MARVEL ANIME: WOLVERINE (2011)

We get a two new reviews from Shawn Francis today who takes a look at the Marvel Anime releases of Wolverine and Blade, First up is Wolverine so get ready for an anime blast of Marvel awesomeness....

Writer, Warren Ellis wrote the outlines to all the Marvel Animes, and it was then left up to Japan’s Madhouse animation studio to interpret what he wrote, keeping the things Marvel wanted, while putting their own spin on these iconic American comic book heroes. In the extras on Disc One, Ellis points out his outline for Logan’s starring vehicle here was based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s 1982 mini-series, and for those who are curious as to why Logan’s appearance shifted radically from his comic book origins to the younger, leaner, GQ model of this anime, that was all Madhouse’s doing.

The extra on Disc Two sheds some light on this. Even though they returned his short and stout look we all know from the comic books, they felt that wouldn’t work for this particular series. For the record, I personally prefer the five-foot-two body-builder look, just because if you’re highly regarded as one of the most physically, powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, I would think you should, at least, look the part. Despite this personal preference, his lean, GQ look didn’t bother me a bit. They may have altered his look but they didn’t alter his personality or his powers, and isn’t that what we really love about Logan, his very nature, and origins, and how he handles the bad guys?

And all of that is on full display here in his solo series. This one and X-MEN are pretty much equal in my mind as being the two best animes Marvel/Madhouse created. Honestly, I think, I put this one just slightly ahead of X-MEN.

I have not read the original mini-series this anime was based on, have always been aware of it, though, and how highly regarded it is. So, with that in mind, for those who are coming into this with as much as I know about the connection between show and comic, WOLVERINE opens up on a yacht where Logan (voiced by Milo Ventimiglia) and his girlfriend, Japanese born, Mariko, are having a romantic dinner, then, as usual, all hell breaks loose when a covert group of highly trained men on jet packs crash the party, try to kill Logan, and kidnap his chick.

Why?

Who the fuck knows?

We don’t and neither does Logan.

Yet.

The premise to the entire series is simple and it is this: Logan wants Mariko back and is prepared to go through hell to make that happen. Unfortunately, once he learns her father, Shingen, secreted her away to Japan things become problematic. Eventually we learn she has been promised to marry a certain scumbag by the name of Hideki Kurohagi (voiced by Fullmetal Alchemist voice actor, Vic Mignogna). You see Logan has had the bad luck to fall for a woman who’s father is basically a ruthless Yakuza gangster, and this arranged marriage is meant to strengthen his empire by linking it to Kurohagi’s.

Logan doesn’t give a shit about that, all he wants his Mariko, even though she’s made peace with her awful lot in life. He butts heads, figuratively and literally, with just about everyone Shingen throws at him, including Shingen himself during their climactic battle in the final episode.

Along the way Logan aligns himself with a female assassin who has a personal vendetta against Shingen; makes a fragile peace with another who was contracted to kill him, and together they all kill a lot of people through the entire series. Most deserved it, like the battle royal he has with Omega Red, which literally spans two, full episodes, but there are a treasured few, the ones who have the rotten luck to align themselves with Logan, that he “unintentionally gets killed.”

Half the series takes place in Japan, the other half in Madripoor, once Shingen decides to hole up there and where the wedding is fated to take place. This second half of the series is nothing more than six episodes of one man trying to make it through an island where everyone there wants him dead. This is the part of the series that impressed me the most for Logan is hit with all kinds of physical punishment and each time he just keeps getting back up.

The most impressive scene being when he and Yukio, the female assassin, are on this secret road, basically a hidden route that cuts straight up to the fortress, but is lined every inch of the way with deathtraps. As they near the end, there’s a moment where the camera pulls back and you get to see pockets of dust and smoke, each one signifying where he and Yukio hit a death trap, and survived!

If you always wanted to know how much punishment Logan can really take this is where you get your answer. Even some of the characters voice their amazement when Logan walks out of the rubble of a building that has collapsed on him by a giant animated statue that had thrown him into it.

I won’t give the ending away, but it has the most downbeat one you can imagine, and rightfully so, since this is Logan’s life.

On to the DVDs . . . Sony has graced us with gorgeous, 1.78:1 transfers of each episode, which is spread out on two discs. You can watch the series dubbed in English or in Japanese with English subtitles. Disc One has two featurettes: ‘The Marvel Anime Universe: Wolverine Reborn’ (9:13), which is a quick rundown of Logan’s transition to anime life as told by Warren Ellis, Jeph Loeb and others, and ‘The Ferocious Anti-Hero: Wolverine Defined’ (9:10), which gets inside the head of Logan to tell us what makes him tick. Warren Ellis’ psychological breakdown of the man is worth listening to.

Disc Two only has one extra, ‘Wolverine Meets X-Men’ (30:10) and this short doc is just like the others that have graced the X-MEN, BLADE and IRON MAN DVDs, and very enlightening as it is a round table discussion of the Madhouse animators and directors and what it was like working on these Marvel characters. The doc is in Japanese but subtitled in English.

Previews (G4’s ATTACK OF THE SHOW, RESIDENT EVIL: DAMNATION, STARSHIP TROOPERS: INVASION, 21 JUMP STREET, LOCKOUT and THE RAID: REDEMPTIION) round out the disc.