ore than a decade after the end of World War II--which, in this alternate-history anime adventure, Japan lost to Nazi Germany--Tokyo has become a hotbed of protest and civil unrest. It's the responsibility of constable Kazuki Fuse (Dobson) and other members of the Capital Police's elite Special Unit to hunt down and capture radical revolutionaries planting bombs and inciting deadly riots. One night, during a mission deep in the sewers below the city, Fuse (pronounced "foo-seh") discovers a young schoolgirl carrying explosives. He hesitates just a split second before pulling his machine gun's trigger, and, in that instant, the child detonates the package, simultaneously killing herself and injuring a number of advancing Special Unit troops.
Blamed for the incident, Fuse is demoted and sent back to the academy for retraining. At the same time, he's haunted by memories of the youngster's suicide. With help from Atsushi Henmi (Murdock)--a longtime colleague who recently left the Special Unit to join the force's administrative arm, the Public Security Division--Fuse seeks out the dead girl's older sister, Kei Amemiya (Stori). These actions catch the attention of the top police commanders, who are concerned about "The Wolf Brigade," a secret vigilante group rumored to have been formed within the Special Unit.
One night, Amemiya asks Fuse to meet at the local museum. Sensing a trap, he arrives at the building, only to find dozens of cops waiting for him. He manages to elude capture and, taking Amemiya with him, escapes, ultimately hiding in the labyrinthine sewer system. A squad of officers--including Fuse's good friend Henmi--follow the two into the tunnels, but they soon learn that, as one of the characters prophetically predicts during the chase, "only in the tales that humans tell do hunters kill the wolves in the end."
A film with big eyes and big teeth
Around 1960--roughly the time when this story takes place--Japan was undergoing a period of intense social and political turmoil. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade offers a fascinating yet fanciful view of that era, incorporating a few minor SF ingredients (such as the fantastical timeline and some high-tech armor) into a complex and compelling commentary. The picture suffers from a couple of slow-moving scenes and an oftentimes confusing parade of police bureaucrats, but overall it's an absorbing and thoughtful critique of human nature and a relatively recent, generally unexplored chapter in Japanese history.
Writer Mamoru Oshii--best known in the United States for directing the popular anime movie Ghost in the Shell--has loosely based the narrative on the original Little Red Riding Hood fable. There are certainly many conspicuous allusions: Along with the clandestine Wolf Brigade, the dead girl's favorite book is Rotkäppchen (the German title of the classic fairy tale), and the explosive-smuggling children are collectively known as "red riding hoods." Yet the story is far more than a simple homage to an age-old parable. Within the police force there is extensive scheming, and more than once what's presented as fact turns out to be misleading. Nazi-dominated Tokyo is also a political backwater, opening up intriguing opportunities for both local and state law-enforcement
officials to exert undue personal power--events which closely echo the tumultuous political climate in Japan 40 years ago.
The dubbed dialogue can be a bit long-winded, but the artwork, which consists almost exclusively of traditional cel animation, is consistently superb, especially in those scenes showcasing the unconventional, stormtrooper-inspired battle gear of the Special Unit forces. Despite its seemingly mundane setting, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade remains a chilling vision of an alternative history that might have been and--given the frequently duplicitous nature of humanity--could one day still be.
