A Collection of Shorts that Start the Wolf-verse
Sections:
About
Tags
Warnings
Synopsis
Review
Results
About:
Author(s)
Artist(s)
Platform(s)/Publisher(s)
Media Type(s) Available:
Length:
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Tags:
Tropes
Genres
Relationships
Jobs/Professions
Settings
Unique Character Types
Specific Acts
Explicitness
Additional Content
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series The Wolf Howls for Love. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to prejudice, arranged marriage, self-deprecation, bullying, implied rape or sexual assault, forced bonding, death, starvation, being orphaned, adoption, power imbalance, overwork, pseudo-incest (adopted siblings), mentions of sex work, manipulation, age gap, classism, mentions of religion, and dehumanization, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
In this kingdom, there is a legend. A black wolf and a white deer fell in love with each other. Over time, their descendants took on human form. With the blood of wolves running through their veins, the people of the Wolf Kingdom live among wolves, speaking and working with them as if they are human, too. Almost everyone in the kingdom is born as a “wolf,” identified by their black hair, but on a rare occasion, a child may be born with white hair. These individuals are known as “white deer.”
The white deer are revered, treated almost like gods, the moment they are born. Wolves are immediately drawn to white deer, almost as if it were a curse passed down from their ancestors, but the white deer are sequestered at the palace, married solely to royalty, regardless of gender.
This is a collection of shorts set in this world.
Review:
I usually like to start off with the art in my reviews, but there are a few key quality issues that I want to mention. The care on the edit for this title is abysmal. This is BL, 100%. Every couple features two men falling in love, and they all identify as men, but the website description refers to one of the main characters as “she” (probably because that character is named Sara). Now, I would usually have just skipped this title entirely because if the description isn’t even right, what about the inside (and there are similar issues inside, unfortunately)? However, this is the start of a series of multiple titles that I was so interested in that I felt compelled to give it a shot anyway. Now, at the time of writing this, I’ve read the entire series. This is by far the worst title across the series, and while I do think you should still read it to see where it all began, overall, this title has very little bearing on the series. So, skip it if you just can’t handle such glaring and repetitive issues.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s finally dive into the art. As I mentioned before, I’ve read the entire series at this point. I love seeing how any artist’s art has changed over time, and this series is perfect for that because comparing this to the last title in the series is like night and day. This thing is ugly. I’m just going to be straight up about it. It is wonky beyond belief, and the wolves look like they were stamped in with rubber stamps (think like the wolves on those awesome 90s early 00s t-shirts). Consistent faces are not a thing here, and add in wonky crooked eyes and sloping faces in profile, and this is just a visual mess. If you need good art, you don’t need to read this.
Unfortunately, the stories don’t get much better. Looking back, I am kinda amazed that I made it through this one to read the rest of the series because it is so rough across the board, but here we are. This is comprised of three separate stories, connected only by their shared universe. This is approximately 166 pages long, and that is just not enough time to tell three cohesive stories, especially with a medium to high fantasy concept. A lot of words are thrown around like “bonding,” “mates,” and such, which call back to things like omegaverse, so it isn’t entirely outside the realm of understanding, but the bearing these concepts have on the world isn’t all that fleshed out.
For example, the first story features a wolf and his white deer companion. They are going to be mates, which is this nebulous term for a partner or spouse. Now, due to a very stupid misunderstanding, it is implied that the wolf possibly rapes or sexually assaults the deer. Then, there are mentions of dissolving the bond and such, implying that this assault has solidified their relationship in some way that goes beyond just a vow or ceremony. This is never fully explained, even in future titles, and the rules of what forms a bond or a mate-ship seem more flexible than what is initially presented. Similarly, there is this indication that mates are drawn to each other in a fated mate type thing, though the fated mate trope is also sorta nebulous and not all that concrete. Fantasy elements like this just need more time, and, unfortunately, because they are all established in this poor-quality collection, they are never truly solidified, even in future entries.
One quick aside before I close out this review: this has little to no sex. There is some implied assault, implied sex, and then some softcore scenes way at the end in the extra. So, if you need on-page smut, you will be disappointed by this entry.
Results:
Admittedly, I probably would’ve been much more forgiving of this particular title had I not seen how much better it gets in future entries, but here we are. You can tell this was just a quick spew of ideas in a tentative world, and I am so glad it exists because it has led to some good stuff later on. However, this is a tough one to get through. I almost don’t want to mention it because I feel people will be so turned off by this one that they won’t be willing to try future entries, but I want to give a cohesive overview of the entire series. This is a rough start, but it is how we all start when getting into something new. Feel free to judge it as it is, but don’t let this scare you off from giving this creator’s other titles a try (stick around because I will be reviewing them, too).
Have you read The Wolf Howls for Love? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
