Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

With a cartload of fur pelts in tow, traveling merchant Kraft Lawrence stops by the village of Pasloe. According to local folklore, centuries ago, one of the villagers made a promise with the wolf deity Holo, who swore to bless Pasloe with bountiful harvests of wheat. Yet, as time passed, such stories became little more than relics of the past.

After quickly finishing his business in the village, Lawrence sets out to his next destination. His journey, however, takes an unexpected turn when he discovers a nude, animal-eared girl sleeping among his pelts. Even more surprisingly, the youthful-looking woman claims to be Holo—the wolf of legend.

Holo wishes to return to her hometown in the north, and though their first encounter is rocky, she convinces Lawrence to accompany her on her travels. In return, she vows to earn her keep, using her quick wits and lifetime of experience to help her newfound companion in his dealings. As they continue their journey, Lawrence and Holo take advantage of whatever economic opportunities they come across, often landing in situations that put both their business skills and their relationship to the test.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Holo Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Lawrence, Kraft Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Arendt, Norah Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Myuuri Supporting

Tanaka, Aimi Japanese

Rubens, Dian Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno Japanese

Liechten, Marhait Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Cole, Marc Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Amati, Fermi Supporting

Chiba, Saeko Japanese

Tarantino, Jacob Supporting

Tsuji, Shinpachi Japanese

Remerio, Hans Supporting

Gouda, Hozumi Japanese

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Hosoi, Shunsuke Producer

Fujita, Mikito Producer

Kondou, Tomohisa Producer

Reviews

Aug 20, 2024

GjsBurner

Recommended

Preliminary (20/25 eps)

If you like Romance, Wolf Girls, Medieval, and Economics in your anime, this one is for you.

but there’s more depth to it than that, specifically the relationship between our main characters Holo and Lawrence. If you don’t care much about economics regarding coins or product (the plot of the show 💀) you at least have the fun and interesting interactions between Holo and Lawrence. Watching their relationship grow and change overtime make this somewhat of a slow burn romance, although it’s not the main focus.

This show balances the romance and actual plot pretty well, while also sticking pretty close to the Light Novel source. ... Adapting volumes 1-4 and possibly 5 once this ends airing. Aside from it being a remake of the original Spice and Wolf anime seasons from 08-09 it does have its distinct differences from that version.

The first major difference between the two shows is the animation quality, just one look at both shows should tell you this one has far better animation.

Second is the adaptation, as I said before, this anime adapts the light novels in its entirety (or at least more accurately than 08-09) While this does give us content we’ve never seen adapted before (volume 4).

Third is the quality of adaptation, while this show does have better animation, most of the story has already been told in 08-09. Because of this show feels worse than it is because of the constant comparisons to 08-09. The more powerful interactions between Lawrence and Holo feel like they matter a lot less compared to 08-09, but I feel that’s because of the shows prioritization of properly adapting the light novel instead of adding needless romantic subplot to keep out brains occupied.

Outside of the comparisons to the previous adaptation I would say as an anime it’s Amazing (9/10).
The major positives being:
Continuity is easier to understand because it’s adapting volumes in order.
The art is beautiful, with the music exemplifying it.
And the economic plans/storylines are interesting to see play out in and out of Lawrence’s favor.
(also god tier dub)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 28, 2024

BedBones

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (9/25 eps)

I need to go back to the first anime iteration to refresh my memory... It felt much more emotionally intelligent in a way I haven't seen many anime ever even get close to.
This one however, it feels very much like it's pushing harder into anime relationship tropes. Making all the story and creative writing get muddy. It's as if they aren't sure if they want to go full anime with their feelings for each other or not. Like tsundere and unspoken petty trivial things. It's not BAD, it just falls short. I haven't read the manga so I am uncertain which is more true ... to the original.
I say that but not as a jab at that type of portrayal, but the first anime adaption of Spice and Wolf had me pleasantly surprised at how tangible and believable their interactions were and it was something it did that made it stand out so much.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 12, 2024

CodeCypheur

Not Recommended

Preliminary (9/25 eps)

Forced myself through 9 episodes of this poorly written drivel before realising it was currently airing and would have a total of 25 episodes, not the 11 I assumed - so yes this goes onto my *extremely* short dropped list. Coming from a person who despises dropping watching anything...I think it goes to show just how bad this show is.

I have two main gripes; 1 being that it is just plain boring - which I know is entirely subjective but may make sense throughout this review, 2 being the absolutely horrible writing.

To avoid spoilers I won't go into the plot but I found it an ... absolute snoozefest, this show seems to be driving off of two main things to keep people interested: Holo and the economic plot. They both suck.

Holo is just made to cater towards boys. Which was extremely disappointing to me as going in blind, I expected Holo to take the more passive viewer insert role and the merchant main character guy (Lawrence?) to be this nurturing character for the viewer to then pine for. Yeah this was not made for the girlies. It was made for the boys. You're meant to believe that Holo is this super old and cunning deity, but this is only played for the sake of sexual appeal - which is disturbing considering she's described *multiple times* as looking like a teenager, and she does genuinely look like a child. Her maturity is dropped when convenient to instead pander to the male gaze by making her your typical innocent damsel in distress who needs to be saved, the creator clearly wanted to fit all of his fantasies into Holo regardless of how contrasting they are. You can't have your cake and eat it, as a result Holo's character just feels...hollow. She only exists for men to project what they want to see in her.

Main character merchant guy Lawrence is just the viewer insert, he has the personality of a wet paper towel. Other than his questionable tastes for...children and child-like looking women there is nothing to say about him because he is just an insert.

This obviously creates a problem where your two main characters in a show that's primary theme seems to be about these two characters growing together, just don't have any agency nor interesting traits? It just feels like Holo is dragging Lawrence along for the ride and he's too enamored with her to give a damn and think for himself. Then the plot is just contrived drama to force them into situations that call for some drama. It's just not entertaining or believable.

Overall this is an objectively poorly written and animated show - but it has half fox waifu whos both seductive and innocent so of course the typical boys are going to be eating it tf up. If you don't care for fox-waifus then I see absolutely no reason to waste your time watching this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 16 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jul 15	66 replies	by KingNotSkilled »» 5 minutes ago
	Poll: Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 22 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 2	33 replies	by Thyriad-oPPailov »» 4 hours ago
	Poll: Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 14 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jul 1	59 replies	by MegamiRem »» Sep 5, 1:30 AM
	How does this compare to the original? anizawa89 - May 10	47 replies	by official_brown »» Sep 4, 8:36 AM
	Poll: Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 24	70 replies	by MegamiRem »» Sep 3, 11:10 AM