Wolf’s Rain – 29/30 [High Tide, High Time/Wolf’s Rain] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to the grand finale of Wolf’s Rain! This is a contentious ending from what I’ve heard, and I can see why. We have a lot to talk about this week so lets just dive right in!

Before we get to deep into it though I want to talk about whether or not this ending works for me. And overall? I think it was… effective. There are bits and pieces I’m not 100% sure I either understand or entirely like, but the more I think about the finale the more I feel like it works. Everyone got some kind of closure to their arc, no one was ignored, it answered a lot of questions regarding the setting and why all of this was happening. I’m satisfied. The only places I’m not totally sure on is the core idea of “repeats”. I’m typically not a big fan of these kinds of endings, for reasons I will talk about later. But Wolf’s Rain managed to frame it in a way that I think works well. Is that vague? Yes. Follow me after the break if you want spoilers.

Diving into it, first up is episode 29, “High Tide, High Time”. This is it, the penultimate episode. And the central characters of it? Toboe, Quent and Hubb. All 3 of these surprised me. The first 2 because I didn’t even realize they were alive. I thought for sure they were dead at the end of episode 28, and in a way they were. They were dying. But this week Wolf’s Rain gives them just a tiny little bit of time to really twist that knife. Letting Toboe beg to rest in Quent’s arms, Quent meanwhile silently accepting Toboe for who he is. This touching, quiet scene of mutual acceptance as they both find what they were looking for in each other during their final moments. It was a really beautiful scene, and a perfect way to end both of their stories. Felt it right in my kokoro.

What really sold it for me though, made it even better than it already is, was Tsume. If I wasn’t expecting them to still be alive then I really wasn’t expecting this. Just another somber, quiet moment as he privately grieves. Showing us a level of emotional vulnerability we’ve never seen from him before. This admission of guilt, of how Toboe was the primary reason he came along. It wasn’t for him, he didn’t think he deserved any of this, not after all those he has betrayed before and who have betrayed him since. No, Tsume came along for Toboe. To protect and ensure Toboe got to Paradise. And he failed in that. Another one on the pile. It makes his decision to fight in the finale even more poignant, and is honestly one of the more tragic character arcs of the show for me.

And as for Hubb? Well he gets to be the 2nd most tragic. Or maybe he ties with Darcia, I don’t know. either way, this guy had a rough time of it. Trying to go all the way, to follow them to Paradise, to see Cher’s dream/goals through. And he just… He couldn’t make it. Paradise is for wolves. Not humans. So eventually, inevitably, he falls. All the way to the bottom, in one of the more gruesome deaths of the series. Broken and bleeding against the ice and stones at the bottom of the cliff, head to one side, clutching Cher’s scarf so he can die with one last memory of her. To be honest I continue to get some really religious vibes from it all, like he was denied entry right at the end. Another great way for a character to die.

Finally lets talk a bit about lore. Wolf’s Rain revealed a lot to us this week, dropping a number of lore bombs on us. The biggest one? Apparently everyone is a wolf, or at least descended from wolves. Darcia? Wolf. Jagara? Wolf. Hubb? Wolf. They just didn’t know it! Forgot, losing their ability to transform and their right to enter Paradise. In a way it explains a lot, making sense of how people perceive them as other humans because of their own lost heritage, as well as why some are able to see them and half-wolves like Blue can exist. It also explains why the Nobles want to twist Paradise for their own ends, as they can actually enter it. The funniest thing to come out of all of this though? Kiba comes off looking more and more like Jesus with every passing revelation, and it’s hilarious.

With that we come to episode 30, the finale, aptly named “Wolf’s Rain”. This is it. The grand finale. And you know what? Everyone fucking dies. I was not prepared for that. I thought at least someone would live. That someone would win. And depending on how you look at it, Kiba kind of did. They all came back in the next cycle to continue their eternal search for Paradise. But as far as this loop goes, they all just died. Darcia, Kiba, Cheza, Tsume. It was terrible… and fitting. This is the bit I mentioned before about being satisfied with Wolf’s Rain. Yeah we didn’t get a solid, concrete ending. It loops, and I’m typically not a huge fan of that. But rather than trivialize or undo the struggles of the characters, Wolf’s Rain just further reinforced them with it’s overall message surrounding Paradise.

As for what that message, and Paradise, is? What do I think the ending means? Well simply put, I think Paradise is perfection. The world as it was at it’s inception. Like the Garden of Eden before Satan came and screwed it all up. Yeah, buckle up for some religion metaphors people because that’s still in my head. Anyways, Paradise is the ideal world that Kiba and the other wolves, the “true believers”, are forever striving for. Sure they lost this time, they didn’t get their perfect Paradise. But they got closer, as seen by the Lunar Flower in the alley way, a real rather than artificial one like Cheza. And that’s sort of the point. Paradise probably isn’t something they can ever achieve in totality. But they can continuously strive for it, over and over, always trying to get closer, to make the world better, always falling short.

Meanwhile you have false prophets, or possibly an allegory for Satan I’m not to sure, in characters like Darcia. He defeated them. Killed them all, one by one, and getting to go full villain by the end (Which was great, dude was absolutely crazy). Sure he “died” by stepping in the lake, denied entry into Paradise. But a small part of him survived, the only part that was Wolf enough to be allowed entry: His eye. And that eye was brought into this new, reborn world. Poisoning it like some kind of Original Sin. Tainting Paradise and turning it into yet another dying world, this one eerily similar to our own. It’s all just… so good. Wolf’s Rain takes a form of ending I detest, that of a full reset, and manages to make it work in the broader context of the shows themes. Plus it’s just super religious.

Beyond that Wolf’s Rain also had a lot of really cool visuals in this finale. Cheza went full body horror, slowly transforming into a tree. Fingers and limbs elongating, skin slowly changing color, bursting into seeds etc. It was pretty wild, especially as she and Kiba embraced at the end. Similarly Darcia felt more expressive as a god damn wolf then he did as a human. Wolf’s Rain went all out with the facial expressions, really playing with the crazy eyes, snarling teeth and wagging tongue. The way his bright, differently colored eyes contrasted his dark fur. That mad grin as he cut his way through all of our heroes. Just generally a fantastic job on the presentation here. In fact that’s something worth praising these OVA’s for in their entirety, the production is all around a solid step up from the original season.

So yeah, all in all I think this was a fantastic ending for Wolf’s Rain. I was left satisfied, given a complete experience. All of the characters got closure to their arcs, the messaging was on point, even Cheza got a few moments to herself. Just an all around great finale. Now to go write that in a larger review. But that’s for next week (Or later if I get bogged down)! What about right now? Well for those who have been around a while, you know how it goes: Time to vote on the next show! Don’t see an option you’d like here? Just leave a comment, I’ll add it to the list for the next vote. For now though, I present to you 7 options. This one will close when Ipost the Wolf’s Rain review and start up a week after, so vote fast and I’ll see you next time!