Welcome back everyone, to another week of Wolf’s Rain! This week see’s return of Blue and the Hunter, Darcia makes a new friend, and the gang has a pest problem. Lots to talk about, so lets jump right in!
Before we get to deep into that though, I wanted to address some concerns regarding last weeks post. Namely, I think my concerns regarding Cheza were misunderstood. My fear was that Wolf’s Rain would treat her as a sort of McGuffin. That, based on her initial first impression, she would never become more. I wasn’t criticizing Wolf’s Rain, we had just met her after all, it would be ridiculous to do so. I even pointed out ways in which Wolf’s Rain had already started to avoid that. Rather I wanted to talk about what could happen in a lesser series. Something that I’ve seen anime screw up before, on this very website. So far though? Cheza isn’t bad. We haven’t seen enough to really judge her at all, I feel. At least until this week that is.
That brings me to episode 9, “Misgivings”. This one had a lot of Cheza stuff, which we will get to! But more importantly than her, this episode saw the return of Quent the Hunter and his loyal hound, Blue. Right away I’ll say it, I called it, it’s pretty obvious that Blue is a Wolf at this point. His design was already more reminiscent of them than a dog. And the way Cheza stopped to talk to him, what she said, his reaction to her, it’s all pointing to the same thing: Blue is a Wolf raised by Quent’s family and just doesn’t know it. That’s why he can sense other wolves so easily, why Cheza said what she did, and why this damn dog is getting so much focus. Seriously though, I’m looking forward to what Blue brings to the cast now that he’s most likely off the leash.
As for Cheza herself, she had a lot of cute and expressive moments this week. Stuff like bathing in the sun, or trying to surprise Kiba when he got back from town. They are small, but they feel like she’s growing bit by bit as she interacts with the pack. Like a flower growing and changing based on its environment. Which makes sense, considering she is a flower! But you want to know something funny? Despite all these flower metaphors, and calling her a flower so many times, I never once considered that she might feed off the sun like the wolves do moonlight. It was a very “Oooooooh right” moment for me, and Wolf’s Rain definitely used it well later on in episode 10. I really like that, how it was setup and paid off so cleanly. There are no throwaway lines or moments it feels like.
Moving on to the rest of the cast, Darcia also made his return! I was wondering what happened to him after the ship went down. I thought he would certainly pursue Cheze and we would have some kind of 3-way conflict. Instead he seems content to let the wolves do his work of chauffeuring Cheza for him. We learn in episode 10 that this is because they both desire the same thing, Paradise. The question for me though is, are their desires mutually exclusive? If Darcia just needs to get to Paradise to cure his lover, then surely so long as that doesn’t necessitate its destruction the wolves should be happy to let him. Aside from Tsume, they don’t seem to have any real vendetta against the Nobles. And especially not again Darcia himself.
Speaking of Nobles, the last thing I want to touch on is Orkham and Hubb. In the comments of last weeks post, it was mentioned that a Noble named Orkham had stolen Cheza from Darcia before, and that there was a bit of conflict there. I thought I had just missed this, but turns out Wolf’s Rain just hadn’t talked about it yet. Suffice to say though, this continues to support my theory that Darcia will end up as a Zuko-like good guy by the end. Wolf’s Rain just name dropped a bigger, badder villain in direct conflict with our current “villain”, and we have reason to believe his desires don’t conflict with that of the wolves. With how sympathetic Wolf’s Rain is setting him up to be, stuff like his lover or the portrait in that small shop, I can’t see it going any other way.
Meanwhile, Hubb appears to be our window into Orkham himself. I think that it’s a reasonable assumption to make that he rules/lives in the original town Wolf’s Rain started in. Not only was Cheza there, but it would explain why Tsume has such a poor view of Nobles in general. Anyways, Hubb seems to be investigating Orkham as he searches for where Doctor Cher went, who was clearly press-ganged into this pursuit of Cheza. I wonder if Hubb will somehow end up following the wolves and meeting back up with here, or if he will only be our window back into the original city. However he’s used though, I’m glad that Wolf’s Rain has managed to tie all of this together in such a solid fashion. All of the characters feel involved in the same plot, rather then multiple different, smaller, character specific ones. Feels good!
Next up we have episode 10, “Moon’s Doom”. The best way I can describe this episode is as one big team-building exercise. Basically, our team wanders into a forest ominously called the “Forest of Death” and, wouldn’t you know it, that includes wolves. The place is infested with bugs that eat anything that wanders into their cave, taking their form to then… trick and lure in others? I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure on the mechanics behind what the bugs do. They seem more intelligent then they probably should be, and the owl thing left me rather confused because that’s not a power set bugs usually have. Ultimately though, I don’t think any of that is very important. This is a world with werewolves and vampires (Helsiiiiiin) after all, it can have some fantastical monsters. What it does though is further show just how dangerous this world has become.
More then the rest of the team though, the big star of the episode for me was Cheza. Part of that is because of how she helped the pack out, listening for and leading them towards the bugs natural enemy, venus fly traps. More then that though, it’s because of what I said before. Wolf’s Rain payed off the sunlight thing quite well here. I liked that while she brings unique skills/abilities to the party, that different physiology has its own drawbacks. In this case, it’s not that she can live off of sunlight and water, it’s that she must. Cheza has no other choice. She can’t eat to survive, so an environment like this forest is literally death for her. On top of that, being a flower, she doesn’t have the same stamina or physical abilities as the pack. There’s a balance here.
And once again, it wasn’t until the end of this episode that I considered something that should have been obvious: Cheza is a plant. I’ve said that before, I know. But every time Wolf’s Rain brings it up, it’s in a new way, regarding a new aspect of Cheza. Earlier it was about how she gets energy. Now… Now it’s about her life span. Flowers don’t live a long time. Like most plants, they go through seasons, pollinating and spreading to grow more flowers before they themselves die. But as a human, even if Cheza can do that, they won’t be Cheza. The one we have come to care about. It puts this entire journey on a timer, as well as giving Kiba and co an eventual goal of saving her, with the possibility of a bittersweet ending where she doesn’t make it. This is really good, I like it.
Beyond that, my only real “complaint” about the episode was the “action”. There wasn’t as much spectacle/animation to this epsode. The wolves fighting the bugs especially didn’t look great. The scene was nice, don’t get me wrong. I like watching the wolves slowly come to depend on each other. To affirm that they need each other, both socially and physically when in danger. Tsume especially seems to be warming up to Cheza, coming to trust and care for her. Like I said above, it also acts to show us that Cheza isn’t just dead weight on this journey. We already knew that from the escape from the soldiers before, but here Wolf’s Rain shows us that it will be a reoccurring thing. Now is this production hiccup a big problem? No, not at all. It didn’t impact my enjoyment any. I only note it because I know how the production had some problems at the time, what with the SARS outbreak and all.
Anyways yeah, this was another good pair of episodes. I like how involved Cheza is in everything that’s going on. She hasn’t yet contributed to any big decisions, but she’s also slowly becoming more comfortable with the wolves and starting to act on her own more and more. I expect it’s only a matter of time until she starts prompting them on where to go and having her own bits of idle conversation. Still, as fine as the episode was, I’m glad to be moving on from this location. I think these 4 episodes are the longest we’ve stayed in any one spot. And while the content was good, I’m eager to see more of Wolf’s Rain’s world and the mysteries it contains. I’m looking forward to getting that next week!
