Wolf's Rain

Publisher
Bandai
Director
Tensai Okamura
Production
Bandai, BONES, Fuji TV
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
30 episodes
Year
2003

Wolf's Rain Volume 1

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
21st Nov 05

Wolf’s Rain is one of the more anticipated titles of 2005/6, a series that has been difficult not to avoid talk of in the UK. Not wanting to suffer another “Witch Hunter Robin” type disappointment it’s been difficult to ignore the hype and discussion surrounding Wolf’s Rain.

The first volume contains four episodes. Episode one introduces us to a futuristic world where people called “Nobles” rule, were introduced to Tsume who leads a small gang of thugs who rob the Nobel’s supply trains for food. Tsume’s gang come across a large white “dog”, which in actual fact is a wolf named Kiba. Kiba can tell that Tsume is also a wolf in sheep’s clothing (or human form to be exact) to blend in. When the two are interrupted, Kiba flees but is soon found and attacked by Quent a sheriff from out of town who has pledged to exterminate all wolves. Kiba, injured is then taken in by detective Hubb, his ex-wife Cher (it seems both still have feelings for one another) shows great interest in Kiba as this “dog” has caused a reaction in Cheza (a mysterious girl who’s locked up in a lab. Before Kiba can be moved, another Wolf who has taken human form, Hige, helps Kiba escape by convincing him that he has to take human form to survive in the city. After helping Kiba tells Hige that he is searching for paradise, and that the smell of lunar flowers brought him to the city, Hige tells him that the smell is coming from Cheza who’s locked in the lab and they mount a plan to rescue her. Soon after Kiba and Hige decide it’s time to leave the city, along with a young wolf Toboe and a reluctant Tsume the pack leave the city in search of paradise. On their tail (or tails) are Quent and his dog Blue, Cher and following Cher is Hubb.

Wolf’s Rain is beautiful to look at, the high production values are apparent in the grim Neo-Tokyo like city, to the desolate wasteland surrounding it and are sure to improve as the series progresses. The soundtrack is done by the legendary Yoko Kanno so any attempt for me to try to sum it up in this review is surely not even come close to the pure genius of it all. What is strange is the way in which our pack of wolves are portrayed, there’s a point when the pack come across a dead animal, and begin to eat it…but we see them eat it in their human form. When Toboe is licking Tsume, wounds this is also done with both characters in human form (which is sure to excite the fan girls). This mix is a strange idea and it’s something I doubt many people will have seen before.

This volume sets up the story for the series, introduces us to the main characters but does little else. Hopefully this is just the start to something much better, because if this is the best the series has to offer then were going to be letting ourselves in for a huge disappointment.

The first volume shows the promise of a great series, but wither future volumes will deliver in this we’re going to have to see.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English/French/Japanese Audio Tracks, English/French/Polish/Dutch Subtitles, Character Bios, Clean Opening and Closing animation, Trailers, Leaflet

Release information: Publisher: BEEZ Released: November 7th 2005 Classification: 12 Running Time: 100mins

Notes: The character Bios and the leaflet, which contains a few character bios on one side and artwork on the other, are nice touches. Other than those Wolf's Rain is a rather standard DVD in terms of extras.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 21st Nov 05

Wolf's Rain Images