Wolf's Rain...

[Nialin]

It occured to me that Wolf's Rain is quite new to the US. I had recently started watching it on Cartoon Network, and I was intrigued. However, it slowly began to drift, kinda like Witch Hunter Robin.

I do have a question for the more well informed of you, the wolves in Wolf's Rain; do they have the ability to transform or shapeshift werewolf style, or is it something else? A friend and I had a debate on it, and neither of us can really come to a solid conclusion.

[Nokari]

It's all an illusion. It's kinda like Vampires. You know the thing about them not having reflections in mirrors? Well it's sorta like that. Even when in human form, they still have wolf shadows. When they bite something, they're really biting them with their wolf teeth. There are simply moments when they don't cast their illusion and can be seen in their true form.
To be more precise, it's like they can produce a pheremone, aimed at humans, which affects the visual perception of their brains to give the illusion that the wolves are human. Does this all make sense?

[Nialin]

To be quite honest, I understand everything you said. It's like a badass version of camoflage. That's basiclly what I thought was going on, but I couldn't be for sure since I haven't seen much, and what I have seen doesn't say anything about their "abilities."

Thanks.

[ry_goody]

Wolf's Rain was really good.
Does anyone else know other series like Wolf's Rain? Really abstract and somewhat classy.

[Black_Knight]

In my opinion, Wolf's Rain, like Witch Hunter Robin, is overrated. I've seen the ending and to say the least, it was very abstract. Don't get me wrong, the animation is good, the execution is intreging. But the story just doesn't click even though it is orignal. At least it wasn't as predictable as Witch Hunter Robin

[Maccy99]

I agree with Black Knight completely. I found Wolf's Rain quite boring, stopped around episode thirty. The characters were all so simple and they lacked any vigor. And the fights were so frustrating, when usually that can be a saving grace in an anime with good animation. Look! Some wolves are fighting! hmmmm...How am I supposed to sympathize with that? And the story drags to say the least. But it's respectably original and it certainly attempts to be great. I just don't think it succeeds at all. Of course it has its fans, and I'd agree with them if they said there's nothing else quite like it no matter how much you look.

[dheu]

I found Wolf's Rain quite boring, stopped around episode thirty.
Episode thirty would be... the last episode.

I've only seen around twenty episodes or so, but I've enjoyed what I've seen while admitting it does wander quite a bit. But the story is original enough that I'm still interested, and not even bad reviews of the ending is enough to frighten me away. I'll stick this one out to the end. There are still some questions I want to see answered.

[Nagha's revenge]

I guess the main appeal to Wolf's rain would be the reason why the wolves join up. It's about a bunch of people who gave up on life and find something worth fighting for. The romantic notion of a secret world people don't know of, the (re)creation of this world by wolves, the mix between science and mythology.

The difference between WR and Witch hunter Robin is that WR doesn't fuss over simple ideas or plot elements and just states them.

The ending in Wolf's rain is strange and sad, but satisfying. Probably because the plot revolved around people and how they perceived the world they live in.

So basically it comes down to this: if you can empathise with the characters in Wolf's Rain, watch it through. You'll enjoy it.

*edit* Before I forget Woofnick totally rules for speaking everyones mind: "friends don't let friends watch AJ" ,or something like that. Heh.

[Xizzy44]

I do not think that the idea of transformation/illusion (wolves looking like humans) was well thought out in these series.
Wolf shadows and paw prints suggest a hologram-like illusion, but these illusionary human bodies seem to be fully functional. They can manipulate objects with their hands as well as normal humans (some scenes suggest otherwise, but yet other scene seem to contradict them). Wolves' human clothing also seems to be fully functional: they can hold objects in their pockets, and carry weapons, which disappear without a trace when they transform into an un-concealed wolf, and reappear again when they take on human looks.
To sum up, I don’t think that a cohesive theory is even possible on this one.

[Edit: Corrected some grammatical errors]

[iwakura]

I agree, it's a bit silly at times. The flip flop from human to wolf seems totally contrived. At least with a traditional werewolf the transition makes some sense.

Also, the plot seems to have some holes. I haven't seen enough of the episodes to make a firm conclusion on that yet though.

[dheu]

I think basically when we see the human shape, it's just the illusion that the wolves are projecting. When we see them manipulating objects with their hands, they are manipulating the objects, only with their mouths and teeth or paws.

If this is all an illusion, then they can make you perceive whatever would be most acceptable. Putting things into their "pockets" - maybe they're only carrying them in their mouths, but the illusion they present to the humans around them is what the humans would expect to see - placing objects into convenient pockets. There's no transformation, per se, it's all just an illusion designed to make the humans accept the wolves as "normal."

[Xizzy44]

How do they speak and manipulate an object at the same time? They surely don't sound like they have their mouth full when they hold something. For example, in the deer-eating scene at the beginning, Toboe was talking to Kiba while holding a peace of meat in hand, and then proceeded to put the meat into his mouth. Sure, he might have done with his front paws, while sitting only on his haunches (think squarrel), but why bother pulling such a stunt when there weren't any human around to full... Maybe he was just practicing for later :)
Also, I think I've seem them doing things with both hands at once, with object of manipulation not being close together. A wolf only has one mouth the last time I checked.
In addition, remember that kanine fingers cannot close together, so they cannot really pick up and manipulate things with their paws. Kanine claws are not hook shaped and always face outwards, so they cannot gaff things like cats do either.
Well, you get the idea here. A simple visual illusion simply cannot explain everything we see the wolfs do when they pretend to be humans.

[dheu]

Well, think about when they were in wolf form. Their mouths didn't move when they spoke, which leads me to think that they speak telepathically or through some similar method rather than vocally.

As for them doing two different things at once... I don't really have a clue there. Of course wolves wouldn't be able to pick up things with their paws, but they can bat them around, and there's plenty you can do just by batting something.

why bother pulling such a stunt when there weren't any human around to full... Maybe he was just practicing for later
Well, I'm pretty sure the animators did that there because we as the audience would relate more to humans sitting around talking than wolves. We'd understand the facial expressions better, and the body language. The human illusion isn't just so that the human characters in the show will be fooled, but also so that we viewers can relate to the wolves more than we would if there were just some dogs sitting around with blank faces.

[Nagha's revenge]

So anyway I'll put my two cents in though I thought this stuff went without saying. Blargh.

Anyway the human form of the wolfs is an illusion, but do you really think wolves speak human among themselves? They don't even have the voices for it. So perhaps them talking is an illusion as well, or - like Dheu said - telepathy. Note that when animals talk they don't always use their voices, they use bodylanguage, scent, etc. So when Toboe offered Kiba the meat think one wolf with meat in mouth, bringing in to the other wolf either heading into each other or whining. In manspeak that would mean "this is for you, please eat". Why it's animated differently is because we don't whine like dogs, or carry meat in our mouths, or bark, or howl. There's just a translation being made from wolf to manspeak and vice versa.
When you open a bottle you probably have one hand around the bottle to keep it in place and the other twisting the top. A wolf would need to do the same thing except a wolf has no digits so it'd probably have to lodge the bottle between it's front paws while twisting with it's mouth.
When Tsume used a knife he was actually using his teeth, so he didn't have anything in his mouth or in his paws, when he put away his knife it's safe to assume he didn't take out his teeth and pocket them in his fur. We don't go around cutting people up with our teeth, we use knives. Also note that the wolves don't use guns.
Basically when you pocket something you keep it with you, a wolf can carry something in it's mouth and drop it for a while to pick up something else and then pick the previous object up again. It's rather dumb if a person did this with a pocketed item.
Think about how the wolves slept around the flower, their human positions weren't exactly like their wolf positions. Perhaps because human sleept/relax differently from wolves, we do have a wider range of motion.
I'm not saying this will clear up everything in the series, but it should satisfy the nitpickers untill they finally think about it some more.

[iwakura]

When we see them manipulating objects with their hands, they are manipulating the objects, only with their mouths and teeth or paws.

Yes, that's the reach. Primates are very good at manipulating things in their hands, because they have, ummmm, hands. Paws just aren't very good at that sort of thing. It must involve magic where they have invisible fingers that extend their paws -- and that means it is totally contrived....

As for batting things around, that might be even more contrived than my magic "explanation" :lol:

[dheu]

I'm not suggesting they're using their paws like primates. When I had a dog, he couldn't pick up things, but he was dexterous enough with his paws at drawing things towards him so that he could pick them up.

Basically, as Nagha's revenge mentioned, the point is that it is an illusion. Things don't have to translate directly from the human body to the wolf body because the wolf is making the humans perceive what it would be expected in the situation.

I don't really think that it is as contrived as you're making it out to be.

[iwakura]

It's not a very realistic anime. The in depth conversation with the horse in last week's episode gave me a good laugh.

It's a cute take on werewolfs. But not very deep.

[ClickOnMySoul]

I agree with Black Knight completely. I found Wolf's Rain quite boring, stopped around episode thirty. The characters were all so simple and they lacked any vigor. And the fights were so frustrating, when usually that can be a saving grace in an anime with good animation. Look! Some wolves are fighting! hmmmm...How am I supposed to sympathize with that? And the story drags to say the least. But it's respectably original and it certainly attempts to be great. I just don't think it succeeds at all. Of course it has its fans, and I'd agree with them if they said there's nothing else quite like it no matter how much you look.

The story does drag somewhat but I have to disagree. Its aim seems to be to relate to mankind. I mean, everybody is searching for their idea of paradise, right? Sure, it seems somewhat twisted at times (amongst other things) but these are not things to dwell over. It's obvious that it's all about the story; the journey to find their personal paradise. That is what you're meant to sympathize with.

[Animeniac1]

I agree with Black Knight completely. I found Wolf's Rain quite boring, stopped around episode thirty. The characters were all so simple and they lacked any vigor. And the fights were so frustrating, when usually that can be a saving grace in an anime with good animation. Look! Some wolves are fighting! hmmmm...How am I supposed to sympathize with that? And the story drags to say the least. But it's respectably original and it certainly attempts to be great. I just don't think it succeeds at all. Of course it has its fans, and I'd agree with them if they said there's nothing else quite like it no matter how much you look.


I didn't feel that it dragged in the least. The prospect of the wolves reaching Paradise was intriguing enough, and for some reason I enjoy enduring slow paced plots. I don't know if it's my love for cinematography and atmosphere or what, but I thought that the show got better and better as it went on.

[Ez2beat4u]

So anyway I'll put my two cents in though I thought this stuff went without saying. Blargh.

Anyway the human form of the wolfs is an illusion, but do you really think wolves speak human among themselves? They don't even have the voices for it. So perhaps them talking is an illusion as well, or - like Dheu said - telepathy. Note that when animals talk they don't always use their voices, they use bodylanguage, scent, etc. So when Toboe offered Kiba the meat think one wolf with meat in mouth, bringing in to the other wolf either heading into each other or whining. In manspeak that would mean "this is for you, please eat". Why it's animated differently is because we don't whine like dogs, or carry meat in our mouths, or bark, or howl. There's just a translation being made from wolf to manspeak and vice versa.
When you open a bottle you probably have one hand around the bottle to keep it in place and the other twisting the top. A wolf would need to do the same thing except a wolf has no digits so it'd probably have to lodge the bottle between it's front paws while twisting with it's mouth.
When Tsume used a knife he was actually using his teeth, so he didn't have anything in his mouth or in his paws, when he put away his knife it's safe to assume he didn't take out his teeth and pocket them in his fur. We don't go around cutting people up with our teeth, we use knives. Also note that the wolves don't use guns.
Basically when you pocket something you keep it with you, a wolf can carry something in it's mouth and drop it for a while to pick up something else and then pick the previous object up again. It's rather dumb if a person did this with a pocketed item.
Think about how the wolves slept around the flower, their human positions weren't exactly like their wolf positions. Perhaps because human sleept/relax differently from wolves, we do have a wider range of motion.
I'm not saying this will clear up everything in the series, but it should satisfy the nitpickers untill they finally think about it some more.
WOW u r a typer LOL well I think wolf's rain is the next best thing to chobits!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[SamIam]

Yes, that's the reach. Primates are very good at manipulating things in their hands, because they have, ummmm, hands. Paws just aren't very good at that sort of thing. It must involve magic where they have invisible fingers that extend their paws -- and that means it is totally contrived....

As for batting things around, that might be even more contrived than my magic "explanation" :lol:

Well if one stretches to accept the notion of illusion, I suppose telekenisis is not to unreasonable as a possible explanation.