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 7

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
12th Jun 06

The final volume of Wolf’s Rain is here. The series has promised much and delivered little in comparison in previous volumes, while the penultimate volume gave more, it just didn’t seem like enough. Can the final four episodes (originally released as four OVAs in Japan) make up for this…you might be surprised!

Having escaped Jaguara’s keep, Hige finds that Blue has disappeared, disappointed he follows Kiba, Chez and the others to paradise. On the journey, though all our heroes are reunited, finding Blue and Quent, as well as Cher and Hubb. They decide to travel together however; it is not long before tragedy strikes and the dieing world takes a member of the group with it. Briefly stopping to grieve the group is off again getting nearer and nearer to paradise, but someone stands in their way…Darcia. Attempting to turn himself into a wolf to open the true door to paradise. Our wolves and few remaining humans try valiantly to make there way to paradise…but not all of them will make it.

This is certainly an emotional ending, as various characters begin to fall it’s increasingly difficult to keep the tears from flowing. These characters are given a send of true to form and it’s amazing how even after the Nth time that each death certainly still manages to play on the viewers heartstrings.

While the final confrontation with Darcia feels slightly forced, like his return in the previous volume, it is spectacular and the musical score pulls out all the stops to help it along. As any insane villain does, he bombards the remaining heroes with questions that not only will make them question themselves, but making some truly valid points about life, as do our heroes replies. There are plenty of philosophies floating around, hidden meanings finally giving the depth to Wolf’s Rain as a whole, which it had seemed to be pretending it had previously, or maybe it was always there just hidden from view.

The volume certainly removes doubts I had about wither the series could really deliver on its promises. True this may be too late for some, yet it’s doubtful anyone who’s put up with some of the series shortcomings so far is going to be disappointed with the series’ final conclusion.

This final volume does not suddenly make the sires in to a must have title or a classic by any means. The series as a whole is flawed in many aspects, but if you keep with it for long enough, it does begin to shine just not as brightly as you might think.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English/Japanes/French Audio, English/French/Polish/Dutch Subtitles, Clean Ending Animations, Kareoke Opening and Closing, Cast interviews, character bios.

Release information: Publisher: Beez Entertainment Release Date: 29th May 2006 Classification: 12 Running Time: 100mins

Notes: The cast interviews are always intresting, but make sure you watch the episodes first!

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 12th Jun 06

Wolf's Rain Images