So lets start with the basis of the anime for those not familiar. Spice and Wolf is about a traveling merchant named Lawrence who stops in a small town in the south. When he attempts to leave, he finds a pagan wolf goddess hidden in his cart, who wants to return to her hometown in the north. He makes a contract with her guaranteeing he will take her their, and they set off to get into all kinds of mischief.
The art style is fair, and the animation is well done. Granted their isn't a whole lot of action to animate, so they probably had an easier time then say, a shonen jump anime.
My first impression of horo(the wolf goddess)is that she was a character there to attract "furries" because she has a wolf tail and ears. Even though she is a wolf goddess the cat ears and tail theme is a well known otaku perversion.
I honestly wish that wouldn't have been their, but I suppose that's a personal preference.
My initial revulsion retreaded a bit when I started to see the character depth, and the chemistry between Lawrence and horo. The anime is dialogue heavy, and I mean HEAVY. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the witty writing and long conversations, but others may not. The dialogue really gets you caring about the characters, and their journeys. I was surprised how much I cared about how Lawrence's business deals turned out and his well being in general.
The episodes have a psychological twist to them. It reminded me of death note a lot, how the characters all had a one up scheme and how their were multiple levels to all the business deals. The writing in general here was just brilliant at all angles.
I really have to emphasize how amazing the dialogue is between horo and Lawrence. The banter is hilarious, and when it gets serious, you will be on the edge of your seat wondering how their conversations will turn out.
The action is far between, but because you are so entranced with the characters, the scenes are amplified. Besides, its bad ass anyway to see horo messing people up in wolf form.
This anime is probably a hit or miss for most. I think most people will enjoy the witty dialogue and amazing storyline twist. I also have to mention, the love part of the story is also really well done. You can tell the characters are progressing in their relationship without going to sex. Their dialogue gets more flirty, and you can see them getting more comfortable with each other throughout the story.
The second season left me with a, " oh man if there isn't a third season someone is going to die" feeling. I really want to see another business deal. I want to see how their relationship survives knowing horo will live forever and Lawrence will grow old and die.I even thought it would be cool to skip forward in the future to when Lawrence was already dead and maybe horo finds a new companion.
If you're a person who groans at movies with lots of dialogue, or not enough explosions, this probably isn't for you. Go watch Soul Eater or something. If you like psychological animes and love stories, this will be euphoria for you.
Animation-9/10
Storyline-10/10
Charm-9/10
Characters-10/10
Overall, this scores a 9.5 out of 10 for me. I might have added another .5 if I knew their would be another season, but since it ends to soon in my opinion, I have to unfairly detract points. MUHAHAHAHA. Seriously though, go watch this.
Leave suggestions for the next anime for me to watch and review in the comments and ill try to get to it. Like I said as long as its not super long, or a really well known series like DBZ or Bleach, ill review it. And apparently I even have to say I wont review it if it isn't anime, because I got game suggestions last time lol.
From what I understand there probably wont be a third season because the sales weren't too great. Some of the light novels have been translated by Yen Press but in the first print they replaced the original cover with a real life model, pissing off most of the fans who would have bought it.
The show wasn't overly moe and they didn't really have any fan service. Any time Holo was nude it was for artistic purposes, they didn't detail any of her girly bits. I think because they took the high road with the fan pandering in addition to already being very dialog-heavy with a lot of focus on economics it just didn't catch on very well. It does have a rather strong cult following, though.