Hello again. Well, after
months of waiting, The Wolverine is finally coming out. Hoping
to rectify the poor
reception to X-Men Origins: Wolverine; this new movie is based on the
classic comic book story
where Wolverine goes to Japan and clashes with Yakuza gangsters
and the villain Silver
Samurai.
Due to this story, this
makes Wolverine another one of the few American comic book
superheroes to successfully
break out in Japan; a country where manga rules the roost (a large
chunk of anything that gets
read in Japan is manga, with stories appealing to every niche and
age group you can think
of). So, as I promised, I will recap the first episode of the
Wolverine
anime to mark the occasion.
It is indeed very good, though there is material for this recap.
So, let's open up “Mariko.”
Then, we get our approach of
Logan, aka Wolverine. Even in his anime design, he still has the
familiar sideburns. Many people, myself included, have tried to
replicate them; to varying degrees of success. Wolverine approaches
the woman and asks if it's too cold. The
woman says it isn't with
him there.
Suddenly, men in scuba gear
and with jetpacks on their backs come out of the water!
They start firing on the
ship!
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| We're still angry about X-Men Origins Wolverine! If your new movie is bad, we'll come back with adamantium bullets! |
Wolverine takes the
blasts. I'm not sure what these people were firing, but he appears
to have burn marks all over
his body. Naturally, we get to see one of the two of Wolverine's
many mutant powers that get
used most in adaptations: the ability to heal within seconds
from any injury.
He leaps to face the men
and we get the most prominent mutant power: those claws.
Adamantium claws that come
out of his hands that are indestructible and come in handy in
many fights.
We then get our opening
sequence, set to a heavy J-rock guitar. Much like the Iron Man
anime I recapped around the
time Iron Man 3 first hit theaters; Warren Ellis wrote the story
to this one. Madhouse
animated it, and apart from that opening scene, this intro does a
great
job of showing off the
badass that is Wolverine.
We then cut to one year
later. A man is on a rooftop when he's cornered by several
people wearing invisibility
cloaks. Several countries are working on this sort of thing: it's a
bunch of microscopic
cameras that scan the area around them and project the image around
the space they're on.
The man, named Asano,
draws his gun and fires on the men as they reveal themselves.
It turns out the suits also
have force fields around them, rendering the bullets useless. The men
use a sonic shockwave gun,
which renders Asano's weapon useless and emits a shrill sound that
the man cannot bear to
hear. The wave continues, and the man's glasses break.
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| NO! STOP! This is worse than going to see X-Men Origins Wolverine in the theater! |
Everything metal on the man
breaks, until a beer falls from the sky and sprays all over
the attacker when the can
bursts. It's Wolverine! It turns out he's helping Asano. Wolverine
then
attacks the people after
throwing his other beer into the sky.
Wolverine takes out two of
the men while the other three slip away. A water tower is
destroyed, and Wolverine is
all wet; with his clothes sticking to him. I may be straight, but
whether he's wearing that,
his yellow-and-blue duds, or 20 pounds of black leather; Wolverine
is fair game.
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| You're welcome, Japan. |
He's not done yet. He uses
another one of his powers, animal senses (which tend to
be far greater than those
of humans) to sniff them out and finish them.
The last one tries to leap
off the building with Asano, but Wolverine dives after him, and
uses his claws to slow them
down. All while Japanese rock music plays. To finish it off, he
catches the beer he threw
into the air before and casually welcomes Asano to New York.
It turns out this is the
first time in 10 years that Wolverine and Asano have met; with
Asano remarking he hasn't
aged a day. Despite the jabs I've taken at X-Men Origins: Wolverine,
this is consistent with
Wolverine having been alive since the provincialization of Canada in
the late 19th
century; having effectively stopped aging since he hit his thirties.
Asano shows Wolverine a
photo of Mariko. Asano says he knows where she is.
Wolverine says she was
taken from him.
It turns out she was
kidnapped by a Yakuza clan known as the Kazuryu; who is funded
by Advanced Idea Mechanics,
or AIM. Their leader is a man known as Shingen. He tends
to be very active as a
master swordsman. It turns out Mariko is his daughter!
Asano and his group have
been trying to gather enough information to convict Shingen.
Even more, Shingen is
putting his daughter through an arranged marriage. Her fiancé is
Hideki
Kurohage. He looks
alarmingly like Aizen from Bleach. There's an idea: Aizen could come
to the human world and
present himself as a Yakuza gangster! Hey, it's not much more
ridiculous than most of the other stuff in Bleach.
It turns out Kurohage rose
to power in his syndicate on an island known as Madrepur.
All of a sudden, I'm
reminded of Enter the Dragon. The island is a sovereign state, but
it's
full of crime and villainy.
Kurohage, of course, lives in the penthouse of a heavily-guarded
skyscraper.
Asano says that Hideki is
a very dangerous man, and that Hideki killed his own father.
With the marriage, Shingen
will have a hotbed of crime, and Hideki will have untold amounts
of funding. Mariko was
kidnapped and is being held hostage in her father's compound in
Tokyo. Wolverine then
decides to go to Tokyo.
We then get a flashback
with Mariko and Wolverine. Given what's been explained in
the past few minutes, this
is a genuinely sad scene here. Wolverine then flies to Japan, vowing
to find Mariko.
We cut to Tokyo, and
Wolverine is walking the streets; passing by a temple guarded
It turns out Asano is
helping Wolverine spy on the Kazuryu. Suddenly, Wolverine has
disappeared. He's jumped
the fence, and has begun infiltrating the compound.
Wolverine has managed to
make it to the garden without being spotted. Suddenly, Mariko comes
out the door. Shingen then comes out to greet her, as do his guards.
Wolverine
continues to stay hidden.
Shingen then draws his sword and throws it!
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| I told you kids I don't want any magazine subscriptions! |
Wolverine dodges just in
time, and he's been discovered! The guards draw their guns
on Wolverine. Shingen
greets Wolverine. Wolverine replies that his reputation precedes him.
I should hope so. Marvel
has a habit of keeping you in the public eye. They even put you on
Wolverine is not happy with
Shingen kidnapping his own daughter, and has come for
Mariko. Wolverine claims
she is her own woman. Shingen replies she has a duty to her family;
and has been promised to
another. I did point out in my recap of The Sun, The Sea, and The
Host Club that the Japanese have very different ideas about gender
roles. Well, I must also
point out that they also
have a much greater focus on continuing their bloodline and honoring
it. While in the US,
marriage and having a child is indeed seen as a great milestone in a
person's
life, in Japan it's vital
for keeping their family from dying out. It's often why Sasuke from
Naruto has his motives criticized in the US and other Western
countries; but that's not important
right now.
Naturally, Wolverine does
not agree. Shingen asks if the rumors he heard about him
are true; and Wolverine
declares it's time for him to find out. He then engages Shingen's
guards,
and wipes the floor with
them.
Shingen is impressed, and
challenges Wolverine to a duel. If Wolverine wins, he can
have Mariko back and
Shingen will give up his plans. Shingen agrees. Wolverine goes
inside,
meaning Asano and his
colleagues can't track him.
Wolverine then engages
Shingen in their duel. Wolverine isn't able to make one blow,
and Shingen takes out
Wolverine in one strike. Still, Wolverine recovers and goes after
Shingen.
Shingen is able to land
many blows on Wolverine. Still, Wolverine continues. The fight goes
on, and Shingen apparently
uses the Wind Scar on Wolverine to finish him.
Shingen then throws
Wolverine through the door. I notice both of them seem to be holding
back. Wolverine isn't using his claws, and Shingen isn't using a
blade: I imagine they'll
be a more even-footed fight
between them later in the show.
The fight between them
continues still! OK, time to set this to some appropriate music.
The fight ends when someone
shoots a dart into Wolverine's back. This
causes him to go all loopy.
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| Didney worl? |
We then see who shot the
dart. It's Kurohage! The dart was full of an experimental
chemical weapon from AIM;
which affects the nervous system. OK, I'm convinced: the suave
look, the smug demeanor,
the presentation of himself as a magnificent bastard; this guy IS
essentially Aizen as a
Yakuza gangster in a three-piece suit!
It turns out the weapon
takes effect faster because Wolverine is a mutant. Still, he draws
his claws, and that's how
the episode ends. One of the last images we see is a pastel-chalked
freeze frame of Wolverine
and Shingen staring each other down.
“Mariko” is a solid
first episode to the Wolverine anime, in a similar manner to how
“Enter Iron Man” was.
I'm noticing a pattern that the Marvel anime are exceptionally
well- made; with great animation, writing and voice acting. On top of
that, they're practically
tailor-made for Western
audiences. I plan to do a recap of the first episode of the Blade
anime
around Halloween, and I
think I'll add a recap of the first episode of the X-Men anime to my
plans for next year; around
the time X-Men: Days of Future Past comes out. Once I post this
recap, I will be saving my
energy for August; where the whole month will be on the Endless 8
of Haruhi Suzumiya. See you
later.
