Comments on: When did Spice and Wolf get this good?

By: BashZeStampeedo

BashZeStampeedo — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:24:45 +0000

Heh.. I felt both of them were to blame. Lawrence for obvious reasons. But Horo started the whole thing by talking smack about Lawrence to Amarty for a piece of Pyrite and scarf. Plus, if Horo had just swallowed her pride long enough to be direct with Lawrence she could have stopped everything. Lawrence was clearly distraught, so why did she think a marriage certificate or feathers in her hat were a sure sign of emotional support? But anyway..

By: BashZeStampeedo

BashZeStampeedo — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:17:54 +0000

I agree with you, they deserve each other (the good and the bad). In fact I don’t think either of them could get along with anyone else. Of course Lawrence looks bad compared to Horo, but that’s by design. He’s just the slightly-above-average human, who sits next to Horo. People are always going to be willing to look the other way when Horo messes up and dump on Lawrence when he looks at her the wrong way :D

Another way to look at it is that Lawrence has been more or less alone traveling for 7 years, knowing nothing social other than merchant-related stuff. In just a couple of months of travel with Horo he’s come this far. I am honestly impressed by how quickly he’s grown (especially compared to her). If anyone can help her grow it will be Lawrence; she doesn’t seem to want to grow.

I liked the second season’s progress – it resisted the obvious temptation to become trite and speed things up unrealistically. Anything that makes me crave MORE so badly must be good.

By: Epic Win Anime Blog » The Good, The Bad, and the Moe: Summer 2009 Anime Rankings

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:30:06 +0000

[...] For more on Spice & Wolf, check out DarkMirage’s review, or Martin’s excellent write-up. [...]

By: manga

manga — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:17:34 +0000

That´s one way of doing it, and when the results are as good as this then I have no complains. Man I was terrified at what Horo went trough in some of the eps there.

But it all ended well thank God.

By: Nanaya

Nanaya — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:31:31 +0000

Would YOU have trusted the judgment of a girl who had just gone from the shock of her life to propositioning him to accusing him in under 30 seconds, then (by all appearances) ran off agreeing to marry some guy who treated her nicely?

I can see trust and faith and at least going to see her for her take on what was happening, but after that chain of events I think that would also have stuck to my own gambits…

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:59:47 +0000

@manga: it seems to just take everything that made the first series fun and improve on it, yeah. Ep #7 is unbelievably cute! Plugin thingie removed too – it must’ve reset when I did an upgrade or something because I’d kinda forgotten about it!

@Orion: adaptations are tricky things – I can’t recall on instance where the anime is superior. That said, I feel the second series addresses the issues I too had with the characterisation, so I’m really happy with it so far. ^_^

@Hanners: the all-important character development thing…hmm, again, I can’t easily recall a story I’ve seen recently where that gradual change is done so well. It makes me even more curious about the ending, but yeah. Two votes for light novel translations!

@Gargron: I can come up with more than one resolution to this, but none of them seem quite right; they all feel like a deus ex machina or a general cop-out, so I hope the writers have something good up their sleeve.

@Zeroblade: I’m loving the dialogue more and more. Again, ep #7 has some wonderful one-liners and is so sweet and funny on that level, I can’t remember what the story was about!

@Nanaya: what I loved about the resolution to that was the fact that, had Lawrence truly trusted Horo’s judgement, he would’ve saved himself so much stress and legwork! I guess he learned an important lesson about their friendship there. I’d like to see the ‘bear stories’ though…they sound intriguing!

@tungwene: I don’t know either – do yourself a favour and watch it! I can’t see anything that would disappoint you since you enjoyed the first season. And I agree: Lafiel is another awesome character. There’s something wonderfully refreshining about a female lead who’s self-assured and intelligent. I’ll be blogging about the CotS light novels soon…

By: tungwene

tungwene — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:10:16 +0000

I don’t know what’s been keeping me from watching Spice & Wolf II. I loved the first season and Brains Base hasn’t left me down yet. I suppose there’s always been a fear in the back of my mind such a winning combination could still end in disappointment but now I’m relieved to know my fears were baseless.

I love this story, setting, and Horo so much. She’s my favorite female lead in a romantic anime since Lafiel.

By: Nanaya

Nanaya — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:25:17 +0000

I really enjoy the series, although I haven’t kept up with the manga (don’t feel a need to given the slow scanlation pace and the novel/anime being there). I love how in the last arc Horo planned everything based on Lawrence running back to her; so, naturally, he did the exact opposite and declared all-out war on Amartie. That’ll show you for thinking by yourself, Lawrence.

Now I’m in the dark over the plot, given that they’ve apparently skipped volume 4 of the novels, which is as far as Baka-Tsuki goes for continuous chapters. I guess I don’t really blame them as long as it stays good, but the bear-stories and end ‘miracle’ part would have been nice to see.

By: Zeroblade

Zeroblade — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:10:47 +0000

I thought the first season was good, but this is even better. Holo and Lawrence’s relationship’s getting somewhere, and the suspense was definitely well-built on, unlike the last season’s.
The animation’s the same thing. While S1’s was… lackluster, to say the least, S2’s is quite good, to be honest. Gotta love Brains Base.
But really, what got me hooked on the series in general is Holo’s character, and the Holo-Lawrence dynamic. She’s spunky, sassy, and confident, but not a total megalomaniac. And because Lawrence knows how to play along, he does so, with very good effect. Every time they converse, you’ve got all these witty, playful remarks that I love to bits, and that I sorely miss in many other shows where moe is the norm. I mean, moe’s fine and good, but stuff like this is just as great, but much more scarce.

By: Gargron

Gargron — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:40:00 +0000

I can only second to what Manga said. Except, I wasn’t worried a couple of episodes, but every one single is a pain to watch until you know everything’s going to end good.

Actually, I can’t imagine where Horo and Lawrence’s relationship is heading. Judging by what I have seen in other stories, Horo could become mortal to live just as long as Lawrence, or Lawrence could become immortal to live with her. Or the author(s) could think of something else. Only one thing is clear: I want the two to be together. Like hell.