making peace with their son.  Unlike the previous entry where Mariko Yashida was a main character throughout but didn’t get much to do, Gwendoline Yeo turns in a better performance this time around.  Because she gets plenty of material to work with as Dr. Sasaski (especially during the series’ second half), she’s able to display her range better, despite her character being in a constant state of worry and tearful shame.

As long as we’re on the topic of failed families, we now reach the tragic son himself: Takeo.  Because he’s the son of Charles Xavier and a human female geneticist, he’s essentially this universe’s version of David Haller a.k.a. Legion.  Unlike his comics counterpart, the only abilities he displays here are Reality Warping, telepathy and telekinesis.  Because of his great (but still developing) powers, Yui makes him sheltered throughout most of his life and makes loads of witnesses (including Hisako) forget about what he unintentionally did to the Sasaki Academy, not to mention making them forget about his existence from their memories.  Because he’s been cut off from humanity for most of his life, it became easy for Mastermind to ultimately manipulate him into unleashing his psychic rage upon the world.  Had he not altered several people’s memories of the incident, then Yui’s fear would probably have come true with Takeo being taken away and him never getting to be with his mother for several years.  As it is, he’s the result of his misguided mother’s actions who only had Hisako to give him his lone source of outside compassion.  Thankfully, their friendship was worked into the backstory in order for his characterization to come with a lesson: It’s never too late to change.  Takeo always had the potential to be a good-hearted person, but the actions by both his mother and Mastermind nearly squandered any hope for that to happen until Charles’ attempt to reunite with him and Armor’s final action helps him find the solace that he never had throughout his life.  With what he has to work with, Steve Staley does a fairly good job with bringing this tragic instrument of ultimate power to life.  Despite the fact that most of his voice work consists of yells (regular and warped), he helped Takeo go from tragic villain to sympathetic innocent with the right level of tones.

Now, we reach our main villain of the piece with Mastermind.  After giving Emma a place of acceptance within his Inner Circle, he’s held an eternal grudge against her for walking away from his group.  In that historical context, it was wise for him to cast her image to Cyclops on the day that Jean sacrificed her life early on without the audience or the X-Men being fully aware yet.  However, his behind-the-scenes scheming isn’t limited to just blaming Emma for Grey’s death.  Since the U-Men had no idea that he was a mutant, he managed to join their ranks before learning about Takeo’s grand power through their outlets and ultimately works for Yui under the guise of Jun Sanada in order to study her son for months before unleashing his plan.  Unfortunately, just like how he underestimated the X-Men in to thinking that they would buy Emma as Jean’s killer, he doesn’t completely understand Takeo’s true power as the young boy ultimately does him in.  For a man who can adapt himself for whatever situation is at hand and even cast his foes into a cell of illusions, he was ultimately slayed by an instrument of grand power who suffered from his mind by placing him in a situation that he couldn’t adapt to.  With what limited time he had with this role, Travis Willingham brings a suave, yet deceptive tone to Jason Wyngarde.  Bonus points to him for his double duty work as Mastermind’s guise of Jun Sanada as well, since his tone is just different enough to throw Yui, the rest of her assistants and the audience off until the reveal.

As far as the rest of the X-Men is concerned, they serve their roles effectively well.  While he’s athletic and nimble, Beast uses his intellect as much as he can.  He’s articulate and kind, yet never hesitates to leap into action when the situation calls for it.  Not much else to say about Hank, except that Fred Tatasciore easily slips right back into a role he voiced three years prior.  As far as Storm is concerned, she’s something of a gentle spirit.  While she’s also a caring person (especially when Hisako is sobbing after Cyclops pushed her past her limits), there’s not much else to say when discussing Ororo, since not much stands out about this iteration of the character.  Despite that, Danielle Nicolet is mainly solid throughout.  Finally, we get to Wolverine.  He’s witty, gruff and somewhat hard-boiled, but he’ll jump in and slice away at whatever grand trouble is abound for his team.  As usual, Steven Blum is consistent with his quality of voice work, especially since this is a character he’s been doing since the video game “X-Men Legends” back in 2004.

The plot is very well-constructed, since it feels like a web of hidden secrets and devious acts that continue to come into the light as the narrative continues to unfold.  What’s sort of odd is that in the Japanese audio, the virus actually has a name as our characters specifically know it as the Damon Hall Syndrome.  In the English dub, it’s only called a virus.  Either way, the various revelations and how they’re all tied together is masterful storytelling.  The animation (for the most part) is solid, since fluidity and colorization are effectively handled.  The only part that I found utterly annoying is when Wolverine is fighting a mutated being in the sky.  Because of a combination of the dark surroundings, the constant blurs and the fact that the camera never stopped shaking throughout the bout, it was an utter pain to watch despite multiple viewings of the scene.  Despite its use of animated shaky cam, the action is engaging and allows itself to balance out with the character development and the narrative.  The pacing feels brisk, yet gets its story told in a well-executed fashion, especially when watching the series on a binge-watch.  Even though it’s 12 episodes just like the previous entries, it just has an overall feeling that it gets its story in and doesn’t waste time with its progression.

Overall, this is a mainly solid series.  The characters fit in their roles, the animation is top-notch, the action is mainly effective, and the story is one of the most tightly written I’ve seen in one of these superhero tales.  It’s a fitting entry for any X-Men fan and it’s worth a watch for anyone else as well, so unite yourself with this series and see the uncanny team serve as the cure to Japan’s hidden virus.

Next Time: The series is ready to delve into the night as even the land of the rising sun isn’t immune to those who thirst for blood.  It’s time for the Daywalker to have his time to shine as we take a bite out of “Blade”.

X-Men (created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby) is owned by Marvel Comics.