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.
Getting into the episodes themselves, first up is episode 5, “Fallen Wolves”. Before I get to far into the actual content, I just want to say how much I love this opening establishing shot. Having the wolves run side-by-side with the train, seen by those aboard it in the snow, with “Strangers” playing in the background was great. Especially with how it bookends the episode with the train at the station as well, setting it up while playing off of how close the wolves are to civilization yet still disconnected from it. It’s just a really good way to structure the episode and to make it all feel like a single cohesive episode. So props to Tensai Okamura and his team, because on a purely structural level this might be my favorite episode of Wolf’s Rain yet.
Going back to the episode, this one felt like it was all about challenging our leads ideas of Paradise. Of forcing them to question their resolve, whether or not they can really get there, and why, if it existed, no one else has gotten there before now. Well the answer to that last one comes from some of this weeks new characters: They have tried. And they failed, costing them everything. And now they dissuade others to save them that pain to. Effectively trying to spare people the pain of shooting for the stars, convincing them to settle down in this shithole they call reality. It’s a very generational argument in a lot of ways, both literally from their respective ages, but also just philosophically. Every new generation wants a better life, and eventually in their old age they settle for whatever they can. A classic, but a good one.
What was cool for me though was the realization of just how many wolves there are. Early on in the show, Wolf’s Rain told us that wolves were rare, dying out. Some people didn’t even believe they exist anymore. Yet here we are, an entire city full of them, working and eking out a living. More domesticated dogs then wolves. I suppose in that sense though, wolves are still rare. They are still dying out. Because these people, Zali and Moss and Cole, they aren’t wolves in the eyes of Kiba and Tsume. Just mutts that have lost what pride they had, working for scraps until they die under the whip. It’s tragic in a way. Broken dreams, broken bodies, broken pride. Seeing Kiba and the others walking through with their heads held high probably set them off more than anything else.
I also loved just how offended Kiba and the others were. Tsume especially was pissed. For all their jokes and jabs, all the shit they give each other, they are still wolves in each others eyes. Even Toboe, who literally lived as an old woman’s dog. After last weeks episodes, he respects them in a way. But this? Working under the lash pulling a sled up a hill, eating scraps? This insults what pride he still had as a wolf. Sure, he worked with humans to survive, hunting and attacking trains. But as he said, they never used him. While never as prideful as Kiba, it was never as broken as Zali and the others. It does a great job of establishing just how different our leads are from the rest of their kind, and how important the concept of Paradise is to a Wolf.
Moving on, we come to episode 6, “The Successors”. This one was all about challenging the older generation, pushing past their failures and forging a way for the next generation. A pretty standard, though well presented, generational conflict. And overall? Unsurprisingly, I liked it. Wolf’s Rain did a solid job of making it clear to us that this wasn’t pure malevolence on the older wolves side, nor was it shared among them. It managed to communicate how it was more about them not having to face their own failures, their own choices, and rejecting the kids while doing so. Wolf’s Rain even managed to bring Zali over, making him the bridge between the two groups and turning him from a jaded twat into a sympathetic character. All in all, good stuff.
Getting into specifics with, I quite liked Zali’s focus on friendship and loyalty. Everything he’s done, including driving our leads out and shoring up his pack, was meant to protect them. To protect everyone. To keep them from going down the same road he did and losing those closest to them while also not letting our leads stir up any emotions in the town. I said it above, but Zali isn’t a bad guy. He thought he was legitimately helping people, doing his best to survive day to day. It was only at the end that he realized, or more accurately was told, that he wasn’t doing that at all. Instead through his actions he was basically keeping them all down, preventing them from dreaming themselves. While his intentions were good, you need only look at the state of the town to see the results of his actions.
Going back to our leads, this was another really good episode for Tsume. In fact it’s starting to feel like he’s the lead character rather then Kiba, which would make sense as the series started on him. This episode sees him start to take up a “2nd in Command” sort of role while Kiba is down. Ordering everyone around, coordinating efforts to get food, guarding Kiba, sticking up for him, even literally carrying him on his back through town as they charge to save Hige. These aren’t actions Tsume would have taken back in episode 1, even if he had someone worth taking them for. It feels like he’s really growing. But rather then telling us, Wolf’s Rain is showing us. And I appreciate that. I like watching him open up bit by bit, like the true Leather Daddy Tsundere he is.
Meanwhile Kiba also saw a bit of growth this week. Like Tsume, he’s clearly starting to feel more comfortable with this pack. Small moments like smiling at them, defending them to the old timers even when they aren’t around. He seems to be connecting with Tsume especially, as its when they are alone that Kiba finally opens up for the first time. Talking about his past, of a fire that burned down his territory and killed his pack, leaving him the only survive. That survivors guilt is probably why he feels the need to be so wolflike, why he has so much pride. He’s the last survivor of his people, of his pack. Kiba can’t bend that for anyone. And I think Tsume understands that in a way.
One last thing worth mentioning though, and I don’t know if this has any meaning beyond simply identifying characters, but why is Kiba the only one without some kind of jewelry? Tsume has his earrings, Toboe the bracelet, and Hige has a literal collar. Meanwhile Kiba is a pure white wolf without a single ornament on him. Is this meant to represent how close each of them is towards being a “real” wolf? Perhaps their level of attachment to the human world? Or am I just massively overthinking simple character design quirks meant to help us identify who they are at a glance in their wolf forms? Let me know down below, because I’m really curious if these actually mean anything.
With that though we come to the end of this weeks post. Wolf’s Rain is holding strong so far, it definitely has more going for it than our last show Michiko & Hatchin. It feels like our leads have made more progress on their individual journeys than Michiko did in all 22 episodes. That’s nice! It makes me feel like I’m going to actually get 26 episodes of content out of a 26 episode show. Whether or not that content remains strong for the rest of our run is up in the air, but so far at least I’ve enjoyed it. My only qualm I would say is that I’m not sure where exactly it’s going. Are we going to save Cheza and take down the Nobles? Or is this more of a “Rescue and leave” sort of story? Only time will tell on those, but I’m hopeful they’ll be good.
Re: wolf bling, actually one of them is going to be plot important later on so I’d rather not go into detail, but as to why all of them have some but not Kiba, I think it’s simply to emphasize how he has no attachment to humans/human society, I guess? Hige, the one who has managed to integrate the most into human society has a collar, friend of humanity Tooboe has a bracelet, Tsume who has lived alongside humans has illusionary bling (unlike the collar and the bracelets the ear pieces are not real), and Kiba has nothing.
As to how many wolves there are, actually the only ones saying that wolves are extinct are the humans – as we’ve seen, the wolves have been around all along, but they’re hiding among humans, pretending to be humans themselves. In one of the first episodes the hunter mentions that according to the now little-known creation myth humans were originally wolves who lost their original forms.
And as for not knowing where the story is going – well, isn’t that a good thing? 😀 I mean, this is a 26 episode series (not counting the four recap episodes), and there’s quite a few twists and turns in the plot.
For the wolves, definitely. I more find it interesting that its being proven wrong as we go and that, in a lot of ways, there are very few wolves. At least real ones, like Kiba or Tsume, who actually have some pride.
As for the story length, yeah, this wasn’t meant as a criticism, more just an update on where I am at in the moment in my understanding. Like I, and you, said, I feel like we are actually going to get 26 episodes of content out of Wolf’s Rain, and thats a good thing.
I’d agree with barano that Kiba lacking the jewelry/collar/etc that the others have is a representation of him being the one who has the least connection to and the most resistance against human society.
The show’s music truly is amazing, enough so that I think its in the conversation as to if it is the best Yoko Kanno score. Stray, Gravity, Strangers, Heaven’s Not Enough, Cloud 9, the list goes on and on for amazing vocal tracks. And Go to Paradise is my pick for best Yoko Kanno song without vocals from anything she’s done. the moment it plays in the show (a very long time from now) is among the most emotional scenes I have ever seen in anime.