Ookami to Koushinryou

Holo is a powerful wolf deity who is revered in the small town of Pasloe for blessing the annual harvest. Yet as years go by and the villagers become more self-sufficient, Holo has been reduced to a mere folktale. When a traveling merchant named Kraft Lawrence stops at the settlement, Holo offers to become his business partner if he takes her to her northern home of Yoitsu. The savvy trader recognizes Holo's unusual ability to evaluate a person's character and accepts her proposition.

Now in the possession of both sharp bargaining skills and a charismatic negotiator, Lawrence inches closer to his goal of opening his own shop. However, as Lawrence travels the countryside with Holo in search of economic opportunities, he begins to realize that his aspirations are slowly morphing into something unexpected.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Holo Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Lawrence, Kraft Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Arendt, Norah Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Chloe Supporting

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Liechten, Marhait Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Remerio, Hans Supporting

Gouda, Hozumi Japanese

Liebert, Marten Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Tarantino, Jacob Supporting

Tsuji, Shinpachi Japanese

Zheren Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Weiz Supporting

Hanawa, Eiji Japanese

Clinkenbeard, Colleen Producer

Cook, Justin Producer

Ishiguro, Tatsuya Producer

Suzuki, Tomoko Producer

Reviews

Apr 22, 2008

Ranivus

Recommended

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 margins ... for 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 22, 2017

Hibbington

Mixed Feelings

When watching this show I ponder on what it really means to “Falling into the Hype”.
It is naïve to think that when a show is popular that it doesn’t effect your mood going in.
But on that same thought is there a difference in “Falling into the Hype” and just seeking understatement on why something is popular.
I didn’t come into this show hyped but throughout this experience I was always search for that special something.
Something I never found. All I was left was this indifferent feeling.
When you are stuck in an indifferent feeling is a good indication that the show is average.
It ... is tasked upon you at that point to go through all the aspects of the show and see what would you say is above average and if that is enough to warrant putting up the score.

When I asked about this show before I started watching my comrades noted there was a lot of mentioning of economics.
That is definitely something that caught my attention and was the most enjoyable plot about the show.
I actually wrote a paper in college all about merchant guilds and having an anime that covered it was satisfying but only to a certain extent.
We saw glimpses of the trade warfare going on but it wasn’t a full-fledged dive into the economic wars of the world.
I would personally like to see a show about merchant guilds that would operate more like 91 Days.
There was no individuality given to any of the guilds.

The merchant guilds were primarily there to only put hardships on our main character Lawrence.
A character that I have to say am disappointed in as he was fairly bland the entire entry.
There were glimpses at the end that showed he could improve in the second season. But he needs to drop the White Knight act.
Then even as a businessman I can’t respect him as I don’t know who in their right mind would put all their money in one basket instead of building up a contingency.
There is no time in this show where I can definitively say I felt bad for him.

When Holo calls this guy a loser. She isn’t wrong.
Holo is the best character of the show by default but still isn’t exactly my type of girl.
I have seen a lot of individuals deeming Lawrence and Holo to be one of the best couples in all of anime.
Yet the romance in this season has barely even been scratched. I would hope in the second season there would be much improvement.
But as for the first season we’ve only seen Tsundere flirting. That is nowhere near enough for me.

Then we move on the supernatural element of the show.
I really liked the opening the show and the world it was attempting to create in episode 1 about Holo’s origins.
But all of that was downgraded to a side story and an unfulfilling one at that.
There was all this talk about the people believing they didn’t need Holo anymore to bless their crops.
But because of everything else going on in the show the climax to that just fell flat.
I wouldn’t even put that into the importance of the currency wars that was noted throughout the season.
Having rivaling currencies was very intriguing aspect to follow.
But when the economics changed over to just being there for hardships on Lawrence we lost that flare there as well.

What it comes down to is can I say that anything about this show was fulfilling? The answer would be no.
The OP and ED are good but nothing I would put in my top 20.
The Art is good but nothing I’d rave about.
I’m giving those 8 out of 10 but there is nothing amazing there for me to want to bump up the score.
I will also note that I felt the pacing was rushed for the plot. There was also time for more plot that was taken up by slice of life episodes.
Finally I do find it ironic that even in the moment of writing this review. My feeling on this review of the show reflects my opinions on show. Indifferent.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 9, 2015

TeslaFreak

Not Recommended

I saw this anime because of a few recommendations online and several glowing reviews, however upon watching Spice and Wolf I have to wonder how old the writers of these reviews are that they can find this enjoyable. If you've read any other review on this show, you'll know it is praised for its "character depth" and its use of economics. Let me warn you ahead of time, I have seen puddles with more depth than these characters. They are extremely 2 dimensional, the dialogue might as well have been written by a junior high student, and the monotonous tone of the voice acting is ... appalling. As to the economics so heavily praised by viewers, it is hardly a fair trade for a good story. When the subject is brought up, it sounds more like the characters are reading from a textbook rather than furthering the story. It basically consists of an economic buzzword being said, followed by the definition, in other words the show is extremely full of parrot expositions.

The sound of the show also leaves something to be desired, as there is little to no music, almost exclusively dialogue and ambient noise, which I understand was the intent, and could be quite powerful if done correctly. Unfortunately, it was not. Instead of using this tactic to emphasize important and deep scenes, the entirety of the show is treated the same and the viewer is quickly desensitized to the effect and no emphasis is ever placed on anything. When music is actually used, it tends to be poor quality and rather obnoxious, typically played over conversation which was clearly intended to make the conversation seem fun and uplifting but ends up causing the opposite.

The art style of the show is average quality and I really have no comment on it.

Right off the bat, we are greeted by both Lawrence's friend provocatively discussing a business transaction and Holo explaining nonverabally how comfortable she is nude, and how frequently you can expect to see her that way. At this point you would expect that fanservicing will be the downfall of this show but overall what ruined the show for me was the abysmal dialogue and utter lack of real character depth. As I continued to watch I noticed that the closest thing I could compare this show to, both in character and in dialogue would be Twilight. The obnoxious amount of exposition tropes is also reminiscent of your typical shonen.

I expect the crowd who actually do care for this show are coming from a background in Naruto or One Piece, which were also not my cup of tea.

TL;DR: If you are below the age of 16 and have never seen anything with a more dynamic story than Naruto, you may enjoy Spice and Wolf, you may even praise it for the greatest characters ever written. But for the adults reading this article who are looking for a show with legitimate character development and an enthralling story, look elsewhere.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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