anime: Wolf's Rain eps 12-14

[meganbmoore]

Before I get to Darcia...BLUE!!!!!!

I love Blue.  I love her design and her attitude, and that she feels little need to apologize for her past.  She and Quent hunted wolves because they believed that wolves murdered Quent's family.  When she encounters Cheza, she realizes what she is and that she can't continue with her life as it was, and so she leaves.  While she probably still views wolves as the ones who destroyed her life, she doesn't bear any particular wolves any ill will(aside from whoever killed Quent's family) and doesn't really want to hunt her own kind.  At the same time, though, she doesn't regret her past, she simply realizes she can't continue as she was and moves forward with her life.  I love, though, that she still views Quent as her father, because you can't just shake off emotional ties.

I also like the other wolves' reaction to her...of them, the only one she hasn't hunted in the past is Hige, and they're all more than a little leery of letting her in, but are accepting once it's made clear to them that she's over that...before she's anything else, she's a wolf looking for paradise, and that's all that matters.

We also get a good look at Cher and Hubb's life and marriage before and as her workaholic tendencies broke them apart, and we get one of the few happy reunions in WR.  Simply put, I like Cher and Hubb.  They're among the few anime/manga couples that are actually like real people, and the problems in their relationship are realistic.  With them, it's not a question of if they love each other-we know from the start that he loves her, and figure out before she does that she still loves him, it's just a question of whether or not they'll be able to get their act together.

Then there's Darcia.  I think episode twelve of Wolf's Rain is probably the hardest episode there is of any anime for me to watch.  I'm not sure any other anime has ever had so much anguish and despair in a single scene as this one has.  Darcia centered his entire life around his love for Hamona and his need to cure her, and just as he finally had the means to get to a cure for her, he found her murdered(and later, we find out why WHO murdered her just makes it more awful)  At first, he's in a state of shock like he can't quite believe it, though obviously he can, touching her face and picking her up and spinning her around...if it weren't for how sad his smile is, you'd think they were on their honeymoon or something.  Then he puts her down so carefully it's like he's afraid she'll break, and then he just screams.  And screams.  And cries.  And there's no shame or restraint to it...he's all but literally being torn into pieces, and it's so obvious it almost hurts to watch(the fact that he literally tries to bash his brains in doesn't help any, but I try not to dwell on that part)  It's just...raw.

As he tells us later, life, paradise has no meaning anymore.  He has no purpose and no future.  All that's left is hate for those who have wronged him and utter despair.  And the despair will never leave him because his wolf's eye will always allow him to look at the past, so he'll be able to remember his happiness with Hamona like it was yesterday, but he'll also have the loss and despair with it and even as he remwmbers, he'll know that it's nothing but the past and that he has no future(in his mind) without her.

My Darcia post, which has a lot of Darcia/Hamona pics, including him finding her body.  And MVs.  The first MV is one of my fave youtube vids, and is only spoilery up to this point, the second only for the first couple eps, but the other 2 are rather spoilery for the series as a whole.

I will now go watch a few eps of Those Who Hunt Elves before bed to compensate for the deep pit of angst

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, Darcia!! ** ssigh ** And I knew Blue was a wolf!!!!!!!!!!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Have you reached this part yet? Because, seriously, Darcia from here on is almost the most painful, tragic thing I've ever seen in an anime(and I've seen a lot of harsh stuff) I think Darcia could be the character to make dangermousie fall for the bad guy for the first time. I know he's the reason I have a thing for the bad guys at times.

And Blue is awesome. The thing about Blue is that, if you're paying attention, you can figure it out, but if you're just sitting back and watching you won't, but either way, the way it's handled just makes perfect sense and you don't even think to question it. Which really is the case with almost everything in Wolf's Rain. I mean, I got into it just before the second disc was released over here, and it wasn't until about a year later when the last disc was about to come out that I realized that it should seem odd to me that the main romantic pairing in the show is a wolf and a flower, yet it never did.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I haven't reached this moment yet, I am still on episode 6. I am not sure about the Flower girl yet, she is a little STRANGE!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Cheza's a touch...odd. But basically, the only reason she exists is to lead Kiba to paradise.