Spice and Wolf - Anime Review

Title: Spice and Wolf

Studio: Imagin

Released: Q1 2008

Episodes: 12

Spice and Wolf seems to be set in some kind of fantasy era where everything is bright and everyone is happy. The series shows people who live a simple and pleasant existence, all of them content with a life in which you only really need to remember two things to get by: Church = good, Pagans = bad. Unless of course you're a merchant, in which case you have to think about every possibility for profit under the sun in the most complicated ways available. Complicated to the point where I was confused more often than not and had to have a long hard think at the end of the episode before I got an idea of how the plot worked, at which point I needed an aspirin and a nice lie down.

Lawrence is one of those merchants. He rides around the country with his little horse and cart trading whatever he can get his hands on that will bring him a profit; wheat, furs, salt, armour, pepper, anything that'll get him some extra money. I don't find that strange, really, but as the series progresses, his obsession with earning a profit would leave me with little surprise if he started smuggling illegal immigrants and selling children to salt mines. On his trading route is a small village called Pasroe. Each harvest a festival is held where the villager to reap the final bundle of wheat from the fields is called “Horo” and locked away in a cold, dark barn for a week. Apparently this is a good thing, and the winner of this competition is Chloe, a budding young merchant of the town and Lawrence's sort of student. While all the villagers are competing to be put in isolation Chloe collects the final bundle of wheat.

Enter Horo, wise Wolf spirit and ancient pagan deity of the Pasroe. According to legend, she lives in the wheat, and even if the wheat is cut, she is able to move to another bundle of the stuff as long as it is larger than the amount cut, and it is nearby. As it just so happens, Lawrence has a big bundle of wheat in his cart left over from his previous transactions. One loud thump later and she's sleeping soundly in his cart unbeknownst to the villagers and Lawrence himself.

That night Lawrence's plans to sleep with comfort in his cart full of furs are disrupted when Horo wakes up, stretches back and howls at the moon. After telling Lawrence that the village of Pasroe has forgotten about the importance she played in the prosperity of the town's crops, and the promise she made with a young boy many years before, Lawrence isn't really buying her story. He asks for proof otherwise he might turn her over to the church as being possessed by a daemon, at which point she munches on some wheat and gives him all the proof he needs. The first episode ends with Lawrence promising Horo that he will accompany her back to her home in the north, a legendary forest where the “Summers are Short and the Winters are long” called Yoitsu, and so begins their journey.

Watching this series was kind of like having a Teletubby punch you in the face. Sure it's a soft one, but it's a punch nonetheless. The environment is an awesomely colourful place; the days are bright and blue, the sunsets are serene and picturesque, the nights are filled with shining stars, and the people are cheerful and helpful. That is until Lawrence ends up being hunted down by thugs hired to kill him. It is around this point that the two-faced attitude of the merchant world shines through brighter than the aforementioned stars and suddenly everything has turned bad for Lawrence. He finds himself alone and helpless with only a bastard to turn to. Turns out that this bastard would much prefer a heap of profit over the life of a small-time merchant, and has to be blackmailed into helping him out by the bastards who hired the bastards that tried to kill Lawrence in the first place, so it's all one big circle of bastards with Lawrence stuck in the middle not really knowing what to do and I can't tell where the knife in the back begins and the confusion ends. Actually, that's kind of a lie, the confusion never really ends. Each plot is as complicated and vague as the next, and it never really gets sorted out, the plan just kind of “stops” with Lawrence having gained little more than experience and a slap on the wrist.

Regardless of the complications of the merchant's plans, the story itself is the opposite when it comes to how difficult it is to follow. Lawrence and Horo enter town, Lawrence and Horo trade stuff, Lawrence fucked/fucks something up, Lawrence and Horo argue, Lawrence finds a way out of the mess, rinse and repeat and you have Spice and Wolf. The actual story itself rarely looks at the reason why they're together in the first place, and it never really seems like they've made any progress towards Yoitsu until around the end of the series where Lawrence tells Horo they'll be going to a city in the north to trade some more, and so the actual series itself ends around half way through the actual story without any sort of conclusion or answer at all, leaving all of that up to its younger sibling, “Spice and Wolf 2”.

Even so, I did enjoy this series. While more often than not Lawrence's situation more than adequately described “in a pinch,” he is an intelligent character, and watching him get out of those dire, life-threatening situations is just as fun as watching him fall into them. Horo herself lives up to her title of “Wise,” and is constantly helping Lawrence make more of a profit during his trades. Her personality can switch from sage to child at the drop of an apple, and her ears and tail are used very well to help outline how she's feeling. When she's depressed her ears droop, making her cute, and when she's excited her tail wags uncontrollably, making her even more cute.

Just as you'd expect, one of the main focuses of the series is the relationship between Lawrence and Horo. I actually enjoyed this aspect of Spice and Wolf. The development is made apparent without the need for the typical “I d-didn't do this for you, you idiot. G-geez” said with a red face. Subtle milestones are passed as the series progresses, and the characters eventually get closer and closer to each other. Again, this is done without much physical interaction, so if you prefer a more in-your-face development you might be a little disappointed, although I don't doubt that their relationship will go even further in the second series. Horo herself seems to develop quite a bit during the series as you learn more about her and her ancient promise to the child and people of Pasroe village. Lawrence, however, seems to be anchored in place as far as development is concerned. He is more the catalyst for Horo's own development, sparking her change rather than his own. While this is all good and well some advancement from Lawrence would be appreciated. Of course, through experience his ability as a merchant is developed, but this is never really used.

Looking beyond the story, the animation is nothing spectacular, but it's more than enough to paint the scenery that comes about. When thinking of Yoitsu the big trees and pure white snow offers a fantastic picture of a magical and legendary place beyond human imagination, and everything from the bustling cities to the sheep-filled, quiet country roads are clear and well done.

The music is the same. While nothing actually stands out, the happy flute music and the relatively fast-paced dramatic tracks envelop the series in a manner that isn't harsh to the ears when switching from one to the other. The transition from content to danger is smooth and fluid while maintaining the drama that comes with it.

I guess you can't really say that any individual part of the series stands out, but in the end everything complements everything else in a way that makes the series itself a bright beacon in a pile of dead bulbs.