Wolverine

It comes to no surprise to people that Marvel would have their best-seller Wolverine these recent years in another project. Personally, I checked this out not because of recent projects ie Iron Man's failure to attract audiences, but for likable purposes. I've always taken a liking to Wolverine as one of the more likable characters in the Marvel universe. I've seen pretty much all versions of Wolverine Marvel has thrown out: movies, TAS, comics, I was a bit curious how this would fare.

The story, while not impressive at all to me, tries to stay true to its roots. Wolverine and his whole japan outlook ... lifestyle with the people from there. Yes, in this one he's in love Mariko Yashida, a Japanese woman. And so, he pretty much fights an organization that has held her against her will in order to be reunited with her once again. At first, I had trouble accepting this "storyline" because recent versions of Wolverine I had seen. It's pretty romantic sure, but romance in Wolverine will not please audiences of this nature. I want a rebellious attitude Wolverine, one that just doesn't give a damn. For the most part, this anime failed to generate Wolverine's unpredictable nature.

The art remains decent throughout the anime, though common failures to generate more gore/bloodshed from Wolverine's claws disappointed me. I believe Marvel held back in some scenes here, but overall I don't think the art was truly ever considered a failure. It's not bad, but it's not the best thing world either. It's acceptable.

Where Wolverine truly begins to plummet is the sound. There are literally few or no memorable tunes with this show. Marvel could of came up with something but didn't. Ending episode themes fit but are irrelevant because they are in the manner to detail the shows ending climax. Disappointing, but ok.

The characters is where Wolverine really dropped the ball. Yes, Omega Red is present (thank god) and outta that is probably in my opinion the best fights in the show between him and Wolverine. But these are just lame excuses for Marvel to stick characters where they don't belong. Marvel could of done a whole other anime/saga with Omega Red but decided "we gotta get him in there somehow!" While I don't blame them for trying to entertain us, nothing really comes together as they should be. Is Kikyo suppose to be the Silver Samurai? Why does his sword look so childish when it comes out? What purposes do Yukio really serve other than being Wolverine help mate? Where the hell is Sabertooth? I mean if they can throw in Omega Red somehow why not more characters Wolverine is accustomed to seeing?

It's a show that doesn't go without its flaws. Some fights here are worth checking out, but most aren't memorable at all. This version of Wolverine tries to make him into something he really isn't. It's not a complete disaster, the show just isn't seen particularly well by die hard fans.

Wolverine is a well known marvel comic. Of course, coming from only watching the movies and maybe seeing him on cartoon network a few times when I was young, I thought it would be pretty cool. What I was looking for was some action that had some anxiety against it - some good counters to the immortal man, and a solid story. While I guess you could call the story solid it didn't fulfill either of those goals. If there was ever a time I wanted to write a negative review it would be right now, but let us stay as positive as we can…

At ... the start our princess Yukio gets kidnapped. We get a few seconds of the two of them together, and bam they are seperated. For good. We never really see her again for the rest of the show, and when she appears it is only so she can cry and weep at her uselessness. Far below the level of damsel in distress, it leaves us wonder why we should care for this character at all. There is no flashbacks or any background to her either. Yet our heroic Wolverine continues to get caught up in the Yakuza screaming at everyone to give her back.

Thankfully for the feminists we get two female sidekicks that fight alongside Logan. The more prominent one has an interesting backstory to her, and combined with the rest of his allies creates an okay story. The master samurai Shingen is turly badass, and while he can wipe the floor with Logan, he lacks any way to actually beat him. The true villain is an organized crime boss with a lack of balls; pathetic but when logan's motivation isn't transferred to us effectively it gives us a reason to cheer. He literally hides behind his waves of different underlings who are more interesting and praiseworthy than he is.

The plot is okay, but lack any impact or real surprises. After the first two or three episodes we've seen the best part, and the rest of the show is spent chasing down Yukio while the next episode's enemy is shown at the very end to attempt some sort of 'suspense.' Until they reach the stronghold of our villain, this same pattern repeats. As if my hatred had been answered, the ending provided me what I wished to see, but in a way it feels as if they storyline rage quitted and gave up.

The animation is good and done in marvel style. This carries over to the battles, but there isn't anything flashy about them; as I mentioned before there is only three times in the show where the opponent even has a chance against our immortal protagonist. Two of the more prominent characters are swordsmen so there are plenty of fights where he uses his claw like a blade.

It was a noble adaption, but the show was very ineffective at engaging the viewer into the plot. The action was average but they didn't put up much of a fight against wolverine, and the designated heroine was portrayed poorly till the very end. Better luck next time 'bub.'

Only one more episode to go and it up to the next Marvel anime series, let me first say that my review is based on how I've watched this anime with some comparison with other animated series being shown in TV. I don't have any access to some of those comic books about Wolverine, so forgive me if there will be some inconsistencies with my facts.

Ok let's get started:

Story: fair number 6.

Ok, so this Wolverine is a Japanize version of the Wolverine we used to watch from various animated series, which by the way includes the movie. Literally, this is a totally different Wolverine, ... co'z this Wolverine is about him being a kinght in shining armor who is rescuing a damsel in distress from the cruel father and groom .

Art: Very Good 8.

Ok, so the way the characters were drawn are totally symmetrical, though the 's female characters seem to look more masculine I guess I can go for it, since the masculinity kinda gives the female characters that amazon spunk. Also, as for Cyclops, I like the way which the illustrator has gone with the old Cyclops design since that's how the original Cyclops should be, but I'm a little disgusted as to why the illustrator decided to sport wolverine in a red jacked instead of the signature brown and yellow leather jacket which is often featured in most wolverine animated series including the movie which we see Hugh Jackman sporting it.

Sound: Decent 4.

Don't ask.

Characters: Decent 4.

As I've mentioned this Wolverine is about a knight in shining armor whose mission is to rescue the damsel in distress, it simply a fairy tail in steroids, so as in any damsel in distress thing what do we have:

Knight in shining armor- Logan aka wolverine and aka James Howlett (Who's idea is that anyway?) Check.

Damsel in distress- Yashid a Mariko, check.

Evil father - Shingen Yashida,check.

Evil Villian - Hideki Kurhagi, check.

Evil Henchman - Kikyo Mikage (I think), check.

Alliances- Yukio , her grandfather, Min and her grandfather's henchmen, check.

Monsters- well, there is Omega Red and there is this somekind of ancient robot thing, check.

Villain's castle- that would be Madipor, so check it is.

So in a sense, we have a decent amount of cast in this kind of fairy tail in steroids.

Enjoyment and Overall: decent 4

And I don't need to mention "Why."

First off, let me say that I watched the anime of Iron Man. I was quite disgusted the way they turned Tony Stark into some sort of low-class hero, by throwing around weird plots and giving Tony rather weak character traits. In my opinion, this is unacceptable when handling our favourite superheroes. For Wolverine, I feared that Madhouse Studios would further embarass itself just like they did with Iron Man. Glad it didn't turn out that way.

Alright, there are still some really weird plot twists, but at least the story has some fun elements to it. After watching 4 episodes, I dare say it is ... a fairly interesting one for now. Still, I doubt relying on heavy plottwists will keep this show alive, so I'm going to go ahead and rate it a 7.

The art is the same as that of Iron Man, but we all saw that one coming. After all, Marvel is trying to unite all its heroes in one giant clash against the villains. And of course, since Wolverine made a side-appearance in Iron Man, drawing him in a different way is simply not acceptable. The character style reminds me a bit of people with anorexia, so I will give this a 7 as well.

Sound, oh the sound. It is the thing I liked most about Iron Man, and I'm glad they kept the awesome music. Let me throw you an 8 for that one.

Wolverine does almost everything on instinct. And that usually involves fighting. A lot of fighting! Whenever Wolverine goes into rage mode, you are going to love it. Too bad the moment Wolverine stops fighting, things get rather dull.

Ah well, it is quite enjoyable so far. For all you Marvel fans out there, don't miss this anime. You owe it to yourself to see your favourite hero kicking butt in Japan!

So, once again, I’m looking into the world of Madhouse / Marvel Anime and to see how the next disappoint—I meant, installment of their comic book counterparts and as you can see by the title description, you know what it is.

Up next in the four-part Marvel Anime project and broadcasts after the Iron Man anime, Wolverine is a mutant, possessing animal-keen senses, enhanced psychical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound, disease or toxin at an accelerated rate. Logan learns that his girlfriend Mariko Yashida, who disappeared a year ago, has ... been taken to Tokyo by her father Shingen Yashida, the head of the Japanese crime syndicate Kuzuryu and a supplier of A.I.M., in order to be wed to Hideki Kurohagi. Wolverine goes on a quest to rescue Mariko and defeat Shingen and Hideki, encountering several opponents along the way.

Once again, I am disappoint, son.

Anyone who knows much about comic books, specifically Marvel comic books that Wolverine is the most notable X-Men character and Marvel character overall, but yet that one time where they made a origin story about him in 2009……yeah, you know how that went and I don’t know much of the other X-Men related animated series or other comics but I hope……I really hope they did a better job on that than in this one.

I really don’t like the story to this….Actually, no; I hated the story to this for two reasons. 1) Its very predictable. You’re not really going to be surprised or in shock of what happen throughout the course of this series. 2) I just couldn’t get into it. As bad as the two other Marvel Anime I watched (Blade, Iron Man), at least I somewhat got interested in them, no matter how generic is it and not only is this plot generic, it fails at being even the slight watchable. The romantic angle between Logan and Mariko is so minimal, it’s a leech. Mariko is the basic mopey damsel-in-distress who waits to be rescued by Wolverine and she’s forced to be married by this guy Hideki Kurohagi, who’s the basic bad guy who may seem like a threat but you know he’s a little cowardly bitch who lets his minions to the dirty work for him.

Characters are no better here: Wolverine is the basic badass that everyone wants him to be; there’s a female accomplice of his whom has a mysterious past that I’m sure not to care about; Side characters are there to serve some purpose until they eventually die (Yeah, I’m noticing a pattern in these shows. I don’t mind them but them just come out as unnecessary and played for sympathy points) and villains are played out as uninteresting and lame.

The animation…..I want to say Madhouse did well but this is an exception. Some of the action scenes were not very well animated. It looked very cheap with them using still images for explosions and shaking the picture. Wolverine’s design is very bi-shounen and pretty boyish, which I don’t think represent him well. I won’t be the final judge but I’m not buying the look of this.
The music is pretty uninspired with the same rock theme that thinks it’s cool because it is and the ending theme with many mood swings shows that like the show, I don’t even think they were trying to make this interesting. The English dub, handled by Studiopolis, is ‘meh’ but serviceable. The role of Wolverine is this is played by Milo Ventigimilia and he really didn’t do it for me. I didn’t feel much of a presence from him (and no, I’m not comparing him to you-know-who) and it’s just rather bored. Other performances from veterans VA’s like Kate Higgins, Crispin Freeman, Stephanie Sheh, & Vic Mignogna felt wasted here.

FINAL VERDICT: So far, this is the worse Marvel-Madhouse anime adaptation I’ve seen and I haven’t even seen the X-Men anime yet (I still am, I’m not backing out of that.) It’s basically everything I feared what the Blade and Iron Man anime would be. I’m just going to end it here and say I really do not recommend this title, even if you’re curious about it. You can watch it if it helps you sleep.

The wolverine. Chances are this isn't the first time you've heard of this character. In fact, you probably wouldn't be looking to watch this if you don't enjoy marvel products to some capacity. I'm a total marvel geek and I watched this just to say that I've seen wolverine in anime form. After watching it I was a bit disappointed, but I wasn't angry or sad about it, i was kind of content with what I got.

STORY 6/10
If you've seen the wolverine movie from 2013, you know where he goes to Japan, this is an incredibly dumbed down version of that pretty dang good movie ... in my opinion. Wolverine needs to go to Japan to save his girlfriend, Mariko from an arranged marriage. Her dad is evil and so is her fiancé. Wolverine joins with Yukio to stop them, an assassin and an angry Russian. That's it. It's simple, it's easy to follow, which is kind of a good thing. It's based off of comic books. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare and nor should you.

CHARACTERS 3/10
Characters are possibly the most important thing about any story, if their not developed or well-written enough, then I'm detached from the story and I don't care enough. This is the case with the wolverine anime. In terms of characters, it's wasted potential. The wolverine character from the comics and movies is rich with personality, development, conflicts and I was disappointed to see that none of that was used in the anime. The driving force for his entire mission is to save his girlfriend whom he apparently loved so much, even though we had no way of knowing how much she meant to him. The most we get from them being in love is when poorly directed scene at the beginning of the season.

SOUND 5/10
I never linger too much on the sound or anything like that in a show, but I can for this. The soundtrack consists of pretty much 3 or 4 tracks that are used over and over again. Granted they sound awesome, but they're so overused I get tired of them and I really notice the lack of diversity. The voice acting (English) was hit or miss. Vic Mignona is Mariko's evil fiancé, and he does perfectly, as does Steve Blum as Shingen. Speaking of Steve Blum, he usually suitably provides the voice for wolverine in marvel products like the games and cartoons, but not in here. Instead the voice for wolverine in this anime is pretty crappy. He's not shit, but Steve Blum would've been better.

ANIMATION 6/10
From a visual perspective, this show looks great. It looks clean, shiny and fancy. Once you start watching it and realize all the horrible action scenes, cheap animation tricks and corners obviously cutted for the sake of saving money, then you can complain.

OVERALL 6/10
Should you watch it? Again, you probably don't want to unless you're a marvel fan, like me. Yes there is some novelty in seeing wolverine, and a few other characters (no spoilers) appear in an anime, but there isn't much to this anime beyond the novelty of it. I won't stop you from watching it, because i didn't dislike this anime, but I'd suggest watching a better show

The art is just lovely, I am just so happy with how everything looks. The music was great and went well with the scenes. Wolverine retained much of his comic nature and was very much like the wolverine from x-men evolution. He doesn't have a mullet and odd looking hair like we saw in the trailer, his hair looking as it does now takes away my biggest complaint.

The healing factor was amazingly done, that was just plain cool to see. The wooden sword fight was one of the most awesome sword play scenes I have seen in an anime as of 2011. I have ... only seen two episode so far but I will be sticking with this anime for all 12 episodes, that is for sure.

I am a huge fan of comics, of Marvel, and of X-men, this anime stays true.

It may just be me, but I found this anime unbearable. it took a short comic arc which was dark yet had a sweet ending and turned it too well crap.
To start this off, I disliked Logan's voice actor. He tried too hard to sound tough and his voice was too young for the role. Logan is a very old man even though his body doesn't show it, both his voice and mannerisms do. His voice to me sounds like a kid trying to sound older and he acts like a 20-year-old trying to act cool (take a drink for every one-liner I dare you).Second, ... he doesn't really act like Logan and at times it feels like they would shoehorn in lines or words to make it seem like he is Logan but really it just came off as weird. Off of Logan, there is Mariko, in my opinion, the anime gave her no backbone, in the original comic the reason she didn't fight back is because she had a strong sense of honor and was already married by the time Logan found her. in the end, it was shown that she was planning on killing her father and then herself if Logan didn't get there in time. In this anime, she just sits around and sighs as she waits for Logan to save her. she is not even married yet and when we get moments to see what she thinks it's just "Oh logan~"

The first problem and certainly one that justifies you to stay away from this thing, the "Wolverine" of this series is NOT Wolverine.
His personality have nothing to do with the famous mutant, his past not exist, his amnesia? Neither. Not even what is his greatest mark, his savagery is shown here. Berserker mode? NOOOP.
So we have a tall, skinny guy, without a beard, without body hairs, with an emo hair, without his strong personality, without his animalistic side, without a past. The only things he has in common with Logan are the name, claws, healing factor and a jacket.
Okay, enough about ... "Wolverine". What remains? More trash:
Mariko, Yukio, Yashida, Kurohagi and rest are as generic as possible, as well as this "Logan", in fact generic is a good way to summarize this anime.
Scott is thrown out of nowhere in the middle of the story and does practically nothing, and he's even interesting (probably because he barely shows up), and
I must admit that Kykyo is quite cool. Omega Red is ok too.
The action is also generic, it doesn't have an interesting choreography, tension, twists, good animation, violence and "Logan" just gets beat up and looks more like a punching bag from Yashida.
They made history in Japan because OBVIOUS THEY ARE JAPANESE THEN THE STORY HAS TO BE THERE ALSO. Yes, I know that Wolverine has an arc in Japan but couldn't they have left that arc for later? Who knows in a second season and instead focus on Wolverine? Showing the war, the weapon X project, the mysteries and dramas of his amnesia, his duality between man and a beast.
They preferred trown "Logan" in Japan to rescue his girlfriend.. Yes.. THAT'S THE PLOT. But ok, if they wanted to make the history in Japan that much.. SO WHERE IS SILVER SAMURAI???
At least it's not as episodic as Devil May Cry, but it's just as boring.
The true Logan is such a good character, he allows stories from the most diverse presentations and in this anime they didn't use anything from him. It is just a commercial anime of an attempt to introduce a western character to the land of the rising sun.
It would be better to partner with a renowned seinen mangaka and turned into an anime later..

Well as far as the 7th episode I am wondering about droping because although I like Marvel this show has very big issues. Specialy this 7th episode.

Story well I think that the story is just an excuse to make Wolverine I think they could use more of Wolverine's real plot and maybe we could enjoy more of the series. When I mention real plot is that I feel that as anime they want to introduce the settings in japan and they force a story to match that requirement.

Character: Wolverine is rather weak here, he wins out of pure luck, he could do better. Secondary ... characters are rather weak.... It is difficult to describe without spoilers...

Enjoyment here my biggest complaint is the fact that the show lacks congruence or logic, there are a lot of holes in the show. I'd rather not mention spoilers but I wouldn't recommend this series to anybody specialy to marvel fans.

Art, and sound are good though.

Overall this show had potential, like Ironman had, I dont quite understand what marvel is doing I'd rather more traditional plots ( based in the comics or something closer) And definetly lacks a storyboard.... (or someone that thought "why" and "how"... Maybe This "review" is more a complaint than a review lol.

Let me first start off by saying that when it comes to comic book characters, you must keep in mind that the creators often allow many different writers and artists to display their own personal renditions of these characters. Keep that in mind.

Marvel has allowed Superhero Amine Partners the privilege of doing the same thing with its extensive list of characters to choose from. This first episode personally is very good because it mixes Yakuza, old world/ new world Japan and of course our adamantium bub Logan. This is their rendition of Wolverine in a 12 episode anime. Give them a chance and let's ... see how they create a world for Logan to cut loose in. In true anime form, and not like our American "Cartoon Networky" style of "toons".

I always like the comic books based on Marvel, DC, et al. I always find it encouraging to see people (with special powers) pulls themselves out of tough predicaments. (Hardly unscathed, but a little more realistically than the lot of the "deus ex machina" and "played for laughs" type of "mary sue" storyboard-writing I've been trying to avoid.)

Whatever Marvelhouse creates is no exception. With Ironman, and with Wolverine.

Unlike the plot-twisty and episodic "major issue resolved" endings found in "Mobile Suit Gundam Iron," the male lead of "Certain Mutant Logan" gets it rough. He basically had to fight his way through everybody ... (with a little help from here and there) just to make sure a girl he likes doesn't get married to a piece-of-scum crime warlord...

Atleast Omega Red was featured herein. I WAS hoping for Silver Samurai and Lady Deathstrike though (since Logan IS in Japan). I was also hoping for Deadpool. But hey. Deadpool's the "4chan of Marvel."

All an all, if you can get past the ending, Certain Mutant Logan is a more satisfying ride than that other Certain anime will EVER be. (And, usually with some Marvel-based viewing, that says a lot.)

This anime is a samurai style Wolverine based anime which can use a lot more gore. The anime was great for fan service, which is why I gave it a 9 for character and enjoyment, but overall it was just a bit above average. The story is re-hashed and not done any better than I've seen in other animes where a samurai is fighting for a woman. The art on wolverines mutant healing ability is bad ass and its fun to know that Wolverine is actually slicing people up...but a little more effort into the action sequences would have gone a long way. The music ... didn't chase me away but it was forgettable. If you're an X-Men fan, especially a Wolverine fan, check this anime out. It will be well worth your time. But if you're just looking for something new to watch, there are plenty of quality animes out there that you can view before Wolverine. One of my favorite X-Men characters like I said, but definitely my least favorite of the Japanese Marvel Projects.

Strengths: Cool character, nice to see Wolverine in a new setting and story, the action sequences are decent.

Weaknesses: The soundtrack is only ok, the story has been done to death, not gory enough.

When I began this series I had hoped for something good out of it and while yes there were indeed good things about this show I still couldn't help but feel disappointed by it. I may be a fan of Wolverine, him being one of my all-time favorite Marvel characters but this show, in my opinion, did him dirty. While yes the plot is there it’s something that doesn’t make much sense to me and seems to be all over the place. The animation on the other hand is pretty good and not only that but both the music and voice actors aren’t too bad ... themselves. I didn’t mind Milo Ventimiglia as Wolverine. I thought he did a good job voicing the character but outside of that, there wasn’t much else that I liked about this show. In my opinion, it was a mess and one that should be remade if Marvel ever decides to work on anything anime related again.