When Madhouse released several Marvel anime back in the early 2010s, the most heavily hyped-up was the Iron Man anime series, thanks in part to its fantastic trailer (sometimes called a "pilot"). While the Iron Man anime itself failed to capture the imagination, its trailer remains one of the coolest things the Iron Man name has ever been associated with.
The Iron Man trailer starts with a quick showcase of Iron Man's armor, lovingly illustrated in all its mechanical detail, before Tony Stark flies off to beat up a bunch of suits launched from missile launchers before engaging in one-on-one combat, tearing through buildings and city-scapes alike in a heart-pounding action sequence. Even if the Iron Man anime lacked a compelling story, many fans assumed that such intense, stylistic action would make it worth viewing.
However, when the anime came out, fans were left profoundly disappointed. Whereas the trailer teased fluid 2-D animated mechanical combat, the anime itself featured CGI Iron Man suits and stiff combat. The weak storyline might have been forgivable if the animation relayed the intensity conveyed in the trailer. However, what they received instead was a clunky and mediocre series, unlike anything the trailer had to offer.
Sure, anime fans understand that the high level of animation in the trailer would be impossible to maintain over a long period of time. Anime frequently uses long stretches of limited animation for the sake of both scheduling and cost-efficiency. This explains the use of cheaper CGI models over the trailers' hand-drawn Iron Man suits. Still, this all begs the question: why tease this animation style in the trailer if the actual series was going to look completely different?
The reason for the difference in styles between the trailer and Iron Man anime proper, however, is incredibly obvious: the trailer had a different director than the series proper. Takeshi Koike directed the trailer, while Yuzu Sato directed the TV series. Each took different approaches when bringing Iron Man into the world of anime.
Koike is was best known in the 2010s for directing multiple Lupin III films, but his career in animation dates back to the mid-'80s. Arguably, his magnum opus is Redline, a hand-drawn anime film released in 2009 -- the same year the Iron Man anime trailer dropped at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The Iron Man trailer was reminiscent of Redline and its striking animation. Many anime fans might've become hyped were hyped to see Koike's take on a Marvel property, but these fans would ultimately be disappointed.
Koike had some involvement in the Iron Man series, doing some mechanical designs and animation in a few episodes, but ultimately there's very little of his strengths on display in the finished product. Ultimately, Iron Man's anime debut ended up being a colossal disappointment, lowering expectations for future Marvel anime.
