It has begun:
Wolf's has premiered on the Japanese Fuji TV channel on January 06, 2003, and promises to be an excellent series. One of the better kept secrets, there was next-to-no information on the plot and background available before the launch, and now, after the first couple of episodes aired, things are only slightly clearer.
The series was produced by BONES and manages to reunite most of the production team of Cowboy Bebop. It is directed by Tensai Okamura, the character designs are once more by Toshihiro Kawamoto, and the scriptwriter is Keiko Nobumoto, while Shinji Aramaki did the mechanical designs.
The music is once more composed by Yoko Kanno who reunited with the Seatbelts for the performance, promising more music from the band that gave Cowboy Bebop much of it's flair. The opening and ending tracks are sung in English (ED by Maaya Sakamoto), and are once again a testimonial to Kanno's talents, especially when combined with her band, the Seatbelts.
The story seems to revolve around wolves that live unrecognized amongst humans in a post-apocalyptic future where all forests have been burned down. Assumed by humanity to have been extinct for the last 200 years, they suddenly start appearing again. The goals of the wolves are unclear, but there may be a connection with the recent cloning of a female girl called Cheza, whom they call the flower girl, and there seems to be a relation amongst them as they are drawn close to each other, which is what brought the wolves to the city in the first place. A man tells a story to a wolf-hunter that his grandfather once told him a story about the end of the world, where only the wolves would be able sniff out the way to paradise. I am already looking forward to seeing more, to see where the story will go. This new anime looks very promising and fresh.
The animation quality is top-of-the-line, too, amongst the best amongst this seasons TV-anime series. But on the other hand, I expected no less from Bones.
The official (Japanese) homepages:
http://www.bones.co.jp/ur/ur.html
http://www.wolfs-rain.co.jp
This writeup will be expanded as soon and whenever new information becomes available...