Wolf's Rain (Wolf's Rain)

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing compaired to the Anime.
Review: Being a huge fan of the anime version of Wolf's Rain, the magna version was a bit of a let-down. First of all, I want you to know where I am coming from, as this may have a bearing on weather or not you wish to take my view (review) into account. First of all, this was my first Magna. I grew up with and have on and off collected Marvel, DC and some top independant comic publisher titles. Though first confusing, it didn't take long to catch on to how to properly read the traditional Magna format (right to left).
The artwork captured the human forms of the charactors well, but the charactors in their wolf forms look nothing like those from the Anime. The wolves look more like German Shepheards with long haired manes and oversized stilts for legs The action and angles seemd quite stiff. The sound effects were either badly translated or just silly to begin with. My other great disapointment is the lack of background art.
Storywise, the magna is very condensed, and after what, in the anime, would be episode 2, the storyline differs greatly from that of the anime. Episodes 3-6 are compleatly cut (except for a condensed version of the meetings between Kiba, Tsume,Hige and Toeboy, and their escape from the domed city) in lou of a side adventure of Toeboy entering something of a city of the damned, where he meets another girl (Leara,the girl that Toeboy meets in the anime only lasts for a page and a half, then Toeboy meets another girl named Tia, who is trying to grow one of the last of the original luner flowers). The story then jumps to where Kiba, Tsume, Toeboy and Hige find Cheza, who has just jumped from Darsha's ship. The side story of Darsha and Homina is left out, as is much of Hubb, Cher and Quent...in other words, most of the interesting stuff.
Overall, this magna is a dissapointment compaired to the anime. I understand that there are going to be only two volumnes of Magna, and with the first book ending where the anime ends around episode 7 (of 26), I don't see how the second book will engrose you as much as the anime. I'll buy the second book as a keepsake and companion to the Anime, but this is one of the cases where the book or comic doesn't even come close to the anime/movie. I would have rather the story were bought by an entity like Dark Horse or Image and done as a long limited series (with someone like Art Adams, Neil Adams or Mike Grell doing the artwork). I'm not nocking magna, but I would rather dish out $100-$150 on a well done series companion than $30 on a sickly abreviated version.


Rating:
Summary: Wolf's Rain Manga is great
Review: I haven't read all of the Wolf's Rain manga yet, but the first thing that is important to note is that this is the first volume of a two-volume tie-in series to the anime show. Obviously, since the entire manga series is only two volumes long, a lot of the pacing and characterization of the TV show will, by necessity be absent. One of the things I enjoyed so much about the show is that it had a lot of stretched out, low-key sequences used to set a unique, somber yet jazzy mood (unlike Cowboy Bebop, to which this series is frequently connected, which could be just as manic as it was depressive). Instead the manga focuses on action and, more significantly, on the primary characters of the series. If a lot of your interest in the series comes out of the look, feel and music of the series you'd be best served by picking up the DVD's of the show.

Still, the manga in itself isn't a bad work. It doesn't strive to be anything above a fairly typical manga outing. Unlike the Cowboy Bebop tie-in manga, this one stays fairly close to a retelling of the series and, most importantly, the art style is very similar to Toshihiro Kawamoto's superb character designs (which was my most primary disappointment in Yutaka Nanten's Cowboy Bebop work).

For its' price (only $20 for both books, when the next one is released) you get a pretty decent taste of the series as well as a supplement for fans of the show. While the book didn't exceed my expectations, it is hardly a disappointment.

Also, as a nice bonus, in the back of the book you get five pages of character designs with commentary, two full-page pinups, and a page of annotations (which, thankfully, appear to be more common as of late in a lot of manga).

Rating:
Summary: amazing art, underwhelming English edition
Review: I've seen all of the Wolfs Rain anime, plus the OAVs. So when I saw the manga, I had to buy it.

I was annoyed to see that the English edition was put out by Viz, whose insistance on Anglicizing the sound effects, and even still publishing some of their manga "flipped" (left-to-right, as opposed to right-to-left) is a constant source of frustration to many readers.

The art of Wolfs Rain is no less than what I expected from the makers of Cowboy Bebop--indeed, it exceeded my expectations. My only complaint is that some of the action is jumpy, and that the character Leara (a young girl that Toboe tries to befriend, but who rejects him when he reveals his true identity) only appears for three frames, tops.

Viz's edtion is...underwhelming. The English sound effects are laugable. For example: in what is arguably the most dramatic point in the manga, Darcia-sama dissapears with a...blip. Yes, a "blip." Also, Viz does not allow the characters to swear, insted cutting them off mid word ("Shi--!"). Finally, Kiba's CONSTANTLY BOLDED DIALOUGE gets irratating after a while.

Dispite all this, Wolfs Rain is a good buy for fans of the anime. There are distinct differences between both, but both are worth while.


Rating:
Summary: Wolf's Rain-o-holic
Review: Since the first episode I watched, I absolutely loved the anime. The music, characters, plot yada yada. I was -am- obsessed. So, naturally when the manga came out and I saw it on the shelf, I practically pounced on it.


Overall, I loved the manga too. Considering how many episodes they squeezed into one volume, I thought it was very well done, and will proceed to snatch up the second volume as fast as I did the first. I did have a couple of issues though.

1) The wolves were extremely leggy. In the anime, they were very well proportioned for real wolves, but they were all legs in the manga. (Inouva from Magic Knights Rayearth in his true form comes to mind.)

2) They cut out a couple of bits that I really liked, most noteably the last time Toboe sees Leara. (Notably to me anyway.) Also, the story starts out with Tsume's gang finding Kiba under the tree, instead of with Tsume's gang on a raid. On the otherhand, they also added some bits that didn't appear in the anime, so all is well.

3) The sound effects translations. People have already talked about it, but it really did bother me.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: This book is really cool, I havn't seen the show, I actually desided to read the book to see if it was worth buying the DVDs, and I'm happy to say that because of this book I WILL buy the DVD set! So far my fav character is Toboe, I don't know why though.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat........ terrible
Review: To start with, I have seen pretty much all of the Wolf's Rain anime, (I may have missed a few episodes) and it wasen't all that great, anyway (THE ENDING, for great's sake!). The only thing outstanding in the anime was the music, logically nonexistent in the manga. Still, I bought the manga in hopes that it would differ from the anime in some respect, perhaps end better? Although the end is yet to come, I already dislike the manga mostly for the artwork, more precisely the wolves, whose legs resemble those of a girrafe's! And Kiba is supposed to be fluffy, but his fur looks much too stringy in the manga. Also, instead of selectively leaving out a few parts, they seem to have selectively chose a few parts to actually draw! It seems almost like a summary, they have so few scenes. What really ticks me is that my favorite part of the ENTIRE series, (which I didn't even like) the scene where Quent shoots UNDER Blue, smacking the crap out of Kiba, is left out. The entire charm of showing how in tune Blue and Quent are is left out. I just can't wait to see the second book, which I bet won't even show an ending. So much for this series- the only thing worth money are the two CD's.

P.S.- one last thing that just struck me as odd and out of place, the text on the front of the book, "Wolf's Rain" is.... Pink. Not just a little. Bright..... PINK. Almost ANY other color would do for this depressing anime. Oh, and another thing, something GOOD- the bonus thing at the end of the book- I liked that. Very Nice.