So Marvel Anime: X-Men is basically about the X-Men, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, and Beast, trying to rescue a mutant girl that has been abducted. As we all know, the X-Men are considered an elite group of mutants born with the infamous X-Gene, so there's no one else better for the job. And of course, we have Professor X, aka Charles, to thank for this as he wanted to create a better world for mutants so that mutants and humans could co-exist better via the Xavier Institute.
After all, because these mutants had the X-Gene and powers, they were ostracized by humanity as one would expect.
Anyway, after the loss of Jean - which we see at the start of the first episode, Cyclops isn't quite the same and needed an extra push in order to be able to do the mission. I think the X-Men went on hiatus for a bit after Jean's passing. I mean the other X-Men were seen pretty much moving on with their lives, but Cyclops was still rather hurt by the loss of Jean even a year later as he loved her, so it makes sense that'd he'd have some trouble getting over her let alone have the motivation to rescue a child in Tohoku, Japan.
Especially, when he was unable to rescue his lover who fell victim to mind control. I think I'd struggle with that too.
Anyhow, we learn two things. One we learn about U-Men, a scientific group of mutant hunters basically, and we also learn that there's been more than one abduction. We learn this in the second episode when the X-Men greet the parents of Hisako, the missing child. The parents told them that nearly 200 mutants have been abducted over the course of a few years, which is crazy, and I think I actually remember the parents claiming that number to be even higher since some incidents went unreported.
Clearly, the X-Men are dealing with a far bigger problem than they could have ever realized.
In the third episode, we meet Emma Frost - whom Cyclops suspects had involvement in Jean's passing. However, Emma Frost, informs them that she had nothing to do with it and had left the Inner Circle before the Inner Circle's war with the X-Men. Naturally, they didn't really believe her at first, but they are able to free Hisako and many other young mutants.
In return, the U-Men lost their headquarters, but now the X-Men came out of the situation with more questions than answers.
Now I have to admit I was kinda surprised that Hisako returned home safely in the fourth episode; I didn't think things would be resolved that quickly regarding Hisako and the missing children. We also learn of the Damon-Hall Syndrome - a risk that comes with transforming and it's something only a vaccine can treat.
As for the fourth and fifth episodes, Cyclops still suspects Emma even when Charles recruits her as an X-Man. He was very insistent that Emma had everything to do with Jean's death, but after she allowed Charles to probe her mind a bit, Emma's innocence was proven. I was kinda worried that Cyclops would still be stubborn, but it seems as if he finally came to terms with Emma's answers.
She wasn't the one responsible for Jean's passing.
We also get to see Hisako get some more practice as far as honing her abilities and trying to gain control of them. By the end of the fifth episode, the X-Men are assigned another mission - this time to not only distribute the vaccine for the Damon-Hall syndrome but get to the bottom of the mutant detection interference. Beast, the doctor of the X-Men, was administering the vaccine to those that were on the verge of complete genetic degradation - which I believe to be known as a second mutation. He also figures out that there's a correlation between how quickly mutations are happening and what's happening to the environment.
Eventually (episode 6), the X-Men encounter a woman Sasaki Yui, who was the headmistress at Sasaki Academy, where they temporarily took in mutant children. Anyhow, it's pretty obvious that something is pretty suspicious about this woman and I think Emma picked up on it here. Especially since Yui seems to be dodging certain topics and even Hisako felt like Dr. Sasaki changed and wasn't as warm as she used to be. I mean I felt like Yui was lying, especially since she wasn't being as open, but Emma had ended up catching Yui in a lie.
Yui claimed to not have seen Professor X in 15 years when she actually has seen him. So what exactly was going on here and why what would Dr. Sasaki gain from lying to the X-Men when they were just trying to find answers? Later on, we see contact Professor X and basically states that they're in her way in a roundabout way and also reveal that she and Charles had a son together.
So Emma was right about Sasaki; she was lying.
Meanwhile, Beast, Storm, and Wolverine are approached by two enemies but their affiliation is unknown. Strangely enough, the enemies left as quickly as they arrived. In the meantime, it seems like Cyclops is finally letting Emma off the hook. Maybe they needed that heart-to-heart a lot sooner.
Now episode 8 is where things get a little more interesting. Beast, Storm, and Wolverine come back from their battle with said enemies and tries to give Cyclops an update about Blackbird and about them being stuck; however, Cyclops, Emma, and Hisako are busy fending off a monster from Dr. Sasaki. It looks like a cross between a spider and a fly; it's a pretty intimidating creature. Apparently, it's been attacked by a virus that attacks the mutant gene/genome and they have to figure out how to administer Beast's counter which won't be an easy task.
Eventually, Wolverine is able to create an opening for Hisako and it turns out that the creature was actually Riko. One of Dr. Sasaki's staff members. However, things still aren't quite adding up here and Yui gets getting increasingly suspicious. Especially when she doesn't seem to know about her own staff's condition, especially since the staff isn't allowed to answer certain things without Dr. Sasaki's permission.
The X-Men members still haven't gotten to the bottom of why there's an unusual amount of undetected mutants. Usually, it should be detected by Professor's Cerebro, but it's not picking anything up. In addition, there was the issue of the virus attacking the mutant gene. I feel like Beast and the other X-Men are beginning to suspect Yui even more because she seems to know a whole lot of nothing.
Despite her background in mutant research.
Koichi, another staff member, turns and has a secondary mutation as well. This one seemed even more monstrous than Riko's spider form. Then, we see things pan back to Professor Charles, who seems to be on his way to the X-Men, but some kind of rip in space forms and seemingly swallows him up. We also see Cyclops and Wolverine randomly stumble upon a whole bunch of purple-like substances in vials.
Now, I think we finally start to get some answers in episode 9 because it seems as if Yui opens up a bit. Just enough to tell them that the substance in those vials Cyclops and Wolverine found is meant to suppress mutant powers. This implies that Yui knew what was going on in her surrounding this whole time. I mean considering she developed something in an attempt to suppress it.
So she basically lied to the X-Men.
I'm not sure why she would lie to them of all people when they're clearly there to help and get to the bottom of things. So that part really doesn't make sense to me. I think at this point Storm asked Yui if all the mutants that are going around in the surrounding area have anything to do with her research center being literally in the center of it. Yui kinda dodges this but at least we're getting somewhere finally. Not to mention that Emma pieces together that one of Yui's staff is actually Mastermind of the inner circle; he had only been posing as Sanada to fool everyone.
He claims to have discovered the presence of mutant activity in their current area, right after battling the X-Men. The only reason the Inner Circle found it and not Professor X is that the Inner Circle had connections with Japan's underground society. Sanada aka Mastermind claims that the suspected a stronger power at work and behind the mutant activity, which makes sense.
Basically, he wanted to use this stronger power for his own ambitions and infiltrated Yui's research lab to get closer to that goal. Fooling everyone about his identity in the process. Mastermind was even the one behind fooling Cyclops and making Cyclops believe that Emma was the one that killed Jean through an illusion. He wanted to use the X-Men to kill Emma, so she had definitely been telling the truth the whole time.
The rest of the gang ends up getting where Emma is, but Mastermind manipulates Wolverine and has Wolverine fight the others courtesy of an illusion.
Now in episode 10, we sorta get somewhat of an all-out war between the Inner Circle and the X-Men. As we all know, the Inner Circle is a mutant organization whose main goal is to create a new world order with mutants ruling over humanity. In this episode, we also finally find the device that hinders Cerebro, and apparently, the way it does that is by detecting any attempt to scan for the X-Gene. So we have even more proof that Dr. Sasaki is just full of it because she's known about all this the whole time.
But why? What does she gain from blocking the detection of mutants?
It didn't make sense - especially when she's the one doing research on them.
Come to find out the power source happens to be a mutant, not a device AND Dr. Sasaki was working with the U-Men since they had the tissue that she needed. In exchange, she made a mutant detection interference device and gave them a device to help them avoid the interference. So she basically assisted them in killing mutants and did nothing about it. Beast, being the intelligent being that he is, concluded that the inhibitor recently started acting up & wasn't able to prevent the hidden power source from leaking.
In turn, this is why Sasaki promoted the awakening of mutants in her region.
It's also revealed that the power source is actually the child she had with Professor Charles, their son. Takeo. Then, Mastermind spills the beans even more. Revealing that while Sasaki had good intentions with the school she built for young mutants, her own son started to show signs of being a mutant. So she started seeking a cure for what she called the Mutant Condition and came up with the idea of a custom virus.
Which backfired considerably.
Seeing as its aim was to eradicate the mutant part of DNA.
Apparently fresh mutant organs were needed in order to save her son and basically hired the U-Men to do her dirty work for her.
Not knowing that the U-Men were working with the Inner Circle the whole time.
Mastermind also reveals that Taeko is the first omega-level mutant since Jean Grey.
Apparently, he can twist and distort everything. Even dimensions. That's his power and this was revealed to us in episode 11. Mastermind traps him in a painful illusion and Takeo releases his power as encouraged by Mastermind. So he can be free of Mastermind's antics. Honestly, I wasn't quite sure how the X-Men were gonna get out of this. Mastermind had Cyclops, Hisako, Emma, and Storm under wraps while the other henchmen had Beast and Wolverine under wraps. Wolverine had to undergo his second mutation just to break free from their antics.
Luckily, they eventually catch a break when Takeo ends up doing away with Mastermind, but since Mastermind unleashed a beast, the X-Men now have to take on Takeo. At this point, Dr. Sasaki is crying and in tears and can basically do nothing to aid the X-Men. Charles arrives in the nick of time and is faced with a harsh reality. He ends up having to snuff out his own son, whom he thought was dead, with his own hands.