Category: Wolf’s Rain

Welcome everyone, to another week of Wolf’s Rain! This week is a bit of a lore dump, but it’s an interesting lore dump, which is how it should be. We learn more about Darcia and Cheza while Cheza finally meets up with the wolves, all things I wasn’t expecting to happen for a while yet. So without further ado, lets dive into the episodes!

So starting off, the visuals. This is the first week that I really felt some cracks in Wolf’s Rain‘s production. Not due to any scheduling issues yet, more just the limitations of the time in which it was made. I’m of course talking about the CGI airship fight at the start of episode 7. It felt… off to me. The ship moved weirdly, the lasers didn’t look very good, and the whole sequence moved in a confusing manner. Once we got past that Wolf’s Rain was back to its old self for the most part, but this sequence definitely took me out of it after an otherwise stellar start. Beyond that, I also found the way Cheza fell through the air to be kinda silly. I get it, she’s spinning like a flower in the wind, it’s funny and fits how she’s styled. But it was also a little silly.

P.S. Apologies for the delay by the way, I had some trouble getting images this week.

Continue reading “Wolf’s Rain – 7/8 [The Flower Maiden/Song of Sleep] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Wolf’s Rain! This week we arrive at a new city, meet some new wolves, and see some dead dreams. All in all a pretty cheery episode if you ask me! But enough jokes, lets dive into the episodes.

This week I wanted to start off by taking a look at the music. After 6 episodes I feel like I have a decent idea what it’s like, of what the legendary Youko Kanno of Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop fam is going for. And you know what? I think it’s just as good as her previous work. She doesn’t restrict herself to any one style of music, picking and choosing what would work best for each track/purpose. In particular I love the sheer amount of vocal tracks in Wolf’s Rain’s OST. Stuff like this episodes “Strangers“, playing as they run in the snow past a train, or “Amore Amaro” as they all reconcile and recover from the night before. There were a few others in previous episodes as well, but I don’t want to look through the whole OST and spoil myself on anything coming.

Continue reading “Wolf’s Rain – 5/6 [Fallen Wolves/The Successors] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to week 2 of Wolf’s Rain! This week sees our intrepid heroes band together and set out on their epic quest. No doubt there will be many trials and tribulations along the way, disputes over territory, Tsume being a tsundere and Toboe having no idea how to do literally anything, but I’m sure it’ll be a good time. Now without further ado, let’s dive into the episodes!

Starting off, this week I wanted to talk a bit about the backgrounds. Don’t worry music fans, I plan to talk about that next week. I just want to give it a bit more time to settle and hear a few more tracks before I start talking out of my ass about it. Atsushi Morikawa is the Art Director for Wolf’s Rain, with Tomoaki Okada and Shingo Takeba doing Art Design. And while I don’t know the specifics of what goes into these jobs, what I can say is that the backgrounds that are coming out of their pipeline are stunning. In particular the natural expanses and variety of locations once our group leaves the city in episode 4 are just beautiful, as well as the war-torn city they pass through. I’m curious about how diverse the world seems to be for only 3 days travel, but hey its pretty.

Continue reading “Wolf’s Rain – 3/4 [Bad Fellow/Scars in the Wasteland] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to the next season of Throwback Thursday! This edition? The 2003 Studio Bones piece, Wolf’s Rain, directed by Tensai Okamura of Memories and Darker than Black fame. Is it any good? Or will it be the anime equivalent of Twilight? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off, lets talk visuals. I really like how Wolf’s Rain looks! It’s very animated, lots of character movement and effects, snappy designs and cel animation. It’s all very… 90s. Like the last call of a dying breed, Wolf’s Rain feels like a show that doesn’t belong in the modern era. Which makes sense considering how much of its crew is made up of the Cowboy Bebop team, and fits the premise of the show well. Now I do have some concerns, as during my preparation for this season I learned about the 4 recap episodes (Which we will be skipping) as well as the finale being knocked back to the OVA (Which we will be watching). I’m curious just how long Wolf’s Rain can keep this kind of production up, what with SARS and all. Personally though? I really hope it can, because it looks great so far.

Continue reading “Wolf’s Rain – 1/2 [City of Howls/Toboe, Who Doesn’t Howl] – Throwback Thursday” →