I finally bought Jin-Roh, mostly because I couldn’t find anything else to buy, and I’m glad I did.

            Jin-Roh is a movie set to the undertones of a version of Red Riding Hood that’s not as familiar as the usual told. This movie takes place in a time where Japan lost WWII to the Germans instead of the Allied forces. This can be seen throughout the film in weapons, environments and vehicles. Jin-Roh is about a member of a special unit run by the government and what happens after he refuses to kill a demonstrator and almost gets himself and his teammates killed when she sets off the bomb she is carrying. He then finds the dead girl’s sister and becomes involved in a plot to destroy the special unit.

            My description is not very good, and you may have to watch the movie a couple times to get the whole gist. The movie is animated with old school, hand-drawn animation, and it looks wonderful. Not only is this some of the best animation I’ve seen, it’s some of the best artwork I’ve seen.

            Jin-Roh is not an anime you want to watch if you don’t like stuff like Princess Mononoke or Wings of Mayonnaise, so don’t be disappointed if you get it in hopes of a super action show and it isn’t. Personally, I was surprised when I was convinced to play the movie for a room of guys who I thought would be bored with it shortly and ask for it to be shut off, but I guess its goodness won out. Also, I’d read in a different review that the constant Red Riding Hood references were a bit too much, but I think that person said that because they saw it as a movie that used Red Riding Hood to give it more depth, while I see it as Red Riding Hood that uses the movie to re-tell it’s story.