Spice and Wolf

Anime has existed for a very long time and as we watch them more and
more we’ll start to realise most of the plots are somewhat predictable. Plots in
anime mostly contain betrayals, romance, violence and more. Spice and Wolf
however, is able to grasp these elements and take them to a whole new level. I
can clearly say that Spice and Wolf is my favourite anime of all time and it
won’t change anytime soon.
The story starts off in the medieval age with Kraft Lawrence, a 25 year-old
travelling merchant. Since he’s always travelling he has never made any real
friends with the possible exception of his horse. Like most travelling
merchants, Lawrence’s dream is to open a shop and graduate to being a town
merchant. That could give him the chance of making more acquaintances and
perhaps even marrying someone. But stepping aside from his distant fantasies,
he finds himself arriving to a village called Pasloe, a regular trading destination
of his and one in the middle of hosting its annual harvest festival to honour the
wolf god Holo.
After making his usual transactions with village elder he sets off to take a
rest. However, he felt something was shaking in his cargo. Gathering his
courage with a knife in hand ready to shoo away whatever is inside the cargo,
he stopped. It was neither an animal nor a burglar but a gorgeous young girl
sleeping soundly in the nude no less with a flowing tail and wolf-like ears. After
a little bit of confusion and fear in Lawrence’s part, she identifies herself as
Holo, the same name as the very local god of harvest. Aware that her presence
no longer has any need for the people in Pasloe, Lawrence gets a request from
Holo saying that she wants to go back to her homeland, Yoitsu. A place in the
far north. To no surprise, the pair ends up travelling together, the mere
beginning of a long journey ahead.
The story basically focuses heavily on economics but it falls flat sooner than
expected. The cause of it is because of the pair, Lawrence and Holo. The two
had this special relationship with Lawrence having a mercantile nature, making
him a suitable target for Holo’s constant teasing and plaything. Their verbal
sparring is some of the best in the story but most of the time Holo wins. Not all
of their conversations are always good natured chatting, as they get to know
each other better, the topic will diverge to more serious areas. Eventually
leading the watchers trying to figure out what there is exactly between them,
are they colleagues, friends or even lovers. Unfortunately though, the topic of
them being lovers is not covered in the anime as it is not a full adaptation. But
within such a short span of time making 26 episodes and less than a quarter of
what’s in the light novel, there is some strong elements of romance, but I’ll
have to forcibly call it just romance.
Lawrence is not merchant in name so the essence of economics is still there,
all in which is not a lie to the audience, the story has clearly stated that he is a
merchant from the very beginning. All of the difficult situations Lawrence and
Holo find themselves in are neither targeted on justice nor good versus evil
conflict but purely on cold hard coin. This could go from a huge debt which
needs to be paid in two days to manipulating the price of a supply and making
a crash in the market to overwhelm the competition. In short, Spice and wolf is
a unique fantasy show which does not include any magic and bloodshed. It’s
just a normal merchant trying to make a meagre living with a wolf goddess
travelling with him.
Aside from having an interesting story Spice and Wolf has to offer, the studio
has gotten out of its way in making Spice and Wolf to have some great songs.
Their intro song in season 1 is called tabi no tochuu by Kyra Natsume, which
translates to ‘On a Journey’. It has this great to almost perfect rhythm syncing
with the story and had me listening to it ever since. after the episode ended
the outro kicks in with a song called ‘The Wolf Whistling Song’ by RIngo Biyori.
Basically it’s good but not great. Having this cute English theme sung by a
Japanese singer made it likewise fitting to the series. In season 2. The intro
song is called ‘Mitsu no Yoake’, ‘Dawn of honey’ in English. If I have to compare
the the intro songs with the previous season, season 1 takes the cake. I’m not
trying imply the song is bad but season 1 had a bigger impact. Same as any
other anime, season 2 also has an outro. It’s called ‘Perfect World’ by Yan Ivan.
The song has this cheerful and playful theme in it but likewise I would consider
good but not great
After some analysing of the story, season 1 had some interesting plots and
ended with a perfect grade leaving the audience wanting for more. Season 2
came out and had likewise the same interesting stories but the topic of
economics got so complicated that no one wants to trudge through it
anymore. The ending for season 2 wasn’t that great. It ended with a large plot
hole screaming: ‘read the light novel!’. For those who didn’t read the novel
however, the ending will lead them to limitless possibilities, eventually leaving
them clueless of what Lawrence and Holo are going to do in the future. All in
all, the story is still interesting so I’ll let go of the ending go.
Spice and Wolf is still the best anime I’ve watched even though the second
ending isn’t really all that great