Got a problem with that, bub?
The second part of the Marvel Anime Series, and this time after the shell head, we have our favorite angry, gruff, Australian I mean, Canadian mutant, Logan aka the Wolverine! Since this is the New Year, I will not post episode synopsis in ONEShots (if you want episode synopsis, go to Wikipedia!), and since this is the first ep of Wolverine, I will just place my thoughts about this series… with less spoilers!
My thoughts for the entire episode sums up into this sentence: Madhouse has just redeemed itself. I am serious. If you haven’t watched Iron Man, let me tell you something, please do me a favor and don’t watch it. From all known Madhouse titles, you can bitch upon this title. The CGI suit doesn’t look smooth, the transition between CGI and 2D is not smooth and lastly, the plot is mediocre. I will talk more about Iron Man once I will do my series review.
Back to Wolvie, the series premiere is just good. Logan is on a boat with his girlfriend, Mariko and they are attacked by some random guys in high-tech suits and shoots Wolvie, but nooo, he is indestructible so after seeing him regenerate (still on awe with it), he attacks those guys and opening sequence ensues.
After it, you can sum up the entire episode into this: Wolvie goes to Japan to get his girlfriend from his daddy who turns out to be the head of the largest yakuza in Japan and wants to expand by letting his daughter marry some guy who owns his own country. Is it Latveria? No, it is called, Madripoor. Therefore, Wolvie must go to Japan, fight his girlfriend’s dad, get her and while were at it, destroy the organization. The plot is simple, straight forward and promising.
In terms of animation, Madhouse did it again, I guess using too much CGI back in Iron Man made the production of the said anime a little poor but in Wolvie’s case, minimal use of it made the 2D animation stand out from the crowd. From Wolvie’s scuffle with some high-tech goons and to the sword fight he had with Shigen, Mariko’s dad.
First impressions with the characters, Logan here is the same Logan back in the original comic books and its other incarnations… with him looking more of a balance between Hugh Jackman’s Logan and the classic Wolverine look. He has all his traits, his healing factor, those claws and his mannerisms. The only problem with this bub is more of his clothing. Seriously, Logan's jacket kinda reminded me of the jacket from some guy from Sengoku Basara!
Mariko is your traditional Yamato Nadeshiko aka the ideal Japanese lady, and thus, I will not talk much about her. Shigen is one heck of a character, he is like a good cross between your traditional yakuza boss with the ideals of a samurai. Add the fact in the preview that a person that Logan met has some grudge with this man, it seems that there is more in store for this guy. As for Kurohagi Hideki, the guy who owned his own country, he seems to be the backstabber in this series. He will try his best to be subtle until he decides to steal this show in the last few episodes.
Overall, Wolverine had a good start and I am expecting more in this series in the following weeks. The show has potential and probably, like I said, will truly redeem Madhouse from the previous series, Iron Man. Seriously, why they didn’t chose to adapt Spider-Man before Wolverine? Oh, a Spider-Man adaptation was done years ago with Kamen Rider V3 appearing in one episode. Now I understand.