They're Wolves, Only They're Not

Review: Wolf's Rain

Anime/Swag/Fandom

Reviewed by: Bad Jew

Title rating: PG-13 for some blood, but nothing you don't see on Animal Planet.

-26 anime episodes on Japanese TV (2003), complete
-Maybe a manga (2003) as well?...

Wolf's Rain is a show that had both amazing potential and massive hype. Done by basically the same people (I think they may've switched janitors) as the hallowed Cowboy Bebop, it was seen as the inheritor of that show's style and fun. After all, Spike--from Bebop--was so cool he made me want to smoke.

But when Wolf's Rain began its release, we got a show nothing like Bebop. Instead of a Noir-like future, we get a post-apocalyptic destopia; instead of bounty hunters, we get wolves. One thing Wolf’s Rain does have over Bebop is a plot--it contains a very deep storyline with various threads encompassing half a dozen well-developed characters. I haven't seen the end of the show yet as I watched it fansubbed until it was scooped up by ADV, but in the 23 episodes I did see the writers were building up to a big end.

As an added note on aforementioned fansubs, Wolf’s Rain was the first big success of anime over Bittorrent (a way of quickly downloading large files, like anime episodes). The show was basically subbed in real time: a day after it aired in Japan it showed up subbed on the net. Wolf's Rain's widespread success through this medium showed how great a system Bittorrent is (*cough*scrolldownandreadmybrilliance*cough*).

Wolf's Rain deals with the fragile, philosophical problem humans and wolves have had with each other since the dawn of time: wolves eat us.

Anime

Ya see, in the horrible future, there are two classes of people. You have your bums and orphans, living out their horrible lives in horrible squalor, and eating through begging, as orphans oft do. Then there are the nobles who live like kings, probably because they are kings. Both of these classes live in giant domed cities to escape the horrible outside world. It's never really explained why the future is so depressing, but I've heard theories from an ice age to nuclear holocaust.

But whatever, the big thing is that there are wolves. Not a lot of them, mind you--in total we see about 10 to 12 throughout the series, but that's a decent amount. These aren't your regular wolves, like the ones Western farmers shoot in order to protect their precious unprocessed beef and pork containment units. These wolves are more like metaphors for the wild that civilization tries to crush, or something like that; I'm a history major, I can't do this literary analysis thing.

For most of the show, the four main wolves--Kiba, Tsume, Hige, and Toboe--are in human form. They walk the human walk and talk the human talk. But when trouble arises, like the Wonder Twins these boys switch into wolf form and either scamper off or rip someone's throat out. However, there are no "naked transformation scenes" ala Sailor Moon, and the characters have wolf-like dexterity and speed while in human form, which leads me to think the wolf animation is more for the benefit of viewer. Instead of seeing them as either "wolves" or "humans," it's implied the boys are more of a hybrid species.

Now wolves have this silly habit of wanting to escape the permanent Wisconsin-esque feel of the Earth in favor of the infinitely more pleasant Paradise. There's just one catch to this plan: they don't really know where Paradise is. Isn't that always the way? You finally get rid of all your canine-related obligations and car payments, you're all ready to go to paradise, and you realize you don't have a map. Damn.

There's one entity that knows how to get to Paradise and that's Cheza, the flower girl. Not a flower girl like the White Cross boys are flower boys, flower girl in the sense that she is a flower--a walking, talking, angsting flower. She's being developed by the nobles as a creature that can survive anywhere, and is coveted by the Lord Darcia (the tall brooding bishounen as opposed to Kiba, the short brooding bishounen) as the key to Paradise and the return of his dead love. Darcia embodies the word "forlorn."

The show may be worth watching if only for this line.

(By the way, thanks go to Keldo from the Forums for bringing this screencap to my attention.)

Basically the show is about the wolves walking places. Well, sometimes they run, but you get the idea. There's also a great subplot about a wolf hunter named Quent and his dog Blue, who are looking for Quent's estranged wife who helped develop Cheza. I actually think the subplot is better, but that's because it involves heavier liquor then the main plot.

The 4 main characters themselves are reminiscence of the White Cross formula for a bishounen team, that is, The Annoying One, The Annoying One, The Extra Annoying One, and Pussy Boy. Below you’ll find a nice table matching the roles to the characters. Really, I'm not even going to bother reviewing Wolf's Rain fanfiction because I know what it is--yaoi fanfic after yaoi fanfic, and the occasional bestiality one written by a Japanese college girl.

It's not that the characters aren't cool. Tsume is one of those kick-ass, cynical mercenary types, Kiba's the stoic one, Hige is funny, and Tobe is Pussy Boy (I will say nothing good about him) ... it's just that they're so formulaic. Bebop was a show that broke character modes (except for Miss Fanservice Faye), but Wolf’s Rain is just a traditional 4-bishounen show with the whole wolf metaphor thingy. I was hoping for something unique.

Swag

This is a new show that, as I write this review, hasn't even finished showing in Japan. There's some cool merchandise for it listed on the Wolf’s Rain official Japanese web page, like a collar and a cute little Kibe doll. Also, as Yoko Kanno did the (excellent) music for the series, expect about a half-dozen CDs along with 2 or 3 "remix" CDs. However, by the time the series is finished, I predict at least 5 artbooks, many a video game, and enough posters to wallpaper your house.

Fandom

Well, it's not huge, as the show is still very new. The best English page I could find was Stray, and it seems pretty good (not a whole lot of content right now, but I think it'll improve). There's also the Japanese Wolf’s Rain WebRing, filled with shounen ai fanart. It's pretty big, so you may be able to waste some time exploring it. There are also some other good sites listed at the Anipike, such as Wolf's Moon.

Boo to clowns. BOO TO CLOWNS.

This show is adequate. It features an interesting story and designs, fluid animation, and a very decent production--but when you get down to it, it's just another shounen anime filled with bishounen. It may get very good at the end (I haven't seen the last 3 episodes) but it still lacks the style Bebop had. In other words, it's sub-par.

3 stars out of 5. Garoooo.