With a cartload of fur pelts in tow, traveling merchant Kraft Lawrence stops by the village of Pasloe. According to local folklore, centuries ago, one of the villagers made a promise with the wolf deity Holo, who swore to bless Pasloe with bountiful harvests of wheat. Yet, as time passed, such stories became little more than relics of the past.
After quickly finishing his business in the village, Lawrence sets out to his next destination. His journey, however, takes an unexpected turn when he discovers a nude, animal-eared girl sleeping among his pelts. Even more surprisingly, the youthful-looking woman claims to be Holo—the wolf of legend.
Holo wishes to return to her hometown in the north, and though their first encounter is rocky, she convinces Lawrence to accompany her on her travels. In return, she vows to earn her keep, using her quick wits and lifetime of experience to help her newfound companion in his dealings. As they continue their journey, Lawrence and Holo take advantage of whatever economic opportunities they come across, often landing in situations that put both their business skills and their relationship to the test.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
If someone told me a few years ago that Spice and Wolf is getting a new anime to air in 2024, I would've laughed it off and called them crazy. Looking backto 2022 from the announcement and here we are. Holo, the wise wolf makes her grand return on the television screen, her first time in well over a decade. Back in 2008, the first Spice and Wolf anime holds a special place for me and I'm sure it's a special anime for many fans. It's the first fantasy anime that I watched that didn't revolve around swords, magic, or some sort of plot about savingthe world. Spice and Wolf ventures into an unique category that deals with economics and business. For a franchise like this, Spice and Wolf was ahead of its time.
Rather than adapting a direct sequel, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf serves as a remake, retelling the story of 25-year old Lawrence Kraft and his traveling companion Holo. However, the remake goes far deeper into their story, relationship, and adds more into their world lore. Watching this season reminded me the nostalgia of enjoying a fantasy-adventure classic. Spice and Wolf's first episode begins with the season of the harvest festival but immediately introduces the self-proclaimed Wise Wolf, Holo. According to story lore, people worshipped her as a God-like entity far before the main timeline story began. Holo is aware of this and holds pride in her status. Meeting with someone like Lawrence is a new experience as she has never build a relationship so close to a human before. It's between the two that we truly experience their story.
Even after 15 years, it felt like yesterday when we met Holo and Lawrence. The voice actors played an outstanding job at performing their roles, in particular Holo. Her haughty, sarcastic, flitartious voice tone adds countless moments for the audience to see. Accompanied by her superior confidence, Holo is truly prideful of her existence and what she presents. Although some might interpret it as arrogance, Holo never has malicious intents to gain what she wants. Her love for food and alcochol also shows her humanity. Even though she is a wolf entity, Holo displays many traits that is perceived as human. In fact, she isn't that different from Lawrence thoughout their journey together. It's noticable from the start that both characters contain insecurities about themselves. Holo's greatest fear is being alone while Lawrence rely on himself so much that he realizes not everything can be accomplished by himself alone.
As a remake, this season follows mostly in tone with the original season. The storytelling maintains a balance of dealing with business while developing the relationship between our two main protagonists. Holo and Lawrence together accompanies each other skills. With Holo's wit and Lawrence's intelligence, they're able to get through many obstacles and obtain their win of the share. In their business dealings, it's easy to see what can go wrong if neither of them help each other. The show makes it clear that Lawrence's experience is invaluable. Meanwhile, Holo's playful personality and persuasive nature gets them by through bargaining and other essential deals.
One of the main selling factors for the original and this remake is the expanding relationship between Holo and Lawrence. It's very important to realize that the two rely on each for comfort and escape lonliness. They only have each other as judging by their journey, they don't come across any close friends, family, or allies. We actually don't see much of either characters' family at all, whether in the present timeline or the past. As such, Holo and Lawrence always depend on each other to survive. This is made so important that Holo suffers a case of monophobia, where anxiety surfaces and she expresses them in extreme ways in later episodes. It's a sensitive topic that can relate to any relationship and this anime is able to explore that in its own unique way.
Kicking into the story, Holo and Lawrence comes across many interesting individuals ranging from the shepherd Nora Arendt, finsmonger Fermi, and church manager Else Schtingheim. Each of these individuals introduces business and emotional elements for the pair. For instance, Nora ignites a feeling of jealousy for Holo while also serves as a foil character because she is a shepherd. Fermi's fascination for Holo causes him to fight Lawrence for her ownership. And finally, Else gives us a deeper glance at the complex system of the church in their world. Let me just say that while these supporting characters do not become permanent traveling companions, they test the feelings of our two main stars. Spice and Wolf truly wants us to show how Holo and Lawrence interact with others in unusual circumstances and face life together in ways they've never realized before.
Passione's long track record of adapting various fantasy based media has a role for Spice and Wolf. Among their most prominent work includes Rokka no Yuusha, with the environmental art style feeling familiar with this show. Adapting into this series over a half and decade later, the character designs look cleaner and sharper. Nonetheless, the overall asthetic is still similar including its world fiction. The most noticable character traits are Holo's wolf features and more prominently, her real form. When transformed, she displays fierceness and animalistic features of a mature wolf. In such form, she grows several times her size and sheds her human form completely although maintaining much of the same personality. The fan service of her being nude should not be misinterrpted as it's her natural form. The show contrasts her human and animal form in such magnficient ways that it looks surreal and atone to classic fantasy.
Watching Spice and Wolf after all these years made me realize that these remakes brings so much more than just nostalgia. It's a celebration of the author's works and gives both returning and the new audience to experience such a wonderful adventure.
MaMarinate1016
September 23, 2024
RecommendedWell-written
As someone that’s never seen the original Spice and Wolf but seen tons of Holo memes and hype over the last decade, all I can say after watching this remake is “I get it”. She lived up to the hype as a waifu, but more importantly, this lived up to the hype as a fantasy story about two people who couldn’t be further apart coming together and changing one another for the better. Lawrence and Holo’s relationship is a breath of fresh air in a world full of shallow ones. This show exudes the magic of the early 2000s and even at nearly 20 yearsold, is still better than most fantasy anime.
I just love the trope of an immortal being journeying with a human and learning what makes humans special. Coming off the high of Frieren recently, spice and wolf kind of stepped in and filled that gap for me. While it may not have Madhouse production values, still found this to be a very emotionally engaging story. Holo and Lawrence’s romance blossoming through numerous obstacles was a joy to see. I know there’s the whole economic and trading aspect of the story, but let’s be real. The big draw here is seeing how cute Holo is and how well she and Lawrence get on. While at times they argue like an old married couple, it’s the vulnerable moments the two share that take this story to the next level for me.
That’s not to say that the trading stuff was bad, there were some genuinely good storylines with that and it definitely forced Lawrence to grow as a person with all the times he gets ripped off in this show. But at times I found all the economic stuff to be a little convoluted and got lost in a couple episodes. But you know what, I’ll always prefer an author putting too much detail in a story rather than too little. I just wish it could’ve been conveyed a little better without overwhelming me at times. Again though, that’s minor because even when I was feeling overwhelmed with details in the story, they’d have some great moment later in the episode with Holo saving Lawrence’s ass during a bad business exchange and it’d make me forget anything else.
Plot wise, other than the trade negotiations, economics and Lawrence constantly almost going bankrupt, I thought the church storyline was really cool. It started off slowly before really ramping up in the second half when we learn more about the church’s relationship with Holo’s fellow deities and everything that’s going on with her hometown. I very much preferred the last third of the season because of how much world building we got and how we went into the mythos of this world’s deities. But even with that, it feels like we only scratched the surface of what this world offers. I mean, we end on volume 4 or so of a series with 20 volumes so clearly there’s a lot more to unpack here. I hope in a potential 2nd season we get to see more of the lore expanded upon since it was touched on at several points throughout the season as Holo searches for information on her hometown. But you know, it’s very much a show that just uses everything else as a plot device to bring the two leads closer and I’m ok with that. Holo shines as the star of the show and Lawrence is a worthy support for her. They complement each other’s strengths and bolster each other’s weaknesses. A match made in heaven.
Production wise the show is solid. After the disaster that was Seikengakuin, this one looks really good. They updated all the characters’ designs to the modern age and as someone who prefers modern anime art styles, I think they look great. The action sequences are passable and the Kevin Penkin OST only makes every emotional moment between Holo and Lawrence that much better.
Spice and Wolf is a slow, but rewarding burn that I’ve enjoyed watching these last 3 months. There’s no sudden jump into a relationship, but we do see two people who enjoy one another’s company slowly grow to find each other irreplaceable. It’s a must watch for any romance or fantasy fan.
Spice and Wolf gets 9, out of 10.
jojoemaamah
September 23, 2024
Recommended
I held off on this review to check the new content, and wasn't disappointed at all. For all the lame producers out there that want to reboot beloved franchises, this is your study in how to do it right. The artwork was splendid. Even the original background work didn't compare to this. The animation was better than I suspected it would be, They managed to blend hand drawn, 2D and a light touch of 3D CGI about as perfectly as I have ever seen done. The characters are what made the original so special. I must say that this rendition improves on all the characters.I like what they did with the MCs. They made Lawrence more assertive, and less clueless about non-business things. Holo still retains her cute capriciousness, but shows a more serious side, as well as being a touch more sassy and flirtatious; wonderful improvements. The writers also helped flesh out some of the side characters as well. The characters in the new arc are super well done. Elsa deserves a spin-off of her own,
I thought the narrative writing improved as well. A touch of fat was trimmed from the original, which helped pacing tremendously. And the final arc was done so well. It makes our journey, the character designs, and the world building so much stronger in the long run.
Again, the entire VA crew does an exemplary job. I especially was impressed with Holo's VA, who seemed to find ways to broaden the character simply with her inflection and tone of voice. The director used the cast to great effect, as he did animation and the nicely appropriate sound track. Kudos to you all!
Holo may be a Wise Wolf, but she's awfully foxy. Lawrence has more than a little weasel in him. If I could grade these animals, I would have to jump past my grade from the original production, and shoot this up to 98/100 for one mighty fine A. You only hurt yourself by not giving this rendition of the series your best regards.
ChChuy_diazz
September 23, 2024
Recommended
I think I can understand a little bit why this anime has such a classic status. I started watching this anime out of curiosity to understand why people considered it a classic. At first glance it seems like a romance between an adult man and a furry girl. Little by little the story gives you information about the world and the characters to understand that this goes beyond a simple romance. The protagonist is a merchant and not just in name, he knows his stuff and we constantly see him talk about economic concepts that some are understandable and others not. The furry girl is afurry goddess where they use her image to implement religious and theological themes within the work. The anime can be very interesting or very heavy, it all depends on how well versed you are in economic-theological matters.
The work takes many risks when implementing these complex and difficult to understand themes, in fact the first arc is heavy for me because they speak to you with a lot of technical language that is easy to confuse. In later plots, the same story understands that it cannot speak in a language that few understand and begins to digest the story in order to explain it in a simple way to the viewer. As for religious themes, it has quite interesting discourses such as the search for the existence of God, pagan Gods and the loving relationships between a God and a human. All these themes fall more into a philosophical area that basically will take a different form depending on the person who sees it and their relationship with religion or with God.
As for romance, I understand why it won a place among the public in its 2008 version. We have a romance that is a little more adult or mature, of course we will have drama because there would be no love without drama, but it is not the typical teenage drama but one more focused on adult life. The fear of loneliness, the decision between love and comfort, the conflicts of couples that can lead to trying to meet someone else. With such a different theme from the teenage romance, it is understandable that it has won the affection of people who were looking for a different story a couple of years ago.
The work is aimed at an adult demographic, it is not that teenagers cannot understand it but I do think that these are themes that they do not mind exploring at that early stage of life. I cannot say that it became one of my favorite romances, I cannot even say that it is a story that I would like to repeat. I can only say that I can understand why it is a story that has captivated a large group of people over the years and with good reason.
