Comments on: Spice and Wolf Review

By: Megami Magazine Memorial Book (2006-8) at hontou ni sou omou?

Megami Magazine Memorial Book (2006-8) at hontou ni sou omou? — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:03:35 +0000

[...] what I’ve *not* been watching. Out of Megami’s list for this year, I’ve not seen Spice and Wolf, Rosario + Vampire, Kanokon, ToLoveRu etc etc. Given how much I disliked Louise after ZnT’s [...]

By: Saker

Saker — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:09:50 +0000

i watched this show only because of the power positioning between lawrence and horo. i’m a sucker for romance and power positioning in a relationship is the pinacle of romance:D lawrence being weak in everything fit perfectly in because if i was in his shoes i would be getting some tail halfway through and his all talk weak play explains why horo liked him in the first place.

By: Jesus159159159

Jesus159159159 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:26:43 +0000

Just like Epi, I also got Mononoke Hime vibes from the show, but not so much from the wolves, but from a particular scene where Horo is eating Lawrence’s beef jerky….. it reminded me when Ashitaka (from Mononoke Hime) was injured and San had to MOUTH-TO-MOUTH feed him! Not to turn this into naughty discussion, but that scene makes me blush and think inappropriate things all the time…..AND IS THE REASON WHY I CONTINUED TO WATCH THE SERIES!!!

I also stuck around because of the OP and ED songs =3 they’re mad gangsta! I especially like “Namaiki na Bokura” (which is the other song in the ED CD single) EVERY LIFE IS SIMPLE!!! (…those lyrics actually made me alittle depressed but the song is still as catchy as the ED song)

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:35:06 +0000

I’ve seen less-awesome subs before, but never watched a show that was as dependent on really good fansubs as Spice and Wolf. While waiting for some of the better ones, I occasionally watched some of the faster ones, and I ended up debating just how well some of them understood Lawrence’s schemes themselves.

But by the time it ended, I definitely came to Epi’s conclusion. There was promise there — not a ton, but the interaction between Lawrence and Horo was clever, the voice acting was great, and I really wanted every other aspect to match up with that. Unfortunately… it was a big disappointment revolving around an increasingly unlikable character instead.

By: Epi

Epi — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:47:45 +0000

I agree pretty much with what you’ve said. This show started with a lot of promise. The fact that it was the most-subbed show going into the Winter 2008 season says a lot (or at least shows us how crappy this past season really was), and the voice actors whom we knew well from Code Geass were something to look forward to.

I came out from the first episode quite excited about the show, the nice character designs, the good music, the decent animation and of course my personal guilty pleasure, the catchy Engrish ED. As the show progressed, I liked how the show was essentially a slice-of-life fantasy show with some fun economics put in. The furs and the apples were fun, and I was throughly enjoying myself.

And then I have no idea what happened, but the show lost it’s way. The schemes became increasing convoluted and hard to understand (without reading the liner notes in the Ayako translations), the animation went downhill, and new characters were constantly being introduced as if this were Darker than Black. To make it worse, the show was only 13 episodes long, so it really was kind of strange that they’d have so many ’side stories’ and having it end so abruptly. I was also disappointed that the wolves weren’t nearly as cool as the wolves in Mononoke Hime, even if they reminded me of it.

I understand that it’s based on a series of novels (I actually downloaded them but then I realized they were in Japanese and I can’t read Japanese), but I also hear that it does the novels no justice.

All in all, it was a very lacklustre series that could have easily been so much more. While harem series are a dime a dozen, and fantasy shows based on video games always suck, it’s not that often that we get a show based in a believable fantasy world with a solid foundation and likable characters that screws itself over so badly. There’s nothing worse than seeing a lot of wasted potential, and this is the worst offender I’ve seen in a very long time.

By: Nagato

Nagato — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:15:13 +0000

Certainly not the screenplay of Shigofumi. You make a good point about Lawrence’s boneheadedness, makes you wonder how he ever survived before he met Horo.

And, I’m singing Ringo Hiyori to myself right now.