Spice and Wolf - Anime Review

So how would you like to be six hundred years old and only look fifteen? Not possible? Ridiculous. All you have to be is a wolf deity. Asides from the obvious longevity and youthful appearances you also get a sweet sleek tail, superb hearing, and a gargantuan wolf physique whenever you need to kick some ass. The downsides are you need blood or grain to change into your wolf form, and the fact that you turn up naked whenever you change back to a human. You just need to be a wolf, and have spices, Spice and Wolf. Yeah, that was bad.

Spice and Wolf was an interesting show because it definitely deviated from the normal plot devices of some evil baddie waiting in the shadows to kill everything. Lawrence has all the power on his side because of the fifteen year old looking chick who also happens to be the above mentioned wolf deity. Instead, evil comes in the form of money and profiteering, in other words, economics. In that sense, both Lawrence and Horo are the real villains in the show. Interestingly enough, Lawrence does screw himself in the anime. Now I have no idea whether the economic circumstances explored in the anime are real or not, but it was definitely an interesting watch to see how Lawrence and Horo attempted to turn various situations into their own advantage.

As an atheist I could not help but enjoy watching the church get portrayed as an essentially corrupt and mercantile organization in this anime. I mean, it really was true, from what I recall of European history. The church held vast lands, which were not taxed until some monarch came around and reined them in. However, I highly doubt that the church had a monopoly on gold, though I admit I could be wrong.

The drama aspect of Spice and Wolf was just slightly unsettling for me. I mean, who is the real pedophile? Lawrence, or Horo? Visually speaking Lawrence looks to be ten years older and Horo barely in her mid teens. However, Horo’s actual age is so many times that of Lawrence’s that any romantic interest seems out of place. You’d figure that she had seen so many more men before her in her six hundred years that Lawrence would appear singularly unexceptional. Nonetheless, it worked reasonably well in the anime. And let’s face it, we all probably figured they would start developing feelings for each other the moment we saw the opening.

The animation is below average throughout most of the anime, but that really isn’t what Spice and Wolf is about. The enjoyment of this anime really doesn’t really hinge on the animation quality. Nor are there that many fast paced action scenes that require the animation to look good. This is a very mellow series, even when Lawrence finds out he has managed to bankrupt himself, you don’t really feel too stressed out about it. It’s just kind of like, “Eh, he has a wolf deity with him, he’ll be fine”.

I don’t really like commenting on music because I consider myself, and the vast majority of the human population including some self-proclaimed “musicians” to be thoroughly unfit to judge real quality in sounds. Regardless, I would like to say that I absolutely loved the opening them. The mellow melancholy of the song, Tabi no Tochū, really grabbed me in a way I find hard to describe. The full version is even better, in my opinion.

I gave Spice and Wolf an Excellent on animenewsnetwork despite the low quality animation. It is just a very pleasant series to watch. Lawrence’s wits coupled with Horo’s wisdom, experience, and general wolf deity bad-assness make them the perfect mercantile duo. Be warned, some people, maybe you, will get bored with this. Heck, I should find my own wolf deity and go into trade.