Profile
H O W L I N G T O T H E M O O N
P L A Y E R
☓ Name: Vilani // Juu
☓ Personal journal: vilani
☓ Age: 22
☓ Other characters in The Devils See: N/A
☓ Email: vilani21 @hotmail.com
☓ AIM/MSN/Yahoo! Messenger: chocogun (aim)
C H A R A C T E R
☓ Name: Toboe
☓ Series: Wolf's rain
☓ Reference: Wiki
☓ Canon point: After he died
☓ Age: His illusion looks 14, but he is 2 years old.
☓ Personality:
Toboe ("Howling") is the youngest of the group, often acting more like a puppy than an adult wolf (even if, by definition, he would be considered an adult already). Toboe was raised as a pet by "Granny", and like any tamed animal, for that reason he lacks the capability to survive alone, being attacked by crows and even cats, which he came to hate. When his owner passed away, not only he had to deal with them, but he lived off human kindness, scavenging and raiding garbage cans, in order to find some food and survive. He also lived outside, possibly sleeping on the streets over dark corners where he could not be found by others.
Granny is indeed quite important. Granny taught Toboe humans' kindness. She taught him to love and trust, to protect and care. She was his mother, after all. Like I said, after Granny - Toboe's owner - died, he basically was forced to live on the streets, but not even that taught him to actually live; Granny's death didn't truly teach Toboe much besides the fact that he was now alone.
However, he lived with this woman for at least half year and grew much attached to her; his purpose was to always protect her, but seeing that she died, he felt like he had failed her for it. That was one of the biggest reasons why Toboe tried to protect the people he met during his journey (Tsume, Quent, Cheza). He wanted to protect them, because he wasn't able to protect his owner, he wanted to make up for that mistake.
Without her, Toboe felt quite... lonely. He did have his pack and was truly happy with them, but we see how much he needs an owner for his actions towards Quent, or even his talk with Blue (Quent's dog) at the end. When the old man was hurt, he even touched him shyly - Toboe does want an owner and sees in Quent what Granny was.
Another important detail is Toboe's four silver bracelets on his arm. Granny gave him those and also had four as well, and Toboe never EVER left them. This is a sign he will always remember the woman who raised him from pup and the tingling sound will forever remind him who really wants.
At the end of the show when he died, even though Toboe had always desired to be with his pack and was after Quent as if he wanted him to be Granny's replacement, in his Paradise we only see one person: Granny. She is Toboe's true Paradise. She is the one that filled his heart with kindness and love, and she is the one who indeed shaped him the most.
Toboe maintains an affection for humans that none of the other wolves can understand (with the exception of Blue), enough to even save Quent from freezing to death in the snow by sharing his body warmth with him, despite the fact that Quent several times tried to shoot him; he has also shown the desire to stay with the human Indian tribe, Hmon-tribe, not only because he felt that he was no good for his own group, but also because he did enjoy this harmony between humans and animals, considering that his Paradise. Other episode was when he tried to get close to Leara, and even thought he knew she was dead scared of him, he approached her a second and last time before she betrayed him by warning the guards about who he was.
He is a bit reckless too and doesn't seem to measure his own strength, which perhaps taught him not to use his strength at all (at first, before meeting his pack; later on, he does use it). In an act of playfulness, Toboe shoved his owner "Granny" down and suffocated her with licks, not even understanding he was going too far. The same happened with Leara's bird, when he tried to catch it for her, but ended up killing the bird unintentionally.
He is quite social, actually, depending on others a lot, and following those who once showed kindness to him (mostly Tsume, who saved him twice). Because of his young age, Toboe tends to get attached to people easily, and so much that he'll forgive them even acts of betrayal, like what happened in Hige's case who gave his pack away to Jagara. When close to those he likes, Toboe seems to be much more outgoing, than when he's alone, talking back at Hige, pouting, playing; when he is alone, he'll revert to his puppy-self state even in matters of naivety which was, again, seen when he tried to aproach Leara. While, it’s easy to see how much insecurity there are under the pup’s fur, when he's with his pack, Toboe seems to grow a bit more, trying to look more independent, strong, and capable, sometimes being able to do so, even.
These attempts to be more of a wolf can actual mix with stubbornness; often when he's faced with his own incompetence and weakness, Toboe will without delay overcome that. Ultimately, it he ended killing a giant walrus, all due to his desire to be someone his pack could also rely on. The same with Tsume, as he tried to show him he could protect him as well (from the episode when they were attacked by a guard robot), or when Hige teased the pup. Toboe is actually strong and he can survive, he just doesn't have the right stimuli for him to try it. His soft heart doesn't help, like what happened with Quent several times, but on the other hand, that can change if it's necessary. A good example is that Toboe attacks a human from Jagara's army in order to reach her city, without even really worrying that much. While most likely he did not kill the human, Toboe was focused on being a wolf then, and his wolf self told him to save Cheza.
Toboe looks up to Tsume and usually follows him when the group splits up, however as the pack connection grows stronger and stronger, this doesn't happen all the time. It is true that he and Tsume have the strongest bound, and it is true Toboe looks up to Tsume as someone he wishes to be more like, the pup realizes that the grey wolf may be a bit too stubborn at times and also wrong. He tries to soften the pack's aggression when times of tension arise, and tries not to stick to any side, being the bridge that will allow the other three to become closer with time (this mostly happens between Tsume and Kiba); the bounds grow stronger because Toboe seems to be set on making everyone getting a long no matter what. Though, when Kiba left (during the desert episode), he partially seemed to wish to forget about that important role, and wanted to stay behind with the indian tribe. Only after he came to realize that he needed his pack, and his pack needed him.
But it's not only towards his pack. Before Toboe's death, he too followed Quent exactly to do the same; while the man had cast Blue away, Toboe follows him to make him change his mind and try the human to accept his dog back since she loved him very much. Toboe wants everyone together, no matter what, and will try his best to keep that happened, if they are wolves or even if they are humans.
They red wolf is quite patient and sweet. He has a high tolerance and he is also very forgiving, as mentioned several times. About Quent, about Hige, or about Tsume who often is mean to him, Toboe is very friendly towards most. However, he is also protective, so if someone attacks his pack and friends, he will not forgive nor forget (like Darcia during the whole show). He is a real guard dog, in many aspects, and he is loyal towards those who deserve his loyalty.
Even if sad words hurt him, even if mean words bother him, that will not change Toboe's vision towards someone. He will show it, though. He doesn't hide his sadness or his insecurities, his happiness and his pride. Being so young, he will wag his tail when he feels like it, and he'll lower his ears when being scolded. Not only he can't keep hide his emotions, Toboe can't lie very well, nor keep secrets since he never had any need to. His trust in others also helps this, of course.
Above all, he is the positive one from the whole pack, right after Hige. During the whole show it's told us that wolves by instinct want to reach Paradise, but the puppy is so giddy and excited about it that perhaps sometimes looks as if he's following because it's fun to keep with others. It's to remember it's not always like this, because the pack faced many hardships. Even so, he will keep on following and blindly believing Kiba with no question asked. After the Hmon Tribe told him similar words, this faith that Paradise existed not only was renewed, but grew stronger.
But not strong enough to overcome his need to protect the others, which culminated with his death, when he tried to protect Quent from Darcia.
☓ Abilities:
He is specially doted in earing and the Full moon not only seems to give them strength as well as helping them to heal. He is also shown using herbs to heal Kiba, so he must have some kind of knowledge for those. Toboe, aside being a special kind of wolf, does have another special ability: he can form an illusion to look human, but it's really complicated to explain it, so I've made a especial note about it here.
☓ Weaknesses:
His naivety is his biggest problem. Toboe is too friendly and sweet, and while forgiving, that may get him into trouble (he did save Quent a couple of times, and even so Quent always tried to kill him); he believes in people and while in a way it can be good, it showed him a couple of time it wasn't always. Then we have his lack of "wildness"; while he has lived alone for a while, Toboe depended on charity and luck to survive, not using his skills - truefact, the pup doesn't know how to use his wolf skills at all and seems to lack his wolf instinct (not always true, Toboe DOES have wolf instinct, he just doesn't realize it himself).
☓ Strengths:
Toboe's strength is his ability to keep everyone together; that is, after all, his most important role. Without him, his pack would probably have fallen and break up, so his presence and words are very needed for all the four (later on, five, including Blue) wolves. Another of his strengths is his loyalty; Toboe would never leave anyone and he is very loyal to his pack, to a point of being selfless (when he thought he was just a nuisance for his pack and wanted to stay behind with the indian tribe, or ultimately, when he gave his life trying to save Quent).
☓ Background:
The world has been destroyed and we've fallen countless times, always resurrecting from the ashes as Paradise. It has happened before, and it will happen again. An endless cycle of life and death. The world is a Paradise that was opened by someone, but this era too is almost at an end. We have acquired the means to exceed our natural span of life, never suspecting that the world itself was finalized in its existence. As if to be purified, the world will be encased in ice so that it can return to the beginning once more. Paradise is a world that is opened by someone...
To understand all of Wolf’s Rain background, we need to start from the beginning. Please, MAJOR spoilers ahead, seeing that I’ll need to tell all about Toboe’s journey, and therefore the anime itself. Long before the world was what it is, people put civilization into full bloom using an extraordinary alchemy that would open doorways to the stars, and even the gateway of time and space. But it all disappeared in one flicker of time. It's unknown what happened but most of the people disappeared, and the remaining mysteries of alchemy came to be possessed solely by the nobles, while the rest of the people were left in the dark. This happened 200 years ago, when wolves became extinct.
Using this alchemy, Darcia Family, created Lunar Flowers and Flowermen, the guides to Paradise, at a resort called Aerial. But only one was perfect, only one wasn’t a failure, Cheza; she is a crystal of alchemy, called the Flower's maiden that was born from the Lunar Flower.
Along with all of Darcia’s research, a forbidden book was written by the Noble Darcia the first; it was the beginning of Darcia Clan, with a collection of the most advanced alchemy at the time and the research the noble did. All of it was a mean to get to Paradise, by creating a Lunar Flower with human form, which would be the guide to Paradise. In the book is mentioned the Legend of the red moon - the great God gave birth to wolves and they are his messengers, and wolves gave birth to mankind. When the world is ending, the moon will turn red and die, and the wolves will once again go back to Paradise.
Darcia the first was lost, though; believing to have opened Paradise - perhaps a fake one, because the world didn't "die" (it's actually not supposed to die, just restart) -, 200 years ago (matching to the disappearance of the rest of the alchemy and the extinction of the wolves, though if these two matters are related is never told), he disappeared into that mysterious place and due to his grandfather's curse, Darcia the third became plagued with the eye of a wolf. Along that, a disease also appeared which took Darcia the third's lover, Hamona. It's called the Paradise disease - in which her soul is "taken by Paradise" being forever bound to that place, causing her to fall into a coma.
Years later after her creation, Cheza was stolen by the Oakum Clan and given to a lab, in Freeze city. The Noble Oakum stole Cheza in order to remain in power and gave it for the scientists on Freeze City, like Cher (who during the whole anime tried to chase after Cheza), for them to study; though there was no actual information since it remained all within Darcia's castles. Not much is told us about Toboe’s past, but seeing he is so young, there might not even be much to it either way. Toboe was found by “Granny”, a nice old lady that also had four bracelets on her left wrist, when he had just opened his eyes, at the entrance of Freeze City. It’s not known to us how he got there, but seeing he was such a young baby, most likely it was his mother that came to the city looking for the scent of the Flower’s Maiden, Cheza.
Granny took care of Toboe, raising him as a dog, which explains his friendliness and love towards humans as well as his need to be near one. Unfortunately, in an act of unrestrained playfulness when she was feeding him, Toboe jumped on the old woman, ending up suffocating her. Possibly not realizing at first, soon Toboe found out he was, for the first time, alone; it was hard on him, seeing that, having been a dog for so long, Toboe did not know how to hunt nor he had capability to survive alone, being attacked by crows and even cats, which he came to hate.
The anime starts with the appearance of the four wolves that would form the strange pack in research for Paradise. Toboe is shown to us as a young wolf, lacking any survival ability, being bullied by cats and crows as he looked for food inside the trash cans. Alone, he appears to have the strong desire to become again a pet, his target being a young girl named Leara, who had offered him food before. During this time, he also met for the first time another wolf, Tsume, but before both could get to know each other, an old man, Quent, who, along with his dog Blue, chased wolves believing that they were the responsible for the death of his family appeared - tsume ended up saving Toboe.
Possibly a day later, or even the same afternoon, hoping to impress Leara, Toboe ran after her bird, ending up killing it; sadden by this, his human illusion disappeared showing to the girl his real form of an animal - once again he was saved by Tsume, who grabbed him out of there.
That same night, several events happened that culminated with Cheza being taken the first time by Darcia the third; Kiba and Hige (also two wolves) came after her and they ended up meeting Toboe and Tsume; that’s when the whole pack is first heard about the search for Paradise and the feeling they are born with, as well how the smell of the Lunar Flower allured them to that cold place. They left all of the four together to search for the Guide to Paradise, Cheza.
Among their journey, several character relations are demonstrated; Tsume who always refused to believe Kiba’s words of Paradise, leaves the pack and Toboe follows. Both would get attacked by a machine, and saved by Kiba and Hige at the end. They also reached an old dirty city, where the faint smell of Lunar Flowers grew and there they met a pack of wolves who had given up hope of finding that place all wolves born desiring; this episode was for us to understand mostly the kind of relation the pack grows to have, Kiba as heir leader, and Toboe, Tsume (even if very reluctantly) and Hige, following his words of hope.
The most important time was when they finally reached Ariel City, where Darcia had brought Cheza. Escaping from him as Darcia tried to fight off Lord Oakum’s troops, the Flower Maiden falls down from the skies, finally showing herself to the four wolves, who immediately felt themselves a blinding attraction to her. Saving them from Darcia and Lord Oakum’s guards, Cheza from the start set her mind on showing the pack the way to Paradise, even if never told about it by them; unfortunately the journey was never easy. Along with their two current problems, another one was added: Quent and Blue showed up to Arerial City as well. They escaped through "Forest of Death", a place where with a strange electro-magnetic field that renders computers and machines useless and that causes humans (and even the wolves themselves) to get hopelessly lost and during a full moon night, Cheza showed them the path to paradise, made by Lunar flowers that grew from the ground.
But Darcia didn’t forget his original objective or retrieving Cheza, and he comes up after getting rid of his enemy’s troops, hurting the wolves and taking the Flower girl away - during this, while not directly related to the wolves, Lord Oakum is murdered by another noble, Jagara who too wanted Cheza. Why the nobles wanted the Flower’s Maiden is mostly because they were hoping to open Paradise themselves, though the wolves mentioned that paradise as fake; Darcia, though, merely wanted Paradise so he could save Hamona, who’d later on be killed by her sister Jagara when Darcia was still chasing the Flower’s Maiden.
As the four wolves tried to rest from the last attack, Blue - Quent’s dog who was actually half wolf - showed to them in her human form. Having hunted Tsume and Toboe before, both of them refused her in the pack, but soon they changed their minds, once again setting out towards Darcia’s castle to rescue Cheza. Regrettably during a snow blizzard, Toboe and Blue soon stay behind, and even if Kiba refused to do so, Hige and Tsume decided to rest for the night as well. Seeing Darcia was the one having Cheza now, Jagara’s troops, Quent (who was actually looking for Blue), Cher and her ex-husband, Hubb, also reached the castle.
The white wolf leader was indeed the first to arrive at Darcia’s castle and fought the Noble, but before blood was spilled, the rest of the pack arrived. Sadly, once more Cheza is capture by Jagara, and once more the wolves lose her; Blue stays with her this time (also captured by Jagara’s troops), though, and Kiba is no where to be found, reducing the pack from five to three wolves.
Unable to find Kiba, Hige, Tsume, and Toboe consider giving up the search for him and for Paradise when Toboe finds Quent lying half-frozen in the snow. Despite Tsume and Hige being against this, he decides to stay behind to warm him up, in the promise he’d meet the two older wolves later on. After leaving Quent, Toboe is attacked by Iyek, a member of the Hmong tribe, by mistake; soon the three wolves learn about how this tribe and the fact consider wolves their friends (as well messengers of Earth Mother God, like the Ancient told explained them; this story is very related to the writings on the forbidden book written by Darcia the first, 200 years ago) and are on edge because Jagara's troops have been attacking their tribe's dogs.
After this, Toboe actually shows interest on staying with humans; since he remember he longed to live with them and be accepted by them, something that the Hmong tribe could give him and that he considered Paradise. Only after they found Kiba again, on the verge of death, the pup changed his mind, accepting to follow and promising he wouldn’t whine no more and he’d try to be strong for his pack mates. Yet, before leaving, he requests Iyek to go help Quent, who was left behind in the snow.
A small note to make things understandable at this point is that Blue was able to break free, and soon she joins Cher, both rushing towards Jagara’s city by themselves; Cheza and now Cher’s husband are still under capture and arrived the city sooner.
The wolves’ current position is at the “Ice Sea”, and like the name says, it’s a sea of drift ice, where they come to find a huge graveyard; drawn by the smell of blood coming from Toboe’s arm - who refused to admit he got hurt, since he wanted to be strong and capable - suddenly a giant walrus breaks up through the ice and attacks the pack. Toboe freezes at first, with fear, not able to do much, but then something inside him grows and finally snaps and he rushes in, biting the walrus in the eye and refusing to let go; the giant animal tries to release itself from Toboe, by running into icebergs or diving deep in the cold water, but as if Toboe’s instincts awaken, he didn’t let go until finally the walrus gave up, wounded. It dies, and Toboe is the one to take the first bite, an honour for him since it meant that Toboe made his first kill and was finally recognized as capable by the other three older wolves.
The pack reaches Jagara’s city, but when trying to sneak inside, Tsume and Toboe ended up getting arrested by the Noble’s troops. Kiba is actually caught too, during this, and Hige is found later on to actually belong to the Noble as a “spy”; he looked for wolves, joining them and his colour acting as a locator for the cruel woman to find the wolves. After finding Blue, he broke free of his collar and rushed towards the castle, leaving the female wolf behind.
Jagara’s plan is to use Kiba’s blood - seeing that he is the “chosen wolf” as she calls him - and to open Paradise herself, so she and Darcia can live there forever together. Darcia himself is already there too to fight her for having killed Hamona, and as Tsume and Toboe tried to get free from their cells, Hige comes to save them. Even if Tsume shows anger towards the older wolf for betraying them, Toboe actually shows forgiveness; he loved his pack mate and believed he was really trying to make up for his own mistakes.
As Kiba finally breaks free too, and the whole pack meets at the grand room, where Jagara, Darcia, Cheza, Cher and Hubb were as well. During the fight, Hige gets hurt, but Darcia ends up killing the Noble woman. As the castle starts to break down, the wolves escape from there, along with Cheza, now setting out to find Paradise once more.
Now again on the run towards Paradise, the wolves are being also accompanied by Cher and Hubb (who go along by car), who are trying to help; during their trip, they’d end up meeting Blue and Quent, who got hurt run over by a car. This scene shows us how Toboe actually does care for him, even if a wolf; perhaps even shows some jealousy of Blue for the fact that she has him as her owner, and promises her he is going to protect old man with all of his. Unfortunately, this will end up his fall.
After losing Cher (yes, she did die, probably the saddest death during the whole anime) and the car, Quent wakens up and even if hurt, his hatred for the wolves is enough for him to stand up and stagger away, yet Toboe follows him in order to keep his promise to Blue and to try to convince him to return back with him.
During this, Darcia shows up, and after the noble declares them unfit to enter Paradise, Darcia and Quent open fire on each other, but Toboe leaps into the line of fire in order to protect the old wounded man. After noticing what he has done, Quent drops his gun and is shot by Darcia. The gravely-wounded Toboe staggers over to Quent, and he pets Toboe as he realizes that Toboe kept him warm when he was freezing.
The puppy ends up dying besides the man.