What I'm Watching ♦ Spice and Wolf

12/7/2017

Synopsis

Holo is a powerful wolf deity who is celebrated and revered in the small town of Pasloe for blessing the annual harvest. Yet as years go by and the villagers become more self-sufficient, Holo, who stylizes herself as the "Wise Wolf of Yoitsu," has been reduced to a mere folk tale. When a traveling merchant named Kraft Lawrence stops at Pasloe, Holo offers to become his business partner if he eventually takes her to her northern home of Yoitsu. The savvy trader recognizes Holo's unusual ability to evaluate a person's character and accepts her proposition. Now in the possession of both sharp business skills and a charismatic negotiator, Lawrence inches closer to his goal of opening his own shop. However, as Lawrence travels the countryside with Holo in search of economic opportunities, he begins to realize that his aspirations are slowly morphing into something unexpected.

Spice and Wolf, fuses two polar genres of economics and romance to create an enthralling story abundant with elaborate schemes, sharp humor, and witty dialogue. This anime is more than just a story of bartering; it turns into a journey of searching for a lost identity in an ever-changing world.

Main Characters

Kraft Lawerence is a traveling merchant with aspirations of owning his own shop.

Holo (The Wise Wolf of Yoitsu) is a harvest deity that promised men of a town called Pasloe she would ensure good wheat harvests.

Review

While there are supporting characters the real fun is watching Lawerence and Holo interact. Their banter is the height of romantic entertainment. I found the economic and romance genres an odd couple, but in Spice and Wolf it works. I thought I might become bored to tears about the business side, but I learned the inner workings of trading and found the situations the two were put in very interesting. While Lawerence can sell, he has a knack for knowing what his customers will need in the next town and acquiring it. Holo could sell sand to a camel. I loved watching the drama going from town to town and at the end of Season 1 I was praying they would stay together somehow.

I found this tidbit interesting:
In April 2008, the maid café Cafe with Cat in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan hosted a specially themed event called Cafe with Wolf for a period of three days between April 4 and April 6. The event included three new items on the menu and tied in with the sale of the first anime DVD volume which went on sale on April 2, 2008. People who bought the DVD from the Comic Toranoana Akihabara Honten store (which is on the first floor below Cafe with Cat) and brought the receipt with them into Cafe with Wolf were entered into a lottery to win rare Spice and Wolf goods.

Fun!

There is suggestive nudity but nothing really shown.

Holo is a harvest deity and has a wolf form as well. As you can see, she's huge. She's also bad ass. This great scene happened because Lawerence insisted that if Holo were a deity, she needed to prove it or shut up about being a wise wolf.