TAIL FEEL SO GOOD!

First off, I’m not picking up Spice and Wolf to blog in my usual summary + thoughts format, I just happen to be free of work and bored as hell at the moment, whether this becomes a weekly thing remains to be seen.

Before I get into the meat of this post, I’d first like to voice my discontent about a single point in this episode. Horo, clothed, for the full episode…I mean, that’s just wrong.

It’s economics tiem! While I don’t exactly have a PhD in the field (hell, the only experience I have with economics is two intro level courses on it) I do have the basic knowledge of root market trends. And so, Spice and Wolf leaves me a little confused. The currency deal that is in progress right now is making less and less sense as the minutes pass. From what was inferred at the end of this week’s episode, a third party is rallying for mass investment in a certain currency. Now that’s all well and good, if numerous investors begin to concentrate on a single currency, its value skyrockets, confidence in it rises and it becomes a trusted standard.

However, that’s where the confusion starts, despite this plot, they are actually devaluing the currency, which makes absolutely no sense. It will eventually become noticed, confidence in the currency will plummet and investors will begin to mass sell in panic, crippling the currency. I then thought that perhaps someone is planning for that exact scenario to occur, but more than likely if that were the case, the makers of the currency would notice the sudden rush to buy and increase its worth in response.

In any case, the idea of making significant profit off currency trade in such a small tightly knit economy isn’t very viable in the first place. Even more curious is Lawrence’s exclamation of knowing a way to make money off a devaluing currency. From the looks of it, their society doesn’t have a formal trading market, so it’s not like he can sell short and make profit that way.

tl;rd: there’s some shoddy market forces going on in this anime, or perhaps its just beyond my scope of knowledge

om nom nom nom nom

But I digress, after all, Spice and Wolf isn’t about economics, it’s all Horo! She continues to be an awesome lead with quick thinking and the ability to adapt her personality at a whim to fit the situation. She’s quite a capable merchant herself, conning that guy to buy Lawrence’s fur at such a high price. Though, I’d think that in a world where trading is far from an international affair, that screwing people over in a deal would do more harm than good in the long run. Establishing yourself as a trustworthy partner seems like a smarter approach given the circumstances. *shrugs*

I’m still wondering what Spice and Wolf will choose to focus on. At the moment it has the makings of a romance series with Horo and Lawrence at the center but it also has the whole economics angle to it. While the two may be able to coexist, more than likely, especially with only 12 episodes at their disposal, trying to do both will result in a mediocre job done on both parts. Any manga readers who could give us an idea on how this all starts to come together?

I’m also surprised he’s lasted this long. Everyone is 10% for Horo.

~ Shirukii ~

OH GOD HORO IS HOT

Second episode and Spice and Wolf holds its awesomeness and shows us why it’s known as the economics animu. I can’t stress enough how great Horo’s character is, she -IS- the show, if any aspect of her was lacking, from playful personality to her perfect voice, the series as a whole wouldn’t be nearly as good.

With their travels just under way, Lawrence must be wondering what he’s gotten himself into, seeing as Horo spends about half her screen time praising herself. From boasting about her tail fur to explaining how she got her nickname Horo the wise to bragging about her ears which have the ability to discern truths from lies and hear oncoming disaster, Horo certainly is an arrogant harvest god.

Speaking of hearing oncoming disasters, Horo notes that they’re about to get really wet. And sure enough, moments later they’re caught in a downpour, managing to get to a nearby church in time to seek shelter for the night.

After securing a room, drying out their clothes and flirting for a bit, the two head down to the common room where many other travelers and merchants have convened. There they meet a couple who own a vineyard in Perentso, Lawrence gets into a conversation with them, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the barter trading system versus monetary exchange. After the intriguing exchange of words, the couple excuse themselves to bed and extend an invitation to Lawrence to visit their vineyard should they ever be in the area.

Afterwards, Lawrence and Horo are approached by another merchant, Zeiren, who overheard his conversation, amazed by the ease he approached the vineyard owner with. He comes to them with a deal, apparently a certain currency will soon be replaced with a new coin with higher silver content at a 1:1 ratio. If they were to convert their currency to this rumored coin they would make a profit during the exchange to the newer issue.

Back in their room, amidst chowing down on goat cheese covered potatoes, Lawrence remembers Horo mentioning that her ears allow her to discern between truth and lie. Horo says that it’s not 100% accurate, but pretty close, and though she’s not sure which part of it, she’s confident that the story was not entirely truthful. However, even knowing that, Lawrence’s decision doesn’t change, if the story were to be true, he’d make a profit in the exchange, if not he would eventually dissect the lie and exploit it for profit. The important part of a lie isn’t what the person is lying about, rather why the person is lying in the first place, a fact that both Horo and Lawrence are well aware of, but that Lawrence is annoyed having been told after spending years figuring it out himself.

The next morning Lawrence finds Horo wandering around the church, lamenting the fact that the world has changed so much, that the behaviour of humans is beginning to reflect the new era. Seeing her acting like this, Lawrence comforts Horo, telling her that despite how things may change around her, she’s always been the same, so her homeland will be the same as well, exactly how she remembers. Horo returns to her cheery self but is a little embarrassed that she had to be comforted by Lawrence, quite a shame to her nickname of ‘the wise’.

Negotiating some terms to protect himself from a quick scam, Lawrence agrees to Zeiren’s proposal and the two arrange to meet at a town in the south called Pattsio. Horo is a little confused why they don’t travel there together, to which Lawrence explains travel is quicker by foot due to the muddy roads, since time is money there’s no sense in wasting it. With that, Horo imparts her own bit of wisdom on Lawrence, rather than time being equivalent to money, it’s the interaction with surroundings that is more important, how you use the environment during periods where you can maximize output is more efficient than simply pouring more time into it.

The conversation then shifts to Horo’s experience as a wolf and Lawrence’s experience with wolves. Horo explains that wolves have always survived by defending their territory in the mountains and attacking humans who dare enter it. As Horo continues to explain the nature of wolves Lawrence suddenly tells her to stop, he has been attacked by wolves on eight separate occasions and it seems the memories from those times are not ones which he would like to recall. After remaining in an awkward silence for some time, Horo apologizes and promises never to bring the subject up again. While on the topic, Lawrence asks Horo if she’s ever attacked humans before, Horo freezes up and says that there are some question even she cannot answer. With that slip up, the two declare the score even and are back to their normal selves.

Thoughts

ECONOMICS ANIMU! But actually…not really, lol. The explanation of the bartering system isn’t anything really new, and it amazes me that the vineyard guy had so much trouble wrapping his head around it. You have something someone else wants, they have something you want, so trade, simple as that, the only complicated part of it is assigning equal value to your trading chips.

Moreover, the new coin issue doesn’t really make sense either, in terms of pure silver content, yes you would make a profit by exchanging all your currency and replacing it with the higher content silver. But the problem lies in the reissue itself, by exchanging at a 1:1 rate with no outflow of silver, it introduces a huge influx of previously non-existent silver into the market. By basic laws of supply and demand this devalues silver on a macroscopic scale, potentially doing more harm than good to your cause. However, it could be argued that in the world of Spice and Wolf in which globalization doesn’t exist, the effect would not be the same, or perhaps happen over an infinitely long period of time. *shrugs*

Anyways, on to more important things, like Horo, because Horo is awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anime pull off a character like Horo so well before. She comes off as a playful tease at a first glance but underneath hides a devilishly witty alternate personality all accentuated by her confidence, or arrogance, if you prefer. The only small nuance I have with her is her character design, I’m not really bothered by her 10% furry appearance, and she’s strengthened my love for red eyes, but it’s really annoying to sit through minute long scenes of her naked, only to keep noticing that they’re not drawing the nipples on. In scans of the manga I notice they dodge this by having her hair always hang over in front of her, which would have been fine, but as things stand, it just looks unnatural. But meh, very minor complaint, Horo still wins overall.

And now I’m left with the decision of what to blog. I watched the first episode of ARIA yesterday and my entry on that will be out by tomorrow. I like all three series and could see myself blogging any of the two. What it comes down to is the speed at which I will blog ARIA and the toss up between Spice and Wolf and True Tears. If I blog ARIA the entries will match the pacing of the releases, ARIA is a show meant to be enjoyed effortlessly, so I’m not going to trouble myself by watching the raws, so posts will probably be far behind everyone else.

If I choose to blog Spice and Wolf and True Tears, leaving out ARIA, my posting schedule will be much more regular, but there won’t be any ARIA posts ;_; Meaning no “Hazukashii serifu kinshi!” “Heeeeee?” or “Dekai ____ desu”

Also, I know a bunch of commenters here are also regulars of my kouhai over at Subculture, so I don’t know if there’s any point in covering it with over a week of delay…

I’d her tail.

No, that’s not a typo. Lurk moar.

~ Shirukii ~