Spice & Wolf

Genre: Fantasy
Age Appropriate: Any age
Emotional Response:  lovely, excited and wry chuckles
Notable Features: gods, church, wolf, peddler
Language: English
Length: 2 seasons, 26 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Top 5

"Stupid Potato!" - Holo

Spice and Wolf is all about the adventures of a travelling merchant and his chance companion, Holo, the Wise Wolf. Spice actually refers to Kraft Lawrence, who peddles wares from location to location, changing what he sells as he goes along. Holo appears when he stops at one of his usual locations, and she ends up falling asleep in his cart of furs. From there, the story grows into a mix of friendship, drama and a hint of romance.

Lawrence has agreed to take Holo to the North, where her family supposedly lives. She had long been stuck in a small town, agreeing to help with their harvests, but sneaks away unexpectedly with Lawrence and a special bale of wheat. He seems to be a clever merchant who makes deals based on profit and loss, as usual, but finds himself benefitting from Holo's wisdom. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it appears to work out horribly.

Holo is a wolf-god who has an attitude, some amount of arrogance (read: lots) and has an insatiable desire for food and drink. She frequently ends up drunk and hurting, making Lawrence take care of her. She has agreed to pay Lawrence back for her expenses, and wracks them up. She teases Lawrence incessantly, and uses guilt to manipulate him, but has her moments of generosity and caring. They meet a lot of interesting people along the way. They seems to have built their relationship not only on the trust of traveling partners, but also on their ability to argue about everything. Near the end, he even seems to be able to tease her right back.

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It was lovely. And poignant. And maybe a little disappointing.
The disappointing isn't because there was something wrong, but because the romantic in me didn't want it to be over. The end of the series actually makes a point about the ending of good things. I had seen the first season before, and I knew that I liked it, but i was surprised by the second season. I wasn't sure how well it would do. Turns out it did just fine. I certainly didn't expect it to jump so far up the scale of favorites. When I first started writing the synopsis, I thought it was going to be close to the Top 5, but not necessarily make it. Now that I've finally finished the series, it's slid right into place.

There is a lot of humor in the series, and most of it is a wry humor. I found myself completely invested in the Lawrence and Holo. The whole series made my mouth quirk at the humor and self-confidence shared between the two. I'm not a hundred percent sure that everyone would like it, though. Obviously, I'm a bit sucked it. Without being flowery or spicy, it's a bit female. If you are a ren-faire type fantasy fan, I think you would like it, and if you are a girl, you'll probably like it. It's definitely not a guy's guy type, though. Since the blog is titled "Anime for the Mini-Geek Girl," I'll bypass the gender-neutral parts and just say I highly recommend it! I'll watch it again someday, and I have complete confidence that I'll love it all the same.

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How do you like them apples?: The Mystic Archives of Dantalian


Important lesson: Whatever the reason, don't read ahead in an episode list. It almost ruined it for me, but thankfully Wikipedia really isn't always reliable.