Jin Roh- The Wolf Brigade
This movie is set in the hypothetical world where Germany won World War II, with the main character named Fuse. He's a part of the Panzar corps whose goal is to settle down terrorists with dangerous weapons. They have these weird bullet proof suits and red googles that remincient of ghostly eyes. Their Machine guns are powerful and their presence is quite formidable.
So, the government is starting to plot something against Fuse, to make him an example for anyone who thinks they might want to betray the government. Fuse's friend, Henri is in charge of the operation. We later find that the terrorists sister is a pawn of Henris. Fuse discovers this and the girl trys to get him to run away together. Unfortunately... he has a mission. They go back to the scene of the initial violence and the Fuse is suited up by the rebel group. This rebel group is "Wolves pretending to be Human". At the same moment, that leader finds the bug in the sister's purse and the sister knows she's been found out. The government people come with their suits and trench coats into the sewers and Fuse kills them all in a bloody barriage of bullets. Then he chases after his friend, Henri. Henri, kneeling in the water, has his back turned to the oncoming footsteps of Fuse. As he asks Fuse how are the two of them any different, he turns around with his gun openly firing at the Panzar corp suit. Fuse chocks the machine gun and blasts his ex-friend. We see the bullet go through the body as it jerks from being riddled with bullets...
Spoilers: Okay, this might not seem like a very good spoiler section, cause really how much spoilers are there for a less than two hour movie? The rebel group is moving on when they stop and the leader hands a gun to Fuse to get rid of the sister. She was never that terrorist's sister, but a government mole chosen for her looks to try to see if Fuse is indeed a part of a rebel group. Fuse says that they have no need to kill her, but the leader persists. The leader walks away as the sister rushes toward Fuse and starts screaming and crying the ending to the little red riding hood. Fuse himself has tears streaming down. A gun shot is heard and the girl falls silent. There is bit of smoke coming from Fuse's gun. At a far away shack, a hidden gunsman looks up from his unshot gun and closes the window. The leader stubs his cigarette as he says, "Once a wolf, always a wolf" or something similar...
My Bias Opinion-
Well, I have to say this one IS pretty violent at times with a lot of blood showing up, but the storyline is pretty neat, where a government official is framed to being the mole, when in reality he IS the mole. The whole German real version of Little Red Riding Hood freaks me a bit since I grew up on the American altered version where the hunter appears to save the little red hood from doom.
But really, aside from the solemn unfolding of the story and the way things end up, I feel more shock than anything else from what happened. This movie has a lot of vivid images of dead body images and I guess I wasn't really too used to seeing so much in an anime. The drawings really look like human beings and not too cartoony. Did I understand the moral, though? Hmm... I think I need to watch it an extra time to see if I can disect why Fuse would betray the government. Not that I'm defending that government, cause it seems awfully shitty to me anyway... I was confused at first as to who shot that pretend sister.. but after my bro told me, I was even more confused on why he did it... oh well, if I ever see the film again, I'll try to update this review. (UsagiSakura 10/10/03) Options: Jin Roh Image Gallery
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It's not a cheery time... Because in a mission, Fuse didn't kill a young female terrorist clutching a bomb, he got demoted and is investigated to see if he might be going against the government. Fuse goes backs to training and on a visit to that female terrorists grave, he meets that girl's sister who looks uncanningly like her dead sibling. They strike up a friendship and Fuse is also haunted by dreams of blood, the sister being chased by wolves, and finally being devoured. As the anime movie processes, there is an overhead narrative of Little Red Riding Hood. Except this fairy tale is a bit more realistic and unaltered for children listeners. Turns out Little Red Riding Hood was given armor instead of a cute cape. And when she got to her grandmothers house, the pretend grandmother managed to get the little girl to eat her real grandmother's flesh and drink the blood. Then, no hunter came to rescue the poor kid, when the wolf showed itself and devoured her...