anime: Wolf's Rain eps 19-22

[meganbmoore]

eps 19-20 are about Kiba being in the "false paradise" after trying to save Cheza from Jagara's troups.  There, he meets a girl(actually a canine animal I don't immediately recognize) named Myu who makes him instinctively feel uncomfortable, who tells him that he's in paradise, which he accepts all too easily.  I've seen a lot of people point to Kiba's relationship with Myu as proof that his only emotional connection to Cheza is that she'll lead him to paradise, but I'd say it does the opposite(as far as the "do Kiba and Cheza love each other romantically?" debate goes, I fall into the "It's completely irrelevant what kind of love it is because nothing else is ever going to surpass it anyway" category.)  He accepts Myu because he thinks it's what he's supposed to do...despite his obsessive overprotectiveness of Cheza, part of him knows that she's the way to paradise, not part of it.  When he and Myu are playing and they accidentally end up in one of "those" positions, his instinct is to get away, and when they're supposed to be relaxing and cuddling he's facing AWAY from Myu and has a very definate "don't touch" posture...he tries to be in a relationship with her because they're physically compatible and it seems to be what he's supposed to do, but it's clear every instinct he has tells him to hoof it, and he seems to actively avoid touching or looking at her.  On the flipside, it never even occurs to him that he and Cheza AREN'T compatible.  When they're together, he's never out of touching range, and usually they ARE touching in some way, often without realizing it, and he almost never STOPS looking at her, as if he knows she'll disappear the moment he does.  Regardless of how genuinely romantic his feelings are, it's clear that the ONLY relationship that will ever feel right for Kiba is Cheza.

We also get his backstory, that his pack was slaughtered and he was raised by humans, almost as a pet, and that the humans who raised him are the ones who told him of paradise, making him more than a bit of a hypocrite, given his opinion of wolves who live with humans(have I mentioned that the fact that all the characters are extremely flawed is a part of the appeal to me?)

I like that as soon as Kiba isn't there to keep going on about getting to paradise, Tsume picks up the slack, which, to him, means finding Kiba so they can find Cheza, no ifs ands or buts.  Even more than Kiba, he's a natural leader, it's just that Kiba is more suited to lead their pack than he is, as it's clear that, as far as the destiny of opening paradise goes, Kiba's the one that matters.  For all that he's a loner, Tsume IS a wolf, and his instinct is to belong.  He thought he lost his chance with other wolves when he was kicked out of his pack and turned to humans instead, only to be betrayed, and now that he has a new pack, he's not about to lose it.  We also get hints about what's REALLY going on with Hige in these eps, too.

eps 21-22 were mostly maneuvering things for the big battle at Jagara's castle, as the reunited wolves try(and fail) to rescue Cheza and Blue and the two end up(respectively) with Hubb and Cher who were also captured by Jagara's troops.  I like that Blue doesn't even try to hide her nature around them...there's no time and she's likely seen enough of both(before knowing what she was) to instinctively trust them.  And I love her and Cher giving each other a hard time about the men they're hopelessly in love with.  Blue is(understandably) a lot more at ease with humans than the other wolves are, and is even able to joke about the fact that she's an animal who can make herself look human, such as when she gets in the car and comments that Cher should probably drive.  Also, just in case Kiba's little adventure with Myu made us forget he and Cheza have a mutual obsessive radar, we get them sensing each other through a multiple miles and a few layers of clouds(gotta love OTP radars sometimes)