Madhouse to Produce Wolverine and Iron Man Anime

Marvel Entertainment announced today that they're partnering up with the well known Madhouse to create some new series based off of Marvel Comics characters for the Japanese market. Similar to what was done by Gonzo with Witchblade, the series will be done in a way that fits into the Japanese anime sensibilities which means they may not retain a lot of familiar elements that the comics fans are familiar with.

Wolverine and Iron Man were the two characters talked about specifically, which isn't a surprise considering the theatrical aspects of the live action movies, but Marvel talked about there being four series in production for a 2010 Japanese airdate. The first series will launch in spring 2010, debuting on Animax, a 24-hour Japanese anime network. As is to be expected, both Marvel and Madhouse will be capitalizing on the merchandising aspect of this as well.

In December of 2007, Marvel began working more with the Japanese market as they started a new manga initiative which includes an X-Men manga and a Wolverine manga.