So it wasn’t (entirely) Warren Ellis’ fault that the “Iron Man” anime was blah.

Brendon Connelly had a chance to speak to Warren Ellis in connection with the upcoming DVD release of “Red” over at Bleeding Cool.  It’s a short interview, but interesting to read for Ellis’ perspective on the movie and its potential sequel.  More interesting to me was what he said about his involvement with Marvel’s anime projects.  Apparently he was just responsible for writing up rough outlines for the series, which would then be rewritten by a Japanese writer. On one hand I’m glad to know that he wasn’t directly responsible for the decidedly underwhelming “Iron Man” anime I saw at last year’s Comic-Con.  On the other, it was his involvement that actually made me want to watch these things in the first place.

Knowing this, I think I can safely skip the forthcoming “Wolverine,” “X-Men,” and “Blade” anime series.  Yeah, I know that it’s unfair to judge a series after just seeing one episode, but I’m very doubtful that we’ll see anything with these that I can’t already get by reading the comics.  Sure, studio Madhouse does good work, but I doubt they’re going to put their best foot forward for what is essentially a “work for hire” gig.  I’d normally try to end speculative articles like this on a note of optimism… but really, does anyone think this is going to work out well?