Wolf’s Rain – 25/26 [False Memories/Moonlight Crucible] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the grand finale of the original season of Wolf’s Rain! Don’t worry, this isn’t the end. We have 2 more weeks of Throwback Thursday as we cover the OVA as well. As I understand it that’s the intended ending. For now though we have a lot to talk about, so lets dive into the unofficial finale.

Starting off, lets talk setting. In broad strokes? It works. Wolf’s Rain has a great world with great characters. The overall aesthetic and feeling of the world fits well into this Vampire vs Werewolves (Vanhelsiiiiiiing) sort of classical conflict. My only gripe with it is that I feel like Wolf’s Rain is a tad to vague at times. I don’t need, nor even want, Wolf’s Rain to outright call Nobles vampires or anything. It doesn’t need to force itself to fit into preexisting ideas and words. But I would like it if things like the magic circles, the cults, or the prophecy, were better connected with the wider technological sci-fi setting. At times it feels like 2 separate systems, magic and technology, that don’t interact very well. Like how does the giant robot from episode 4 fit with the magic circle from episode 26. Personally? I don’t think it does.

To be clear, this isn’t a big deal. I have really enjoyed Wolf’s Rain, I have a lot of positive things to say about this weeks episodes and the series as a whole. The only reason I bring it up now is because as the conflict comes to a head, there are bits and pieces that feel… under utilized or poorly explained. And they only stand out because the actual experience of living in this world was communicated so well up until this point. I’ve bought into the day to day life these people have, and how the whole world is dying. Maybe some of this confusion is due to Wolf’s Rain having to rush this ending a bit, not yet knowing they were getting an OVA where it will all be more properly explored. I don’t know yet! If so I’ll find out next week.

Getting into the episodes, first up is episode 25, “False Memories”. The best way to describe this one is as a setup episode. It’s doing a lot of prep-work for the big “finale” to come. Getting Hige’s collar off, him resolving to go into the keep after the others to prove how much they meant to him and that this “betrayal” wasn’t on purpose, Tsume and Toboe meeting Hubb in prison, and some exposition around Jagara’s big dastardly plan. As a piece in a larger story, I think this episode was fine. Everything that happened in it was necessary for what is to come, so it’s not like it was wasted time or anything. It’s just that Wolf’s Rain chose to use this episode to get all of the ground work out of the way so that next episode could be one big ride. And what a ride it was.

Before we get into that though there are 2 things I really do want to talk about. The first is Kiba and Jagara, finally meeting face to face. Remember above where I mentioned magic spells and how they don’t fit snugly into Wolf’s Rain’s sci-fi setting? Well this is the start of that, as Kiba gets cause in some kind of magic circle. Sure, this could be highly advanced technology in the guise of magic. But if that’s the case then I think Wolf’s Rain stumbled a bit in the presentation. We already talked about that though, so instead lets talk about what Jagara calls Kiba: The Chosen Wolf, whose birthright is the rule the world. Those are some pretty ostentatious names! Not that Kiba doesn’t deserve them of course, he’s rather regal in his bearing and it’s a pretty badass prophecy. But what do those names really mean?

It seems to me that Kiba is the only one who can find Paradise via Cheza. All the other wolves who tried, all those who gave up along the way like we saw before? They never had chance. She needed someone so steadfast and unwavering in their faith, their belief of Paradise, that they would never give up. Maybe anyone could have fulfilled that role if they had the same convictions as Kiba, maybe not. The point remains though, only Kiba could do it, and that’s what Jagara was waiting for. It’s why she didn’t just steal Cheza from Orkham earlier. She needed both, Cheza and Kiba, to open the route to Paradise so she could claim it in the wolves stead. It all makes a decent amount of sense. The only thing left is why she wanted to do all of this. And for that… we need Darcia.

That’s right everyone, my boy Darcia is back! God I was so pumped when he showed up. I had just lost faith that he was alive, as I thought Wolf’s Rain would reintroduce him earlier than this. To see him walk right through Jagara’s front door, ignoring everyone, just put a smile on my face. Of course it also raised a shit ton of questions regarding what exactly Nobles are and how they can do all of this, but as I said above that’s not the most important thing in the world. Regardless, it appears as if Darcia is the key to all of this, as Jagara did all of this for him. She got Cheza, caught Kiba, set up this Moon Crucible to power the ritual, all for Darcia and herself. And maybe a bit for that whole “Rule the world/Paradise” shtick, but it felt mostly for them.

This brings me to episode 26, “Moonlight Crucible”, where everything really kicks off. Resuming where we were, lets start with the big boys: Jagara and Darcia. I mentioned before that Jagara did all of this for Darcia, with the clear implication being that she loves him. But I didn’t delve to deeply into “why”. After all, if she loves him and wants to do all of this for him, why can’t they work together? Well the answer there appears to be that she was jealous of Hamona, her sister. More then that, she doesn’t seem to understand that Darcia only did all of this and only cared about Paradise in so far as it helped Hamona. So by killing her, which she thought was a favor for Darcia since everyone else had long ago given up on her, Jagara essentially destroyed any chance of Darcia loving her back.

It’s all one big tragic love triangle when you think about. Darcia and Hamona clearly loved each other, while Jagara loved Darcia and was Hamona’s sister. Hamona essentially goes on life support with Darcia searching for a cure. Jagara misunderstands why Darcia wants Paradise and thinks that if she delivers it to him, as well as removing her only competition, then he will choose her. But by killing Hamona she really took away the only reason Darcia had left to live, aside from revenge. It all makes a twisted sort of sense with how they have interacted up until now, and only makes me like Darcia even more. On top of that, I think Wolf’s Rain implied that this Paradise forced open by Jagara was a fake one, similar to that plant that had caught Kiba before. So even Darcia did choose her, it all would have been for naught.

My only “concern” with all of this, and I say that very lightly, is that I still don’t quite fully get what’s up with Darcia’s eye. It’s implied to be special, a wolf’s eye, and that it’s this curse on his line caused by his Grandfather, Darcia I, who attempted the same thing Jagara is. But there’s no explanation as to what it actually… does. Kiba and the other wolves can’t make people fall over or force their will on them. Maybe it’s an extension of this “perception” thing they’ve done since episode 1, but if so it’s not made clear. Maybe this is me asking for to much, my desire to understand a system impacting my enjoyment of a show. Or maybe Wolf’s Rain explains it later, in the OVA. Who knows! I’m not going to jump to any conclusions just yet. But it is on my mind.

Moving on to the wolves, lets talk about Tsume, Toboe and Hige. They broke out! Or were let out, depending on how you look at it. Regardless there are 2 main things I want to look at here, both involving Tsume. The first is that Tsume clearly doesn’t trust Hige, and it makes sense. He had trust issues before and it took him a long time to get over them. To be betrayed, as he perceives it, probably left a mark. But he’s changed enough to be willing to let Hige prove himself through his actions, and that'[s pretty cool. The second is Tsume stopping to let Hubb out of his cell to. It’s a small thing, I know, but old Tsume would never have done that. He’d have left Hubb to rot. So seeing him stop and consider not just someone else, but a human, is a big step.

As for Kiba, he gets his hero moment this week. I’m not entirely sure what happened in the basement, it was a bit unclear as his muscles bulged whether or not he actually got bigger or if it was just him flexing to break out. But whatever happens he broke out, charged up stairs, and together with the others worked together to take out Jagara. And you know what? It was pretty awesome. And to top it all off, Darcia even gets to join in on the beat down by dealing the last blow. It was a cool, unexpected bit of cooperation between former enemies. On top of that, the vocal tracks throughout all of this were just beautiful. I’ll talk more about them in the final review, but man the OST for Wolf’s Rain absolutely slaps.

Moving on, lets talk about Quent and Blue. These 2 finally got to meet up again for the first time in maybe… 13 episodes? However far back Darcia’s keep was? Whatever the number, it’s been a long time, and Quent isn’t able to recognize her. Makes sense, she looks like a person now because of Wolf powers. Using that to her advantage though, Blue starts a conversation that inevitably leads to their home town, before dropping the bomb that wolves weren’t responsible. While a bit awkward, that’s not really a subject for meeting someone for the first time, it had a nice emotional payoff. Quent’s journey of seeing wolves as something other then the murderers of his family, accepting Blue for who she is, the hugs, the crying. It was all really sweet, and I was satisfied by their arcs. Like Tsume, Quent has come a long way.

The only major complaint regarding this episode is in regards to Cheza. Remember way back when she was first introduced? And how I was hoping she wouldn’t just become a McGuffin? And for a few episodes it was great? Well then she got captured and it feels like Wolf’s Rain has really reverted on that. For most of this 2nd half Cheza just hasn’t really been a character. And that sucks! I loved her relationship with the wolves, her naïve understanding of the world, the tragic setup of how every flower eventually withers. Wolf’s Rain setup so much good stuff for her! And she hasn’t really lived up to that recently. Hopefully the OVA, the real finale, fixes that a bit. I’d love for her to reclaim some of that charisma. For now though, if this was the real finale, I can’t say I’d be satisfied with her.

So yeah, all in all these were a good pair of episodes. Everything is coming to a head, the visuals are cool, Darcia coming back was absolutely incredible I loved it. There were a few issues that are just intrinsic to Wolf’s Rain’s overarching structure sure, but nothing that could hurt it much. At this point I’m pretty confident that I like Wolf’s Rain a lot, and nothing short of an absolutely cataclysmic ending could ruin that. The only real question on my mind is just how high the ending will take it. I’m not expecting it to land amongst my favorites, so it might have to settle for the meager “Very good”, which I’m sure is a shame for many of you. But who knows, endings mean a lot to me so it might squeeze in.