Inspiration Part Two: Wolf's Rain

Note: This post goes into similarities between Wolf's Rain and Hinduism - I do not claim to be an expert on Hindu philosophy. There are undoubtedly many things that I'm not getting right, or which appear right only on a surface level. Please point those things out.

There have been a few forays by anime into mythology. The feeling of mysticism and fantastical unreality pervades Texhnolyze, for one. The series is so wrapped up in unreality that it is akin to dreaming...something the series promotes itself. Kino's Journey also gets involved, though as a spectator, not a participant. In fact, the entirety of Kino's Journey feels like reading a book of myths. Of course, in the short history of anime mythologies, the grandest, most epic in scale, is Wolf's Rain.
This is a different type of literary inspiration, tied to a general category rather than a specific work. In fact, in some ways you might say that Wolf's Rain is tied more to religion than literature. The entire series carries with it religious overtones. The mysterious Book of the Moon seems akin to the holy books of many religions, though in particular it seems tied most closely to Hinduism with its idea of cyclical renewal.

The ties between Hinduism and Wolf's Rain are numerous, and appear through various avenues. Numbers, personalities, personas, all of these contribute to the mythological air surrounding the story of four wolves journeying to Paradise. For one thing, the very fact that there are four wolves closely relates to Hindu beliefs. Each wolf embodies one of the four "stages of life" in the Hindu belief. Toboe occupies the first stage, Hige the second. The second stage is characterized by a satisfaction of "kama and artha," which are the physical aspects of life (pleasure and wealth) - both of which Hige finds primarily through his relationship with Blue. In Kiba we find the final stage, where he has detached himself from the world in order to prepare for the next world. Kiba's focus is on the next life, not the present one, and this coincides with general Hindu theology.

Another core concept that jumps out is the necessity for good and evil as a sort of balancing act. Just as Darcia says in Wolf's Rain that a Paradise created by Kiba would be imperfect because of its lack of suffering, hatred, etc. to create a point of reference for the pleasure and love, so does Hinduism point to each god having a positive and negative incarnation. This also ties into the "yin and yang" idea, the concept of light and darkness.

One of the most interesting things about Wolf's Rain is that each character in turn is unable to complete the journey because of an attachment to the physical world. For Toboe it is his attachment to humans, for Blue it is her anger, for Hige his attachment to Blue, and Tsume his attachment to attachment. In the end it is only Kiba, who has his eyes set on the otherworldly Paradise, who is able to complete it, and even he falls short.

Wolf's Rain is about the journey. However, it is more than that - it is the end of a cycle. The end of the series is also a new beginning, the beginning of a new world. One of the basic beliefs of Hinduism is the fact that Brahma continually creates and destroys the universe. In Wolf's Rain, Brahma's eyes are closing, as the world comes closer and closer to destruction. And at the same time, Kiba's quest is to open the eyes of the next Brahma, to create the new world. There is so much beauty in such a quest, to create a better world, to make things better. Unfortunately, the beauty is tainted. Darcia's death taints the perfection.

At the end of Wolf's Rain we see a world similar to our own - in fact, it is our own. The world we were born into, it seems, is the world born of the sacrifices of wolves. This mythological take on human history has its roots in one of the world's oldest religions (and perhaps more - there are many Buddhist ties in the story as well). The message is quite clear - Kiba's journey will continue, perhaps forever as the cycle continues, or perhaps until he opens the true Paradise.