Welcome all to another episode of Spice and Wolf! Apologies for the wait on this one, I’ve recently discovered Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire and it’s taken a fair chunk of my time. Not because I don’t enjoy writing these or because Spice and Wolf isn’t good, it is. But it scratches just the right itch for me. Enough about RPGs though, lets dive into this weeks episode!
And what better place to start than with me gushing about production again! I know I’ve done this before in the far flung past of episode 1 but seriously, I’m impressed. We are 3 episodes in to this season of Spice and Wolf and I’m pretty sure its already had more animation than the entire first season. From the large festival crowds dancing and cavorting in the streets, throwing wine on each other, to the more intimate moments between Holo and Lawrence in the inn. Even the small stuff like background characters cheering and laughing it up during Fermi’s challenge were nice touches. This isn’t to say Spice and Wolf doesn’t have stills or panning shots, it does. But they are integrated much more cleanly and have these fun animated scenes between them to break them up. It’s a small but very important thing to recognize I feel.
Moving on we come to the main narrative which I have… complex feelings for. I absolutely love the communication that went on here! The way that when Holo noticed the letter Lawrence didn’t try to hide it or run away, he talked. He told her all about it, how he was searching for Yoitsu, he reassured her. So many problems in romance anime could be avoided by simply talking about something and that’s exactly what happens here! And what do you know? It pays off! Holo is happy, she’s thinks what he’s doing is really sweet. She recognizes what he’s doing and it calms the insecurities she had about him leaving him her. An dramatic subplot was resolve with a snap simply because our two leads communicated. A pleasant surprise and one I really appreciate. But of course, there’s no story without drama.
And it’s this drama where the “complex” part comes in. Because Holo’s reaction to the whole thing makes sense, at least emotionally. Holo is grieving for everyone she ever knew back home. She’s just learned that her home was destroyed and that she’s alone in this world. Effectively the last immortal Wolf god out there, aside from the one we met last season which feels like a bit of a plot hole now, but lets ignore that. As we have constantly been reminded this, being alone, is basically her worst fear. It’s why she’s stuck by Lawrence in such a steadfast way. But now she doesn’t have any other choice and she has to really evaluate: What is he to her? What is she to him? Is this all a scam? Does she love him? All these complex feelings, being alone, wanting a family etc, are colliding. That’s good stuff!
What’s off though is that it feels weird how she’s blowing up here. She already knew Lawrence was looking into Yoitsu. He told her himself. Why would she blame him for it? I don’t understand how she comes to the conclusion that he’s just stringing her along until Nyohira after their last conversation. Of course as we established she’s grieving, she’s not in her right mind, and I expect her to realize this over the rest of the arc. But seeing Holo, someone who is usually so smug and confident, be so… unhinged and desperate feels off. You could say that’s the point of the scene and that the fact I’m so concerned means it did it well. I don’t disagree! It’s just not a scene that I’ve fully worked myself through yet. While I do though I would love to hear what you all thought of it down below!
While I reconcile my feelings on that though it does at least give us a nice line to Fermi. Because without this freakout, without Holo having this maternal panic, there’s not a chance in hell she would pick him. There would be no tension over the challenge because we, as the audience, know she would only ever pick Lawrence. In the meta sense we still know that’s what will happen. But now the journey there is much more interesting. It takes what was an easy get-rich-quick scheme by Lawrence, get 1000 silver and have Holo pick him, and throws a wrench in it. I’m looking forward to seeing how Lawrence resolves this, both economically and romantically. Especially because he’s already chosen her over money once by spending the day of the festival with her! I wonder if that’s what will have to happen again?
Finally lets talk about some side stuff, such as the scheme itself! I still don’t quite fully understand this. Are people freaking out over pyrite because some fortune teller made some predictions with it? Is this supposed to similar to some of the random real life trends that pop up out of nowhere? It’s weird and I don’t really get it so if you do please, let me know down below. One thing I do understand though is Fermi basically betting his entire net-value on Holo. I know kids do wild things for love but damn, he’s going to bankrupt himself. Lastly, I expected Holo to be a bit more… annoyed about basically being bartered for sale. Maybe she just respects the hustle and knows that it’s not Fermi or Lawrence who decide her value. Whatever the case though I thought there would be a bit more smug dialogue here.
All in all though I would call this episode a success. Spice and Wolf is starting to do some interesting stuff with their character dynamic and I’m all for it. There are still some bits that don’t fully click for me, or that I don’t truly understand, but that’s alright. We’re only 3 episodes into the season, I don’t need to understand everything yet. Now, if these don’t get resolved in a satisfactory way by the end of the season then yes, we’re going to have a problem. But season 1 gave me enough faith in Spice and Wolf that I think it can pull it off. The only thing left is to wait and see. See you next week!
