Wolverine – 12

The only bad part of this episode was the point where Hideki set off the self destruct mechanism of the building he was in. I mean, hello? You’ll be the one to inherit that thing; why the heck are you destroying it? And heck: if you’re going to destroy a building, do it properly and burn it to the ground. You hardly accomplished anything here.

Apart from that though, in terms of screenplay this was an excellent example of how you should close off a simple action series. The deaths of both Shingen and Hideki were excellent. Especially Shingen’s fight did justice to his character, and the way in which Wolverine beat him was exceptionally well done: he really was caught by surprise here.

I also like how the creators knew very well who in this series had super hearling powers, and who didn’t: Yukio died after a fatal stab-wound, Mariko also got shot in her heart after doing something heroic but very reckless. The death of them really feel like part of the larger picture instead of the way in which Iron Man just killed off its characters for the heck of it.

Madhouse, you redeemed yourself here. This ending gave a great closure. Wolverine was nothing deep, but what it did it did well. As for the acting, it actually managed to make something out of the characters because it knew that the acting was stiff, and instead just tried to make this superhero worthy. Well, mission accomplished.

the X-men will be airing next week (in fact, it’ll be the first series to premiere of the Spring Season). Wolverine really showed that they’re all intending this to be different series that stand apart from each other. With the director of Afro Samurai, it can really go anywhere. The question is of course whether they can do justice to the X-Men themselves. Unlike Wolverine, they had a deep story about prejudice and discrimination.Let’s see whether or not that can return there.
Rating: ** (Excellent)