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Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade is nothing short of brilliant. This award winning anime film manages to convey human emotion through the fluid hand-drawn animation that makes you forget what you’re watching is animated. The film is a part political drama; part love story set it in a parallel 1950’s Japan.
The plot focuses around Kazuki Fuse, a young member of the Tokyo Kerberos Panzer Cops as he deals with his job and his role within the politics of the special force. After hesitating to kill a girl involved with an underground rebel group known as ‘The Sect’ she blows herself up in-front of Kazuki forcing him to question if he is still human or has become nothing more than a beast trained to kill. He meets Kei, who claims to be the dead girls sister, and the two pursue a forbidden relationship.
The story weaves itself into a tale of love and deception as the wolf finds himself falling for the little red riding hood. Jin-Roh frequently references the original telling of Red Riding Hood to push the story forward; in fact the film could be seen as a retelling of the original. Often the theme of the wolf and the girl are used as either metaphors or codenames by characters in the film, and passages of the story are quoted throughout the entire film.
The animation in Jin-Roh is superb, it becomes easy to forget you’re watching an animated show and become enthralled by it. The animators have put a lot of detail into how the characters move and interact with the world. This extra attention to detail gives the film that little extra something that most animated films never achieve, human emotion. Nothing is over the top, while having a few action sequences these are kept few and realistic. The story that is told in Jin-Roh could’ve been shot scene for scene using traditional film, but seeing it in animation, created from scratch is much more impressive.
The soundtrack of the film while nothing spectacular does a great job at conveying mood and atmosphere. The English dub of the film is also top quality, and is just as good as watching the film in its original Japanese language. Although anything less would’ve been terrible as the film’s dialogue is extremely important. There are no over the top cartoon voices here, all audio is perfectly suited to the film.
The extras on the Special Edition disc aren’t as impressive or even near the quality of the feature. On the disc are Theatrical Trailers, Director/Creator Interviews and a Production Art Gallery. However only the interviews are worth watching. The only thing that makes the Special Edition worth it is the Collector’s Booklet included, however if you already own Jin-Roh on DVD the Special Edition isn’t really worth it.
Overall Jin-Roh is absolutely superb, a dramatic political love story that is definitely worth watching.
4.5 out of 5 Stars
