madhater_da_killa Review of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999)

Almost perfectly blue with a hint of a ghost in the akira...

[8/10 · 18 March 2004]

This film combines some of the best aspects about Anime and collects them all into a neat little one hour and forty-five minute joy-ride through yet another Neo-Asian city riddled with civil rebellion stemming from a corrupt political government and armed forces units (I wonder where they dreamed up this topic?). Though not an altogether new setting, the art is gripping enough (with awesome graphics used on the wide shots of the city and the backgrounds in individual shots) to keep you well entertained through the packages of rather vague introspective monologues take place. These monologues, which later become a dialogue of sorts, are what drive the story thematically; giving the story a sense of urgency that is well accented by the heavy overtones of violence that saturates the film. However in this notion they break one major rule in American movie making and writing, introspective dialogue (or a spoken monologue in a film) should never directly reveal information about the story, rather it should further the tone of the film. In Jin-Roh by the end of the film, even the way that the words are used in these monologues and the way you interpret them, can alter the entire premise and feel of the film. The gritty raw action happens in these grotesque spurts, no pun intended, and gives the film a very life-like feel. Likewise the animation style and fluidity are far superior to most other anime's of its time. They had begun to effectively toy with setting drawings in the foreground out of focus with a very realistic feel, and thus transcendently gave the film a much more realistic and serious ambiance. However at times the story line can be rather hard to follow; though I would say not much harder than some of the American crime drama's that I have seen. There is such a focus on a great deal of different sections within the armed forces and police personnel in Jin-Roh that at times it is very difficult to discern just who the good guys are. Though I think that to some extent this was an internal intention of the story-line and on the other hand I think that some of the inner political and army battling was either sloppily mistranslated or too complicated to fully cover in one hour and forty five minutes. The subtitles to the film where a little bit more clear in their translation from the original screenplay and make it a little easier to follow, however the American dubbing is quite stand able. Usually I detest dubs, but this one was pretty good - even the background voices were well done, though they sounded naturally American and not naturally Japanese so realistic in an untruthful way I suppose. As far as anime's go, this one is top rate. It is not only comparable, but features animators and writers from Akira and Ghost In The Shell. Though I didn't care for Ghost In The Shell very much (to much obvious computer animation)anyone who doesn't worship the 1988 anime classic Akira shouldn't call themselves an anime fan.