Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1837643 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

Wolf's Rain-o-holic
Since the first episode I watched, I absolutely loved the anime. The music, characters, plot yada yada. I was -am- obsessed. So, naturally when the manga came out and I saw it on the shelf, I practically pounced on it.


Overall, I loved the manga too. Considering how many episodes they squeezed into one volume, I thought it was very well done, and will proceed to snatch up the second volume as fast as I did the first. I did have a couple of issues though.

1) The wolves were extremely leggy. In the anime, they were very well proportioned for real wolves, but they were all legs in the manga. (Inouva from Magic Knights Rayearth in his true form comes to mind.)

2) They cut out a couple of bits that I really liked, most noteably the last time Toboe sees Leara. (Notably to me anyway.) Also, the story starts out with Tsume's gang finding Kiba under the tree, instead of with Tsume's gang on a raid. On the otherhand, they also added some bits that didn't appear in the anime, so all is well.

3) The sound effects translations. People have already talked about it, but it really did bother me.

A decent, brief effort.
I haven't read all of the Wolf's Rain manga yet, but the first thing that is important to note is that this is the first volume of a two-volume tie-in series to the anime show. Obviously, since the entire manga series is only two volumes long, a lot of the pacing and characterization of the TV show will, by necessity be absent. One of the things I enjoyed so much about the show is that it had a lot of stretched out, low-key sequences used to set a unique, somber yet jazzy mood (unlike Cowboy Bebop, to which this series is frequently connected, which could be just as manic as it was depressive). Instead the manga focuses on action and, more significantly, on the primary characters of the series. If a lot of your interest in the series comes out of the look, feel and music of the series you'd be best served by picking up the DVD's of the show.

Still, the manga in itself isn't a bad work. It doesn't strive to be anything above a fairly typical manga outing. Unlike the Cowboy Bebop tie-in manga, this one stays fairly close to a retelling of the series and, most importantly, the art style is very similar to Toshihiro Kawamoto's superb character designs (which was my most primary disappointment in Yutaka Nanten's Cowboy Bebop work).

For its' price (only $20 for both books, when the next one is released) you get a pretty decent taste of the series as well as a supplement for fans of the show. While the book didn't exceed my expectations, it is hardly a disappointment.

Also, as a nice bonus, in the back of the book you get five pages of character designs with commentary, two full-page pinups, and a page of annotations (which, thankfully, appear to be more common as of late in a lot of manga).

Good, but missing something....
Wolf's Rain is a story about four wolves named Kiba, Tsume, Toboe, and Hige. The world that they inhabit is something like that of the Ragnarok myth(at least, in the anime): a cold world with continuous winters with very little population outside of cities/villages. In Wolf's Rain, wolves have been rumored to have been extinct for 200 years. However, wolves actually do still exist. But they hide themselves by having a human form, which is actually seen as an illusion to normal humans.

All of the four wolves end up meeting each other by accident in the city. Tsume meets Kiba in a confrontation for example, while later when Kiba is captured in wolf form, he meets Hige. Toboe literally just stumbles upon Tsume while walking in the city. Kiba is looking for a place called Paradise, which can only be found by following the scent of a lunar flower. Lunar flowers don't even really exist, except in the form of the flower maiden named Cheza. Cheza was an experiment, formed from a lunar flower, made to lead the Nobles(basically the "ruling people") to find their own Paradise. Darcia III, a Noble, is the one who wants Cheza for himself, so he can open up a Paradise just for the Nobles. The four wolves eventually befriend Cheza(since she is the only one who can lead the wolves to Paradise) after she escapes the hands of Darcia III.

Although the wolves are the "main" characters, there are other minor characters just as interesting as well. There's Quent and his wolfdog Blue. Quent mercilessly hunts down Kiba, Tsume, Toboe, and Hige, since he can see their "true" forms. Quent decided to hunt down any surviving wolves after his family was supposedly killed by them. Blue will ultimately awaken her wolf form, thanks to the appearance of Cheza. Then there's Cher Degre, a researcher who studied Cheza. After Cheza is taken, Cher goes on a mad hunt for the flower maiden. Then there's Hubb, who is either a detective or police officer, who is Cher's ex-husband. Hubb actually doesn't play a major role in the manga, but he does make his appearances while questioning Quent.

The things that are missing: character development, relationship, and smooth storyline. There are many things missing that was originally found in the anime. One example would be the relationship between Blue and Hige(Blue plays a more prominent role in the anime), which doesn't even exist in the manga. The story was rushed too fast; there are many events that didn't happen in the manga that were seen in the anime. You can't really grip onto a lot of the character's emotions. Probably the only thoughts that you could read were those of Kiba, Cher, and Darcia.

Overall, watch the anime. The manga is good in its own form, but there's a lot of material missing.