Welcome everyone to another (probably late) week of Wolf’s Rain! This week sees us through the aftermath of the castle explosion, a little vision quest to remind us of our goal, and a whoooooole lot of recap. Let’s dive into it!
First up, lets start with the recaps. I promise I won’t spend long here. These were, by and large, disappointing. That shouldn’t come as a big surprise, no one really likes recaps. But what bothers me is how easily these could have been much more interesting. Wolf’s Rain could have given us new perspectives on past events, recontextualized scenes by putting us in the heads of characters we normally don’t get into. We saw a bit of this in episode 18, where it let us watch from Hubb and Quent’s perspectives. We even got a few small new scenes to spice it up, such as getting confirmation Quent is the one who shot Kiba! Do this a bit with Tsume, Hige and Toboe’s episodes and maybe they could have been less of a waste of our time. As is though, I can’t recommend anyone ever bother with these.
Moving on we come to our first real episode, episode 19, “A Dream of an Oasis”. To be blunt, this was probably the weakest episode of Wolf’s Rain so far. Note that I did not say bad, as it wasn’t. It was simply less than I was expecting after such a bombastic mid-season finale. It feels like we’ve sort of ground to a halt pacing wise, when we should be more energized to chase after Cheza and co. Part of this is due to the fact that this episode had to do a lot of heaving lifting, coming off of that mid-season finale and those recaps. I just think that it stumbled with all of that weight, resulting in something that was a bit to slow and a bit to melancholy. However as I said, it wasn’t terrible. Just sort of meh. So lets talk about what it did well.
The big thing I liked about this episode, and episode 20 after it, was the focus on Toboe. Not to the detriment of the other characters, Wolf’s Rain has always been careful to let everyone be involved in each others stories. It helps them feel interconnected and like they actually care about each other. But up until now, Toboe hasn’t gotten that much focus. He’s just sort of been the young kid of the group, the one who doesn’t know anything about what they are doing. This week tries to change that though, as we get a look at what Paradise means to him. To Toboe, Paradise isn’t a land free from humans or some great open field alone. It’s a peaceful world where humans and wolves can all live together. One where Quent and Blue can be happy together, and he can live with his grandmother. It’s sweet.
This connects nicely with what Kiba is experiencing, this false Paradise he’s experiencing after his near-death experience. We don’t learn the details until next episode, but he’s basically trapped in a dream and is being asked “Is this good enough”? This is similar to Toboe who, in the next episode, wants to stay with the Hmong tribe because to him, they are his Paradise. His dream. I really liked this connection between them. Kiba and Toboe haven’t really interacted all that much it feels like. But this idea of a “false Paradise”, of not settling for anything less then the real deal, is really cool. It makes Toboe feel like a reflection of Kiba’s idealistic, childlike dream. Meanwhile Hige is his desire for a family, for connection, and Tsume his sterner, colder, survival oriented side. Yet slowly but surely they are all coming together, as we will see next episode.
The only major issue, narratively, is how did Kiba get here? To be clear, this isn’t a deal breaker nor is it really all that big of an issue. I just couldn’t help but wonder throughout the entire episode how he got from the exploding, lakeside castle to a desert with a single plant that traps and eats people. As we saw from the rest of the pack’s journey, this place is like… a few days away. How did he get here? Did he chase after Jagara’s ships and collapsed? It’s just a really weird issue with continuity, and is indicative of Wolf’s Rain’s greater struggle of properly connecting it’s world/locations together. Like how is a desert so close to a snow-covered lake near Quent? It doesn’t make much sense. And while ultimately it’s not a huge deal, it does occasionally take me out of the moment.
Next up we have episode 20, “Consciously”. This one continues the two main threads from the last episode, Toboe and Kiba, before resuming our journey for Cheza. Overall it was… fine? Better then 19, still not my favorite. The big thing it did for me though was to recontextualize Toboe’s character. We already knew that the grandmother, the lady who cared for him in Freezing City, had died. But here we learn that Toboe himself is the one who was responsible. So up until now, he hasn’t be chasing Paradise. He’s been running from what he did. And his arc throughout the episode appears to be accepting that, accepting that he can desire more and is valued by the others, and pushing forward. It’s nice! Toboe deserved some focus, I’m glad Wolf’s Rain gave it to him. Just wish the lead in was a bit better is all.
The other half of the episode was Kiba, and this was much more interesting to me. Like I said in the previous episode, Kiba was trapped in a sort of false Paradise. He had Mew, a sort of budget stand in for Cheza, and a beautiful empty location all his own. For a while I actually thought that Mew was sort of evil, like she was trying to keep him trapped here, that she was the evil. But instead she appears to be just another victim, one who wanted to ease Kiba in to being stuck here with her. It made for a very melancholic end when Kiba got pulled out by the Shaman and she was left behind. Something I quite enjoyed.
Beyond Kiba’s vision journey and realization that this wasn’t the end however, we also got a small bit from Tsume. Remember early on when he was the most critical of this journey? How he didn’t trust Kiba and thought it was all stupid? Well here he is, now the greatest believer. It almost feels like he’s becoming the lead, because aside from Kiba’s pursuit of Cheza, he’s definitely acting more like the leader. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed this transformation. Seeing him become more confident not only in himself, but in his decisions, has been great. He didn’t even judge Toboe for staying behind it felt like, because he understood why. It was just that for him, like Kiba, this wasn’t his Paradise. So he had to keep moving forward. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I quite like where Tsume is at now.
So yeah, all in all these were 2 perfectly fine episodes. Not my favorite, definitely not after 4 episodes of recap. But it still wasn’t bad. Feels like Wolf’s Rain just wasn’t sure how to transition into this 2nd half and it showed in the episodes structure. Hopefully now that everyone is back on the path and we have a set goal this won’t be a problem. Next week I’m hoping we get to see a bit from Cheza and Blue’s perspective, I really want to learn more about Jagara as we head into this final arc. I’m also really hoping that Darcia pops up, as I still haven’t given up hope on him surviving that explosion. Only time will tell for all of these, but we have plenty of time now that a new season is starting up.
