Spice and Wolf

Although the title above translates to Wolf and Spice, the official English name for it is "Spice and Wolf", which according to my source, took after the name of a book on medieval commerce named "Gold and Spices: The Rise of Commerce in the Middle Ages". This source of mine is also the reason I started to watch the series, and as it so happens, the reason I decided to start a blog (how could you not be motivated by someone like that?).

So, without further ado, my thoughts on the series. The 26 episodes (13 episodes from season 1, 12 episodes from season 2, and one OVA in between) of the series is a nice break from the many common anime themes which include, but are not limited to, an excessive showcase of school life, fighting, unrealistic romance (harems of ridiculously subservient female slaves), and more fighting (cough*narut*cough).

The series follows the journey of Kraft (Craft?) Lawrence as a travelling merchant, and his interactions with Holo, a rather large wolf in her (mostly)human form. The story begins in a small town, where Lawrence accidentally frees Holo from the contract that binds her to the town as a goddess of harvest of some sort. Lawrence then promises Holo to escort her back to her hometown.

Tails are in fashion

Along the journey, the two encounter problems and road bumps in the form of deals gone bad, backstabbing business partners and realistically, the Church (which was a major powerhouse back in the medieval ages). Imagine someone inspecting your travelling companion to find wolf tail and ears. The two inevitably grow more affectionate towards each other in their perilous quest for Holo's hometown. Their affection for each other is circumstantially evident (albeit being less mushy and direct), and their romance is rather down-to-earth, like how the nuances of real life romance can be bought into turmoil by attitudes and a difference in wants, a far-from-perfect romance where everything always ends up happily ever after (cough*twilig**cough). There are moments where you wonder whether or not the series will end abruptly right after that episode, unless of course, you know the episode count (which was mentioned at the beginning of this post).

The Stock Exchange

Another element that added colour to the series was a light touch of economics, which included the usage of credit, foreign exchange, free market trading, and the ever present, all-powerful, supply and demand theory. As a student majoring in Finance, I found some of the in-series lectures rather enlightening and some refreshing (if not difficult to understand). However, some of the conversations required replays and several minutes of thought to fully comprehend, must be the subtitles.

All in all, a rather enjoyable series, thanks to the waltz of emotions between the two protagonists, and the many whimsical comments by the sagacious wolf. Of course, the many similarities between Holo and my much-idolized Witch also played a part.

Death Gods are not the only supernatural beings with a fondness for apples




Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned



My, what big eyes you have

P.S: I can't believe it took me 6 hours to write this, I'm getting too old for this.
P.P.S: I'm getting a headache learning all the new words