Spice and Wolf Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2012-06-24 (updated 2012-10-07)
• 4.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Spice and Wolf offers a thoughtful twist on mundane fantasy that takes a melancholy slice-of-life premise and spins it into an intelligent, funny, sharp-tongued economic adventure with an undercurrent of flirty romance. The series is built around the relationship of Holo and Lawrence, a wickedly perceptive, fun-loving displaced harvest god and a serious-minded yet charismatic merchant. Neither is a stereotypical anime protagonist, and their ongoing verbal fencing match is endlessly entertaining to watch. The series is unabashedly about dialogue, and every component of the production comes together to make this work: spot-on Japanese acting, witty writing, beautiful yet understated visuals, and a perfect-fit medieval chamber-music-style soundtrack.

Spice and Wolf never tries to be more or less than what it is--a personal-scale fantasy adventure about merchanting and playful romance. While the low-key drama and tight focus isn't going to appeal to everyone, it is a roundly entertaining and near-perfectly executed series if it strikes your fancy.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2012-06-24 (updated 2012-10-07)
• 4.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Spice and Wolf sounds, superficially, like it might be either of two very different sorts of generic anime: haughty wolf-girl fanservice or melancholy fantasy slice-of-life. In fact, it's an intelligent, funny, sharp-tongued economic adventure with an undercurrent of flirty romance. The sort of thing that in theory should be boring and in practice could scarcely be more entertaining. A thinking man's twist on mundane fantasy, it is easily one of my all-time favorite series.

The characters define the series

The first thing to understand is that Spice and Wolf is light-hearted and fun. The set-up sounds anything but--a harvest god cast adrift by changing times, on a meandering quest to return to her homeland in the frozen north. But while Holo, being a well-developed character, harbors some bitterness and melancholy, she is above all a lover of life--good food, good wine, and good company. She's also flirty, wickedly perceptive, and never tires of playing about with humans, her new traveling companion Lawrence in particular.

Lawrence, for his part, is an even more uncommon sort of protagonist: A merchant in both profession and spirit, always haggling and in pursuit of profit. Don't take that to mean he's a greedy caricature; rather, his passion in life is the thrill of the deal and the battle of words and wits involved in negotiation. As a result, he's about as far from a "hero" as you can get--he approaches every conflict from the negotiation-and-compromise perspective of a merchant. When things do occasionally come down to action instead of words, he's woefully under-equipped, and knows it.

He's also no teenage adventure-seeker--in his mid-twenties, Lawrence has plenty of experience on the road. Serious-minded and thoughtful, but also genial and talkative, he's a fitting adversary for Holo--clever enough to spar with her, but not wily enough to actually win.

Words over action

Lawrence and Holo's relationship, and the whole series by extension, is a sort of verbal fencing match. The constant back-and-forth of thrust, parry, reposte is what almost every scene is built on, be it between Lawrence and Holo, or during the mercantile negotiations that make up the external drama in the story. As in fencing, the goal is to score a hit, not injure the other party, and the losing participant is often the first to acknowledge when they've been bested.

While Spice and Wolf does have some action, its focus on conversation is something quite unexpected in a fantasy story--really, in any anime--and the series never feels the need to substitute physical drama when verbal interplay is sufficient. Don't mistake this for a series about something bigger being constrained to dialogue by budget--it's a series unabashedly about dialogue.

Given that focus, the acting is a make-or-break component. In the original Japanese, it's definitely "make"--Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu (previously paired up in Code Geass as mastermind Lelouch and his hotheaded subordinate Kallen) are simply perfect as Lawrence and Holo. The talented Fukuyama does a marvelous job of giving Lawrence casual charisma and personality, and Koshimizu is spot-on as Holo--her intelligence and wit are believable, and her archaic way of speaking feels smooth and natural.¹ The rest of the relatively small cast is equally good, with a range of lively voices and effective performances. A cursory examination of the English dub told me that, while acceptable, it just isn't as good.

Also necessary for the focus on dialogue to work are a sufficiently intelligent script and well-developed characters. Fortunately, this anime adaptation is extremely faithful to Isuna Hasekura's witty original material. The conversations and banter have a casual flow combined with a calculated self-awareness about who is winning or losing that sets it apart from average TV fare and keeps things plenty engaging.²

The characters' self-awareness is part of what makes them feel like real people. Holo, for example, is somewhat unrestrained with her emotions, but explains, reasonably, that it comes of centuries of isolation. She does things that make her colorful and endearing--pouting, yelling, and occasionally giving in to tears--but never to the point of caricature, and always with an understanding of how it comes across to Lawrence.

More importantly, the majority of her endearing behavior turns out to be an act--she has more than enough experience with "males" to know just what sort of things they like to see in women, and to play the part until she gets the upper hand.

The anti-fanboy fanboy series

On that note, it's interesting to contrast Spice and Wolf with the average "fanboy"-type anime show; it sets up things that would usually be an excuse for fanservice or moe-fodder, then refuses to play the game. For example, Holo isn't at all ashamed of being naked, yet the camera never leers, and after a reasonable introductory scene she's consistently fully clothed. Even her wolf ears--the motions of which are an indicator of her mood and personality--are covered by a hood more often than not.

Coming back to Holo's emotional manipulation, the series itself uses it, slyly, to challenge the stereotypical male viewer. It will trot out the sort of thing that gets them attached to anime girls, then smile wryly and point out how simple-minded that is. And, again, Holo feels real enough that it doesn't come across as the least bit out of character.

Lawrence, similarly, isn't just a bland proxy for the male viewer. He's an interesting character with personality and charisma, and much of the show focuses on his interactions with other people, male and female.

No more heroes

The plot consists of two story arcs corresponding to the first two novels, and is remarkable for the solid focus on mercantile dealings. Lawrence and Holo aren't saving the world; the former is trying to take advantage of an opportunity for profit (or dig himself out of a deal gone wrong), while the latter is mostly trying to enjoy herself on the way to her homeland. Both of which are hugely entertaining, so long as you embrace the relatively relaxed pacing and get involved in the characters.

The setting goes along with this; a well-realized fantasy world styled after early Renaissance Europe, it has history, depth, and a sense of reality. Notably, Holo is the only supernatural thing we ever see, and even her abilities only rarely. There also aren't any outright villains, just varying degrees of unscrupulous and unsympathetic. The Church--an obvious monotheistic stand-in for the Catholic Church--is powerful, inflexible, and somewhat corrupt, but even it is treated as an unpleasant organization to avoid crossing rather than blatantly evil.

The only flaws in the show are a couple of rough spots in its screenplay. A minor issue is that it's harder than it should be to keep up with the complex currency exchange situation that the first story arc revolves around.³ My only real complaint, though, is with the follow-through at the very end of each arc. The novels each include a short epilogue that wraps up the loose ends and logistics that happen after the adventure is over. The anime almost completely omits these, which leaves you with a few lingering questions that could have easily been addressed in a couple minutes of exposition.

The adaptation is otherwise nearly scene-for-scene. The only real change is a tweak to the first arc that gives a much better emotional hook in the climax.⁴

Almost-perfect visuals, absolutely perfect music

The visual artistry of the series deserves a great deal of the credit for how well it works. While animation studio Imagin had a relatively modest budget to work with, and the visuals aren't flamboyant, the execution is admirable. The backgrounds capture the down-to-earth fantasy setting, from subtly beautiful establishing shots of scenery to spare candlelit rooms. The character art, likewise, is crisp and precise, and does a superb job of capturing nuanced facial expressions. The animation is wonderful given the budget--plenty of life and flavor, as well as subtle things like the twitches of Holo's ears under her hood that signal what she's feeling. Interestingly, even though there isn't much dimensionality in the art--the compositions often have a slightly "flat" look--it works with the style (it reminded me a bit of the isometric-style artwork of the middle ages). The memorable character designs are relatively faithful to Juu Ayakura's illustrations in the novels, but have a more mature look that is, frankly, far better suited to the characters and story.

The final component is the soundtrack, which couldn't be better. The series opens with a lovely, haunting song by Natsumi Kiyoura. That's bookended, both emotionally and literally, by a playful end theme by Rocky Chack.⁵ Everything in between is handled by Yuuji Yoshino's evocative background score, inspired by medieval chamber-music. Played by a small ensemble of traditional instruments--fiddle and flute mixed with bagpipe, crumhorn, and wistful vocalizing--it has everything the series needs: lively festival tunes; aggressive string pieces full of tension without seeming overblown; nostalgic, melancholy melodies that evoke the distant, frozen northlands; and Holo's wonderfully playful and mischievous penny whistle theme. The range of emotion and mood accomplished while maintaining a coherent period feel is admirable, the small scale is just right for the story, and all-around it's such a perfect fit that it doesn't just complement the production, it's an integral part of it.

Conclusion

Spice and Wolf never tries to be more or less than what it is--a personal-scale fantasy adventure about merchanting and playful romance. The emphasis is on dialogue and battles of wits more than physical action, and every component of the production comes together to make this work: spot-on Japanese acting, witty writing, beautiful yet understated visuals, and a perfect-fit medieval-flavor soundtrack. While the low-key drama and tight focus isn't going to appeal to everyone, it is a roundly entertaining and near-perfectly executed series if it strikes your fancy.

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Related Recommendations

There are few series so focused on character interaction, fewer still with such laid-back, flirty romance, and not many more that feature fantasy settings with such a strong undercurrent of realism. On the fantasy front, Twelve Kingdoms is set in a richly detailed world with a lot of attention to realism, but the mood, scale, and level of supernatural influence are nearly opposite. On the dialogue-focused front, the wacky multi-genre series Durarara!! and to a lesser extent its cousin Baccano! has quite a bit of talking, but also quite a bit more action, and is all-around a far wackier series. The closest series in general feel is probably Allison and Lillia, although the scale, setting, maturity level, and actual plots are wildly different.