Wolf's Rain
I remember being 11 and hearing about this anime everywhere. A lot of older anime fans praised Wolf's Rain and always included it in their favourites list, but then suddenly it fell out of public consciousness and I'd only see it mentioned here or there. Since I am kind of on a 2003 classics streak (no really, I wasn't planning on it but both Texhnolyze and Last Exile are from 2003) I can only assume, as faith would have it, that I should watch Wolf's Rain, which was in the back of my mind since I first started getting into anime.
Funny thing is my idea of what this anime is was completely different from reality. I didn't expect it to be in a modern/futuristic setting so that threw me off guard. I don't know why that is relevant to the review but it is lmao. Another funny thing - this is the first ever anime that I watched that had 4 consecutive recap episodes in A ROW. I can only wonder about what happened during production, but those 4 recap episodes actually cucked the series out of a proper ending, and they came out as an OVA a year later. As such, I'll be talking about the series+OVA as a singular piece because I can only assume that's how it was actually meant to be.
As I said, my expectations were completely different from reality, and I expected a kind of... spiritual, more mature series, but this anime wasn't really that. It's an adventure anime about 4 dude wolves that can turn into humans, and they're searching for "paradise" as that is kind of in their nature. They travel to all sorts of places that are kind of referenced in real life cultures and we slowly find out more about the relationship between humans, wolves and paradise but for some reason I never felt fully into it. I must say this was the first time in anime I ever encountered a young divorced couple, who slowly get back together as the show goes. A lot of firsts in this anime, huh. The story takes a wild turn in the ending though.
Ending spoilers if you click on this.
So in the ending, that is, the OVA, suddenly everyone dies except for the one MC. I have to say I was really disappointed with most of the deaths, even though this has kind of been "prophesized" in the story, that only one wolf will reach paradise or whatever... However, I did like the ending overall. I enjoyed the message, the implication of a loop, and the possible implication that the last loop, or reincarnation, is the final one and will actually bring salvation/liberation. It's a big vedic/hinduist samsara/moksha interpretation which I found enjoyable, I just wish this idea was stronger throughout the anime itself, rather than just in the ending.
The ending packed a big punch and I enjoyed it's message and the vedic/hindu influence it carried, but as I said in the spoiler, I wish this idea was stronger in the rest of the show. A lot of things felt random, or as if they didn't serve much of a purpose for this story or it's final message. I don't know, maybe my attention wasn't the strongest when watching this show. I have to admit I was playing a dressup minigame for a few episodes so maybe I missed a few important points lmao. When I'm stressed out irl, I tend to divide my attention too much... I'm also writing this almost a month after watching so as per usual the details are murky. Lastly, I think the anime lacked character development of the main cast. Side characters get great treatment though and I found myself liking them a lot, but I wish could've found out more about the main four. They do get some development, but idk, it didn't feel like enough!
