Spice & Wolf, at a glance
January 9th, 2008 by Shirukii
So, wait, does this mean I’m a furry? (Does it matter? *fapfapfap*)
Wow, I wasn’t expecting much from Spice and Wolf, having not heard too much about it prior to it’s release. But I was pleasantly surprised at how great it kicked off with its opening episode. A fairly unique plot concept, interesting characters filled with potential in both personality and interaction and decent animation/character design, I’m loving it.
The story thus far centers around Craft Lawrence, a traveling merchant. He visits the village of Pasroe to meet with his merchant apprentice Chloe, and finds himself in the midst of one of the village’s harvest festivals. The village is watched over by a wolf god named Horo who apparently made a deal with the villagers long ago to protect their wheat crops. However, lately human technology has allowed them to become more self sufficient and their reliance on Horo is waning, their faith in its existence dwindling.
It’s an old pagan legend whose truth Lawrence confirms in a rather unconventional manner, Horo, the harvest god, appears before Lawrence in the form of a young girl. After seeing her true form and hearing the story of how the villagers no longer need her, Horo tells Lawrence that usually she is bound to the village, but can move to a bundle of wheat larger than the last one harvested and if the grain barn is left unguarded. Luckily for her, Chloe was the one who harvested the last grain bundle, which was smaller than the one Lawrence was hauling around in his wagon, and being the last person to harvest a wheat bundle, she was put in charge of guarding the grain barn, which she neglected in lieu of flirting with Lawrence.
So thanks to that Horo is free to roam with Lawrence, helping herself to his best set of clothes. Despite being a harsh businessman, Lawrence seems a little powerless around girls, so he agrees to let her tag along, on the condition that she feeds herself. Horo agrees and sets off with Lawrence, ultimately wanting to return to her homeland in the north, Yoitsu.
First Impressions
I don’t know if it’s the mediocrity of the rest of the season so far, but I really liked Spice & Wolf. Specifically, the characters are well portrayed. Horo is an arrogant little brat on the surface but you can tell from the way she speaks and acts and from that distant look in her eyes that there’s a deep feeling of loneliness and longing inside her. She has a playful, teasing personality, knowing how and when to act to get what she wants and has been perfect in manipulating Lawrence so far. All made even better by Koshimizu Ami’s voice acting, which perfectly suits the character, surprising seeing how much I hate some of her other roles. Now the only question is, furry or not? I need to know ;_;
Lawrence is an interesting character in his own respect. It’s clear that he has a good business sense and can play it tough when he needs to. He’s skeptical, as shown by his wariness to believe Horo is a harvest god, and the caution he shows when he hears about Chloe’s proposal, but at the same time he’s far too trusting when it comes to women, or perhaps he just underestimates them.
On that note, I wonder how much of a role Chloe will play in the grand scheme of things. She’s pretty arrogant herself and clearly wants Lawrence’s partnership in more ways than one, it’d be interesting to see her go head to head with Horo.
Animation was pretty good, I didn’t notice much variation in terms of quality throughout the episode, so that’s good, consistency is what I look for in these things. Character designs are awesome on the female side of things (OH GOD HORO IS HOT, etc) Lawrence has a pretty generic, uninspired look though. Music was so-so, I made it through the OP, which was a nice serene melody, but the ED was made of fail and Engrish, I stopped after 5 seconds or so.
So finally a winter season series which I can actually say I like, as opposed to previous series I previewed, ranging from crap to tolerable. Depending on how much I like Gunslinger Girl II and how the story progresses in the second episode of Spice & Wolf, I can see myself blogging this one.
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Yea I know she’s a wolf, shhh.
~ Shirukii ~
21 Responses to “Spice & Wolf, at a glance”
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>>”Yea I know she’s a wolf, shhh.”
Yea I know she’s NAKED, shhh.
lol… Firefox rocks.
About this season, I’m pretty much in the same boat. Not sure what it is, but this winter season has been a bit of a disappointment. Especially Gunslinger (shudders).
Reminds me of the “Furry Chart”: http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/8797/stagesoffurryrs0.jpg
хммм
To Watch or not to watch :D
On the way the review is written it’s sounds more promising than anything else that goes out so far. but wander what’s happening with the sub of the Gunslinger Girl II things like “water stuff” are subs immediately but something people expect not. But yeah fan subber groups starting to get more and more wild names :D Nice Boat I think Baka-Wolf should get that one :)
Well, who cares if she’s furry or not? You said it yourself.
“So, wait, does this mean I’m a furry? (Does it matter? *fapfapfap*)”
Well, it seems like a nice little tale that seemed to come out of a storybook. And people were right, that Horo talks funny, she doesn’t quite sound like a samurai, but she doesn’t sound modern either.
You didn’t help yourself to a slice of sunshine pie?
this was great; i’ll definitely watch more of it.
no wonder Lawrence fell out of the cart when he saw Horo’s paw: her wolf form is HUGE. i didn’t expect that. i did think it was wierd he didn’t offer Horo something to cover up with, though, as he seems like quite a gentleman at other times (particularly with Chloe).
sadly the subs didn’t really convey Horo’s way of speaking, and my japanese is nowhere near good enough to pick up the differences (i can usually pick up on polite vs. plain well enough). At least one other group has subbed it so i’ll have to check them out to see if there’s any difference.
I’m watching it… I like Horo’s character, my only gripe is what we’ll be dealt in 12 episodes when there is a pretty good deal or source material; not bad, but it leaves a lot of room for disappointment.
Only qualm was that I wish her howl was a bit sexier to the moon (the manga did it well though).
Cheers :)
Whoa, shirukii, never knew you were into beastiality. O.O
A cat is fine too
I’m on this series as well,
I heard the theme can get really business-taste heavy though, hopefully it wont confuse my senses = =;
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@ Shirukii
About Gunslinger Girl,
Brace urself for a major unpleasant shock… ORZ
I didn’t like this show from its first episode, but I didn’t dislike it either. I think my watch list for this season will be True Tears, Wolf, and Origination. The only positive review of GSGII I’ve seen has been from abq…
Also, I’ve decided to start including my site when commenting. I’m bored of being unpopular. <3 Shirukii.
@ Siva: She didn’t seem the slightest bit embarrassed about it either, heh.
@ muhootsaver: Damn, another bad impression for Gunslinger Girl II, seems like no one is liking it.
@ Servbot: A cat is fine too :3
@ PCgamer: It’s been said that the better the show the longer it takes to sub, seems to be applying here, unfortunately. I WANT MY DAMN ARIA SUBS!
@ Zeroblade: Fap first, worry later, huh? Ah, the good old trap days.
@ ItAintEazy: I like Horo’s manner of speech, it’s a unique accent, though hard to portray through subs. I get the gist of it though.
@ Kabitzin: DO NOT WANT ;_;
@ panda monium: Yea, the subs didn’t convey her odd accent at all, but that’s ok, I’d rather they keep it clean than try and romanize it by translating into a southern hick accent or something stupid like that.
@ Ryan A: Aww, so it is only a one season series, shame, I could see myself watching a full 24-26 episodes of this.
@ Michael: Dude, you know you’d hit it =P
@ Servbot: Huh, so much for my earlier reply lol.
@ Nightingale: I love economics, bring it on! And damn, ANOTHER displeased GsG viewer.
@ lolikit: Yea GsG blew compared to the first. That’s what they get for trying to make the loli assassins overly moe, bastards ruined it.
And I was excited for a second there, I thought notdotq was coming back =( But I do occasionally lurk dotq to see what you’re up to.
notdotq will be back in April. In the meantime, feel free to like. Read and review my writing :o
This whole idea with Chloe is IMHO redundant, she is anime-only character added to increase some stupid “romance factor” in not-much romantic story.
Depending on how things work out next ep. I think I’m gonna pick this one up…….
It’s still weird to see characters speaking Japanese in a CLEARLY European setting…..almost as confusing as when I was watching Shojou Cossette last season and was expecting the characters to speak French lol :P……shame none of the groups are subbing it anymore
I just hope this isnt fan-service/ecchi to tha max. cause thats ruined alot of series this starting year….Zero and Rosario Vampire to name a few.
but I like what i’ve seen so far
While Chloe is anime-only, she did replace the role of another character in the novel. Not sure if that’s the way she’ll stay, but if she does, then there won’t be any stupid “romance factor” added :)
I like this anime so far.
Chloe is an evil bich she betrayed Lawrence! But its good because Horo has no more competition. If you catch my drift.