Wolverine

Title:Wolverine
ウルヴァリン
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Madhouse
FUKUEN Misato
HAGIWARA Masato
IEMASA Kayumi
KOYAMA Rikiya
MORIKAWA Toshiyuki
ORIKASA Fumiko
Original Concept - Marvel Comics
PARK Romi
SHIBATA Hidekatsu
YAO Kazuki

Logan, aka "Wolverine," is in New York with his girlfriend Mariko when they are attack and Mariko is kidnapped. One year later, Logan's Japanese cop buddy, Asano, comes to New York with news of Mariko and is attacked. After being saved by Logan, the two go to Japan where Logan learns that Mariko's father, Shigen, is the head of a crime syndicate and has betrothed Mariko to Hideki, the leader of the crime, island nation of Madripoor. After being heavily drugged, Logan loses a fight with Shigen and is left for dead. He is rescued by Yukio, who also has a vendetta against Shigen. Together, they must overcome Hideki's men, Red Omega, and more as they battle their way off Japan and to Madripoor to rescue Mariko.

Based loosely on the 1982 "Wolverine" 4-issue comic book series from Marvel Comics. 12-episodes. This is the second of the "Marvel Anime" series.

[edit] Marvel Comics Anime Franchise

OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 6 8 5 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:2452#1552]
(Watch-/ Avoid+)

Compared to Iron Man which at least retained a level of respectability for its source material, Wolverine has a lot of problems in terms of its plot and faithfulness to Logan's character. I'll admit that I don't know much about the comic source material, but I understand that this series is loosely based on a plot arc from the comics during one of Wolverine's trips to Japan. Much like Iron Man, most of Wolverine's plot is an excuse to feature nonstop battles as Wolverine deals with random thugs and threats in his search for his lover Mariko, being forced to wed the leader of a crime syndicate by her yakuza father. The plot is mostly mindless as there isn't much depth provided on many of the anime-exclusive characters introduced and the anime appeared to be making enough nods to the comics that would be lost on those not so familiar with the source material. I'm familiar with Omega Red and Cyclops from their appearances in the American X-Men cartoon from the 90s, but I had to look up information on AIM considering Mariko's fiancee she is forced to marry milks enough of their technology in his efforts to try halting Logan's efforts. Speaking of Omega Red, his appearance is quite pointless here as he contributes nothing to the title's plot besides dragging it out and being a nod to fans of the comics, even with the anime exploring why he has a grudge against Wolverine. Also, Cyclops' only role is to help advance the plot for Wolverine in his cameo appearance.

Let's get to the issue of Logan's character. The anime retains his trademark abilities of his regenerative abilities, adamantium skeleton, claws, superhuman attributes and heightened senses. However, his appearance and personality are quite a bit off from his Western counterpart as Madhouse's design of the character lacks the impressive physique, trademark comments and much of the attitude found from American takes on the character. Not to mention there are a good number of occasions in the series where anime Logan is getting thrashed rather badly and gets saved rather conveniently, killing a good amount of the badass vibe you'd expect of Wolverine from Western adaptations of the character.

The battles in Wolverine aren't quite as engaging as Iron Man's, considering this title tends to cut corners for its animation compared to the latter. Still shots and speed stripes are employed quite often in battle scenes, while the choreography for the sequences are quite flat. Otherwise, the visuals to the series are as detailed and vivid in color as Iron Man was. The music consists of energetic and upbeat tracks that are used in a style as you would expect from a Western work, meaning they are used rather frequently throughout the show without much in the way of silence and regard for the mood of major scenes.

Overall, Wolverine is a much weaker offering in Marvel/ Madhouse's second title compared to Iron Man. With weaker plotting, animation shortcuts, questionable elements to the use of Wolverine's character and not being as approachable for casual viewers, the series didn't really thrill me with what it offered too well.

Last updated Sunday, June 09 2013. Created Sunday, June 09 2013.
Rent 9 7 8 8 6 7 AstroNerdBoy [series:2452#436]
Initially, the anime starts off strong. The anime writers use the 1982 Wolverine 4-issue comic series as their starting point. The scenario of the anime is similar to the comic in that Mariko is in love with Wolverine/Logan, Logan is defeated, and then Logan must battle his way back. It is because the anime writers use the original comic as a base that the start of the Wolverine anime gets off strongly. There are some minor tweaks, such as changing Hideki from being Mariko's abusive husband and partner of Shigen to the criminal boss of Madripoor and Mariko's chosen fiance.

However, once the anime writers abandon the comic book story base and venture off on their own, the anime simply shifts into a mindless sequence of fights for Logan to deal with. This started with the introduction of Omega Red, who is from Marvel Comics and who has a history with Wolverine. In this anime, Omega Red is simply a distraction that lasts a few episodes. The anime writers do show the history between Omega Red and Logan but what did that matter other than tossing a bone at comic book fans who knew the history. So while their fight feels authentic, as I said before, it is simply a distraction from the main story.

The anime writers had previously introduced the character of Kikyo, whom I suppose is supposed to be the Japanese version of Wolverine. Instead of claws, Kikyo has a katana embedded in each arm. Don't ask me how he keeps a full-sized katana sword in each arm without losing the ability to bend his arm at the elbow but there you go. Kikyo replaces the Marvel character Silver Samurai (though Silver Samurai wasn't in the Wolverine mini-series but was in the sequel story in X-Men #172 & #173) and pretty much follows the honorable samurai working for the villain. As such, one can fairly easily predict how things will go between them. He was probably the only opponent of Logan's other than Shigen to be of any interest to me.

Wolverine gets to fight hoards of thugs before battling a giant, technological statue named Vadhaka, whom Wolverine cannot damage with his claws. Next up are more thugs using medieval traps that had apparently held the balance of power of the criminal island of Madripoor before again battling Vadhaka and then Shigen before finally facing Hideki for Mariko. Once Logan arrived on Madripoor, courtesy of a cameo by Cyclops from the X-Men, its just mindless, nearly non-stop fighting for Logan and whomever is with him, usually Yukio, who wants to avenge the death of her parents by killing Shigen. This became tedious to me, especially the "Hell Road" stuff with the medieval traps and weapons. _

If you like mindless action, then you are in for a total treat. However, I like a story with substance with the action aiding that story and not the story just being an excuse to take Logan from one battle to the next without a break for food or sleep. Yeah, Logan gets to be Wolverine, minus the costume, by killing most of his opponents. Believe me, I liked that aspect of the story because Logan always felt like his comic book "bad ass" self, if you'll pardon the expression. However, I would have preferred things to be more about Logan's meeting Mariko and their falling in love to give fire to him motivation for rescuing her with the action then enhancing that story. Sadly, I didn't get that.

The other thing I didn't get was the ending I wanted. In the comic book, Shigen is killed by Wolverine after Wolverine basically destroys Shigen's yakuza empire. Hideki is killed by Yukio. This allows for Mariko to take over as head of the Yashida clan and to attempt to steer her people away from criminal activities into positive activities while finally being able to openly show her love for Logan. So, I would have liked to have seen this happen in the anime with Mariko deciding to make things right but at the same time having to be apart from Logan (at least for a while) and thus make the ultimate sacrifice of love. Instead, the writers have her make another sacrifice which annoyed me somewhat.

As a whole, Wolverine isn't a bad anime and there are many things here which will please fans of the Wolverine character. While I appreciate the strong beginning with the story taken from the comic book, I quickly grew tired of the mindless action for action's sake and I found the ending to be less than satisfactory from a personal standpoint, mainly because the writers pretty much made the whole series pointless to me by the time it ended. The ending given was a valid ending, but just not one I wanted.

Last updated Thursday, May 26 2011. Created Thursday, May 26 2011.

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