The Guys of Marvel Anime (Part One)

This is the first of a two-part series of posts featuring the guys of the Marvel Anime projects.  With Iron Man and Wolverine set to make their U.S. debut on G4 in a little over a week, I figured it would be good to start with them.

HFG featured the introductory trailers to these two shows nearly two years ago.  I like the design they settled on for Wolverine better than the early design seen below:

I'm looking forward to seeing if the dubs will be any good, especially with Adrian Pasdar as Iron Man and Milo Ventimiglia as Wolverine.  More art (as well as a couple of screencaps) is below. 

 

Marvel Anime: Wolverine 11-12 - FINAL

Wow. Just wow. The last two episodes of the Wolverine anime was quite a roller coaster ride and asides from Logan ruining Kurohagi's married life, we have Koh facing Shingen, Shingen owning everyone and generic samurai here giving us more reasons on why he is not a generic samurai!

To start off, the action scenes in the last two episodes are really entertaining. From the gun action by Koh and Kurohagi's soldiers to the individual character fights. Seriously, the individual character fights are drool worthy especially the duel between Logan and Shingen. About Shingen's skills in this episode, unlike the other old man from Iron Man, he is a worthy final boss for our lead. I mean, in Tony's case, we have some old guy who was thrown in the show's last minute so that Iron Man can face someone while as for this show's case, they actually build up the tension between the two characters involved, making the fight worth watchable.

Another thing that I noticed in the two episodes is that the action gradually descends, giving the series proper time to build the drama between Logan, Kurohagi and Mariko... and give the series a cheesy conclusion between Logan and Mariko's love story.

As for Kurohagi in the finale, all of his actions are somewhat predictable since a.) he is a sneaky bastard and b.) he is a treacherous bastard. So yeah, I have nothing much to comment about the guy asides that he likes to play dirty to much which bothers me since his father-in-law is has this strong sense of honor which allows him not to play dirty. Wait a minute, Shingen used an armor with his fight with Logan! That's cheating!

Overall, the final two episodes are really good and the proper build-up of the show's tension between the characters was really good. Asides that they closed everything that needs to be closed (such as who killed Asano), the only thing that is disappointing is that we never had a Sabertooth versus Wolverine fight which is always hinted in the show's ending sequence!

Anyways, Logan will not be that missed unlike Tony since he will return, this time with the rest of the X-Men with Cyclops leading them!

Iron Man and Wolverine Anime Lead Voice Actors for US Dub Revealed!

To those who didn't know, the four-part Marvel Anime Series is set to air on the United States this year with Iron Man and Wolverine airing first this July. Just recently, Marvel's Head for Television Jeph Loeb announced on its WonderCon panel the ones voicing the leads of the first two shows!

The one voicing Tony Stark aka Iron Man is Adrian Pasdar (Heroes, Castle, Profit) while the one who will voice Logan aka Wolverine is Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls, Rocky Balboa, Heroes). Interesting to note that they are brothers on a popular sci-fi show Heroes, to be exact they are the Petrelli siblings, Nathan and Peter!

"Adrian and Milo are perfect as Iron Man and Wolverine," said Loeb. "It's extremely exciting to see these talented guys take on two of the most iconic Super Hero roles of all time.”

Source: Mania via Otaku USA

Marvel Anime: Wolverine 10 – Kikyo and Vadhaka Returns

And Kikyo ended up not that generic while Vadhaka has some upgrades. Oh, and Kurohagi has Willy Wonka’s Glass Elevator with less buttons! I guess you now have an idea how crazy this episode is!

Boooring...

If there is one thing I that I hate in this episode is that even if Vadhaka slowly loses his Hulk generic-ness (Damn it, Marvel and Madhouse, just give us Sabertooth or Hulk fighting Logan already!), his fights with Logan are crappy. I don’t know what is wrong with Vadhaka but he is one boring boss asides that he lacks personality for being well, a statue.

YEAHH!!

What makes this episode fun to watch is because of Kikyo. Yes, I complain a lot in my previous reviews because of his generic-ness as a samurai and in this episode, it adds up to his generic-ness when we learned that he has this moral code as a samurai. But what makes this generic-ness lovable is that he is willing to disobey his boss just because of his morals! Heck, he even faced Vadhaka because he wants Logan for himself and because he is quite injured… and it is epic!

For the overall fights, it was better than the previous episodes that involve a giant statue, a samurai and a guy with claws. What makes the fights more enjoyable is that it turns out that Kikyo has something more in his sleeve as a mutant with pop-out katanas. Seriously, I was in awe in his fight scenes!

Overall, it is a rare episode of this anime that I can say they went quite over the top. The fights are good, the transitions with every scene was good. But I guess they will go crazier in the next episode since Logan and Yukio will now storm Dragon Palace and Logan will rescue his love!

Marvel Anime: Wolverine 08-09 - Save Yukio and Spike Road

In this review, I will review two episodes! First is episode 8 in which Yukio is kidnapped by Kurohagi and now, Logan will save her but first, he must fix his issue with Koh. Next episode is Logan and Yukio will now cross Hell Road, in which according to Koh is the embodiment of the history of Madripoor… and it is filled with a lot of spikes. A LOT.

To sum my thoughts with episode 8, it is kinda boring action wise but in terms of story, it is fun. In terms of action, it was not that well choreographed that is all but in terms of story, they were able to deepen the plot of the series and in terms of the weapons that Kurohagi has in his sleeve. Yep, that dart gun back in episode 2 is back, we saw its full potential…, and it is scary.

Yukio in this episode is still the same Yukio except that she does everyway to escape being held captive, which is good in my opinion but still, her tsundere attitude towards Logan still bothers me. More on Yukio, we learned more about her history in Madripoor and how her grandfather treats her. Not that special as of moment asides that we learn why she is one good assassin.

Spikes, spikes, and more spikes!

In episode 9, Logan and Yukio cross Hell Road and the scene alone that they are crossing Hell Road while trying to escape a lot of spikes is fun to watch. Sure the animation looks like the crappy animation found in the later episodes of Naruto: Shippuden in some parts of the episode, but the action and the “primitive-ness” of the traps is still exciting to watch.

Asides from that, we learn more about Koh’s personality and he is one sneaky bastard. Seriously, he tricked Logan into agreeing with him… and he will treat Logan as just one of his pawns for his men to cross Hell Road and attack the Dragon Palace directly! To sum it up, episode 9 is one heck of a ride.

Unlike the previous episodes that just place the name of some character just for the episode to have a name *cough*Vadhaka, Koh*cough* this episode deserves its name since it properly highlights Hell Road that this one heck of a road that even Indiana Jones will take him weeks just to cross this road… unscathed.

In the next episode, generic samurai Kikyo and that statue of a lame excuse for a Hulk is back… and now they will kick Logan and Yukio’s ass! Oh, and Kurohagi is a bit devastated. Yeah.

Marvel Anime: Wolverine 07 – Miyuki and Kai

Vadhaka, a statue version of the Hulk except he is not green...

Even though the episode’s title is Vadhaka, which is the giant that Logan fought, that segment in this episode is really, really lame. It felt like Logan is just fighting some second-rate version of the Hulk, which is a better opponent in my opinion! So let’s talk to the best thing in this episode, what happened underground.

Under Madripoor, Logan met a man named Koh who has the same grudge with the Kurohagis and apparently, he is one of the heads of the city before Shingen came into picture! And so, he wants to get his city back thus, he is staging a rebellion against Kurohagi. But what makes this grudge much stronger is what happened years ago.

To be honest, it is one of the episodes of this series that I find unwatchable, but thanks to the flashback, it saved this episode. Let’s go back to the flashback, after weeks of not telling us who are Yukio’s parents, finally they revealed their names! They are Miyuki, who is back then working with Shingen and Kai who is Koh’s son. And since both of them are similar in many ways, Miyuki never got the chance to kill Koh like she was ordered to do, but fell in love with Kai.

This is the aspect in this episode that I liked, people who are working underground that ended up falling for each other even if they are on different sides. It has this Romeo and Juliet aspect except it is not cheesy but more angst. Later on, they will battle Shingen and his men and in my opinion, the battle of our lovers versus those foot soldiers is fun to watch compared to this generic Hulk also, I love how it ended even if it felt like some scene that happened at episode 2.

Also in this episode, our generic assassin arrives in Madripoor looking for Logan. So yeah, he is still as generic like last time we saw him. Now to the fight that happened in this episode, as I said, it felt like Logan is fighting a bad version of the Hulk, which is a big disappointment in my part. Luckily, the events that happened later made this episode watchable!

Overall, this is a mediocre episode of Wolverine. If not for the back story, this episode would not be that good even if we got decent Logan action with Yukio doing some back-up and end up being captured by Kurohagi!

Marvel Anime: Wolverine 06 – Cyclops, Madripoor and Some Girl

Previously, that nerd, I mean, Cyclops has made his official appearance in the Marvel Anime Universe and he is about to fetch Logan and Yukio for them to go to Madripoor, where Kurohagi and his men are bound. And so, nostalgia ensues as the two met… and oh, I agree with Logan, they are good friends!

If there are two things that I liked about this episode, probably the conversation between Summers and Logan while on-board the X Wing… or the Black Bird, whichever is applicable to the viewers and the other one is how Logan and Yukio entered Madripoor. Oh, that was so epic. Anyways, I’ll just discuss each part further.

The first half (?) that we saw Cyclops picked up Logan and Yukio in Japan. If you watched or read a lot of X-Men related stuff, you know that these two have a weird relationship. Both love the same girl in the form of Jean Grey, Scott’s the leader while Logan is more popular to the fandom and most importantly, the love to argue with each other! And since Cyclops will appear this Spring, much like what Wolverine did in Iron Man in its fourth episode, he made his cameo and yes, argue with Logan. That scene alone is pure gold.

The second half (?) is about Logan and Yukio in Madripoor and they continue with their search for Kurohagi. Their entrance in the island was plain but what’s after it is epic. Some of Kurohagi’s disposable men, I mean, the “welcoming committee” to do what welcoming committee’s do; welcome the visitors by fighting their visitors! Therefore, we see epic fight scenes involving Logan and Yukio. In terms of animation, like the other episode, there are frames that seem a bit off, but just ignore it and watch how Logan and Yukio fight Kurohagi’s men, which is epic!

Later on the episode, Yukio confronts all the men alone so that Logan can continue his search for Kurohagi. And since this is Madripoor, he is welcomed by a different welcoming committee and welcomed him! More Wolverine epicness ensues here, which ends with Logan getting his motorcycle from one guy who decided to chain him in his motorbike! The scenes that I mentioned is basically the best parts of this episode, but what followed after is a bit disappointing because it suddenly went downhill and the action was felt cut short.

In this episode, we are introduced to some girl who is fighting against Kurohagi and since this episode is named Min, I presume that’s her name. My first impression with that girl is the same first impression I had to a girl from one episode of Iron Man. To those who are wondering what episode is it, it is about a psychic girl and that is, annoying.

Overall, in terms of fight choreography, this is the best episode Wolverine had offered, also in terms of fun conversations. Asides that we saw the influences of Kurohagi here in Madripoor, it seems that he will have a hard time reaching Kurohagi’s high-rise castle to rescue his princess. What adds up to this problem is that he will fight some giant who kinda looks like some mythical Japanese god in the next episode!