While Spice and Wolf is set in a medieval historical setting with mention of deities worshiped and the Church a powerful influential presence within its world, it differentiates itself from many anime titles in that it doesn’t focus on magic and swordsplay. Rather, it dabbles more into the economics, trade, and peddling that comes from Lawrence’s profession as a merchant. The series does go into detail at points on how the economic market for particular currencies and products are within the different locales that Holo and Lawrence visit, as the latter makes use of his knowledge on these areas to attempt trades, sales, or purchases of particular items or currencies. While Holo lacks experience on economics, her centuries of understanding human behavior and nature allows her to assist Lawrence in his dealings to better his profits and prevent other merchants from trying to deceive him. The series does play up its focus on medieval economics pretty straight, lacking anything over-the-top to try making it more engaging to a wider audience. This does allow it to offer a unique take on exploring an element to life in medieval society that is often unexplored, though may be an acquired taste to some anime fans.
What is perhaps the more entertaining element to Spice and Wolf though is the chemistry between Holo and Lawrence. The two often exchange witty banter between one another, with Lawrence usually being unprepared for how Holo will tease her. At the same time though, both value each other’s company as they travel throughout the series. The series also shows both of them to have a good deal of dimension to their characters with Lawrence being crafty yet awkward around cute girls and Holo having strong and vulnerable elements to her character shown in her interactions with Lawrence.
If there is a flaw to the series, it would be that Holo and Lawrence’s journey and relationship remains unresolved by the end of Spice and Wolf. While there was a second season of the series that furthered their journey, it still remained inconclusive at the end of its run. If you are looking for more development and the conclusion of Holo and Lawrence’s journey, you’d be better off trying to track down either the light novel or manga adaptations of the series.
Still if you are looking for a unique take on medieval-fantasy series, Spice and Wolf is entertaining enough where I’d at least recommend watching it at least once. With its focus on medieval economics and the fun chemistry between Holo and Lawrence, there’s enough engaging elements to the series to hook you into following the journey of the show’s main duo.
