Naked Wolves

Naked Wolves is a series that is highly dependent on an open mind to enjoy to the fullest. Using simple flash animation and a unique, yet simple story, it won't be for everyone, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth watching.

The story revolves around Arashi, a sumo wrestler who is traveling around the world gaining skills through the people he meets to obtain his ultimate goal, to be the grand sumo champion. In every episode Arashi is a new country/area of the world. The series starts off shaky in the United States, but soon becomes more stable as Arashi continues to travel.

The people Arashi meets ... are a very colorful bunch whom he learns many skills from, such as sumo wrestling moves and morals. Some of the characters are just portrayed downright silly, particularly the black people. They're designed in the stereotypical fashion, you know, giant afros and lips. This kind of blatant stereotype doesn't carry over into all races of the characters, which is a good thing. Because in all honestly, it is a little awkward watching some of the first episodes that take place in the US.

The animation is very simple flash animation, most of which are solid colors and thick lines. Personally, I feel that it still looks nice and fits in well with the quirky story. But I'm sure it will very easily turn most people off of the series.

As far as sound goes, the voice acting is done well for Arashi and the music is enjoyable. The voice acting for other characters of the series varies, as some of it is purposely done bad to be funny. It's obvious when they do this with the characters so it doesn't really detract from the overall appeal of the voice acting.

Despite the fact that the story is obvious, it IS intended for a younger audience. This doesn't mean that an older audience can't enjoy it though. Overall I really enjoyed this series and urge other people to give it a try. The entire series is only going to take up under 5 hours of your life. And just trying it will only waste 5 minutes of your time. The series is actually easy to find as well, so there's no reason not to give it a whirl.