Wolf’s Rain is a series brought to us by the renowned studio BONES. BONES is my second favorite anime studio (after the holy Ghibli, of course), because they have a perfect track record so far. They are the ones responsible for gems such as Scrapped Princess, RahXephon, and, more recently, Fullmetal Alchemist. Wolf’s Rain is an amazing series and only reinforced my respect for this studio.

First of all, the plot is original, innovative, and a breath of fresh air from all the other series, good and bad, that recycle already used storylines. The story starts out strong and never weakens until the climax. Although a series based completely on wolves looking for paradise may sound odd, it is pulled off so expertly that even the most picky watchers overlook the fact that how wolves appear as humans to other humans is never explained.

Backing up the excellent ideas that BONES has come up with is a very well developed cast of characters. At an indistinct point during the time that I watched this series, I realized that it was the characters and not the plot that I enjoyed most about Wolf’s Rain. This is not surprising when one considers that many of BONES’s members were involved in the creation of Cowboy Bebop, another strongly character-based series.

The animation is superb, but no less can be expected from BONES. The fight scenes were fluid and especially well animated. The bleak landscape is painted beautifully through detailed backgrounds. The character designs are great as well, and emotions are portrayed clearly.

The music is by the one and only Yoko Kanno. If you do not know who she is, you should be very ashamed. This is my favorite of all her works. Maaya Sakamoto, Gabriel Robin, Steve Conte, and other Yoko Kanno favorites appear repeatedly throughout tracks in the series. The opening and ending are nothing short of amazing. The background music is stunning and is a great listen outside of the series as well.

Alright, now that I’ve rambled about the ups of this series enough, it’s time to get down to the dirty business. The worst aspect of the series is undoubtedly the four recap episodes stuffed into the middle of the series. Yes, you heard me - FOUR. Not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR. I cannot stress enough how horrid this is. The recap episodes do not provide any character development or new insight, and are not even presented with the humor that makes recap episodes in other series bearable. Fortunately, no one is stopping watchers of this series from skipping these episodes, but when you’re watching this series weekly as it comes out, a month of recaps is not pretty. Please, if you ever watch this series, then PLEASE skip the recaps.

Another low point is that the ending of the 26th episode provides no closure. Luckily, BONES decided to create a four-episode OVA that DOES conclude the story. So before you tear out your hair in anger at another awful ending to a great series, make sure you check out the four final episodes.

To sum up: Wolf’s Rain is a spectacular BONES series in every aspect, be it characters, plot, animation, or music. Warnings: Do NOT watch the four recap episodes (15-18) and make sure you do not stop watching at the end of episode 26.

I’m going to be unprofessional here—not that Jellyfish Anime Reviews has ever even entertained a semblance of professionalism—and state that I’m in full agreement with the fine review written by my fellow reviewer Homunculus Gluttony. Wolf’s Rain is an original and spectacular anime series created by Studio BONES, and I was indeed very pleased while watching it. The animation is top-notch, the sound is absolutely amazing (although the opening song got on my nerves after the first episode), and the story is unexpectedly fantastic. There are some grievances, however, that I feel my fellow reviewer may have neglected to mention in his review, and those will be the basis of this review.

First, an anime series—nay, any series, movie, or book from anywhere—is only as good as the characters contained and portrayed therein. Even then, characters are no good all alone. The mark of a good anime series is the quality and believability of its characters and the relationships and bonds that those very characters hold with each other. Characters and relationships alike must be developed steadily in a way that the audience can relate and sympathize with. Regrettably, Wolf’s Rain fails in many regards to establish characters with which we can sympathize. The characters are hollow and inhuman, and the bonds that they make with each other are written almost mockingly bad.

Kiba is perhaps the biggest victim of BONES’ inability to design an interesting character. Although the main character of the series, his thoughts are distant and indecipherable, and the few times that he has something important to say, all he does is speak platitudes and otherwise what must be the corniest dialogue ever written. It’s as if all of the writers pretended to be philosophers and crammed everything they could into every one of Kiba’s lines. Even more mysterious is the nature of his relationship with the woman Cheza, whom he clearly shows affection to, but the nature of the affection fails to become clear to us. His mission for nearly the entire series is her protection, but it’s never really understood why he feels so strongly for her, or even if he does. His feelings about the world and his companions are kept secret throughout the series, and the reasons for his actions are so hidden that it’s impossible to really understand why he acts the way he does. These problems may be sufficient if Kiba was just some secondary character, but he’s the main character, and he’s a bad one at that.

The rest of the characters in the series are also victims of terrible dialogue. Hubb and Hige lay it on thick to attract two of the female characters, and engage in attempts of wooing that are corny and sudden, and somehow manage to win over their hearts without any real effort. The writing treats the relationships as if deep love truly blossoms between them, but does not actually write any of that blossoming into the story. Instead, the relationships are utterly ignored until their bonds are truly tested, at which time it’s revealed that their love is deeper than could ever be imagined. Yes, BONES simply expects the viewer to see these characters together, and we are forced to do the work and imagine a bond that is never sufficiently written, just so the writers can elicit a few cheap tears at the end when things go to shit.

Another grievance of mine is the four recap episodes, which were covered by my fellow reviewer, but which I believe were not explained quite enough. The problem with the recap episodes is not that they don’t include character development or story progression—that’s the very nature of recap episodes, and this fact cannot be avoided. Rather, the problem is their placement in the series. The episodes occur not at an interval in the action, where all of the characters are given a chance to rest and reflect, but rather knee-deep in the action. The episodes leading up to them were among the most suspenseful in the entire series, and ended off on an unforgettable cliffhanger. Although I viewed the DVD versions of the episodes (so I was able to skip through them), I cannot even begin to imagine what the people keeping up with the series as it aired must have felt when they were treated to the recaps. The action finally picks up again at the tail end of the last recap episode, but by this time all of the suspense of the previous episodes has been lost.

The last problem that I have with Wolf’s Rain, and this perhaps bothers me more than anything else, is how the wolves shift between their human and wolf forms. The animators decided to use the wolf forms for nearly any scene involving action, and human forms for the dramatic scenes. What we’re left with is a complete mess, in which scenes that are both action-packed and dramatic exhibit the most confusing directing of all time. A character will be shown as a wolf, and then it will concentrate on another character for a split second before returning to the first, and what do you know? He’s back to being a human. The most unbelievable shifts occur when one wolf is carrying another character on its back. Things will get dramatic and suddenly the wolf, now a human, is carrying the other character in its arms. When was the transformation made, and when did the person being carried magically reappear in the arms? It’s as if whoever directed these scenes just couldn’t make up their mind on which form to show, and just used a mishmash of everything.

I wish I could go more in depth into the characters and the dialogue than I have, but unfortunately that would require me to tread heavily into the dreaded spoiler zone. Nevertheless, despite the rather regrettable shortcomings of Wolf’s Rain, it’s still definitely a quality anime series, and I would recommend that anyone looking for an interesting story. Although the characters are largely one-dimensional and uninteresting, the anime is still very much enjoyable to watch, if not solely for the quality of the music and animation.