Episode #59 - The Lotus and The Steel
Original Airdate - February 3rd, 1996

Finding himself continually losing control, Wolverine takes a sabbatical to Japan, in an effort to find inner peace in temple-building. Instead, he faces a village under siege by a group of bandits, and struggles to help them without compromising his search for his true nature.

Credits
Written By: Ted Pedersen and Francis Moss
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy
Animation Services By: AKOM

Review: Another episode that focuses on Wolverine, but unfortunately, it’s the weakest of the bunch, mainly due to an utterly lame villain. There is some genuinely good stuff in this episode, but you do have to look for it under a pile of mediocrity.

I think Wolverine leaving to find peace had the potential to be one of the show’s best episodes, regrettably the episode is filled with shoddy storytelling, annoying side characters and a tedious subplot. The episode starts entertaining enough, with Wolverine explaining why he feels he must leave, and we even get a Nightcralwer cameo (!), but as soon as he arrives in Japan, the episode slides and keeps slipping. The Japanese accents were pretty bad, and the characters were incredibly one-dimensional. The hotheaded son, the peaceful grandfather, they were firing and missing on all cylinders here. Which leads us to the biggest joke of the episode in Silver Samurai.

Having rarely read any X-Men comics except the recent stuff, I’ve no idea who this guy is… and this episode didn’t help my plight. He came across as a wimp here, and I couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed when he slouched away after Wolverine pounded his ass.

Not a terrible episode, but one that failed to fulfil it’s great potential.

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