There are many amazing anime offerings for fans to watch in the Spring 2024 anime season…perhaps too many, if I’m being honest. One bright spot is the remake of Spice and Wolf, about a merchant and 600-year-old wolf deity. The unswerving loyalty of Holo fans over the past 16 years has finally been answered with a gorgeous new series. Let’s check it out!
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Spice and Wolf Returns! How Is the Reboot?
In a fictional world inspired by medieval Europe, a merchant named Kraft Lawrence is transporting his wares between towns when he finds a naked wolf-girl sleeping in his cart. She is Holo, a goddess in human form who has been worshipped for ensuring a good harvest in centuries past…though recently people have forgotten her. Holo becomes Lawrence’s unlikely business partner, using her wisdom to help him make better business deals.
Whenever an important anime event like this comes along I get nervous. This is because fans can be quite unreasonable, reacting negatively if they feel they’ve been wronged by the studio. What if they make changes to the story or “update” the character designs in ways fans won’t accept? What if they change the voice cast, mess with the pacing, or take shortcuts that weren’t in the original? Or what if — gasp! — they opt to go with a 100% CGI anime?
But never fear, because the Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf reboot is awesome so far. It’s visually gorgeous, with excellent animation that updates the original while respecting it at the same time. The original voice cast is back, with Ami Koshimizu returning as Holo and Jun Fukuyama reprising his role as Lawrence.
There have only been three significant changes from the 2008 anime so far. The first is moving studios from Imagin to Passione. The second is the opening narration, in which Holo (?) tells the story of “a wolf who protected the harvests of a land much farther south than here” to her daughter. Finally there’s the swapping out of the anime-original character Chloe with Lawrence’s male friend Yarei, who is in the novels. This alters Lawrence’s story arc ever so slightly, and it will be interesting to see how everything unfolds.
(Legendary seiyu Tomokazu Sugita voices Yarei. This is always a sign that an anime has a super high budget, because he doesn’t work cheaply!)
Why is Spice and Wolf So Popular?
Let’s look at some reasons why Spice and Wolf is so compelling to fans!
A Totally Unique Story
Spice and Wolf tells a totally fresh story. It’s part fantasy romance, part commentary on faith vs. logic, and part exploration of fading beliefs. The trading is another important aspect of the show. By the end you’ll have acquired a Master’s Degree in the economics of fictional fantasy countries. The original anime brought in many casual fans who might have started watching because of the “naked wolf girl” but found themselves intrigued by the unique story.
What are the best anime remakes in history? Read my blog post here!
A Complex Story That Could Only Have Come from Novels
I’ve been an anime fan for 40+ years, so I’ve seen anime evolve many times. Back in the day, studios based their anime on manga, or original stories. But as anime really exploded in popularity in the 1990s, anime studios turned to light novels, which are novels with anime-style illustrations aimed at younger readers. Before long, anime like Shakugan no Shana, A Certain Magical Index and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya were reshaping the kinds of stories anime was telling.
I draw a strong distinction between light novels written by professional writers, and Narou-kei web novels. The latter are stories that got their start on websites like Shosetsuka ni Narou! (“Let’s Become a Novelist!”), acquiring an online following before getting picked up by publishers like Kadokawa or ASCII Works for proper publication. While there are many outstanding Narou-kei anime out there, it’s true that every anime with a title like I Couldn’t Get A Job, So I Got Reincarnated as the Alchemy Overlord with My Harem of Childhood Friends is based on online fan fiction by a writer who got really lucky. There’s usually very little in the way of character and story structure there.
Happily this isn’t the case with Spice and Wolf, which is based on 24 light novels written by professional writer Isuna Hasekura, and illustrated by Juu Ayakura.
The Anime Didn’t Overstay Its Welcome
The phrase “always leave the audience wanting more” is sage advice. Because Spice and Wolf got two seasons but didn’t continue forever, fans were left with an emptiness inside that was good for the popularity of the series overall. It certainly seems like a better approach than giving us endless new iterations of Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer, and My Hero Academia, to say nothing of Star Wars and the MCU.
Figures Helped Keep the Popularity Going
As an anime retailer, I’m naturally happy when an anime gets lots of figures to sell. After the second season of Spice and Wolf ended without any continuation, fans turned to collecting the figures of Holo. Often prices for the figures would skyrocket, causing the figure makers to reissue them. Eventually creators realized that the Spice and Wolf fandom was not going to fade away, and a new series was finally commissioned.
Be sure to browse our Spice and Wolf figures and plush toys here!
Thanks for reading this blog post about the Spice and Wolf reboot, which I am really enjoying. Will you be watching the show, or will you just re-watch the original series? Tell us in the comments below!
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Great news! J-List’s inventory counting is at the end of the month, and since we’d rather sell our stock to you than count it, we’re having a huge sale! You can get 15% off all in-stock products shipping from Japan during the J-List Fiscal Year-End Sale. Through May 31st! There’s no coupon to enter and no minimum to buy, so start browsing here!
