Wolf’s Rain – 27/28 [Where the Soul Goes/Gunshot of Remorse] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the penultimate week of Wolf’s Rain! This week we get into the OVA, the true ending of the series. Does it live up to the hype? Is it good? Or should it have maybe stayed incomplete? Well I won’t keep you waiting, I’ll just come out and say it’s pretty damn good. So without further ado lets dive into the episodes!

First up though, some praise for the production. Wolf’s Rain was generally pretty solid on this front. But after the opening few episodes it rarely “wow’ed” me. Well this OVA is making up for that in spades, because it was stunning. From beautiful effects work such as explosions and snow to incredibly detailed facial expressions such as Hubb and Quent, or the fur and muscles of the wolves as they ran. This is easily the best Wolf’s Rain has ever looked, and it’s sending quite the statement as far as finales go. Hopefully it can keep this up for the last 2 episodes. And of course the music has also been great, but I don’t want to look up specific tracks at the moment, so I’m just going to leave that with “Music sound good :D”. You’ll get more in the final review, I promise. For now, episodes!

First up we have episode 27, “Where the Soul Goes”. To get the little negative I have out of the way first, I think the transition between this episode and 26 was a bit wonky. Despite watching 26 just last week, it still took me a moment to figure out where we were. I get it, OVA, outside normal production. And maybe the end credits of 26 is meant to help with this a bit, though not enough in my opinion. But still. We went from inside Jagara’s keep face to face with Darcia and the whole city holding its breath to standing in blood soaked streets as everyone loots and dies, holding Cheza as we leave the city. It just felt a bit… odd. Not a big deal, episode was still great, lets get on to the good stuff now shall we?

This episode opens on what is perhaps the most broken and defeated everyone, including the world, has ever seemed. Everyone is limping off, Hige is bleeding out, Cheza can barely talk and can’t walk, Kiba is covered in scars, Quent gets hit by a car, etc. Everyone feels broken and are, for the first time, truly forced to work together to survive. Despite all of their previous issues, none of them can make it without the others. It’s pretty nice actually. How the end of the world brings them together, even if involuntarily in Quent’s case. I think it really reinforces just how fucked everything is, and how much Jagara has ruined. I do wish Cheza got to talk a bit more, but what little we get is nice so I’ll take it.

Of course the big standout of the episode for me was Cher. Namely, her death. This was… Sudden. I expected people to die, but like this, not this fast, and not her first. The cliff, the fall, her body in the debris, it was all great. My only wish is that she wasn’t still alive when they got to the bottom, as I think the suddenness of the death hit a lot harder then Hubb’s tender heartfelt moment did. Even with that though, it was a great way to end the episode. I especially liked the visual parallels between her and Hamona, as well as how Hubb decided to continue forward with the wolves rather then languishing in his grief like Darcia. Just an all around great scene, and one that prepared us well for all the of death to come.

In fact on that note I want to tangent for a moment, because these 2 episodes of Wolf’s Rain made me question something: Will anyone survive? The series seems to be trending towards an “everyone dies” ending. One where none of the wolves actually reach Paradise, as Paradise is just the representation of an ideal and not an actual thing that can be obtained. Of course Wolf’s Rain may or may not do this, and either option works. But between this, episode 28, and all of the death flags being setup for literally everyone? Well let’s just say I’m not picking favorites anymore because I have no idea who might actually make it to the end.

Assuming Paradise is real though, that raises the question of what exactly it is. I’ll be honest, the opening of the episode got me a bit worried. It seemed to imply that Paradise is less of a location and more of a “reset”. Like a perpetual walk towards a better and better world, or that someone remade this world how they viewed Paradise. Basically it framed it all as a loop, a reset. And if you’ve been around a bit, you know I’m not the biggest fan of these sorts of metaphysical endings. If this is the case I’ll obviously reserve judgement until it happens, Wolf’s Rain might be able to pull it off. But I’m a tiny bit worried about it just by the phrasing in the opening monologue.

Enough with that though, on with episode 28, “Gunshot of Remorse”! This episode was all about Quent, Toboe and Blue. Only 1 of which survives the episode. Honestly it was pretty good. I really liked the look into their lives, and how each one was basically looking for the same thing. Each one wanted a family back, But for various reasons they couldn’t have it. Toboe was a wolf, unable to really return to human society. Meanwhile Quent was to stuck on revenge and Blue to dependent on other people for her self-worth. I’m also sure it’s not coincidence that Toboe looks similar to Quent’s son in the flashbacks. Just all these little things Wolf’s Rain setup to make this tragedy clear from the get go, executed well right up until the end. But this episode felt like it had more going on then just that, so lets get specific.

To me, this entire episode felt almost… religious. Like Paradise was this representation of heaven. The way Kiba, the true believer, has been guided towards it all this time, unfalteringly. How Tsume was converted while Hige doesn’t think he’s worthy based on his actions, Blue by being half-wolf, and Toboe just wanting to find his happiness in the material world. Meanwhile you have people like Jagara bending it to their own ends, as well as Quent who just deny it outright. It feels like this planet has just become Limbo or something, or that Kiba is a Christ-like figure. Is this what Wolf’s Rain intended? Maybe, maybe not. But it feels baked to deep into the story for it to be accidental. At the very least I think the series is leaning on that imagery to reinforce the character arcs.

Getting into the specifics of each, Quent was really interesting. He refuses to give up on his hatred despite all the evidence in front of him. Refuses to believe that his life quest up until this point was wrong, that it was all for nothing. It makes sense, this is his entire life after all. But combined with the religious connotations I mentioned above, it feels very much like a “Stubborn non-believer” sort of thing. Not a criticism, I think it’s presented very well. But that’s what I got out of it. In a similar vein, Blue is so desperate for connection that she latches on to the first person she can, in this case Hige. She seems terrified of being alone while also doubting she can get into Paradise, causing her to latch on to someone she knows also won’t go, further reinforcing his own tragic decision.

Speaking of Hige, he’s having a pretty bad time. I’ve already talked about his own place in the religious metaphor though so instead I want to talk about Tsume and Kiba’s reaction to him. Namely that apparently they both already knew he wasn’t intending to go to Paradise. He was lying from the start, they had just figured him out. Of course Tsume takes this as a betrayal, which knowing his life makes sense. But Kiba makes a fair point: If you knew the whole time, if he was always honest about the kind of person he was, is it really a betrayal? It’s all kind of sad really, how fast they give up on him. Sending Toboe off to find the humans while saying Tsume will find Hige, all the while not intending to find him at all.

Of course this decision then backfires immediately, as Toboe finds Quent and they are found in turn by Darcia. This was… Rather brutal. Guy shows up, basically admits to being responsible for Quent’s family dying, then proceeds to shoot him. Meanwhile right before this Quent accidentally shoots Toboe as he dives in front of Quent to try and protect him from Darcia. I can only imagine the pain Quent is going through, seeing someone who looks like his son die again. And it’s only in these last moments that he’s finally able to put aside his hatred for wolves to comfort and hold a dying child. Accepting and regretting it all at the end right before Darcia just mercy-kills him point blank. Absolutely brutal, and further reinforcing my belief that absolutely no one will get out of this alive.

So yeah, in case it wasn’t clear these were 2 really good episodes. Lots of things happened. Lots of good things happened. Good for me/the story, not for the characters. Obviously. They are having a pretty rough time of it, and I expect it to only get rougher for them in the last 2 episodes. Honestly these episodes have given me a lot of hope for the ending. Even with my dislike of metanarratives/loops and time shenanigans, I feel confident that Wolf’s Rain can give me something satisfying, even if only in the pretty lights and sounds department. I’m almost sad it’s going to be over, as next week we have to choose a whole new series. Can’t wait to see what all of you pick!