Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

With a cartload of fur pelts in tow, traveling merchant Kraft Lawrence stops by the village of Pasloe. According to local folklore, centuries ago, one of the villagers made a promise with the wolf deity Holo, who swore to bless Pasloe with bountiful harvests of wheat. Yet, as time passed, such stories became little more than relics of the past.

After quickly finishing his business in the village, Lawrence sets out to his next destination. His journey, however, takes an unexpected turn when he discovers a nude, animal-eared girl sleeping among his pelts. Even more surprisingly, the youthful-looking woman claims to be Holo—the wolf of legend.

Holo wishes to return to her hometown in the north, and though their first encounter is rocky, she convinces Lawrence to accompany her on her travels. In return, she vows to earn her keep, using her quick wits and lifetime of experience to help her newfound companion in his dealings. As they continue their journey, Lawrence and Holo take advantage of whatever economic opportunities they come across, often landing in situations that put both their business skills and their relationship to the test.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Holo Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Lawrence, Kraft Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Arendt, Norah Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Myuuri Supporting

Tanaka, Aimi Japanese

Rubens, Dian Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno Japanese

Liechten, Marhait Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Cole, Marc Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Amati, Fermi Supporting

Chiba, Saeko Japanese

Remerio, Hans Supporting

Gouda, Hozumi Japanese

Tarantino, Jacob Supporting

Tsuji, Shinpachi Japanese

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Hosoi, Shunsuke Producer

Fujita, Mikito Producer

Kondou, Tomohisa Producer

Reviews

Sep 23, 2024

Stark700

Recommended

If someone told me a few years ago that Spice and Wolf is getting a new anime to air in 2024, I would've laughed it off and called them crazy. Looking backto 2022 from the announcement and here we are. Holo, the wise wolf makes her grand return on the television screen, her first time in well over a decade.

Back in 2008, the first Spice and Wolf anime holds a special place for me and I'm sure it's a special anime for many fans. It's the first fantasy anime that I watched that didn't revolve around swords, magic, or some sort of plot about saving ... the world. Spice and Wolf ventures into an unique category that deals with economics and business. For a franchise like this, Spice and Wolf was ahead of its time.

Rather than adapting a direct sequel, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf serves as a remake, retelling the story of 25-year old Lawrence Kraft and his traveling companion Holo. However, the remake goes far deeper into their story, relationship, and adds more into their world lore. Watching this season reminded me the nostalgia of enjoying a fantasy-adventure classic. Spice and Wolf's first episode begins with the season of the harvest festival but immediately introduces the self-proclaimed Wise Wolf, Holo. According to story lore, people worshipped her as a God-like entity far before the main timeline story began. Holo is aware of this and holds pride in her status. Meeting with someone like Lawrence is a new experience as she has never build a relationship so close to a human before. It's between the two that we truly experience their story.

Even after 15 years, it felt like yesterday when we met Holo and Lawrence. The voice actors played an outstanding job at performing their roles, in particular Holo. Her haughty, sarcastic, flitartious voice tone adds countless moments for the audience to see. Accompanied by her superior confidence, Holo is truly prideful of her existence and what she presents. Although some might interpret it as arrogance, Holo never has malicious intents to gain what she wants. Her love for food and alcochol also shows her humanity. Even though she is a wolf entity, Holo displays many traits that is perceived as human. In fact, she isn't that different from Lawrence thoughout their journey together. It's noticable from the start that both characters contain insecurities about themselves. Holo's greatest fear is being alone while Lawrence rely on himself so much that he realizes not everything can be accomplished by himself alone.

As a remake, this season follows mostly in tone with the original season. The storytelling maintains a balance of dealing with business while developing the relationship between our two main protagonists. Holo and Lawrence together accompanies each other skills. With Holo's wit and Lawrence's intelligence, they're able to get through many obstacles and obtain their win of the share. In their business dealings, it's easy to see what can go wrong if neither of them help each other. The show makes it clear that Lawrence's experience is invaluable. Meanwhile, Holo's playful personality and persuasive nature gets them by through bargaining and other essential deals.

One of the main selling factors for the original and this remake is the expanding relationship between Holo and Lawrence. It's very important to realize that the two rely on each for comfort and escape lonliness. They only have each other as judging by their journey, they don't come across any close friends, family, or allies. We actually don't see much of either characters' family at all, whether in the present timeline or the past. As such, Holo and Lawrence always depend on each other to survive. This is made so important that Holo suffers a case of monophobia, where anxiety surfaces and she expresses them in extreme ways in later episodes. It's a sensitive topic that can relate to any relationship and this anime is able to explore that in its own unique way.

Kicking into the story, Holo and Lawrence comes across many interesting individuals ranging from the shepherd Nora Arendt, finsmonger Fermi, and church manager Else Schtingheim. Each of these individuals introduces business and emotional elements for the pair. For instance, Nora ignites a feeling of jealousy for Holo while also serves as a foil character because she is a shepherd. Fermi's fascination for Holo causes him to fight Lawrence for her ownership. And finally, Else gives us a deeper glance at the complex system of the church in their world. Let me just say that while these supporting characters do not become permanent traveling companions, they test the feelings of our two main stars. Spice and Wolf truly wants us to show how Holo and Lawrence interact with others in unusual circumstances and face life together in ways they've never realized before.

Passione's long track record of adapting various fantasy based media has a role for Spice and Wolf. Among their most prominent work includes Rokka no Yuusha, with the environmental art style feeling familiar with this show. Adapting into this series over a half and decade later, the character designs look cleaner and sharper. Nonetheless, the overall asthetic is still similar including its world fiction. The most noticable character traits are Holo's wolf features and more prominently, her real form. When transformed, she displays fierceness and animalistic features of a mature wolf. In such form, she grows several times her size and sheds her human form completely although maintaining much of the same personality. The fan service of her being nude should not be misinterrpted as it's her natural form. The show contrasts her human and animal form in such magnficient ways that it looks surreal and atone to classic fantasy.

Watching Spice and Wolf after all these years made me realize that these remakes brings so much more than just nostalgia. It's a celebration of the author's works and gives both returning and the new audience to experience such a wonderful adventure.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 15, 2024

SeeNyu

Mixed Feelings

I never write any reviews. But for this remake I just cannot handle the dissapointed I encountered. Just watch the old one. You can't fully feel how Holo is like. Art even if it looks better / fresh at the begining is actually is very poor in detailed sense. Ahhh... My childhoods best anime was torn to pieces. When it comes to "fan service", it's been a an inseparable part of the main character's animalism, very sophisticated. But they removed it which results in you perceiving Holo like a casual human

Art style - bad, not matching the anime well.
Details - poor.
Voice actors - same actors ... but worse performance

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 20, 2024

infiniteORBIT

Not Recommended

Funny

A boring, slow, surface-level show.

When you ask someone why they like Spice and Wolf you usually get a mix of these three: romance, banter, economics.

The economics is the most basic simplistic surface-level macroeconomics. Feeling impressed or greatly educated afterwards is similar to a student feeling mastery after econ 101.

Lawrence sells something, gets some other good, trades it for another good etc., etc., etc. Wow such economics. And yet somehow a seasoned merchant does not keep up with the news on his travels? After time on the road the first thing he does isn't to approach a nearby merchant company/guild to get the latest news? He ... initiates a trade in a new town while unaware that the local currency gold coin has a going rate of 32 and 5/6 coins of Trenni silver, and just takes the word of the merchant who is then caught trying to scam him? Is he an amateur merchant of 7+ years experience, or is it bad writing?

The world building of the medieval fantasy setting is extremely basic and generic. The various towns, cities, inns, taverns, blend into each other. The generic corrupt 'Church'. The side characters are one-dimensional and exist only to be used and thrown away.

The banter is usually fun enough, a light in the darkness of this bland show, but also bounces all over the place emotionally and often with unnatural dialogue. Wolf spirit or bad writing?

The romance exists, I guess. If you're into tsundere characters. It's a bit weak and generic with the petty jealousy Holo gets at the slightest interaction Lawrence has with another woman.

Holo is a pretty generic tsundere anime girl. A large part of her personality is food (classic). Possessive and jealous, but also aloof and rude.

For many of these issues, you can use the cop-out excuse that she's not human and is old, therefore her actions and personality do not have to make complete sense to us, there is past trauma that we aren't aware of yet, blah blah blah. But that's weak and an example of poor writing when the viewer is multiple hours in.

When doing a deep dive into years old discussions, preceding this reboot, the general sense of reasoning for liking Spice and Wolf ultimately falls down to waifu and horny.

Anime is more accessible than ever, there are so many more shows being made each year. The breadth of quality has widened and the standard to define a good show has been pushed further in the last 2 decades.

While it may have been seen as a more 'mature' show contemporaneously when anime was often more cartoonish and slapstick, in the modern day the writing falls short in its failure to develop its world or characters in any meaningful way.

Not terrible, just extremely bland.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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