Sorry to be dragging up an old thread, but I just finished watching it recently and I wanted to express my thoughts. ^.^;
I love the character designs! I totally agree that Wolverine's design looks much better in this anime than the Wolverine anime! The only design that I thought could be better was Beast's just because I like a lot of the Japanese art for animal-human hybrids. I was kinda hoping for something looking like Jajuka from Escaflowne, minus the long hair of course:
My 2 main complaints for the first season are:
1. It could've covered Dark Phoenix in accordance with the Dark Phoenix Saga a bit more (maybe developing Cyclops and Jean's relationship more too).
2. I've really disliked they way that Wolverine was the spotlight of a lot of recent X-Men media (the third X-Men movie, Wolverine Origins, Wolverine and the X-Men, and some comics). I find that Armour/Hisako basically takes the unnecessary spotlight that Wolverine had. Who can save the day? None of the X-Men are strong enough, but their newest, most inexperienced member is! Of course! Her spotlight has made her powers really unclear too. They're no longer just armour, but also have some sort of telepathic ability that surpasses Prof. X's...? (Considering the season finale there).
Well, I'm willing to pass off Hisako's spotlight as merely trying to introduce the new character as being worthy of X-Men membership for that season. And, the brief appearances made by some other characters (Rogue, Angel, Nightcrawler, etc.) also has me looking forward to the second season.