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Ôkami to kôshinryô (2008)
Spice meets wolf on a journey through the lands
+++ mild spoilers ahead +++
It's truly fascinating what you find if you keep clicking through the recommendations list on IMDb for a while. So I ended up on "Ôkami to kôshinryô" or the rather amusing English title "Spice and Wolf". With the official website URL being www.spicy-wolf.com I guess you can already be sure that spicy is related to the wolf and not to Lawrence's trading business. ;) I wonder why they went with the strange English title "Spice and Wolf" instead.
Being only 12 episodes (plus an additional OVA) the main plot is told rather quickly. Lawrence, trader and later dubbed softy by his companion, finds the wolf goddess Horo sleeping in his cart one night. And from then on things go strange ways. It's quite obvious that the story takes place in times of change. In a world where the church is gaining influence with whatever methods they see fit, there is little place for a god people pray to for a good harvest. As people's faith in Horo diminishes there is no more place for her in the old village. So she sets out as Lawrence's companion on a journey returning her to the north.
Contrary to, for example Wolf's Rain, Horo is not a wolf that changes back and forth, but rather drawn the furry way, human girl with tails and ears forming out of her hair. Almost exclusively naked in the first episode ^.^ but they dropped this rather quickly in the following episodes. Well OK, it would draw way to much attention in the world they travel. I guess that first episode is where the title Spicy Wolf truly fits. *cough*
The dialogue between Lawrence and Horo is truly magnificent at times, mostly when they argue over the unspoken topic... their relationship. Well, of course there is none, other than the business part. The "side plots" are mostly Lawrences trading business, in which I got slightly lost due to the subtitles rushing by with the speed of light... at least it felt like that.
All in all a series well worth finding and who knows, maybe there will be another season! At least the ending didn't exactly end the storyline in any way.