Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade depicts an alternate history for Japan. Having lost the war to Germany, Japan is invaded by Nazis. Ten years later, the invading forces leave... but their legacy of chaos
remains.
A group of revolutionaries called "The Sect" conducts various terrorist
activities, which are in turn kept under control by the government's
counter-terrorist group -- Capitol Police's (CAPO) Special Unit.
There is also talk of another group within the CAPO known as the Wolf Brigade,
which in turn keeps the CAPO in check. But no one knows for sure if this group really exists. Kazuki Fuse is a member
of CAPO's Special Unit.
When Fuse (pronounced as "Foo-seh") fails to kill a young girl carrying a bomb
for The Sect. She detonates it, killing herself and destroying everything around her.
After this incident, Fuse is haunted by thoughts and visions of the girl...
which prompts him to find out who she really is. And so the story unfolds...
Review: Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
With the all the glowing reviews and overwhelming hype Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade has been receiving, a great burden lies on my shoulders as I write
this.
On one hand, I thought it was an excellent piece of work. But on the other
hand, it didn't rock my world as much as all the propaganda claimed it would.
Promoting a movie is one thing; taking one's expectations to an impossible
height quite another. This is a problem that plagues a lot of popular anime films (such as "Akira"
and "Ghost in the Shell"). Almost everyone will tell you how awesome they are, making it almost a sin not
to agree.
Jin-Roh is roughly in the same category as the two titles I've mentioned, but
fortunately, it delivers what it promises.
Big bucks were blown for Jin-Roh's production (which partly explains all the
fuss over it), and it shows.
The first thing that struck me about Jin-Roh was how similar the overall
visual style is to another much anticipated release, "Spriggan".
Jin-Roh and Spriggan have the same kind of meticulously composed scenes,
somber character designs, and incredibly smooth animation... but Jin-Roh takes
on a much darker tone.
Kazuki Fuse's story unfolds along with a part-by-part narration of "Little Red Riding Hood". The thing is, it's not Red Riding Hood as told to little kids.
Jin-Roh makes its analogy with the original Brothers Grimm version entitled
"Rotkäppchen". It is a macabre and horrific tale of one girl's journey to meet her mother --
and how a vicious wolf successfully deceives her.
The Sect uses young girls whom they refer to as "Red Riding Hoods" to carry
bombs, and Fuse encounters one of them face-to-face. After her explosive death, an uneasy Fuse visits the gravesite. There he meets another girl who looks like her. Her name is Kei, and she's the
dead girl's sister.
A bittersweet affair blossoms between Fuse and Kei shortly after, and I was
impressed with the way they managed to express themselves despite the fact
that they were hiding things from each other.
Jin-Roh is the story of a nation divided by warring factions, and one man's
struggle to determine what he really is. It is marked by a lot of violence,
blood, and disturbing imagery.
To give you an example, Fuse sees Kei brutally mauled by a pack of wolves in
one of his visions / hallucinations.
Another thing I noticed about Jin-Roh is how genuinely Japanese-looking a lot
of the characters are -- from the facial contours to the way the eyes are
drawn.
This gives the whole film a very realistic feel which makes it seem almost
like a live-action movie, rather than an anime.
The only problem I had with Jin-Roh is the how the different factions and
their ideologies are not very clearly defined.
A certain level of vagueness remains even after the conclusion, which leads me
to believe that they tried a little too hard to achieve a profound effect.
Still, it doesn't change the fact that Jin-Roh is both a visual and narrative
masterpiece, worthy of a place on any serious anime collector's shelf.
Miscellanies: Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
The story of Jin-Roh comes from Mamoru Oshii, director of "Ghost in the
Shell".
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade | |
| Genre | Drama, Romance |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 1 |
| Status | Finished Airing |
| Aired | Jun 3, 2000 |
| Producers | - |
| Studio | Production I.G |
| Rating | R - 17+ (violence & profanity) |
| Themes | Adult Cast, Detective, Military, Psychological |
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