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The movie follows a man named Fuse, a member of an elite
anti-terrorist unit, as he deals with his painful past and
attempts to reconcile his humanity with the necessarily violent
nature of his job. Part love story, part political drama,
part fairy tale (the movie draws heavily on the original Little
Red Riding Hood story), Jin-Roh succeeds on many levels.
It is a very intelligent film for mature, thinking audiences.
I saw Jin-Roh in the theater and noticed at least a
half dozen people leave during "talking" scenes.
Perhaps this is because there was no sex or explosions every
five minutes. In any case, this just reinforced my belief
that most American moviegoers are shallow and narrow-minded,
and cannot appreciate a work of art if it smacks them in the
face.
A little on the technical end. Visually, Jin-Roh contains
the most accomplished traditional cel animation I have ever
seen, and it is probably the last of its kind, as more and
more CG is used in the production of anime these days. It
also contains some truly haunting orchestral music composed
by Hajime Mizuguchi, who worked on the Escaflowne soundtrack
with Yoko Kanno (who, incidentally, plays piano for Jin-Roh's
soundtrack).
A final note of interest: there are two live-action movies
(directed by Mamoru Oshii) set in the Jin-Roh universe:
Jigoku no Banken: Kerubersu (Stray Dogs) and
Jigoku no Banken: Akai Megane (The Scarlet Spectacles).
There is also a six-part manga, Kenrou Densetsu (Kerberos
Panzer Cop); it is published in English under the name
Hellhounds: Panzer Cops by Dark Horse Comics.
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