Wolf Guy

Wolf Guy (ウルフガイ, Urufu Gai) is a Japanese manga series of two volumes published in 1970 by Bunkasha. Originally written by Kazumasa Hirai and illustrated by Hisashi Sakaguchi (坂口尚), the series has been readapted with a more violent and mature setting in 2007 by Yoshiaki Tabata and Yuuki Yugo. This new adaptation, also known as Wolf Guy: Ōkami no Monshō, has been released as twelve volumes by Akita Shoten.

A live-action film adaptation, titled Ōkami no Monshō was released in 1973.

Plot

Akira Inugami is a new exchange student at Hakutoku Middle School, but there is another side of him that is secret and hidden. He is a werewolf.

The story begins with the Homeroom teacher Akiko Aoshika walking home drunk, suddenly trips and is saved by Akira Inugami who then proceeds to walk away. Ms. Aoshika sees that he is a student and pursues him only to be jumped by Inugami's old school rivals. The gang attacks Inugami without mercy and seems beat him to death and yet he keeps getting back up. They then hit him with a car and he appears dead, they began to ruffle through his pockets. Ms. Aoshika faints soon after witnessing it and then Inugami takes his true form, the form of a Werewolf and destroys the gang. When Ms. Aoshika awakes, she finds the gang dead around her and is escorted to her school by the police only to find that Inugami is her new exchange student.

(Note: This plot by Tabata and Yugo differs greatly from the original novel written by Kazumasa Hirai.)

Characters

Akira Inugami (Inugami Akira 犬神 明)

The main protagonist of the story. A Japanese-American exchange student enrolled where Akiko Aoshika works. He is constantly bullied and abused by gang members (whom he usually ends up killing or maiming). His parents were killed when he was young by hunters, mainly because of their werewolf lineage, and was raised by a pack of wolves he had befriended. He can transform into a werewolf in his own will. He is quite powerful during full moons and is weak only during the days of new moons. He is shown to be quite intelligent in matters that concern him. It is said that the reason he is bullied so badly is that, as a werewolf, normal humans have a natural subconscious fear of him. However, it is also shown that the student council, who betrayed him following the shooting and caused him to leave school, are wracked with guilt over their actions following Inugami's "death". He leaves school following a shooting perpetrated by Haguro's lackey, blaming himself for the event. In the manga's closing chapter, Akira decides to stop taking the abuse of humans, seeing them all (with the exception of Akiko) as demons and beasts, and gleefully slaughters Haguro's men. He is taken to a private research center in Arizona after killing Haguro and is experimented on with apparently no hope of escape, but in the last few panels Akira breaks the bonds holding him, implying that he will eventually escape and reunite with Akiko in Alaska.

Akiko Aoshika (Aoshika Akiko 青鹿 晶子)

The female protagonist in the story. She is a homeroom teacher who met Inugami prior to his introduction in her class. She was saved from being gang-raped at the first part of the manga by Akira Inugami; much to her surprise, Inugami is later transferred to her classroom. She was a victim of rape when she was young, and was divorced from her husband. She escapes to Alaska after the final battle with Haguro and begins to live with several werewolves hiding in the wild, waiting for Akira to find her.

Dou Haguro (Haguro Dou 羽黒 獰)

He is the main antagonist in the manga. Son of Tōmei yakuza group, Haguro is also a genius with an extremely well built body and super human reflexes. Though he initially comes on as emotionless and merciless, after a confrontation with Inugami's true form (and powers), Haguro loses his mind and becomes obsessed with Inugami and his complete destruction, to the point where he can only have sex with his girlfriend while thinking about Akira or carving the word "mutt" into his flesh. Indeed, in their short "fight", Haguro was helpless and felt very humiliated, he who was since birth considered a monster by everyone he met, finally came across a "real monster" with real super powers. He then proceed on committing several horrible acts throughout the series, including two rapes and one of the highest death toll of the cast. He can also be seen as a very gifted individual, who despite his character and crimes, give a good representation of both the best and the worst of Humanity. He even stated that fighting the Werewolf with "materialistic weapons" was a stupid idea, and that what was needed was spiritual strength, henceforth a samurai sword, with which he happens to be very prominent. Haguro holds complex feelings for Inugami Akira, both an innate hatred and strange love tainted with jealousy. For him, slaying Inugami is a responsibility toward Humanity (since he may very well be the only human with strength and determination to oppose Inugami and the possible wave of disaster that would come from his blood), but also a way to return to being a monster. During their final fight, Haguro devours several of Akira's fingers, gaining a fraction of his power in the process, he also realizes that he wants to eat Akira so that they may "become one", finally accepting that he loves Akira. After Akira transformed into a wolf with bright white fur (apparently created by his love for Akiko), Haguro instinctively hugs Inugami but by doing that, he impales himself with his own katana, which had been rammed through Akira's abdomen. He makes a final plea for Akira to become one with him, but he dies before hearing Akira's answer and is dragged into hell by the souls of those he killed.

References

External links

• Wolf Guy (OVA) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Ōkami no Monshō at the Internet Movie Database