12/20/25 - Wolfs Rain Review

Hello!! 

Once again time for some reviewing (as usual so very late..)


Wolfs rain:

Wolfs rain is a 2003 anime directed by none other than Keiko Nobumoto, who is known her other work such as cowboy Beebop, Akira, and Space dandy (need I go on?). Based off her previous work, I had pretty fucking high expectations going in! 

The show itself is about a dying earth in the far future, with only pockets of humanity left, usually living in large cities ruled by "the royals" a mysterious class of people who seem to be somewhat otherworldly. In these cities hide the remnants of wolves, who have been presumed extinct for almost 200 years, but have actually been living among the Populus disguised as people. 5 of these wolves are drawn together by the cry of a figure known as "the flower maiden" and set of to find paradise.

The characterization is, as usual for Ms. Nobumoto, exceptionally well done, which is one of my favorite things about her work across the board. Each character feels distinct and specific, with independent goals alongside the goal of getting to paradise. This good characterization is especially important because the show is primarily about the small and large interactions of the characters and the world around them. 

Speaking of the world around them, Keiko has a magical ability to produce a very living world without explaining too much about it. A lot of work is done by the landscape artists to ensure that things feel real and inhabited (except when they want it to feel desolate.). One of my favorite parts of the show is seeing the different cities in wolfs rain and inherently understanding their differences without having to be fed information about them, the original city feeling dirty and poverty stricken, while jaguras city feels clean and hypnotic, but also cold and foreboding. The world at large falls apart as the show progresses, slowly becoming a snowy wasteland, its genuinely quite beautiful all around. 

While a lot of care is put into the quiet moments, there is quite a bit of action as well, which is also very well done, the action scenes do get a little repetitive, and they reuse some shots (one of them enough times to make me giggle) but the suspense is there, ESPECIALLY whenever Darcia is involved.



The ending is one that will be familiar to anyone who has watched Ms. Nobumoto's work in the past: tragic, poignant, and poetic. The ending left me feeling distraught, but also hopeful for the future, which I think was the intent.

While for me this show was not as memorable as something like cowboy beebop, I think that I personally found it very engaging. Its a show that made me think a lot about why we fight and why we move forward, and is drive enough to entertain our goals without a broader reason. I would really recommend this one to be honest, I think if nothing else the art style is very popular at the moment, and you'll get a lot out of it from that alone :)