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Loups=Garous The Motion Picture is a 2010 Post Cyber Punk anime movie directed by Junichi Fujisaku, based on a book by Natsuhiko Kyogoku. It is set in a world 20 Minutes into the Future, where everyone is constantly watched by an omnipresent surveillance system and mostly communicate online. Children are educated online, so schools are replaced by Community Centers that teach them how to socialise.

The story's protagonists are three girls assigned as a group and an unregistered citizen: shy and quiet Hazuki Makino, energetic Mio Tsuzuki, emotionless Ayumi Kouno and Action Girl Myao. A series of brutal murders occurs within the neighbourhood. As Yuko Yabe, the fourth member of the assigned group and a old-times anime fan, nearly becomes one of the victims, the girls come together to protect her and gradually develop a genuine friendship. However, the murderer keeps hunting them, easily manipulating police and the whole surveillance system. To survive, they have to uncover the truth behind the society's façade.

Now available on Hulu.


This movie provides examples of:

  • Adults Are Useless: Yuko's parents are only mentioned. They never show up or protect her in any way.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Regardless of whether you consider Ayumi to be a boy or a girl, Hazuki just had to have a crush on a knife wielding vigilante serial killer.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Big Bad is dead and won't eat little girls anymore, but society is still quite bleak, Big Brother is still watching, and Ayumi has to flee.
  • Bomb Throwing Anarchist: Mio built a weapon of mass destruction in her apartment, but never gets a chance to use it before her apartment itself gets taken out with a grenade.
  • Bowdlerise: ...Possibly? The English subs of the film refer to Ayumi as "he" and "him" from the beginning to end, but acknowledge in the flashback Ayumi has that the rapist / killer went after girls, and Ayumi's anatomy can be seen in it; it's hard to figure out whether they interpreted Ayumi as transgender — which is a possibility since Ayumi dresses differently than Mio and Hazuki even at school and in the film, at least, isn't referred to by the other characters by specific gender pronouns—or were just incredibly lazy or stubborn about changing the subs after figuring it out (...or possibly unable to wrap their heads around Hazuki having a crush on another girl). If viewed from the transgender angle, it might count as a Woolseyism to some.
  • Clarke's Third Law: Invoked in-universe by Mio: "In this world where people rely on the System for everything, I'm the equivalent of a magician. I can do whatever I want."
  • Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: Nakamura and Kawabata attack Yuko, but they turn out to be just two random psychopaths, not real culprits of serial murders.
  • Computer Equals Monitor: Evil cops at Hazuki's house, and then the girls themselves in SVC office.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Suzuki Keitarou.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Suzuki Keitarou tried to avoid this. He created his whole synthetic food empire to recreate the taste of human flesh. But it turned out that nothing can beat the original.
  • Death Equals Redemption:
    • Subverted. Suzuki Keitarou: "Will you release me from this curse?" Ayumi: "No. I'm only killing you."
    • Also subverted with Ayumi herself, despite her request for it.
  • Heel Realization: The man who raped Ayumi. She wasn't his only victim, and it was after attacking her that he felt remorse for his crimes and even gave her his knife in apology. Then she killed him.
  • Holding Hands: Ayumi and Hazuki, several times at the end.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: This is how Ayumi finds The Mole. She asks him what time it is now. He looks at his monitor (pocket computer) which means he knows that she doesn't have one.
  • Insecurity Camera: Mio: "The problem with this magic is that it can fool the mechanical eyes, but it can't fool human eyes."
  • "Rashomon"-Style: The opening scene of Nakamura and Kawabata assaulting Yuko is retold four times from different angles.
  • She's a Man in Japan: Gender-flipped. In the Sentai Filmworks licensed DVD release of the film, Ayumi is referred to in the dub and subs as male and in the dub is voiced by a male actor.
  • Stab the Salad: Mio does it when she first enters Hazuki's house. Later the scene is repeated, but now the knife is held by an actual killer.
  • Start of Darkness: Ayumi's backstory. She was raped by a maniac. Then he cried, apologised to her and gave her the knife he used to assault girls. She killed him, accepting her new self as a cold-blooded murderer, Loups Garous
  • Super-Deformed: In-universe. Yuko is a fan of old-style anime, she even draws all the girls as a group of super-deformed characters.
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: In a way. Ayumi has golden eyes and identifies as a Loups Garous, a werewolf, despite being human.
  • Supervillain Lair: Lampshaded by Mio: "The center of this world. In other words, it's where the villain is."
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Robots chase and encircle Ayumi and Hazuki, but do not attack until they finish their conversation.
  • Technology Marches On: In-universe. "You mean the celluloid videos from the past century, right? They were called ani-something."
  • Tempting Fate: Mio: "In this robot, a car could hit me, and there wouldn't be a single scratch." Right after this she is pulled out of it silly.
  • Title Drop: Ayumi calls herself Loups Garous.
  • Un-person: Unregistered people. "If they never really existed, right from the beginning, the police won't do anything if they disappear."

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