Wolverine, the new animated series by Marvel, is by far a show you don’t want to miss. I went into this DVD not knowing what to expect because of the anime sheen to the new cartoon. If you look at the case, you might be thinking, “What did they do to the X-Men Wolverine I know?” This Wolverine stands to appeal to the anime audience.
The first episode starts off with a back-story, explaining why Wolverine is in Japan. Here, we see Wolverine, playing samurai, slicing up the corrupt underworld mob bosses, and chasing a girl named Mariko Yashida, who’s kidnapped by the mob in the first episode. As the show progresses, Wolvie gets a sidekick, a girl named Yukio that seems to like fighting but is afraid to die, who knows the city well enough to lead him to the mob boss. The mob bosses sidekicks get bigger and bigger – like a gauntlet similar to the Mortal Kombat tower challenges that build you up to fight more difficult opponents. There are a few cameos from some of the other X-Men team members; Cyclops is flying a jet into Japan on his way to help Wolverine in an episode. By the last episode, you see Wolverine feeling powerful, and a gripping twist reveals Marvel’s plan to continue this show in the future, giving us a different image of Wolverine than fans of the comics and movies are used to.
Overall, I give the show a 3/5 for having some really good action scenes for an anime. I had a few problems that still bug me (Why does Wolverine have a mullet?), but ultimately, you’re getting a bad ass version of Wolverine, who slices his way through enemies, providing for several highlights. Initially, I didn’t like the idea of him being a samurai; the anime arena is already filled with spiky-haired ninjas and samurais. By the end of the season, though, I was satisfied by Marvel’s latest venture into animation.
