Spice and Wolf Review (Anime)

Spice and Wolf is one of the most interesting anime series I have seen in a while.  It isn't an action series.  It isn't a fan service series (although Holo is naked a lot ...it isn't bouncy sexy fanservice).  It is 100% story and character driven, and even though it is slowly paced it is absolutely fascinating from beginning to end.  The characters are fantastic, the animation is well done, and the show overall is quite stunning.

Spice and Wolf is set in medieval times and focuses on the economy and religion of the time.  The star of the show is a trader named Lawrence.  He travels from town to town trading items back and forth with other peddlers in order to make money.  You know, he'll trade wheat in one town for a bunch of furs which he then trades for pepper which he then trades for something else to ultimately make money off of.  Spice and Wolf is about economics.  It is kind of dry, but it is very interesting.

The other main character is a young woman named Holo.  Holo isn't an ordinary girl, however, and is actually a wolf goddess.  She can take a human form (with wolf ears and a tail) as well as turn into a giant wolf if need be.  For centuries she has lived in a village and helped the people there with their crops.  They prayed to her and made offerings to her, so she would make their crops grow better.  She was a wise caretaker of the land, however, and knew that rich harvests every year would damage the soil, so some years she would give the people lesser harvests in order to protect the land.  This made the village stop trusting her, and around this same time organized Christian religion started coming to prominence.  After a while, the village stopped giving Holo the respect she deserved, and instead turned their faith to the Christian God.

Because of this, Holo decides to leave the village and return to a town in the North where she originally came from, and Lawrence just happens to be the person she decides to ask for help.  The rest of the series follows Holo and Lawrence as they travel from town to town, making trades, and slowly inching towards the North.

What was fascinating to me was the conflict of old and new religion.  The people, despite having a flesh and blood God already in their midst in Holo, abandon her in favor of an imaginary God.  Holo, who freely gives and asks little in return is replaced by a church who is more interested in money and power than actually helping the people.  It is even at the point that not only do people not believe in Holo anymore, but they treat her like an evil demon that the church needs to exorcise, which  means she has to hide her tail and ears when among people other than Lawrence.

Unfortunately, the religious aspect wasn't touched upon as heavily as I would have liked.  You know Holo resents the church, but nothing really ever comes of it.  Instead, the series focuses mostly on the trading and economy aspects and the relationship between Holo and Lawrence.

I watched the series on Hulu with Japanese voices and English subtitles.  Some of the dialogue (particularly the more intricate trades and schemes that come up) were kind of hard to follow, which I think would be easier with English voices, but the voice acting itself was very good and the subtitles were easy to read.  The art style is fairly simple, but it looks very good and little touches in the animation such as Holo flicking her tail or her ears perking up are much appreciated.  The intro and ending theme songs are also really great as well.

I loved Spice and Wolf.  For something as dry and boring as economics, it always manages to be incredibly interesting and Lawrence and Holo are exceptionally great characters that you really care about by the end.  It has to be noted that the story doesn't really finish, but there is another season of the show currently unavailable in the U.S. (but coming soon) that should wrap things up.  I can't wait.  I give Spice and Wolf season 1 an 8/10, or one creepy Japanese videogame screenshot.

You can watch Spice and Wolf on Hulu, or you can buy it from Amazon.com, which is what I would recommend so you could watch it in English and maybe better understand what is going on.  Buy at Amazon here - Spice and Wolf: Season One