Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (2024)

Jin-Roh (人狼, Jinrō, lit."Werewolf"), also known as Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade in its American release, is a 1999 Japanese action political thriller anime film directed by Hiroyuki Okiura (in his directorial debut) and written by Mamoru Oshii. Based on the first half of Oshii's manga Kerberos Panzer Cop, it is the third film (first chronologically) in the Kerberos Saga after 1987's The Red Spectacles and 1991's StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops, and is the only fully-animated film in the saga.

Jin-Roh is set in an authoritarianpostwar Japan in the saga's alternate history where Nazi Germany won World War II, occupied Japan (a member of the Allies in this timeline), and eventually denazified back into the Weimar Republic. Germany attempts to globalize and modernize Japan with a new government, but it increases poverty and class stratificationthat leads to civil unrest and the rise of "the Sect", an anti-government left-wing terroristgroup. With regular police unable to handle spiking terrorist activity, the Japanese government forms the Capital Police paramilitarylaw enforcement agency and their Special Armed Garrison"Kerberos", an elite heavily-armed counterterrorist police tactical unit equipped with powered exoskeletons called "Protect Gears". The film follows Kerberos member Kazuki Fuse who, after witnessing a young terrorist he was ordered to execute kill herself in a suicide bombing, meets Kei Amemiya, who claims to be the girl's sister; the film follows Fuse and Kei's relationship in the midst of a violent interservice rivalry between Kerberos and the Public Security Division, the Capital Police's intelligence unit.

The film premiered on November 17, 1999 in France and June 3, 2000 in Japan. Bandai Entertainment and Viz Media licensed the film for an English-language release in North America and Europe.^[when?] It has been relicensed in North America by Discotek Media, with a DVD released on April 29, 2014 followed by a Blu-ray on January 27, 2015. A live action Korean remake, Illang: The Wolf Brigade, was released in 2018, featuring a different setting and renamed characters but largely the same premise and plot events.

Plot[]

In an alternate 1950s Tokyo, the Self-Police respond to a riot in Akasaka that escalates into violence. In the storm sewers below, members of the Sect deliver Molotov cocktails and satchel charges to the rioters, aided by Nanami Agawa, a young Sect "Little Red Riding Hood" courier. When several riot policeofficers are incapacitated by a Sect-provided satchel charge, the Self-Police move in on the rioters, while the Capital Police deploys Special Armed Garrison "Kerberos" to neutralize the Sect cell; within seconds of Kerberos making contact, the terrorists are killed and their explosives are destroyed. Kerberos member Kazuki Fuse confronts Nanami as she is trying to escape, but freezes up when ordered to execute her instead of apprehend her. Rather than surrender, Nanami detonates her satchel charge, killing herself and causing a power outage that leads to the Self-Police losing control of the situation above. The incident damages Kerberos's reputation and deeply affects Fuse, who is reprimanded for his inaction and sentenced to redo training under drill instructor Hachiroh Tohbe.

A remorseful Fuse, acting on information from his friend, Public Security head Atsushi Hemni, visits Nanami's grave and meets Kei Amemiya, a girl who claims to be Nanami's older sister and does not hold him responsible for her demise; they quickly develop a bond. However, Kei is revealed to not be Nanami's sister, but a former "Little Red Riding Hood" courier coerced into acting on behalf of Public Security, who seek to dissolve Kerberos and merge with the Self-Police to shift their counterterrorism strategies from brute force to intelligence. Public Security attempts to use Kei to entrap Fuse at a museumwith the goal of discrediting Kerberos, but he sneaks in, incapacitates the Public Security agents, and escapes with Kei, evading the Self-Police. Kei reveals her role in the deception and suggests they run away together, but Fuse says he must stay, and they fall in love.

Fuse and Kei seek refuge in the same sewers from the riot shootout are met by members of "Jin-Roh" ("Wolf Brigade" in English), a secret deep-cover counterintelligence group led by Tohbe and Hajime Handa that protects Kerberos from organizational threats like Public Security. They provide Fuse with an MG 42 and a full set of Protect Gear, and reveal they knew of Kei's role and consider her living proof of Public Security's conspiracy, before leaving with Kei. Public Security special forces teams led by Hemni arrive, having followed a tracking device hidden in Kei's bag, but instead find a fully-armored Fuse, who kills the Public Security teams in a shootout and finishes off a mortally-wounded Hemni in a duel.

Fuse reunites with Kei and Jin-Roh in a junkyard, but is distraught when he is ordered to kill Kei to ensure she is never recaptured by Public Security. Kei embraces Fuse and sadly recites the dialogue of Little Red Riding Hood, describing the grotesque appearance of the wolf disguised as a loved one, before Fuse shoots and kills Kei. Horrified at what he had to do, but now having sacrificed his humanity, Fuse realizes he has no other choice but to remain part of the pack. Tohbe solemnly compares Kei's fate to the demise of Red Riding Hood and the triumph of the wolf.