History Anime / WolfsRain

* HellIsThatSound: Cheza's scream when she senses spilled wolf blood.

* RaisedInCaptivity:
** Toboe is a wolf pup who was raised by an elderly woman. He accidentally killed her when he grew too big and now lives amongst the other wolves. He's shown to be clumsy about his strength and is the most sociable around humans of the group.
** Blue is a wolf-dog who decides to join the wolves on their journey after learning she's part-wolf. Unlike Toboe, Blue doesn't [[LikeADuckTakesToWater have much trouble]] adapting to living amongst wolves.

* RaisedByWolves: Interesting inversion. Although this show is about wolves, only ''two'' out of the five wolf main characters were actually raised by wolves, Tsume and, presumably, Hige. The rest were raised by humans. Because they are wolves, they tends to lack emotion when they are in their human forms, and can be very awkward when actually conversing with humans. Toboe, Blue, and Hige are all much more comfortable around humans, because they have been around them more. In Toboe's case, his attachment to humans [[spoiler: is what ultimately causes his downfall]].

** Cheza's lullaby is in Gaelic, as seen here [[https://youtu.be/IY8xy2opj0c]] .

* DividedWeFall: At first Kiba and Tsume have this relationship, but over time Tsume comes to believe more in their quest for Paradise and becomes a vital aid.

* DoomedHometown: Curious, Quent and Blue's hometown.

* HumansAreBastards

* InfantImmortality: Averted. In the first episode Tsume is leading a human gang of thieves. During a heist a young boy who {{Hero Worship|per}}s Tsume falls. Tsume tries to catch the boy, but witnessing Tsume's sudden transformation into a wolf causes the kid to panic, fall, and die.
** Less "sudden transformation" than the fact that when Tsume appeared to be grabbing him with a hand, he was really grabbing the kid's shoulder with his teeth. The wolf-bite hurt, the situation allowed the kid to see through the illusion, and, well...
** [[spoiler: And then Toboe gets killed in the OVA...]]
*** And then in the anime version finale [[spoiler: EVERYONE dies. In the whole world. Children included.]]

* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:Jagara]] does this openly. Followed by an [[IfICantHaveYou If I Can't Have You]], when the beloved doesn't appreciate the deed.

* RaisedByWolves: Interesting inversion. Although this show is about wolves, only ''two'' out of the five wolf main characters were actually raised by wolves, Tsume and presumably Hige. The rest were raised by humans. Because they are wolves, they tends to lack emotion when they are in their human forms, and can be very awkward when actually conversing with humans. Toboe, Blue, and Hige are all much more comfortable around humans, because they have been around them more. In Toboe's case, his attachment to humans [[spoiler: is what ultimately causes his downfall]].
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: At least three of the four named Nobles. And Cheza.

* ShoutOut: "Julius", the male prostitute from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', [[TheCameo briefly shows up]] in [[OneSceneWonder one episode]].

* {{Xenofiction}}
* YouAreWorthHell: Blue has no idea if she "counts" as a real wolf, and if she'd be able to get to Paradise at all. Hige is willing to give up paradise if she can't come with him.

** The former is even more disturbing when you think about the fact that [[Really700YearsOld Cheza is at least 200 years old]], but her human form looks about 13 or so, and [[YoungerThanTheyLook Kiba is only about 2 or 3 in wolf years]], but his human form looks anywhere from 19-21. So it's pedophilia either way, regardless of how you look at it.

[[JustBeforeTheEnd The Earth sits on the edge of death]]; years of war between greedy Nobles have reduced the world to a handful of high-tech, Giger-esque cities admist a barren wilderness. Only a single, small hope still remains: [[AllMythsAreTrue an old legend]] which says that in civilization's last days, wolves will follow the scent of lunar flowers to Paradise. It sounds promising, but no one has seen either a wolf or a lunar flower for centuries...or so they think.

* [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Absurdly Sharp Fangs]] The wolves' fangs are basically the equivalent of swords for combat damage purposes.

** YMMV, [[spoiler: to this long-time, watched-multiple-times fan; it seems that while the planet did hit an ice age, it's hinted that some creatures survived. The series seems to hint that all the humans and wolves died, but it's vague on what exactly happened. Did reality reset, or did society survive an ice age and tried again?]]

* [[spoiler: TheBadGuyWins: In the finale, Darcia kills them all and his eye corrupts the paradise Cheza's seeds created.]] ''May'' be mitigated by the last few moments [[spoiler:when we see Kiba, reincarnated in the modern world, starting to run, [[HereWeGoAgain implying that the search for Paradise has just begun anew.]]]].

* BilingualBonus: All the signs in the series are in Russian.
** [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish And in perfectly correct Russian too.]]

* EyesOfGold / SupernaturalGoldEyes: The wolves' human forms have golden/amber eyes, to reflect their true nature. Kiba and Blue are the only ones with different eye-colors.

* [[InvertedTrope Humans]] [[FurriesAreEasierToDraw Are Easier to Draw]]: This may be the only series that turns the AnimalsAreEasierToDraw Trope on its ear. The wolves may spend a questionable amount of time appearing human because it's easier to animate. [[MostWritersAreHuman The artists presumably have much more experience animating the human figure and its movements]].
** It's also a lot easier for the audience to relate to human-like characters than to wolves.

* [[LickedByTheDog Licked By The Wolf]]: Early on when Tsume is being a jerkass, Toboe's liking for him is one of the few things (besides his badassery) that makes him likeable. Although being voiced by Creator/CrispinFreeman doesn't hurt...

* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Species Guy]]: Kiba has a chip on his shoulder.

* AlchemyIsMagic: The wolves use alchemy to project illusions and perform supernatural feats, Cheza was created from mixing flower and human DNA, and nobles use a form of magic that heavily draws on [[MagicalGeometry transmutation circles]].

* AlchemyIsMagic: The wolves use alchemy to project illusions and perform supernatural feats, Cheza was created from mixing flower and human DNA, and nobles use a form of HermeticalMagic.

* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Darcia was already very {{Badass}} as a human. [[spoiler: Then he goes all Buick-sized wolf on the heroes]].

** The song Cheza sings to the wolves and keeps humming is in Gaelic.

** YMMV, [[to this long-time, multiple watcged fan; it seems that while the planet did hit an ice age, it's hinted that some creatures survived. The series seems to hint that all the humans and wolves died, but it's vague on what exactly happened. Did reality reset, or did society survive an ice age and tried again?]]

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: The OST has songs sung in several different languages, including English, Japanese, French, Italian, Portuguese, and even some Native American chanting. [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish And it's all done flawlessly]], but then again, this is YokoKanno, after all.

* TranslationConvention: All the text in the series appears to be in the Cyrillic, i.e. Russian, alphabet. The Russian seems to be genuine - eg ''Kniga Luna'', The Book of the Moon.
** That's not completely correct. ''Kniga Luna'' would be "Book Moon", unless it's made to be ''Kniga Luny'' in which the the word moon becomes possessive.
** It's ''Kniga Luny'', and all other text signs [[ShownTheirWork are correct, too]].

* TheRemnnant: [[spoiler: After Lord Orkham is killed, his MookLieutenant gets control over the remaining troops and keeps fighting against Jaguara and her army. They are not as evil as the usual examples and even overlap with LaResistance.]]

* ResetButtonEnding: After [[spoiler:Kiba dies, we see the whole world has been reset into modern day Earth]], indicating that [[spoiler:Paradise is just the real world where wolves are no longer mystical creatures.]]