In a world where man and mutant struggle to coexist, there is one who knows no peers. Traveling without direction or purpose through both the world and time itself, the seemingly immortal Wolverine is destined to remain alone, regardless of whether he works as part of a team or by himself, but there is one he loves... An old flame, Mariko, who is never far from his heart. When he finds out that her father is forcing her to marry an evil crime boss, he’ll stop at nothing to save her from her fate, even as some of the most formidable foes from his past are hired to stand in his way. Fighting by the side of the vengeful Yukio and an underground resistance movement with a shady agenda all their own, Logan will have to fight a very literal uphill battle to save the woman he loves... Even if he has to test the very limits of his infamous healing ability to do it.

It’s been over a year since I reviewed the Ironman anime series, and I didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about its visuals, so you may be wondering if the Wolverine anime that came out of the same Marvel marketing ploy looks any better, or is it just more of the same? The answer is, well, kinda both. First off, like Ironman, Wolverine was produced by Studio Madhouse, which unfortunately means it largely has the same budget issues. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Xmen and Blade anime series have the same problem. The animation is extremely cheap looking, with stiff movements, a ton of frozen key frame shots, and some downright cursed looking walk cycles. There’s a sequence in episode three where you see Logan and Yukio running side by side for an extended period, and it’s embarrassingly obvious that they were both copy-pasted onto the same animation loop. I’ll give it one thing, though, there isn’t nearly as much awkward CGI as there was in Ironman, so that’s a plus.

The animation may be pretty cheap-looking, but where this anime exceeds the Ironman one is in its direction. Hiroshi Aoyama did a fantastic job directing this series, utilizing shadows and grimy, muted colors to create an engaging Samurai-noir aesthetic that fits Wolverine’s usual story tone perfectly. Obviously there were some shitty looking shots that snuck through, but Aoyama excels at utilizing the gothic aesthetic to shift your focus away from static shots and onto the striking, lovely backgrounds. Unlike Yuzu Sato, he also knows how to animate the angular and ultra-detailed facial designs in a way that’s highly reminiscent of the classic anime director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Yes, I’m comparing him to the Ninja Scroll guy, his work is that good. Just about every shot in this show looks like it could have been taken directly from the pages of a gritty comic book, anime aesthetic aside, and while most of these characters were pulled directly FROM the comics, I still think this show deserves credit for how accurate and appealing their designs here are. Wolverine’s sideburns are a little weird, but I’ve seen worse interpretations, so that’s fine.

Aoyama’s directing does a lot of heavy lifting towards making the cheap visuals easier on the eyes, and this is especially true with regards to the action scenes. The action is fast paced, but still perfectly coherent, and even though we’re following one of the least destructible characters in the history of fiction, there’s still plenty of tension throughout as the writers find new and unique ways to test and potentially circumvent his abilities, pulling substances like Vibranium and Carbonanium out of the depths of Marvel lore several years before Death Battle and the Black Panther movie would make them popular. Every fight in this show feels unique and has its own dynamic, offering very little repetition, even when the villains themselves can get a little repetitive. Each enemy he faces poses a different challenge to him, and I might be the only one who appreciates this, but they actually use the environments around them in creative and resourceful ways. Fighting in a dojo? Tear up the tatami mat as a shield! Fighting underground? Trap your enemy in concrete! Fighting on the top floor of a lavish penthouse? If you don’t have your characters throw themselves out the window to fight in the pool, you’re not having fun at your job.

Another issue I had, however, is the inconsistency of how graphic the violence can get. There are some blood splatters throughout, especially in the first and last episodes, but there are also a ton of “good guy makes slashin motions and bad guy falls down” kinda shots, which aren’t nearly as effective. Still, it’s more than I’m used to seeing Wolverine get away with on screen.

The English dub is a mixed bag, but it is slightly better this time around. Milo Ventimiglia isn’t terrible as Wolverine, but he does feel a little miscast, as he sounds too young at points, and his attempts to capture Wolverine’s gruff delivery often sounds closer to Tristan from Yugioh than anything you could take seriously. He has his moments, though. Rikiya Koyama does have a better delivery in the sub, at least in my opinion, but the iconic rasp still just isn’t there. The rest of the cast is full of voice acting heavyweights like Crispin Freeman, JB Blanc and Jamieson Price, all of whom are performing at their top level. Kate Higgins is both strong and passionate as Yukio, and while Gwendolyn Yeo probably didn’t have that hard of a job playing the somewhat waifish Mariko, she still sounds uncannily similar to the original seiyuu. The stars of this dub, however, are Steve Blum and Vic Mignona, both of whom are playing very different kinds of antagonists. Steve Blum disappears so far into his performance as the assassin Kikyo that he’s barely recognizable, and Vic chews the scenery like a gorram hamster as the sniveling, cowardly Kurohagi. It’s a strong dub, but you won’t miss much by switching to the sub either.

I’m sorry I keep bringing Ironman up in this review, but in my defense, that series and this one do seem like yin and yang to each other, in several different ways. At least in my opinion, Wolverine works in a lot of ways that Ironman doesn’t, and keeping that comparison on the table is going to go a long way towards explaining why, despite my previous comments, I actually enjoyed this series quite a bit. First off, I still don’t think superheroes translate very well into anime, but when you think about it, Wolverine’s never been much of a superhero. Rather than following some grand cause, or fighting crime and doing the right thing, Wolverine’s motivations have always been personal. In most iterations, he was never a member of the X-men because he believed in making the world a better place, he was there out of a sense of loyalty to Professor X. He’s not a malicious character by any means, but he’s rarely ever concerned about anything other than his own past and the well-being of people he cares about, and while that may sound selfish, it actually makes his goals feel all the more important to the viewer.

Unlike your typical superhero, that kind of protagonist thrives in anime. Guts from Berserk, Lina Inverse from Slayers, Spike from Cowboy Bebop... Badass warriors who are solitary at heart, find themselves surrounded by friends and companions who they’re forced to work with, who keep finding themselves forced into conflicts related to either their pasts or their allies pasts, and who wind up dispatching scores of enemies to try and save the day, that shit has classic seinen anime written all over it. Not only that, but Wolverine’s backstory(which is arguably one of the greatest in comic book history) already had strong ties to Japan, so unlike Ironman and the other Marvel properties that got dragged into this experiment, Wolverine was already perfectly suited to the anime medium... All the people writing for him had to do was pick a good story from his lore, and remember all of the qualities he could bring to the table, and what can I say, Madhouse did exactly that. I’m not going to pretend like there’s anything especially smart or deep about this show, but for an anime starring a character like Wolverine, it gives you everything you could reasonably expect from it(except for Silver Samurai and Lady Deathstrike, but whatever).

The title character is portrayed faithfully, and while he kicks buckets and buckets of ass, he isn’t made to feel invincible, and his fights rarely ever feel like plot armor bullshit. I also really like this interpretation of Yukio, as she’s strong and capable, she has an engaging dynamic with Logan, and they’re more or less presented as equals who actually treat each other like equals... Always trading rescues, so it never feels like either of them are just constantly having to save the other. There are characters in this show who I’ve never given a shit about before, like the villain Omega Red, who seems pretty awesome here. Mariko should have been annoying, as the actual weak-willed damsel in distress with little to no agency, but her mutual feelings towards Wolverine felt so genuine that I actually cared about her fate. I can’t say in good conscience that this anime will exceed your expectations, especially seeing the low scores that it keeps getting here, but personally? I thought it was really cool.

The Wolverine anime is out of print, but you can still find the DVD set online for pretty cheap.

To be completely honest with you, I'm not a huge Wolverine fan. Don't get me wrong, I get the appeal to an extent, but I can't separate him from the edgelords who are obsessed with him because they don't watch enough wrestling to obsess over The Undertaker. I also can't separate him from how over-saturated he is as Marvel's designated cash cow. I may or may not have rage quit the Xmen movies when he replaced Kitty Pryde in the movie version of Days of Future Past. Still, I've always been OPEN to the idea of enjoying him, he was awesome in the nineties cartoon, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing him return in Deadpool 3. I guess for me, he's a hit or miss character, and this anime was a solid hit. I know the Marvel anime adaptations have a bad reputation, so take this as you will, but I liked it.

I give Wolverine a 7/10.