Wolf's Rain

In a dying world, there exists an ancient legend: when the world ends, the gateway to paradise will be opened. This utopia is the sole salvation for the remnants of life in this barren land, but the legend also dictates that only wolves can find their way to this mythical realm. Though long thought to be extinct, wolves still exist and live amongst humans, disguising themselves through elaborate illusions.

A lone wolf named Kiba finds himself drawn by an intoxicating scent to Freeze City, an impoverished town under the rule of the callous Lord Orkham. Here, Kiba discovers that wolves Hige, Tsume, and Toboe have been drawn in by the same aroma. By following the fragrance of "Lunar Flowers," said to be the key to opening the door to their ideal world, the wolves set off on a journey across desolate landscapes and crumbling cities to find their legendary promised land. However, they are not the only ones seeking paradise, and those with more sinister intentions will do anything in their power to reach it first.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kiba Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Toboe Main

Shimowada, Hiroki Japanese

Tsume Main

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Hige Main

Suyama, Akio Japanese

Cheza Main

Ogasawara, Arisa Japanese

Blue Supporting

Asano, Mayumi Japanese

Lord Darcia the Third Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Lebowski, Hubb Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Yaiden, Quent Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Lady Jaguara Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Minami, Masahiko Producer, Executive Producer

Sasaki, Shirou Producer

Takanashi, Minoru Producer

Haruna, Go Producer

Reviews

Mar 23, 2025

13ad

Recommended

The story of the end of the world. The story of a paradise where only wolves can find their way.

The anime of distant 2003 left an indelible impression on me. Not the most complex concept and not the most twisted plot, but how it all is staged. Every detail works here. The described world is beautiful and scary. I have always loved the themes of the post-apocalypse. Especially the theme of a group of heroes traveling through such a world. Each character has an interesting personality. Perhaps the two main ones are very formulaic in places (Kiba and Cheza). I am pleased with the detailed ... stories of secondary characters, which is not often the case in works.

I often read that the series is drawn out. I did not notice this anywhere. I watched it in one breath.

The drawing, considering the year 2003, is really good. Especially the drawing of the wolves. There are moments when you understand the author's idea and it could have been depicted more colorfully, but the level given is more than satisfactory. The vibe itself is predominantly dark, it reminded me a little of the same moments from Cowboy Bebop.

I would like to say a few words about the music, the composer is Yoko Kanno, and that says it all. It creates something incredible. Such different and unusual melodies surprise and delight. They change the whole atmosphere of the work. You can watch it in advance just for the music.

Many remember that the story has an open ending, which not everyone liked. As a result, later, 4 more episodes appeared that closed the story. And here they are, of course, the pinnacle of anime. It is there that all the cruelty and unscrupulousness is visible.

The work gives a lot of philosophical reflections. Many moments can be perceived in completely different ways. As well as the answer to the main question: "Have the wolves found paradise?"

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 3, 2023

CodSalmon

Mixed Feelings

Wolf's Rain is a gorgeous anime with a great soundtrack that will bring you to tears if you are a dog lover. However, the plot leaves a lot to be desired. I think if you have a particular affinity towards dogs and feel like looking at pretty things and crying, this could be an enjoyable series for you.

If you've watched Cowboy Bebop, you'll recognize a lot of the elements here. The soundtrack in both is done by Yoko Kanno. The character designs are similar to Cowboy Bebop. The English Dub has a lot of the same voice actors. The overall art direction and ambiance of ... the show tends to be on the darker side. This might work towards your nostalgia, but the comparison works against Wolf's Rain as it falls short of Cowboy Bebop in every regard.

The art and animation are great. Character designs are diverse, interesting, and play towards tropes without being unoriginal. The character animations are expressive. The action scenes are well done. Environment art is relatively detailed, though much of the show takes place in a barren tundra where there's not much environment to be had at all and that's the only art complaint I could make against Wolf's Rain.

The soundtrack is well done. I'm not a huge fan of the opening song Stray. I find it corny in both tone and lyrical content. Stray sounds like a throwaway Phil Collins song from the 80s, but it's not unbearable and it's easy enough to skip the opening. Unfortunately, and this made me literally laugh out loud, the OVA that wraps the entire series up ends with that song. It felt really out of place to hear this 80s power ballad kick in with the singer yelling "Stray!" after such an emotional ending. Otherwise, the music is well done.

Unfortunately, that's about where Wolf's Rain's strong points come to a close. The plot, writing and characters are all subpar. The plot takes place in a dystopian future and surrounds an artificially created humanoid being named Cheza. Cheza is the key to opening up Paradise, an assumed Utopia reserved only for Wolves. As the world is coming to an end, Nobles, the human elite ruling class of Wolf's Rain, want to use Cheza to open up Paradise for themselves. If all of that sounds nonsensical, it's because it is. I'm usually willing to forgive an unrealistic and unelaborated premise, but something about the way Wolf's Rain presented and worked with this setup didn't work for me. I think there are some interesting themes here that could have been explored further: Why is the world ending? What is Paradise? Is Paradise something you work towards, or is it a place you arrive? Who deserves to find Paradise? Is Paradise the friends we make along the way?

Our main roster of characters is a couple of wolves (who use illusions to appear as humans) who are trying to find Cheza and open Paradise for the Wolves. There are a few other side characters, a divorced couple and an old man who wants to kill wolves for revenge. All of these characters are fairly one-sided and either don't develop or have some minor predictable development. The brooding loner learns to make friends. The young pup learns to take responsibility and fend for himself. Etcetera. Nothing groundbreaking here.

Since our characters' personalities are a bit dull, and the entire plot centers around getting our characters from point A to point B, either to find Cheza or get Cheza wherever Cheza needs to be to open Paradise, our characters don't really have much to talk about. You will hear the main character Kiba say something about going to Paradise a comical number of times. The interactions between our main characters after the first few episodes become uninteresting, with the show mostly instead focused on moving the plot along. And I think this is where Wolf's Rain really falls apart.

There are some episodes that function as a break from the main plot, and I found these to be amongst the most enjoyable. The first 4 episodes, where everything is still being freshly presented to the viewer, those are quite enjoyable. Episodes 5 and 6 have our main group meet another pack of wolves, and those episodes are quite interesting. Then we meet Cheza and Blue and the show takes a turn towards repetition. We now have to endure 2 arcs where our characters wander the tundra to find Cheza and attempt to free her from her captors only to be taken away again. There is another pair of episodes, 19 and 20, where we get an enjoyable break from the plot and meet some new characters. But most of the show is our main characters going from point A to Point B to find Cheza, and the content of these episodes is largely our main characters talking to each other. And they unfortunately don't have much interesting to say and that's the main downfall of Wolf's Rain in my opinion.

In Summary, Wolf's Rain is a beautiful show with a good soundtrack and some moments that will pull at your heartstrings, but the characters and plot aren't terribly interesting. If you like dogs and feel like having a cry, this might be worth a watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 19, 2017

MurderofCrows13

Not Recommended

I'm actually surprised I got through this whole anime. I knew I hated it halfway through, but I also wanted to finish it to see if it would get any better somehow, or, at the very least, to be able to say I finished it.

Story - 2
I think the story starts off decently well. Initially, I liked the darker tone it seemed to be going for, and I was curious about the supernatural elements, as well as the overall setting the story takes place in. The anime proceeds, past the beginning episodes, to have episodes focused on side characters and random towns that have ... nothing of value - no character development, no real world building. The only thing these episodes might be helping is to contribute to some thematic elements, but honestly, after watching the whole show, I have no idea what those elements would be. When the questions the series opens with are answered, mostly about the nature of wolves and flower maidens, the answers are vague and unsatisfying. I never felt like I had a good grasp on what the point of all the 'paradise' related parts of the story served. Near the end of the story I was confused, because there was no explanation of the world or many of the characters in it. The tone also suffers- not as badly as I've seen in other shows, granted - because the dark, gritty, initial tone is surpassed by a middle-of-the-road standard adventure tone. There is a scene later on (Beginning of episode 22) that is needlessly dark, with no buildup whatsoever.
Overall, I felt like the story in this could have made for an average movie. But they tried to stretch the content of the show over 26 episodes and it just feels so incredibly bland because of that.

Art - 7
The artwork is gorgeous, especially so if you enjoy looking at attractive men. There is an obvious level of care put into the animation, and the character designs are stellar, for the most part. (Some of Darcia's outfits were just silly looking.) I only wish there were more scenes that didn't take place in such bland looking towns.

Sound - 8
The music is fantastic. The background music always felt very appropriate for each scene, and, if I were as emotionally invested in the characters as I usually am, it probably would have added to my enjoyment significantly. I really liked the song for the OP, and I loved all the songs with lyrics that played during the show.
The voice acting is alright. I switched from the Japanese audio to the dub about twenty episodes in, because I was bored of watching the show and needed to look at something else while I was listening to it. Anyways, the Japanese voice acting is good. The English dub is passable. It's nothing to write home about, but it isn't an abomination to the ears like some dubs.

Characters - 1
This is by far my least favorite part of the show. The characters are bland and one-dimensional. They have no goals save going to 'paradise'. I would actually be into this, if they were shown to be so at odds with the world around them that the only thing they had was chasing after some myth. But we know so little about the characters themselves. We only get tiny details of the main four's backstories, and what we do get doesn't really justify their motivations. The show does repeatedly say that 'the wolves are drawn to paradise', but I refuse to accept that. It's just lazy character writing.
Anyways, the characters can essentially be summarized in a few words each.
Kiba - Generic hero. Stoic. Leader for no particular reason.
Tsume - Grumpy. Kind of a dick. He follows the 'jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold' trope even though there doesn't really seem to be any reason for his character to act that way.
Toboe - Innocent. Emotional.
Hige - Comic relief.
I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with simple characters. The problem is that there's nothing interesting or relatable about these characters, for me. There are a few moments in the show where there was an obvious attempt to develop the characters, but these moments just feel incredibly forced. For example, there is an episode where one of the characters decides he doesn't want to journey to paradise anymore. At the end of the episode, he changes his mind, in a way that is obviously meant to imply that he has grown since his initial decision. But nothing happens to him in between during the episode to warrant this change. Another example, near the end of the show, is when a character says, "That's not what the (name) I know would say!" the other character then proceeds to go on a completely unwarranted identity crisis. Before this scene, I never got the impression that he had even struggled with anything of the sort. It was so jarring and unexpected that I burst out laughing.
The show also focused on three side characters (Cher, Hubb, and Quent) who are all completely boring, and mostly exist to give exposition about wolves or prophesies. I cared about them even less than the main four, and yet they were given nearly as much time on screen. The two noble characters seemed vaguely interesting, but so little is said about them until later, where suddenly they start talking about what happened between them in the very last episode. The climax of the story suffers greatly due to this, because the viewer is trying to piece together the backstory right at the end.
Oh, and there's Cheza. She has no personality, and only exists to further the almost no existent plot. Also, to force in a love interest, because every piece of media seems to think that's necessary. *Sigh*

Enjoyment - 2
This anime sat on the 'watching' section of my list for a year. Watching this show became a chore for me after about four episodes. I actually fell asleep at one point watching this, which is a first for me. I really wanted to like this show. It's so pretty and the music is nearly perfect. But I couldn't get past the awful writing. It tries to be deep, but only in that pretentious way through 'symbolism' and 'theme', without knowing what each of those mean. If I can't clearly identify these 'hidden meanings' then they mean nothing to me. Mawaru Peguindrum has symbolism. Psycho-Pass has strong thematic elements. In both cases, the shows stand well enough on their own to be enjoyable without fully grasping these deeper meanings. And I would recommend both miles above this anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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