First Impressions – Wolverine

Bringing back sideburns in 2011!

Foshizzel: Another marvel anime by Madhouse! Well, I did watch all of Iron-man and found it to be very different than what I was expecting. The trailer showed Logan aka Wolverine looking a bit different than what most comic book fans can remember, but in the actual episode he looks completely different. For this first impression, I’m joined by Kyokai for another fun tag review! Let’s watch our hero cut people up! Enjoy.

Kyokai: I have slacked off enough for this. I was literally dreading this watch because well, I actually do like Wolverine. Let’s see how I find it….

Foshizzel: Plot is simple, Logan has a girlfriend named Mariko Yashida, who is taken away by her balding Samurai father Shingen Yashida in order for her to marry someone named Hideki Kurohagi, a big-shot. And Logan has to save her with his pointy blades! He is also joined by Tesshin Asano, who seems to be investigating the Yashida clan for being the big bad wolf of Japan.

Let me hug you with my sweaty arms….

Let’s ask for directions guys…OH GOD YOU PISSED HIM OFF!!

Logan hacks and slashes his way to our hearts.

Dude rocks those red nerd glasses!

How did he sneak through the metal detectors?!

Logan arrives in Japan and sneaks around till he finds the Yashida household but fails hardcore as Shingen manages to spook him causing him to show himself. After a very fast knockout session with the lackeys, Logan challenges Shingen to a duel! And yes without cards! During the fight Shingen beats the crap out of Logan and is shocked when he sees his crazy regenerative powers.

Background characters watch anime while on the job…

Dude, we just cleaned the dojo!

Before the fight can continue, Hideki arrives and shoots Logan in the back with a dart injecting a fast working sedative into him; he has done his research and on his regeneration powers or he simply reads lots of comic books? The episode ends with Logan roaring like a wild animal releasing his claws, entering majorly-pissed-off-you’re-going-to-die mode.

Not the best idea there Hideki you’re so going to get stabbed next week!

Extra screens

Insert cheesy beer commercial advertisement here and teeth shine effect!

Why did they give me a MULLET… WHY!!!!

Comic style ending was awesome!

Unlimited Blade Works!

Berserker and Archer…. Am I watching the wrong series?!

Final Thoughts:

Kyokai: Let me just make it clear here that I’m a fan of X-men in general and have watched most of the initial episodic animation and loved the movies even; the third was just AWFUL but the first two were great. Logan is one of my favourite characters from the X-men world and when I saw that long-haired-Wolverine trailer, I flipped. What is Madhouse doing?! is all I could think of because they should be animating series like Youjohan Shinwa Taikei, Trigun, Summer Wars, Aoi Bungaku, etc. but for affiliation and a bigger paycheck, they have partnered with Marvel to animate many of their series. Though, I don’t have anything against action heroes, the continuous downpour of super-hero anime from Madhouse is just blegh. I expect more from them; I would even welcome something like Highschool of the Dead with the ecchi and that terrible ending over these formulaic versions of action series.

Truth be told, I was very lenient on the first impression of Iron Man and even now I can go back and watch a few more episodes of it because it did not turn me off. This however did because of that lovey-dovey angle. It’s not as if I don’t like romantic stories, I’m actually a sucker for them (check out my KnT posts for a proof), but not in Wolverine! Give me some hacking and slashing with loads of fighting and a reason for Logan’s character to be established. In this specific case, he was just there pining after a girl I didn’t even know. I mean, show me some angst, some past, some revelation because I already know a lot about him. What’s new, huh?! Nothing? I’m outta here.

My advice to you, if you are a fan of Wolverine/Logan; don’t watch this. Keep yourself to original comics, cartoons and the movies; don’t even try out the episode. It doesn’t feel canon, rather a Japanese version of a spin-off, which is not well-treated at all. I don’t want this monkey-boy, na-uh!

Foshizzel: Can’t really add much here, but I agree with Kyokai on this as well. Wolverine is one of my favorite marvel characters and Madhouse made him completely different than what hardcore fans might want to see done with such a popular character. I will give them a bit of credit they have some nice detailed designs and production work, sadly the same was true for Iron-man and that story was boring to me.

Overall I would take the same advice as Kyokai, pass unless you don’t mind a few changes in story from the canon comics. And with thoughts of the X-Men anime coming in a few months, leaves me wondering how things will go! As long as we don’t have Gundam Seed like characters running around with super powers.

Personally I feel the story for this will fall towards Logan saving the day, but losing his girl and has to fight more bad guys to save her. I might continue to watch on my own, just to see how things will end. I did the same thing for Iron-man near the end of that series. One thing I did like about this episode was the ending! They actually have some of the evil guys thrown in, that might make things a bit better.

Thanks for reading hope everyone enjoyed the tag team for Wolverine!

Preview!

Foshizzel: Even if we will not be covering the episodics for this, the next episode will be introducing Yukio and some more meanness from the glasses-dude.

Kyokai: Paku Romi actually voices a BAMF female this time around but too bad, I won’t be watching as it tarnishes the awesomeness of the canon Wolverine. Till next time folks, Ja ne~