March 25th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy Wolverine – 10
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Kikyo arrives as does Hideki from a floating platform above. Kikyo refuses to battle Logan due to Logan not being at 100% combined with Hideki’s having Vadhaka to summon. Logan throws the toxic dart he’d earlier retrieved at Hideki but Hideki is behind a barrier of some sort and protected. Vadhaka stomps in and begins to attack Logan with neither gaining the advantage. Koh sees Hideki and heads up the road to where the fighting is going on along with Min. Logan gets stomped but manages to eventually toss Vadhaka off him. Vadhaka slaps Logan away and turns his attention to Koh, who has fallen and is being defended by Min. Min begs Vadhaka to not do this but Vadhaka obeys Hideki’s command and slaps her away.
Kikyo takes offense at this as a samurai and joins the fight with Logan, much to Hideki’s frustration. Kikyo manages to slice off the pole holding Vadhaka’s scythe but discovers that even his ranged wind blade attack has no effect on Vadhaka. As such, Kikyo brings forth a second blade as Logan comes up with a new plan. He takes the pole that Vadhaka had been using and as Kikyo keeps the giant off-balance, Logan rams the pole into the mouth of Vadhaka and though the back of its neck and deep into the ground. Vadhaka is defeated so Hideki’s forces are thwarted by Kikyo and Logan to Hideki’s horror. Yukio holds the dying Min and is joined by Koh. Min wants Koh to take care of Hideki and he agrees, thus making Min smile as she dies.
Thoughts/Review:
Sorry, but I’m getting rather bored with the Wolverine fights at this point. Initially, it was cool seeing Logan being Wolverine. However, with the return of Vadhaka, I just rolled my eyes. I just wanted the fight to be over but of course we had to have the cliched monstrous efforts of Logan to escape from being crushed. About the only thing that wasn’t cliched was Logan ramming the poll down Vadhaka’s throat. I can’t say that I saw that coming though I did wonder how armor that can’t be penetrated from the exterior can be so easily pierced from the other side. Seriously, armor is armor so if Vadhaka’s neck was protected by some massive armor that couldn’t be penetrated, then how was it penetrated? Maybe there’s a reader of the blog who served in a tank or other armored vehicle who can explain this.
I didn’t expect for Min to be killed. It makes sense and is logical but to often, a character getting smacked around doesn’t kill them even if they do get injured. While I had nothing against Min, she wasn’t developed enough for there to be much of an emotional impact at her death. The writers use it to have Yukio reflect on how she probably would have died if she had stayed with her grandfather Koh but otherwise there’s nothing. I actually found the lack of impact by Min’s death to be rather disappointing somehow. While it is too late to change that, I wonder if Min’s relationship with Koh will be explored a bit more before the anime is done. At this point, that seems a stretch though.
As expected, Kikyo is the Silver Samurai of this anime series. As such, I expect that the relationship between Logan and Kikyo will be similar to Logan’s relationship with Silver Samurai in the Marvel Comics storyline. Wolverine and Silver Samurai fought several times in the comic books but because Silver Samurai followed the bushido code, Wolverine trusted him to take care of very personal things. I can see Logan doing much the same in this anime before all is said and done with Logan arranging for Kikyo to be Mariko’s personal bodyguard when she takes over her father’s organization…well, that’s my prediction anyway. I also think Logan and Kikyo will have another battle just for the heck of it if nothing else.
Because this anime is has sadly fallen into the realm of the cliche, it is also falling with my opinion of it but I’m in for the long haul. ^_^
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I haven’t served in the military, but I do know a little about tank armor…
The structure of tank armor was really only developed during World War 2. The first big breakthrough was probably the Soviet development of the T-34, which had sloping front armor. Armor-piercing ammo (the primary anti-tank ammunition in World War 2) works by fragmenting the shell and punching a hole in the armor, and works great when the shot is perfectly perpendicular to the angle of the armor. A slope causes much of the force to be redirected away, and makes it more difficult for the round to penetrate.
Modern armor tends to use layered composites, reactive elements, and other fun stuff, and I think we can safely ignore all of that…
Of course, sloping armor likely doesn’t really explain why it could be penetrated from the inside but not the outside. It’s possible, though, that the armor is braced from the inside. Bracing like that would help ward off force exerted from outside the armor, but would likely be useless against force exerted from the inside. In a similar fashion, a vehicle that was designed to be operated deep under the ocean would have a hull capable of withstanding tremendous force from outside the hull directed inward. But that same vehicle would probably burst if operated in a vacuum, because in that case all of the pressure would originate from within the vehicle and instead move outward.
It’s tenuous, and quite frankly I doubt the writers even worried about it. But it is a possible explanation.
It’s tenuous, and quite frankly I doubt the writers even worried about it. But it is a possible explanation.
I’m sure you are right. ^_^;