Summary: >

For hundreds of years, the crops of a village have been blessed by a wolf goddess named Holo. As times have changed, the people begin to forsake the old ways, believing they don't need her anymore. While Holo has honored her part of the bargain, she no longer feels obligated to stay there and longs to return to her home in the north. That's when opportunity presented itself through a traveling merchant named Lawrence.

Lawrence has been a merchant for years and plans to save up enough to open his own shop. While adept at understanding economics, he's often gets caught up in schemes. Holo proposes that she should become his partner. In exchange for taking her north, she'll help him with her unusual abilities; such as always knowing if a person is lying or not. Being able to spot scams easily would be very useful to anyone, but invaluable to a merchant. And that's just one of her talents. Utilized correctly, Holo could make a merchant very rich. It's risky though, as the church would like nothing better than to burn deities like her at the stake. Still, he'd like the company of such a smart friendly girl on his travels, and she certainly would be an asset, so he agrees to her proposal.

Laurence shows Holo much of the world as they travel north. The never ending financial struggles of a merchant provide interesting experiences for the girl known as Holo the Wise Wolf. The longer they travel, the closer they grow together. Holo no longer feels alone, and maybe money isn't everything.

Thoughts: >

Oh mah freaking god, adorable wolf girl! It's a good thing she's here too, because she carries much of the title due to the other aspects of this anime falling short. Holo and Lawrence draw closer together as the story progresses, but he's one of those super dense male characters. In many anime titles, the girl would be bashful and the story would get drawn out. In others she'd throw herself at the guy at every opportunity. Holo doesn't really do either. This creates an interesting chemistry between the two, mainly driven by Holo's outspoken demands for actions that happen naturally in most relationships, and the affectionate teasing between the two. This still works well for this anime, but the other parts struggle.

There are two big stories in Spice and Wolf. The first has to do with currency depreciation.. I guess that's the best way to describe it. Did you just hear that right? Yes, you see the thing Spice and Wolf is known for (aside from wolf girl) is its focus on economics. Lawrence being a merchant isn't just a throw away plot device, it's a core aspect of this series. The first story starts around financial intrigues of currency, but ends up too convoluted for its own good. The end turns out well enough, but it felt like there were some key details missing, or perhaps it just moved too quickly across them in a way that's easy to get lost.

The second story deals with Lawrence getting stuck in a speculative deal that goes bad. For some reason it's hard to relate to the merchant ways of Lawrence when he keeps screwing up all these deals so badly. This story drags until the last two episodes. It's not bad, but seems like it's missing something.

The animation itself is generally ok, but nothing spectacular. There isn't a lot of action in Spice and Wolf, which is good because things don't move very fluidly when there is. I don't suppose I need to talk about the nice character designs aside from OMG adorable wolf girl, although everyone who isn't a main character looks pretty generic. The music attempts to replicate either a lively medieval feel, or soothing classical composition. It sounds a little too synthetic to fully pull that off. The intro sequence was nice and the ending sung in English by a Japanese girl is unintentionally amusing.

Spice and Wolf is deficient when considering it's potential. Even so, it's a refreshing concept that makes well worth watching. Thinking back to the manga, I have the feeling that this series can improve if it can better capture the elements that make the manga so popular. Thus I have high hopes for the second season. Of course I'm also looking forward to seeing more of the adorable wolf girl.. er, I mean learning more about economics! If the premise of this anime doesn't sound interesting to you, I have my doubts Spice and Wolf will win you over and you'll probably want to skip this one. However if it does sound like your cup of tea, it's worth checking out simply because it's something different and done reasonably well.