blizzarddog5

Plot:
In the town of Pasroe, the annual pagan ceremony of harvest is performed, made to honor the god of harvest who is the caretaker of the huge wheat field alongside the city. As Craft Lawrence, a trader in training, passes through, he encounters Kenrou Horo, a wolf girl who just happens to be the god of harvest for the town of Pasroe.

Through the long years, she feels that the town has abandoned her, so she makes a deal with Craft, leaving the village behind and travelling with him as she sets her sights for her home; in the mountains far to the north.

Review:

I've been seen quite a few new shows over the last few years, but there haven't been many that have truly taken me by surprise. Spice and Wolf is one of those "once in a blue moon" kind of shows that has you wondering whether it can actually be anything worthwhile, and then actually proving to be so much more.


It also certainly helps that the art is quite nice and the animation is also quite good, keeping in mind that the show isn't very heavy on action. Also worth noting is the show's opening and ending theme. The opener is a sweet, theme about travelling and searching, which suits the show like a glove. The ending theme, however, is a rather Yellow-Submarinesque bizarre affair about apples and other random things.

Unlike a lot of the other shows i really like, Spice and Wolf isn't really all that character driven. Lawrence and Horo aside, there aren't a lot of characters that get all that much airtime, being mostly relegated to being business partners in passing. The show is mainly about travelling, trading and about Lawrence and Horo's growing relationship.

Let me warn any potential viewers right now, though. While Spice and Wolf takes place in a fantasy world. It dabbles heavily into trade and economics, which is the only part where the whole deal get somewhat boring for me, partially because, like I mentioned, it's based on places that do not actually exist. So I'm basically asked to remember a lot of names that has no real life references, which makes the whole trade/bartering setup an annoying affair, especially since we do not really learn a whole lot about this world, not even enough to make comparisons with actual historical events. In other words, while I enjoyed this show, I did wish for less business talk.

What makes the show such a joy to watch, though, rests almost purely between the characters of Lawrence and Horo. Watching the two, the businessman in training and the wolf god, interact pretty much makes the show. Lawrence these latest years; crafty and full of personality. And while he does have a bit of a problem keeping his defenses up around cute girls, his verbal spars with Horo are always a fun to watch.

Horo, on the other hand, is maybe the most interesting female lead I've ever seen in any shows bar none. That's really saying a lot, since females in anime generally tend to be portrayed in a far more diverse fashion, barring your high-school love romances. She's sassy and smart-mouthed, yet clever and wise (as she often takes delight in reminding Lawrence, both directly and through various trade encounters.) She's got several hundred years' worth of life experience underneath her furry ears, Furthermore, I've never seen anyone who loves apples as much as she does. besides ryuk of deathnote LMAO!!

It was much too short, over much too quickly. Despite being quite informative, sometimes TOO informative this Spice and Wolf TV series is merely the beginning, and I can only hope that more seasons will follow. Again, the one drawback for me in this show is its tendency to resort to business talks far too often for my liking. rattling off long conversations about economy and trading,

Still, I recommend this. I'd recommend it any day, for anyone who wants a bit of light fantasy heavy on the believability factor. It certainly helps that the show manages to balance the location quite nicely, spicing it up with a nice helping of familiar history elements and superstitious beliefs.

This show gets an 8/10

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