Spice and Wolf Season One Review

 Finally that rare find in current anime, a compelling story with interesting dialogue along with stunning visuals.  Spice and Wolf is an epic journey that focuses on the lives of Kraft Lawrence, a traveling merchant, who hooks up with Holo, the Wise Wolf of Yoitsu.  Holo provides her town with a good harvest only to come to the sad conclusion that her town called Pasroe no longer cares. Holo is a wolf deity in human form that reminds one of werewolves.  Except, Holo is a step above the common werewolf fare because she doesn’t go into a rage and lose all the faculties of her human side.  When Holo is in her true wolf form she can still communicate with others and make rational decisions. 

 Since Holo has been in Pasroe for so long she has become isolated from the rest of the world. She decides to travel with Lawrence to see what she has been missing all those years gone by.
 Like a good TV mini series like Stephen King’s The Stand, it is easy to get into Spice and Wolf and to keep watching it.  One of the series strengths is that several of the good episodes end in a cliffhanger that forces the viewer to watch the next one because the story is so engaging. 

 The visuals are just beautiful and each cell could be framed as art and hung on a wall.  Rich details of trees, towns, and characters cause the viewer to forget that Spice and Wolf is an anime.  It is more like watching an Anime movie with all the attention to detail of Akira or the mechs in the Gundman series.

 However, all the pretty colors in the world cannot save an Anime if the story is boring.  Spice and Wolf has an engaging storyline that is character driven and although the action is less than other series, it is the dialogue that stands out.  As Spice and Wolf hint at romantic feelings for one each other the dialogue is very playful and allows the viewer to care for both characters.  This works on many levels such as when Spice gets into trouble dealing with Holo, in human form, as his lack of understanding all women, deity included.

 The medieval setting also works well to provide a framework of a simple time when people traveled by horseback, farming, and merchants bartering for trade were all still daily facts of life.   Each town is provided with detailed buildings that look so real, it is easy to forget that this is animated. 

 The action sequences are well done and are added in the just the right places to enhance the story.  This is not some action-oriented anime with only a hint of plot.  As a result the action becomes necessary to tell the story.  When Holo and Spice are trapped underneath the sewers, Holo changes into her true wolf form to deal with the pursuers.  Since Holo’s true form is kept to a minimum it works so much better then if every other scene had a transformation or fight scene.  The approached worked in Ultraman but would fail in Spice and Wolf.

 Overall, Spice and Wolf is an excellent series that covers several key anime angles from romantic, to detailed backgrounds, a natural realistic flow to the animation, to well developed characters, great use of dialogue, believable action sequences, and a plot that develops with each episode and causes the viewer to want to keep watching.