Ookami wa Ookami da (original) (raw)

Well this was pretty interesting, the hook for me was that from the synopsis this sounded a little like an animated version of "The Beast of Gevaudan" (Google that if your unfamiliar, or better yet, search for Beth from Jashin-chan Dropkick, because she is one of those) although not as gory, although to be honest I wasn't really expecting it to be. Anyway I'm sidetracking somewhat aren't I?, let's get on with the review itself, although there isn't a whole lot to say about it, but it's somewhat more advanced from other works from around this time.

Story: The peace and tranquility of the village is... interrupted by the presence of a Wolf, who terrorises the populace and makes off with 1 of them. The villagers are suitably unhappy with this nuisance, and gang together to come up with a way to rid themselves of the Wolf and restore peace once more. There's probably a moral to this story, and it's probably - working together gets results. 5

Art: It's always somewhat difficult to rate this, as the copy (or copies) could likely have suffered from wear and tear and poor storage, and I'm not exactly sure what version I saw was... From what I saw the visuals seem decent and clear, with some depth to the background. However the Wolf being all Black seemed to mess something up, it almost seemed like it was shimmering at times. The rest of the anthropomorphic animals seem well drawn for the time. Walking animation is bad though - too stiff, looks like their walking slowly on a treadmill or something (not trying to sound like a Critic, but I just didn't like it, and have seen better from other works of same age or older even) another big issue was the dialogue cards - yes they were there, but placed quite far apart, but they do at least explain what's happening. 5

Sound: N/A - Literally no sound (at least from the version I saw there wasn't) maybe the original had something? usually it's Piano music but I'm not certain, but I can't score what isn't there.

Characters: The Wolf is suitably scary and plays the part of the antagonist well. It was somewhat difficult to work out who the main protagonist was, as there were many characters and all were given short screen time. 3

Enjoyment & Overall: I quite enjoy very old works, it's nice to look back on the history of animation and movies and see the innovatives and breakthroughs. I would recommend this to pretty much anyone, it's only 11mins long and (mostly) straight forward to watch, however I think those who especially enjoy rare/old anime will like this greatly. 5 & 5