Yes, this is the underdog of the season. I’m really glad that I decided to blog it, especially after the disappointment that was Iron Man. It’s nowhere near the best of the season, of course and I know that it doesn’t match up to juggernaughts as Level E, Madoka Magica and Hourou Musuko thanks to the hammy acting. But in terms of series structure it did just about everything right here.
The thing with Wolverine is that unlike Iron Man, you can really see that the creators are having fun with it. They’re trying to make every episode into a spectacle, and they especially succeeded in that during the previous month. The series overall also avoided a lot of flaws that usually strike action series: the way in which they forget to spend time on characters, setting and build-up. The atmosphere in this episode was just excellent and it has been for episodes now. The only time in which this series took a break was in the middle of the series, and that was time it put to good use in order to lay out the background of that bizarre island they’re on, plus Yukio’s simple but surprisingly effective backstory (which again was used very nicely in this episode).
It’s also a matter of expectations, of course. I mean, my expectations for Wolverine couldn’t be worse, until I found out that it was being handled by the director of Himitsu and one of the scriptwriters of Kurozuka. After that, I pretty much had no disappointments from this series whatsoever aside from the hammy acting in the first episode. This probably would have gone completely different if Wolverine would have aired before Iron Man, but I still have to applaud the creators for delivering such a solid action series.
The key here is suspense of disbelief. The way in which there always is something interesting going on (the battles in the earliest episodes were long, but knew how to not drag on). I really noticed that during the fights with Shingen. The characters were acting pretty over the top, but I couldn’t help but love the voice actors during that scene. The voice actors delivered their lines with such passion that it just made it into a wonderful scene.
The series is still too simple and miles away to really stand amongst the best of the season; I mean, it’s not like the story has any depth or anything. There is one thing, however, at which this series IS the best out of the entire season right now: the use of its soundtrack. And yes, this is in a season that has two of my favourite composers in it, Yuki Kajiura and Hikaru Nanase. This episode in particular was a feast for the ears.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
