Spice and Wolf

One show can’t make you a furry. Can it? Oh God.

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a young merchant and a wolf spirit wandered through a medieval-Europe-esque setting, speculating on the value of silver coins, then I have a show for you.

spice_title.jpg

Blog Posts

Story

Craft Lawrence is a clever and successful young merchant with prematurely gray hair, much like Eureka Seven’s Holland, or Steve Martin. One night, while munching jerky, what does he discover sleeping in his cart? Horo, a 350-year-old wolf spirit in the form of (bet you’d never guess) a lovely young girl. With a tail. And ears. Dangerous territory, here. But so far, a fairly well-written show that’s higher in the intrigue department than the furry one.

Characters

spice_lawrence.jpgLawrence
The aforementioned merchant. He travels around selling salt, marten pelts, wheat, whatever he can get his hands on. He’s very clever, quick-witted, and good-hearted, not to mention possessing a great deal more confidence in his skills and himself than the average male anime protagonist.

spice_horo.jpgHoro
The wolf spirit in girl form, she travels with Lawrence and earns her keep by using 350 years of experience to help swindle people make better business deals. She’s even more clever than he is, and tends to take a devil-may-care attitude about the simple affairs of men. She must hide her distinctive features because for the most part, the people of this land have learned how to master crops on their own and stopped worshipping her in favor of a monotheistic not-at-all-unlike-Catholic religion. She often appears naked in this show, but not to worry: watch without fear of nipples. Unless of course, girls without nipples weird you out. Which would make you normal.

spice_chloe.jpgChloe
She was trained as a merchant by Lawrence and I’m guessing they had some kind of thing going at some point. She is extremely ambitious, not afraid of much, and really wants to get rid of Horo because the old ways of being subject to (what she calls) the finickiness of the wolf god are over — science can guarantee a good crop, and the Church can guarantee power. Chloe sided with the Medioh Company when they were trying to kill Lawrence.

Dangers of Watching

  • Heavy on dialog
  • Heavy on dialog relating to the value of various types of silver coins
  • Heavy on dialog relating to the intrigue behind the medieval industry of speculating on the value of various types of silver coins
  • May make you a furry
  • Mediocre animation
  • Slower fansubs due to the (you guessed it) heavy dialog

Benefits of Watching

  • Excellent dialog
  • Clever writing
  • Fine voice acting
  • Decent, likable character design
  • A nice overall theme about tradition falling by the wayside in favor of progress

Good, atypical music, extremely clever back-and-forth dialog, and a plot that revolves around double-crossing and swindling make this a different sort of show than what you might expect, especially for one with the medieval/fantasy type setting. If you’re not into a lot of talking, don’t bother: I think it’s the strong point, but so far action has been much less prominent.

A quick note: I like the Ayako subs because they feature bits of trivia from the light novels at the end of episodes that give you a little additional insight, if not understanding, into the series. What’s more, the extremely dialog-heavy episodes are always a natural read.