Spice and Wolf

Ranivus★ 10

Wolf and spice can be summed up fairly easily. Be prepared for ALOT of dialog. In essence, its about a story about merchant trading during medieval times. A time when the word of the catholic church was more important than anything else and anyone else was deemed a witch or heretic. Since it is set in such archaic times it would be a perfect fit to have an anime about merchant trading. Ever since i was in middle school I used to play video games with trading and how prices rise and fall from location to location and how supply and demand and even risk marginsfor investing in certain things to turn a profit. That was the main goal, to make money. And that is the main goal of our main character Lawrence Kraft. Through his travels he entrusted a small heretic town that believed in a wolf god named Horo that watched over their crops. And it just happens that Lawrence Kraft befriends this god and he soon finds out that she just wants to go home. And so the adventure begins.... Being a story about trading goods there is bound to be alot of dialog between bartering, negotiating, trading information and the chemistry between Horo and Lawrence. If theres going to be alot of dialog an my anime it better at least intelligent and make sense. Luckily this show does it very well, almost perfect. And its safe to say this is because how Horo and Lawrence feed off each others energies so well that you almost feel like you're right there arguing with Horo. Theres no "voice in the head" in this anime, all their thoughts and ideas go between each other and nothing is never left out. Although little background details are left out for time constraints, viewers with an open mind can understand most of the unmentioned side stories. Those who cant figure out the small things, the subbers (ayako) were nice to place side notes for every episode. Its very refreshing to see an anime that actually takes time to explain things to the point that you are convinced enough to believe the situation at hand. Lawrence and Horo are the only main characters of the show so having a good chemistry between them was key but also having a strong seiyu cast for those two is another reason why this show is addicting. Their voices emit their emotions perfectly and the background music just makes this show so much more elegant and beautiful. Its basically consists of a string quartet. Who ever composed all of the background music must be one of the best composers I've ever heard. I never knew so many emotions can come out of just a group of strings. Environmental sound effects are just as what you would expect after hearing the beautiful strings and artwork. Crickets chirp at night, flames flicker and click, they're all of high quality. But they never interfere with the dialog at all which I enjoy the most. The last component that brings this whole show to masterpiece status is the artwork. This show is best shown on HD resolution definitely. You can see all the painstaking detail it took for all the artists to draw all the settings of the medieval towns, each cobble stone looks different from each other, the stained glass is painted with perfect care. Even all the guild halls and churches have a massive feel to them. Everything about the artwork screams perfection and is easily one of the best artwork I've laid my eyes on. The character animations aren't as greatly skilled as the background and static animations but it does hold a medium-high quality at best. But Horo and Lawrence are still quite memorable throughout the whole show. Overall this show crams so much information and dialog to the viewers its easy to say that its not for everyone. But this is indeed a very intelligent, beautiful, and intriguing show. Its a show that you will either understand or not. As for me I love shows like this that leaves JUST enough out for the viewer to make them think and analyze about the episode they just saw. And I am a total sucker for beautiful artwork and music, but character chemistry is what drives me (and all my other 10's on my list) to score this a 10. ...mind you this show still isn't for everyone.

aereldor★ 10

This review is for both seasons. TL;DR - Great show. Refreshing medieval drama without corny magic (stunning historically accurate and fun depiction of medieval economics and commerce), immensely likeable main characters, awesome period-appropriate soundtrack, amazing dub, good art. Watch this show, despite the unfortunate cliffhanger ending of Season 2. This is a great lesson on 'Never judge a book by the cover'. That said, I wish they had a better cover... Spice and Wolf was marketed with a half-naked furry wolf girl. Like most people, I was repulsed by it at first sight. Little did I know this seemingly shallow fanservice poster girl is one ofthe deepest characters in any anime ever, and the show is far better than the light novels it's based on. Spice and Wolf doesn't have a grand story - but follows the motivations of its two main characters - Lawrence, a traveling merchant, and Holo, an outcast diety traveling with him. This gives the show freedom to deeply invest into its arcs, and use them as an excellent form of character-building. It also does something great - leaves a lot unsaid, but does it so tastefully that it creates mystery and intrigue rather than frustration. Besides one of the characters being an outcast god, this is an incredibly low-fantasy, low-magic medieval drama, and I haven't seen anything quite like it in Anime - that I enjoyed. The main characters are incredible. They're fun, intelligent, and never compromised to move the plot along. When something happens, it almost always makes sense given the characters' motivations and flaws. The character flaws are so well written, which lets the characters be defined by their shortcomings as much as their strengths. It's great to see them experience joy, fear, exhileration, jealousy, rage... All in complex, unique, believable ways. The side characters aren't as great, but their screen time is so limited that I don't care, they serve their purpose and don't overstay their welcome. Bonus points because the English Dub is far better than the Japanese and brings out the characters way more. The animation isn't groundbreaking or extravagant, but is thoughtful and gorgeous. It captures the setting of a medieval world before the advent of mass industry, blending undisturbed nature with primitive settlements and medieval cities, all without obnoxious fantasy outfits and outlandish weapons. They changed the studio in the second season, but honestly the different style works pretty well too. The soundtrack is great - Yuuji Yoshino seems to have gone to great lengths to specifically use historically accurate instrumentation and techniques, and it shows. Everything hits home, from the festival music (there's a LOT of festival music) to the darker, suspenful tracks. I can't talk about the sound without bringing this up. WATCH. THE. DUB. The Japanese voices can't hold a candle to the English. J. Michael Tatum is a genius, and Brina Palencia is the definitive Holo. The Japanese voices are full of Anime cliches - and once removed, this show has almost none, making it a truly refreshing watch. Don't miss it.