Jin-Roh : The Wolf Brigade
Overview
While this anime has just recently been releasedin America on dvd, it's themes are based upon tales of old. Childrens tales, to be exact. With this anime being so tied to fairy tales, it makes a very interesting contrast. While it is not the greatest anime, it certainly evokes thought into a very interesting prospect.
Storyline & Narrative
This story follows Constable Fuse, a member of a special anti-terrorist unit. While on a mission, he sees a girl, and refuses to shoot her. This hampers some official's faith in Fuse as an officer. The plot thickens from here on in. However, character development and plot is not a heavy aspect of this story, thus at times it is often boring. While there are some action scenes, they're nothing to yelp about.
Characters & Dynamics
Kazuki Fuze (constable) - The main character, his is part of a special unit to disperse riots that are present in Tokyo.
Hachiroh Tohbe - The commanding seargeant of Fuse's special unit, he trained Fuse to become the officer that he is today.
Kei Amemiya - The sister of Nanami, the girl who constable fuse would not kill. She is a major character, and plays a big role in the story, of which cannot be disclosed.
Nanami Agawa - The girl that Fuse was ordered to kill, and failed.
As you can see, these characters names are all japanese, and can be quite hard to remember. There are many characters, but play a small part in this film. Overall, none of these characters get developed on, so you don't really care about what happens to any of them.
Animation & Visual Direction
The animation is certainly not something that is going for Jin-Roh. It is heavily simplistic (which can be good in some cases, but not in this anime), and it's quality is less than Akira's standards (sans the beautiful backgrounds that are present in Akira, Jin-Roh's bg's are very simplistic also). If the look of this anime were better, it would have translated into a much more interesting film. However, the fluidity and motion is a strong point, and basically the only thing that can be really commended, as far as animation is concerned.
Voice Acting & Soundtrack
I have only viewed the japanese version, which sounded good, especially in the dvd's dts 5.1 audio track.
