Caleb Gish
This show is absolutely fantastic. For one thing, the voice actors actually make you feel like the characters are real. Another is the superb story line. Along with those, it can be educational throughout most of the series. It deals a lot with the Stock Market and Tradings. I've learned more about that kind of stuff by watching this then school could ever teach me.Summaries:Season 1: It starts off with a merchant by the name of Lawrence Craft finding a 15 year old girl in his cart, with wolf ears and a wolf tail, who then tells him she is the goddess known as Holo. He then lets her tag along with him as he travels all across the world, trying to earn the money to open up his shop, until she gets back to her homeland, Yoitz. Along the way, they run into a bunch of trouble, involving people capturing Holo and trying to sell her to the church so that they can "Purify" Holo, to Lawrence going completely bankrupt after the stock market crashes on all the items he had in his cart, to Holo spending all of his money on Apples, Clothing, and other things she wants. After the stock market crashed, Lawrence regains most of his money by smuggling gold in the bellies of some sheep in which belong to a Shepherd which they befriend. The smuggling goes wrong at one point in which some people that were helping them turn on Lawrence and try to keep the gold for themselves, but he solves that problem by letting Holo transform into her true form and wiping them out, but the Shepherd tries to attack Holo. Over all the noise, Lawrence calls out either the Shepherd's name or Holo's as he's trying to stop them from killing each other. In the end, Holo demands to know who's name he called out, but he never really gives her a direct answer.Season 2: In my opinion, better then the first season. It starts off with Holo having a dream about how over the years, as she never ages, all of her loved ones die as the years go on. She then wakes up and Lawrence and her are traveling to a city, where they meet Amarte, in which Lawrence tells Amarte about Holo's debt to him (Due to all the money she's spent with his money) and that being the reason she's traveling with him, to repay her debt, which then leads to Amarte willing to buy Holo off of Lawrence and allowing her to go free, and possibly, in Amarte's head, marrying her. Lawrence then takes the deal thinking that Holo will continue traveling with him either way, but then he goes to a witch and starts asking her about Holo's homeland, Yoitz, in which he finds out it may or may not exist anymore. He doesn't tell Holo, but she eventually finds out that he'd been keeping it a secret, and she starts freaking out about her becoming all alone, which then for some reason, Holo tells him to "Make love to me" so that she will get pregnant and that there would be 2 of her so she would never be alone, but Lawrence refuses to, which results in Holo leaving. In order to regain her back, Lawrence tries to repay Amarte for the contract by trying to gain a bunch of Fool's Gold which is at that moment selling for an outrageously high price, and then it gets into some really confusing stuff, until the end where Holo then returns to Lawrence and continues traveling with him. After that, they come to a town where they stay at an inn, in which Lawrence meets a hooded woman that tells him about a great business deal in which she partners up with him and they make tons of cash. But then, a bunch of stuff happens and the details get amazingly hard to explain, and it all results in Holo wanting to know what she is to Lawrence, even after she made the deal, in which Holo would either leave Lawrence due to the deal going well and him being able to open a shop, or the deal turning on him and her running away, and the woman turning on Lawrence and trying to kill him. In the end, she knocks him out and leaves the deed to the inn he was staying at on Lawrence. He then goes to Holo, tells her about everything that happened with the deal and how it had gone wrong, and then she starts yelling at him, then he tells her he loves her. It gets really emotional after that, then he kisses her, and they continue their journey together.The thing I loved most about season 2 was that it leaves room for a season 3. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in Midevil Times, the Stock Market, or the Romance genre. 10/10 easily.
kevinxirau
When I first learned about this series, I was naturally curious because there hasn't been anything like this before. Going into it, I was amazed of how well-made Spice and Wolf really is. Right from the first episode, this series left such an impact on me that it is difficult to describe the beauty of it and the direction the story went through.So here's how it goes: Young merchant Kraft Lawrence goes from town to town selling products from wheat to furs. While going through the town of Pasloe, he encounters a mysterious being: Holo, the wolf-like deity of harvests in the form of an amazingly beautiful young woman. Together, these two go about traveling from town to town making intricate business deals, having witty and thoughtful conversations, and trying to avoid the attention of the Catholic Church that will like nothing more to destroy poor Holo. As the couple continue heading towards Holo's original homeland, both begin to develop fond feelings for each other.Spice and Wolf is quite different from other anime I've seen. Character development is superb and the interactions between the characters are a load of fun to watch. The animation is top-notch and the music is incredibly compelling, suitable for certain scenes in the episodes. I am actually moved by all this and any series that can do that certainly deserves more than enough credit.The two protagonists are the ones that make it all possible. Lawrence is very interesting as he is knowledgeable in the art of trading. He's also a guy you can count on to have your back and he can usually turn a bad situation around no matter the stakes. Holo is probably the best anime woman I have ever seen. She's fun, clever, and is able to stand up for herself. Holo is also very easy on the eyes, from her soft hair to her stunningly beautiful eyes. For all this, this wolf girl is not without complexity as she has some vulnerable emotional qualities that make her pretty sympathetic. The combined qualities and compatibility of Lawrence and Holo are what truly drive this series.Overall, Spice and Wolf is a compelling tale you would not want to miss. It is so well made that it begs to be more recognized by the world for it's story, characters, animation, and music. It has some good themes to keep it going and the drama really pulls some heartstrings. It is highly recommended that you check this series out and enjoy.
Oliver Feiler
+++ mild spoilers ahead +++It's truly fascinating what you find if you keep clicking through the recommendations list on IMDb for a while. So I ended up on "Ôkami to kôshinryô" or the rather amusing English title "Spice and Wolf". With the official website URL being www.spicy-wolf.com I guess you can already be sure that spicy is related to the wolf and not to Lawrence's trading business. ;) I wonder why they went with the strange English title "Spice and Wolf" instead.Being only 12 episodes (plus an additional OVA) the main plot is told rather quickly. Lawrence, trader and later dubbed softy by his companion, finds the wolf goddess Horo sleeping in his cart one night. And from then on things go strange ways. It's quite obvious that the story takes place in times of change. In a world where the church is gaining influence with whatever methods they see fit, there is little place for a god people pray to for a good harvest. As people's faith in Horo diminishes there is no more place for her in the old village. So she sets out as Lawrence's companion on a journey returning her to the north.Contrary to, for example Wolf's Rain, Horo is not a wolf that changes back and forth, but rather drawn the furry way, human girl with tails and ears forming out of her hair. Almost exclusively naked in the first episode ^.^ but they dropped this rather quickly in the following episodes. Well OK, it would draw way to much attention in the world they travel. I guess that first episode is where the title Spicy Wolf truly fits. *cough*The dialogue between Lawrence and Horo is truly magnificent at times, mostly when they argue over the unspoken topic... their relationship. Well, of course there is none, other than the business part. The "side plots" are mostly Lawrences trading business, in which I got slightly lost due to the subtitles rushing by with the speed of light... at least it felt like that.All in all a series well worth finding and who knows, maybe there will be another season! At least the ending didn't exactly end the storyline in any way.
