Spice and Wolf is a Japanese light novel series written by Isuna Hasekura and illustrated by Jou Ayakura. ASCII Media Works has published 24 volumes under their Dengeki Bunko imprint since February 2006. Spice and Wolf is nearing the final episode of its reboot anime series, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf. The reboot anime, which celebrates the series’ 15th anniversary, features a new arc that was not seen in the original adaptation.
This is a significant change from the anime original, which was released decades ago. The new arc will mark a significant change from the first half of the series. Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf will pick up from the Legend of the Pagan Gods arc, starting with episode 20 releasing in Japan on August 19. To celebrate the start of the next arc, the anime has added Lin as Elsa Schtingheim and Atsushi Abe as Evan Gyeom for the new episodes.
Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf is in its second season, which will air until summer 2024. New cast members include Saeko Chiba as Fermi Amarti, Rikiya Koyama as Mark Cole, Kahoru Sasajima as Lant, and Akeno Watanabe as Diane Rubens. Returning main cast members include Jun Fukuyama as Kraft Lawrence, Ami Koshimanizu as Holo, and Mai Nakahara as Nora Arendt.
The story of Spice and Wolf revolves around Kraft Lawrence, a 25-year-old traveling merchant who sells various goods from city to city for a living in a stylized, fantasy world that has a historical setting with European influences. His main goal in life is to collect enough money to start his own shop, and he has already been traveling for seven years to gain experience in the business. One night when he stopped in the town of Paslo, he found a wolf-god named Holo in his carriage, who is over 600 years old.
She takes the form of a 15-year-old girl, except with a wolf’s tail and ears. She introduces herself as the town’s harvest goddess, who has blessed the town with a good wheat harvest for many years. Holo has experienced increasing isolation and disillusionment as the townspeople turn away from her protection and toward their own methods of raising the harvest.
She is particularly hurt that a promise made between her and a farmer when she came to the village was forgotten and she is criticized as a “fickle god” for needing to replenish the soil with a meager harvest. Because of these changes, she wants to return to her homeland of Yoitsu in the north; she believes that the people have already abandoned her and that she has kept her promise to maintain a good harvest.
Holo also wants to travel to see how the world has changed while she has been in the same place for so many years. She negotiates her way out of the village by making a deal with Lawrence to take her with him. As they travel, her intelligence helps her increase her profits, but at the same time, her true nature attracts unwanted attention from the Church.
Also read: Uzumaki Trailer Breakdown: What to expect from Junji Ito’s masterpiece
