This review contains spoilers for the entire anime. Chief Director: Takeo Takahashi Director: Hijiri Sanpei Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata Spice and Wolf is a show of a time that predated my entry into anime. Even more so it was interesting to see that a remake was made. As someone who hadnt heard even once of Holo the beloved deuteragonist of the series until this remake was announced I was very curious to jump into this and experience this story for myself. Holo and Loneliness 70https://spiceandwolf.com/story//ep01/ep011.jpg Unsurprisingly Holo herself is probably one of the best things to come out of this show. And thats a very good thing given that she has the secondmost screen time in the show and is even in the title itself. Not only does she have a good amount of charisma I commend the voice actor heavily here but I also like the idea of her being lonely because she outlived her friends and got abandoned by a culture that used to worship her. It humanizes her and gives her a certain amount of vulnerability that makes her relationship with Lawrence believable. They dont travel together just because the plot demands but because both are lonely people and appreciate the company while pursuing their goals. And as I mentioned already shes simply charming and I like her cheeky and flirty attitude towards Lawrence. I have to heavily commend her voice actor Ami Koshimizu for that. Loneliness seems to be one of the central themes regarding the characterization of both Lawrence and Holo. However I found Holo to be much more compelling than Lawrence. And it may be because Holo has a prominent screen presence outside her emotional moments so when it gets emotional it provides a nice contrast to her usual behavior and we see a new side to a character we already find fun to watch. Lawrence on the other hand showcases a much smaller range of emotion and expression than Holo. He does feel static throughout the show and is mostly just a nice person. And there are moments where it feels like he steps outside that comfort zone but the show doesnt do anything with it. For instance when he was willing to lay down his life to protect Holo in episode 6. Thats not normal behavior. Even for someone you feel attracted to you wouldnt risk your life like that. But the show doesnt take up the opportunity to explore why hes willing to risk his life for Holo. Maybe its not just attraction and hes developed emotional dependency because shes the first friendship in a long time which is not based on business. However the relationship between the two of them still is enjoyable and there are a lot of moments that are simply cute and/or wholesome. It feels straight to the point as the two of them spend a lot of time with each other and are selfaware enough to recognize their attraction toward the other even if they dont strongly label their relationship as such. But they have a strong mutual bond which is wholesome to witness. Just like Lawrence however it feels like the show sometimes misses the opportunity to explore that dynamic further. A particular sour note for me was the story arc surrounding Amati and the pyrite deal. Not only was the arc much longer than it should be and its based on a misunderstanding that couldve been cleared up much more easily but it also resolved on an unsatisfying note. It feels the arc only served to make Lawrence realize how much Holo means to him but the arc showcased such a disconnect between the communication expectations between Holo and Lawrence that it was disappointing to not have them explore that. Especially given that the arc opens the question if a relationship between a mythical being and a human can work in the first place. I wouldnt even have minded as much the misunderstanding and the length of the arc if it had been an entry point for both of them to reflect on their relationship and how they communicate with each other but as it is it felt merely like an instrument to drag the drama for a bit longer. Now there are still gradual developments in their relationship as I mentioned briefly with Lawrence realizing his feelings for instance and I still appreciate those. On the other hand the way we get there feels clunky and sometimes frustrating. But I still appreciate it as it is. Pagan gods and religion 70https://spiceandwolf.com/story//ep08/ep081.jpg The second thing that I feel underlines the whole show is the worldbuilding regarding mystical beings like Holo and how the world deals with them. We are in a medieval setting where the church is at the peak of its power but instead of establishing some kind of holy power through its fantasy elements which validate the existence of a church Spice and Wolf chooses to highlight other gods instead. These gods like Holo are seemingly otherworldly beings who are not only very big but have special powers like granting a good harvest. They are worshipped by small communities and treated like gods even if they arent inherently gods but only called that way by humans. As such Spice and Wolf explores the concept of religion by highlighting that a lot of ideas regarding gods are manmade and not based on universal truths. The rather ugly application of religion here is showcased in the form of the church which exploits and takes advantage of smaller communities branding their objects of worship as pagan gods false gods. They also profit extensively through taxes from their members justifying it all by pointing to one almighty god who very well may not exist. Now apart from whether someone believes in god or not I think its fine to believe in god as for me I dont I did find the approach this series took rather fresh for a medieval fantasy setting. Even if it could use more indulgement into the fantastical side of things for my taste. Generally the series has a more economical lens given that our protagonist Lawrence is a travel merchant. I found the economic side of it to be less interesting even if its fine for what it is. Its more or less a plot vehicle to provide Lawrence with a challenge for each story arc when a trade doesnt go as planned. Granted its satisfying at the end of each story arc to have Lawrence figure out a deal that benefits him. Visually it kinda sucks Now to be blunt one aspect that drags the series down generally is the visual side of things. Visually it doesnt look good. While I find the worldbuilding regarding religion the folklore regarding the pagan gods and such interesting I am very disinterested in the rest of the world of Spice and Wolf because it looks very boring. The backgrounds are largely unremarkable and the series also has a very washedout color palette which is not doing the overall aesthetic any favors. It doesnt seem to serve any artistic intent either it just looks bad. I would like to say that Studio Passione simply copied and pasted the postprocessing workflow they use for other shows on here but even their other shows arent as grey so Im not sure what the decisionmaking was here. The quality of the animation and the drawings are pretty average to mediocre which is sadly the standard for a lot of anime nowadays. However I felt that better drawings couldve served this series very well by making the character interactions more interesting and adding nuance to how the characters feel in more emotional story beats. Instead the heavyweight was left on the voice actors when it came to conveying the characters emotions. I will say though that I was surprised that the staff at studio horny sorry studio Passione were very successful at holding themselves back. Having watched for instance Mierukochanhttps://anilist.co/anime/131083/Mierukochan/ from them I know that they like fanservice even if they have to add it themselves when the source material doesnt have much. Spice and Wolf however felt very tasteful even for the scenes with nudity. The only time where Spice and Wolf manages to jump out of its shadow is when Holo transforms. Creature animation is not to be taken for granted and I was very positively surprised to see that they managed to pull it off in 2D and to have it move to the extent they did. I wasnt able to find out who is in charge of the creature animation but they did a very good job even if the rest of the show wasnt able to keep up. I think the creature animation also helps with selling the idea of how otherworldly or intimidating mythical beings like Holo seem from the perspective of a normal person in this universe. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/2c8216719640afd570c31edff4d427c3.mp4 Conclusion Overall apart from one specific story arc that I talked plenty about already Spice and Wolf was enjoyable. Mostly because I like the dynamic Holo and Lawrence have and its just enjoyable to see them interact with each other and gradually grow closer through the course of the series. I also think that despite being a medieval setting with little fantasy it has some interesting elements which I found interesting. However the worldbuilding still feels overall stale especially so because even some of the interesting stuff like the mythical beasts like Holo are largely underexplored as of now. I wouldve loved to see more stuff like the tunnel dug by the snake where you can see how these giant beasts shaped even in small ways the world we currently see. That also factors in with the second major complaint as a visual medium Spice and Wolf sadly doesnt do a good job at showcasing the world and it also never manages to scratch that edge in portraying emotional character moments. Im not sure if I will check out the second season I may also check the source material which most likely at least resolves some of the issues I have with the anime. Thank you for reading thus far if you have any feedback feel free to leave it herehttps://anilist.co/activity/791741740 : 70https://spiceandwolf.com/story//ep14/ep141.jpg