I pretty much like this show so far, but I’m worried. I just discovered that Amazon.co.jp only lists six DVDs, which total at around 47 minutes each, or twelve episodes combined. The pacing of this episode also very much hinted at that there are only going to be 12 episodes. I’m very, very worried right now.
Now suppose that I’m right: then we’ve just passed one third of this series. Now, what have we accomplished so far? The story itself is still getting introduced: we know that something in the town is screwed up, the residents are under a threat that manifests in some sort of disease and some sort of strangely dressed people who kill people who go out of control. One reporter is out there, trying to figure out what’s going on and the lead character is sort-of the innocent bystander. Fair enough.
But how about the character. Four episodes equals about an hour and a half. What have we learned about the lead character? Well, he’s… polite and likes his sister and his balls haven’t dropped yet. His sister? She’s disabled but wants to be independant. The lead female: well, she likes the lead character and tries to cover up for her pedo-brother. The brother? He’s a pedophile who can’t control his urges due to his disease and therefore is likely to be killed off next. That’s nice and all, but we’ve passed FOUR EPISODES already! For 12 episodes, that’s way too little. Every single character has not gotten beyond its one-line description. We still haven’t got to know these people, and instead the creators are too focused on the mystery and horror. Take Sora no Oto as a counterexample: it started out a bit more stereotypical than this series, but for the past number of episodes it has put a lot of attention in fleshing out its characters so that we could get to know them. The characters in Ookami Kakushi are just… shallow.
So yeah: my big fear is about to come true: at this point, Ookami Kakushi is compelling: the way that the climaxes are delivered is gripping and captivating… but those characters… There is no way that they’re going to get enough depth within only 12 episodes and the creators just spent too much time on the mystery, and too little on the rest. And that’s the thing with this director: he’s good in technical terms. But his balance, pacing and ability to look at the bigger picture is terrible.
Rating: * (Good)
I suspect that they’ll reveal some backstory for Hiro and explain why he’s so desirable to the wolfkin (it’s not just pedobear that’s interested in him) and how that intersects with their prohibition against having lovers (uh, do they eat them?). There really isn’t a lot to this story as far as I can tell, so I don’t see why eight episodes cannot wrap it up. It’s basically a mystery thriller, and they don’t usually get four hours of run time. All of the threads will unravel at the climax, and who Hiro’s childhood friend in kidergarten was is his problem.
I feel the exact saaame way! With the Ookami episodes I can actually multitask with other stuff since these episodes are moving really slow and..not showing the most important of events until the very end. At least this episode went somewhere..but it was kinda predictable that the boy was gonna randomly discover a murder happening. The reporter guy is interesting to me though. I hope the next episode is much more eventful.