This page is for the characters from the 2005 film adaptation.
Note: For the page about the characters from the CGI series which differs from the manga and feature film counterparts, see this page.
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The Goats
Mei
Mei the Goat.
Voiced By Hiroki Narimiya
A goat from the Sawasawa Mountains. While the gender is unmentioned in the original books, Mei is depicted as a male goat in the film.- Agony of the Feet: When him and Gabu are hiding from the wolves, Beach accidentally steps on Mei's foot, and Gabu quickly puts his paw over Mei's mouth to shush him so they won't be heard.
- Ambiguous Gender: In the books; the film makes him male.
- Beast and Beauty: The Beauty to Gabu's Beast.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: A rare male example, but throughout the movie, Mei never really suffers any injuries and his fur never got dirty. He was almost a Pollyanna, at least until near the end.
- Break the Cutie: Twice. Poor, poor Mei, while he and Gabu are crossing the treacherous mountain, they both run into a nasty blizzard. Mei and Gabu find shelter in a cave and Mei solemnly tells Gabu that he won't make it and Gabu should eat him for survival. Seeing Mei become so serious and somber after being cheerful throughout the movie just hits hard. Later, he breaks again, in the cave that Gabu drags him into after Gabu lost his memory, Mei desperately tries to convince Gabu to remember him. Mei tearing up when Gabu yells at him and tells Mei that he will eat him no matter what is heartbreaking.
- Disappeared Dad: Mei's dad is never seen nor mentioned throughout the entire film.
- Fear of Lightning: In fact, it's how he and Gabu first met when they both took refuge in a barn during a thunderstorm.
- Forbidden Friendship: With Gabu.
- Interspecies Friendship: With Gabu. He's a goat and Gabu is a wolf.
- Little Guy, Big Buddy: The Little Guy to Gabu, especially since he is pretty clumsy.
- Meaningful Name: "Mei" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the noise a goat makes.
- Messy Hair: And it's adorable, just look at the picture!
- Morality Chain: To Gabu, if it wasn't for him, Gabu would have still been hunting goats. And after Mei meets him, Gabu refuses to eat any goats throughout the entire film, even when Mei himself tells Gabu to eat him. During the scene where Gabu has lost his memory, it seemed like Gabu reverted to his old goat-hunting ways since Mei is the one who kept him from eating goats.
- Nice Guy: The cutest and sweetest goat you can meet!
- Odd Friendship: With Gabu due to their differing species.
- Raised by Grandparents: He was raised by his grandmother after his mother's death.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Gabu's Manly Man.
- The Pollyanna: For most of the movie at least, despite all the hardships him and Gabu went through, he never seemed to lose his cheery, positive attitude. After nearly drowning, realizing his friend was a wolf, being sent away from his grandma and friends with whom he's lived with his whole life, and starving in a blizzard. That was, until he nearly died in the ice cave and when he was abused and about to be eaten up by Gabu himself.
- You Can't Go Home Again: The fate he and Gabu suffer when their groups find out that they've been hanging out.
Tap
Voiced By Shōzō Hayashiya IX
An overweight goat who acts as a brother figure to Mei.- Bullying a Dragon: Accidentally. While Gabu was in the bushes right in front of him, Mei, and Mii, Tap began to insult wolves. After Gabu howled, Tap boasted about how he could take on any wolf and then accidentally kicked Gabu in the head. Then, Gabu leaped out of the bushes and scared off him and Mii.
- Lovable Coward
Mii
Voiced By Maya Kobayashi
A pink-colored goat and a friend of Mei.- Canon Foreigner: She only appears in the film adaptation.
- Pink Means Feminine: She's pink shaded and female.
Elder Goat (Chōro)
Voiced By Eiji Bandō
The leader of the goats of the Sawasawa Mountains.- Incurable Cough of Death: Subverted. He was still alive at his last appearance before Mei and Gabu ran away.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: And in abstract, his objection to Mei befriending a wolf is reasonable in context — if the wolf is not absolutely trustworthy to all the goats, it's a grim threat to their survival.
Mei's Grandmother
Voiced By Etsuko Ichihara
She raised Mei after his mother was killed by wolves, and is later shocked when Mei befriends Gabu.- Canon Foreigner: Her first appearance is in the film adaptation.
- Unnamed Parent: Her exact name is unknown. She is only known as Mei's grandmother.
Mei's Mother
Attempted to save Mei from a group of wolves when he was a child, managing to bite off Giro's ear before being eaten. Though she is mentioned, she does not physically appear in the book series.- Death by Origin Story: She dies at the start of the movie, when Mei was a young kid.
- Mama Bear: Well, Mama Goat, but still. She leads her son out of danger while she fights off wolves, managing to rip out Giro's left ear in the process. Sadly, she's eventually overwhelmed by the wolf pack and eaten.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like her son, Mei.
- Unnamed Parent: Her name is not mentioned.
The Wolves
Gabu
Gabu the Wolf.
Voiced by Shidō Nakamura II
A wolf from the Bakubaku Valley. Despite being a competent, dangerous predator, Gabu is more of an affable, anxious goof. This made him a misfit among his rough, tough, and mean packmates. One night in an abandoned barn, he becomes best friends with Mei the goat, which draws further ire from his pack, thinking he's turned traitor.- Beast and Beauty: The Beast to Mei's Beauty.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's a wolf after all, and even a Noble Wolf will rip the throat out of a threat.
- Break the Cutie: Twice. Just like Mei; poor, poor Gabu. After he survives the waterfall, he desperately calls out for Mei. Assuming he's dead, Gabu blames himself and breaks down crying. Later, he breaks again, in the snow cave, when him and Mei were starving to death. Mei wanted to offer himself as a sacrifice to Gabu, so that he could make it through the treacherous mountain. Gabu breaks down hard, overwhelmed by tears, he curses his life and wishes he was never born a wolf.
- Category Traitor: The other wolves in Gabu's pack consider him to be a freak, a fool and a traitor because of his unprecedented friendship with Mei, and they repeatedly try to kill him out of spite, principle and disgust.
- Clifftop Caterwauling: He stands on a cliff and howls to the sky before he confronts his pack.
- Cranial Eruption: He gets one on the forehead after being kicked by Tap.
- Disappeared Dad: He was never seen in Gabu's flashbacks. However, Giro said that Gabu's father was his best friend, but it's never stated what happened to him.
- Easy Amnesia: After Gabu has a Tap on the Head (well, an avalanche), when he and Mei are next reunited, Gabu doesn't remember who he is or where he came from, except that goats are his absolute favorite food. He recovers his memory when Mei says "One stormy night".
- Fear of Lightning: In fact, it's how he and Mei first met when they both took refuge in a barn during a thunderstorm.
- Forbidden Friendship: With Mei.
- Growling Gut: Played for Drama, Gabu desperately fights his hunger while Mei offers himself as a meal to Gabu. Gabu breaks down crying from being overwhelmed by starvation and can't stand the thought of eating his own best friend.
- Heroic Sacrifice: During the climax, he charges into a fight he knows he has no chance of winning or surviving, so that Mei can have a better chance of living and the goat won't suffer for his past. Ironically, he rejected the Heroic Sacrifice Mei had tried to do for him a few minutes earlier.
- Interspecies Friendship: With Mei the goat. Gabu is a wolf. Both get into trouble for "siding with the enemy."
- Knight in Shining Armor: Never hesitates to help Mei when he is in distress.
- Last Stand: During the climax of the film, poor Gabu finally runs out of hope. He knows he and Mei will probably starve to death on the mountain, and he knows his pack will never stop hunting him and trying to kill them both for being a traitor, so he stops running and does the only thing he can do for Mei anymore — try to fight off his former comrades and take as many of them down as he can. Despite fighting a battle he's doomed to lose from being outnumbered, Gabu ultimately survives thanks to an unexpected avalanche.
- Little Guy, Big Buddy: The Big Buddy to Mei.
- Lovable Coward: In spades when he was a pup in his flashback!
- Meaningful Name: "Gabu" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for biting.
- Nice Guy: One of the nicest wolves you could meet. He is the sweetest and kindest of his pack, and managed to refuse to eat Mei because he values friendship more.
- Noble Wolf: A wolf that places greater importance on friendship than food.
- No Sense of Personal Space: When he tries to nibble sleeping Mei's ear.
- Odd Friendship: With Mei due to their differing species.
- Predator Turned Protector: Even if he's a wolf, he will always help and protect his best friend who is a goat.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: As a pup.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Mei's Sensitive Guy, though not so manly. He is stronger and more arrogant than Mei though.
- Spell My Name With An S: In the Italian dub (
which also happens to be the only official one in the West) his name is changed to Gav. Considering how Japanese transliteration works, both versions are technically correct. - Tender Tears: He sheds quite a few throughout the film, usually whenever Mei is in danger, to show how his character grows more and more soft-hearted through The Power of Friendship.
- Took a Level in Badass: After running away from the wolves to the point where both him and Mei are starving to death, he decides that he's had enough. He finally gets over his fear of jumping off of cliffs and jumps down hundreds of feet, ready to kick some ass.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Temporarily, after Gabu's fight with the wolves, the avalanche gave him amnesia and he didn't know who Mei or even who he was. He only saw Mei as a delicious treat and abused him until Mei tells him that they met "One Stormy Night."
- White Sheep: Gabu is the softest among his pack. Back when he was a cub, he hesitated to eat meat, giving in after much prodding from his late mother. As an adult, he becomes friends with a goat and later fights off his pack to ensure Mei's safety.
- You Can't Go Home Again: The fate he and Mei suffer when their groups find out that they've been hanging out.
Giro
Voiced By Riki Takeuchi
The boss of the Bakubaku Valley wolves and a friend of Gabu's father.- Big Bad: Giro is the main villain.
- Ear Ache: At the very beginning of the film, Giro gets his ear bitten off by Mei's mother.
- Ear Notch: He's missing one ear due to Mei's mother.
- Scars Are Forever: He has a long scar from his left ear to across his eye.
- Surrounded by Idiots: He is pretty much the Scar of this film and his pack are the hyenas.
Barry
Voiced By Kōichi Yamadera
A red-haired wolf and Giro's right-hand man.- The Dragon: He's Giro's right-hand.
Beach and Zack
Voiced By Tetsuya Yanagihara and Yoshiyuki Hirai
A pair of twin wolves.- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Zack gets distracted from the task at hand by pointing out a pretty flower.
- Beware the Silly Ones: They looked incompetent since they couldn't notice that Gabu and Mei were in the bushes in right front of them. That is until, they actually heard Gabu and saw his ears poking out of the bushes, and called out to all the other wolves. Cue Chase Scene.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Zack, especially since he is always seen smiling with his tongue out.
- Eyepatch of Power: For Beach
- Fat and Skinny: Beach is fat and Zack is skinny.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Zack is foolish, Beach is responsible.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Zack could be this, due to his ditzy attitude and love for flowers.
- Punch Clock Villains: They look nice enough, they are never seen angry or serious when they are sent to find Gabu so that he can be executed. They are just doing it likely because they will possibly be killed if they don't succeed in finding Gabu.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Zack is red and Beach is blue, because Zack is quirky and energetic, while Beach is calm and collected.
- Scars Are Forever: Even in Gabu's flashback when they were all pups, Beach still had the exact same eyepatch on.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Zack is the Sensitive Guy, because he is innocent, cheerful and has a childlike voice. Beach is the Manly Man because he is bigger, tougher and has a deeper voice. When Zack and Beach were searching for Gabu, Zack pointed out a beautiful flower and showed his sensitive side by saying how pretty it was and promised not to step on it when Beach told him to.
- Spell My Name With An S: The way Beach's name is spelled in katakana (ビッチ, "bitchi") suggests it's actually meant to be rendered in English as Bitch (as "beach" would be more like "biichi"). Given the target audience, the different spelling in the translation is likely intentional.
- Those Two Guys: They are never seen apart in any scene.
Gabu's Mother
Voiced By Yū Hayami
Only seen briefly in Gabu's flashback.- Posthumous Character: She died prior to the film.
- Unnamed Parent: Her name isn't revealed.
