Spice and Wolf

Spice and Wolf caught my attention on the FUNimation website which was advertising the fact that they'd bought the license and released the English-speaking cast. Since that time, I've watched maybe three or four episodes in English, read various chapters of the manga and bought the first three novels from Yen Press.

The story is by Isuna Hasekura in supposedly his debut work. It centers around mid-twenties Kraft Lawrence, the traveling merchant in a Europe-like country. Upon passing through a town the day of its harvest festival, the harvest goddess Holo the wisewolf manifests herself in the wheat Lawrence is carrying. Tired of the neglect she's been through due to advances in farming, Holo is convinced that the town no longer needs their goddess. She talks Lawrence into taking her to her homeland in the north, and thus begin their journeys together.

Spice and Wolf defies all my expectations, simply because I had none. I didn't know what to make of the original description on the FUNimation website, and the pilot episode left me with an entirely different impression than the rest of the show. Upon exploring the three mediums of the series, my conclusion is this: Spice and Wolf was NOT written for manga or television. In each town Lawrence finds some sort of mishap - usually pertainign to other merchants - but his trouble never climaxes until the end of the book. Filling up the spaces are explanations of how the story's society functions and going into detail about the exchanges between merchants. While this helps the reader follow along in the book, it makes for chatty manga crowded with speech bubbles. This is why I stopped reading the manga before Lawrence and Holo reach their first bump in the road - it's the same thing that causes me to shy away from American comics. Taking a page out of a How to Draw book, manga is meant to be read fluidly and quickly - to be a page-turner by definition. American comics tend to expose back story in detail through written narration, whereas a typical manga reveals important information through dialog and the excess is left for later on in the story when it's relevant. The Spice and Wolf manga had the same characters from the book and charming illustrations, but long conversations between Lawrence and Holo about different currencies in the country doesn't make for a good read. The same goes for the show - the animation was beautiful, Brina Palencia played Holo with deadly accuracy, and I can't imagine anyone else rather than J. Michael Tatum as Lawrence, but it still came off as dull. In truth, the novel can't translate into good TV or comics.

Don't get me wrong - Spice and Wolf is a GREAT read. It pulled me in and kept me there with an enticing translation describing Lawrence's strategies and Holo's unpredictable, playful attitude. If you're up for sitting down to read an actual BOOK rather than a comic, I highly recommend Spice and Wolf.

- Much luvz, Hideki.