‘Jin Roh’ Is a Vision of What Can Be

“Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade” mixes elements of the European folk tale “Little Red Riding Hood” into a dark story of deception and betrayal in the Japanese anime style. Written by Mamoru Oshii, director of the cult favorite “Ghost in the Shell,” and directed by Hiroyuki Okiura, who worked as a key animator on “Akira,” “Jin-Roh” offers a violent but compelling vision of what an animated feature can be.

The story takes place in a fictionalized version of the recent past when a repressive, militaristic Japanese government is engaged in an armed struggle with a revolutionary organization known as the Sect. These anti-government activists use adolescent girls dubbed “Red Riding Hoods” as couriers. When an elite anti-terrorist unit of the Capitol Police wipes out a group of radicals in the tunnels beneath Tokyo, Constable Kazuki Fuse (voice by Michael Dobson) balks at gunning down Nanami Agawa (Maggie Blue O’Hare), one of the Red Riding Hoods. The girl stares him down, then commits suicide by detonating a powerful explosive device.

Unable to explain why he was unable to kill Nanami, Fuse is ordered to undergo extensive retraining. At Nanami’s tomb, he meets her older sister, Kei Amemiya (Moneca Stori), and a gentle, repressed romance begins to blossom. But their meeting was not the coincidence it initially seemed to be: Rival factions in the government and police are attempting to manipulate Fuse and Kei. This web of plots and counterplots centers on the possibility that Fuse may be a “wolf,” a member of a covert cabal rumored to exist within the Capitol Police. (The literal translation of “Jin-Roh” is man-wolf ).

The film is drawn in a comic-book style that recalls the work of the popular graphic novelist-film designer Jean “Moebius” Giraud. The limited animation often looks as if it were copied from live-action reference footage: Realistic human movements are notoriously difficult to draw. Okiura’s skillful cutting and eye for striking imagery give the film a power that transcends the animation’s limits. The dark, claustrophobic tunnels recall “Les Miserables,” and key moments in the story unfold against backgrounds that evoke a richer but faded past: a rusting wrought iron grate, an abandoned playground, an urban junkyard where the shadows shift beneath the rising sun.

Viewers unfamiliar with Japanese animation will find “Jin-Roh” utterly unlike American animated features. Although “Titan A.E.” and “Atlantis” show the growing influence of anime , both films offer comic sidekicks and happy endings. Okiura refuses to the lighten the darkness inherent in Oshii’s story, and the result is a grim, brooding film of exceptional power.

Unrated. Times guidelines: considerable violence, profanity, suitable for teens.

‘Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade’

Michael Dobson: Kazuki Fuse

Maggie Blue O’Hare: Nanami Agawa

Moneca Stori: Kei Amemiya

Bandai Entertainment and Viz Communications present a Bandai Visual and Production IG production, released by Viz Films/Tidepoint Pictures. Director Hiroyuki Okiura. Producers Tsutomu Sugita, Hidekazu Terakawa. Executive producers Shigeru Watanabe, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa. Screenplay by Mamoru Oshii, translated by Kevin Mckeown, English dialogue by Kevin Mckeown, Robert Chomiack. Animation director Kenji Kamiyama. Cinematographer Hisao Shirai. Editor/post-production supervisor Shuichi Kakesu. Music Hajime Mizoguchi. Art director Hiromasa Ogura. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

Exclusively at the Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A., (310) 478-6379, and the University Cinemas, 4245 Campus Drive, Irvine, (949) 854-8811.