Review for Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (Review)
Wednesday, 21st July 2010, 16:39

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Introduction
Disney has much to answer for. Seventy plus years of their animated adaptations of fairy tales, and we've come to expect such stories to be light, fluffy, and entertaining, with lots of happy bluebirds, and rousing songs. Of course fairy tales started off as dark allegories, warnings to keep children aware of just how dangerous the world can get, without discouraging them from growing and exploring altogether. Of course remaining true to the original intent of fairy tales when adapting them to film usually means keeping them dark and scary, which also usually means an age rating that takes them out of the reach of their target audience. But us grown ups can enjoy fairy tales too, it just needs a little more work to make them relevant to us, and with that in mind, adult fairy tales often wind up even darker than the original authors intended. You don't get much darker than Mamoru Oshii's Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade.

Oshii is a prolific creator, juggling many roles, so when it came to adapting his manga creation Kerberos Panzer Cops into an anime feature, the directorial reins fell to Hiroyuki Okiura. Okiura wanted to create his own vision of Oshii's universe, so he asked for a screenplay with a romantic thread running through it. Mamoru Oshii gave him Little Red Riding Hood, although this is Little Red Riding Hood, as you have never seen it before.

It's an alternate world where Germany won the Second World War, and it was they who defeated and occupied Japan in the aftermath. It took a decade, but Japan slowly recovered and established itself as an economic power, but that process of re-growth was painful and threw up plenty of opposition against the government, pro-democracy groups that resorted to violence when their voices weren't heard. Japan was forbidden from creating a military under the terms of the armistice, but they could, and did create a paramilitary police force dedicated to opposing the terrorists, and the Capital Police as they are known, proved to be very effective. So much so that the opposition groups had to retreat underground and reorganise. Now there is only the one group, The Sect, whose methods are far more insidious, using small girls as couriers to carry arms and explosives from one cell to another. They are known as Little Red Riding Hoods. But the Capital Police has their own Special Unit to combat the Sect, and within that Unit is rumoured to be a rogue organisation whose methods make figures on both sides blanch; they comprise the infamous Wolf Brigade.

A rowdy political demonstration turns lethal when infiltrated by members of The Sect, but the Special Unit are ready to pursue the terrorists underground and hunt them down, bringing their full firepower down without mercy. That's except for Kazuki Fuse, who when confronted by the final target, a young girl armed with a suicide bomb, freezes instead of shooting. It's only because of his armour that he is protected, but he isn't protected from the wrath of his superiors, who reassign him to training. Haunted by the face of the girl he couldn't kill, he finds it hard to come to terms with what happened, and he even visits her grave. It's there that he meets her sister, who is surprisingly forgiving of him. Besides, as she says, he's the one who didn't shoot. As Kazuki spends more time with her, he starts questioning himself more and more. But there is more to this girl than meets the eye; while Kazuki's failure in the tunnels is just the political leverage the regular police requires, to act against the independent Capital Police.

Picture
This Optimum Asia DVD is a wonder of mislabelling. We begin with the image, with the 98-minute runtime quoted indicating a PAL transfer. It's not. The film lasts the full 112 minutes, and it is instead an NTSC-PAL anamorphic transfer, with the usual indications of such. It's not really a 1.85:1 ratio either, with thin black bars top and bottom suggesting a ratio somewhere between 1.90:1 and 2:1.

The transfer is adequate, although a film that is by its very nature, dark and subdued, doesn't help it. It's not exactly zinging with colour, with a very limited earthy palette, the contrast is low, detail isn't prominent, and there is significant grain. However, the animation is excellent, it has a proper filmic look, and the emphasis on realism makes watching the film a wholly immersive experience. You forget that you are watching an anime altogether.

Sound
The sleeve says stereo, the disc gives us a choice between DD 5.1 English and Japanese, as well as a DTS Japanese track. Other than the few brief moments of action, Jin-Roh is a quieter, more reflective piece, but the surround works well enough to bring across some atmosphere. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the music fits the film perfectly. The English dub is also well performed, and this is a film that I can watch in either language. The sole subtitle track is a translated English one.

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