Wolf's Rain

Spoilers*This article is about a specific form of media, such as a movie or a video game. Therefore it may contain heavy spoilers so as to best discuss it. You have been warned!**Wolf's Rain is a franchise based on animated TV series from Japan. There is also a manga based off the anime. It has aired in other countries, including the United States. When it aired on [adult swim] in America it influenced many older children and teenagers to develop an obsession with wolves. While today it is no longer considered a popular anime, the obsession continues, and has grown to the extent that wolves are now an important part of American culture. This has also boosted wolf conservation efforts as well as misunderstandings of real wolves, such as the (ironic for the show) belief that outside of hunting and defense; wolves are non-violent and all-loving. Because of this show wolves are much more common in media and less likely to be portrayed in villainous roles. Wolf's Rain can be said to have completely changed American culture, despite being considered forgettable in modern times.*

Wolf's Rain was adored for its music by Yoko Kanno and its English dub was considered one of the best there was during the time it aired and for some years after its initial airing. The manga adaptation was not considered to be good, with shoddy artwork (that is, controversial wolf designs, but I liked them in their own way) and a diverging storyline from the original.

## Plot - Anime

The basis for this story lies in the story's mythological tale being brought to life, unbeknownst to the protagonists. This tale is about a white wolf and other wolves who rescue or are led by a flower maiden to secure a place known as Paradise. It is said that she must open the way to it. The tale itself is never fully read, only spoken of in snippets by human characters and its illustrations are seen in bits of shots of the book. The story is called The Book Of The Moon.

In this world many animals have supposedly gone extinct according to humans, including wolves. However, this isn't true for all animals, as wolves have learned some psychic abilities, such as the ability to produce a human glamour-- a guise. which they can turn on when they are awake. This allows humans to see them as human as well. This form cannot shift into other forms, each individual wolf has their own human guise. This form reflects their personality, age, sex, and their actual wolf appearance to some extent. Wolves speak, apparently using telepathy, but as the humans don't notice it as telepathy so perhaps the magic makes it hearable, or perhaps it is an outside sound in its own right. Supposedly their shadows and presumably reflections (and certainly cameras) don't show as human, but the series seems to have a consistent "artist mistake" throughout most of its episodes, giving them human shadows and occasional movements of objects that are difficult to interpret as a wolf handling it. Thus it is a common, understandable misconception amongst fans that they are just plain werewolves with the ability to instantly transform. Wolves do not live normal human lives, going to school and getting jobs. Rather they find their own place within it, oftentimes sleeping outside, using their guise to fool crowds and occasionally find niches that work well enough with humans to get food.

Kiba is a white wolf in this apocalyptic world. He is determined to find a place called Paradise to live the rest of his life in. His reasoning is simply that something inside of him calls to him to do so. It is an obsession that he is compelled to find, rather than any other reason. Paradise is said to be filled with rare flowers called Lunar Flowers. It is supposedly a place where wolves can be themselves and roam freely, without need of dealing with humans and being hidden in their disguise.

His search leads for paradise leads him into a city that smells like lunar flowers. By orders of the noble ruling the city, a study of scientists have locked away a flower-homunculus known as Cheza, the Flower Maiden. She has been asleep for a long time, perhaps years. Due to her creation making her part lunar flower, her scent smells similar to them, if not exactly like them. Kiba doesn't know where she is or even to look for her at first, only to find the source of smell. Other wolves too have been drawn into the city due to the smell. Not out of any cause to find Paradise, but because their wolf instincts draw them to be near lunar flowers. They don't even know what the pleasant smell is.

Throughout the episodes, Kiba learns of her and quickly grows a small pack of wolves that had also been in the city: Hige, Tsume, and Toboe. Less popular amongst the romance OC fanfiction, they also eventually adopt Blue, wolf-dog hybrid. The pack variously keep Cheza and lose her to nobles Darcia and Jaguara. The former is a noble who searches for the wolves' paradise for himself and his beloved Hamona, who is in a coma. The latter is her surviving twin sister who longs to live in Paradise with him, but they are not together.

...

come together to chase after the flower maiden, who will lead them to paradise. Along the way they gather new friends, Cheza, a homunculus made from Lunar Flowers; Blue, a wolf-dog hybrid; and other characters come together to join them on their quest. The place called Paradise is a (debatedly fictional) wild environment filled with lunar flowers where wolves can drop their near-constant (while awake) human illusion; giving them peace of mind, food, and a wonderful home.

Wolf's Rain is based heavily on mythology, especially that of Ainu and the rest of Japan. Certain elements of the show have been misunderstood because of this. For example, fans speculated that each of the wolves of the main cast represented a different subspecies: Kiba for Arctic wolves, Tsume your typical gray wolf, Hige a Mexican wolf, and Toboe a red wolf. However, this image of two stuffed Hokkaido wolves look exactly like Hige and Toboe. Thus the strange colors weren't developed from southern subspecies of wolves nor because they lived in tan cities, but because Hokkaido wolves pigments had changed over time and become these colors (or were originally in a pattern exclusive to Japanese wolves).

However, other sources of mythology is referenced. From our own Western mythology Little Red Riding Hood is referenced with Cheza and her pink hood as well as the old Hanabito that the wolves disliked despite being made of lunar flowers. Additionally the concept of werewolves takes part heavily as the wolves are depicted as human and sometimes mistakenly called werewolves by fans. It's a little iffy because the first couple of episodes and dozens of others made it a point to suggest that they were glamour and not immediate physical shifts, but it wasn't evenly done throughout the series. For example an early episode intentionally showing their shadows as wolves, but throughout the series they have human looking shadows. Thus they subvert the werewolf trope, instead being actual wolves who instinctively know glamour and telepathy.

The wolf on top of the building in the opening song could be a reference to Lithuanian mythology, in which their capitol city was created based on a man's dream of a giant wolf made of iron howling like a thousand wolves upon a mountain top.

There are other elements of Wolf's Rain drawing from other cultures and places. The letters used are Cyrillic, suggesting that the wolves are living in Russia, at least in the beginning. Speaking to Native Americans in the same language suggests that Russians may have taken over North America, if those tribes are met on real soil. Some of the plants are noticeable: Lunar flowers seem to be Queen Of The Nights (*Epiphyllum oxypetalum*), animals have been paralyzed to dehydration by a Welwitschia for years, however it is neither poisonous (and is in fact an indigenous food source) nor is it in its proper space (west Africa). The fake paradise it covers looks like an American pre-colonized dream, and the fake lunar flowers there are Colorado Blue Columbines (*Aquilegia coerulea*), their State plant. They also produce some of the same toxins as wolfsbane.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/The\_Lost\_Wolves\_of\_Japan/NBUTCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Horkew%20Kamuy&pg=PA83&printsec=frontcover
2. ↑ https://visitworldheritage.com/en/eu/the-legend-of-the-iron-wolf/bd33a448-3656-469b-8e04-7fec936a38f5