neko’s thinkbox

Horo made me do it!

I know I shouldn’t be doing this… I have an exam in 12 hours from now and I haven’t even started studying yet T_T
Yet still I watched Spice and Wolf because everyone was talking about it and Horo seems to be quite a fine… wolf. Is it can be tiem to change the “a cat is fine too” meme to “a wolf is fine too”.

Unlike most people, I barely didn’t know anything about Spice and Wolf except a few nice pictures of naked Horo, and some excerpts of the manga. So with a naked Horo in mind, I started watching this episode.

The opening song is very calm and soothing, and the rather melancholic melody immediately made me hum along. I might even sing along by the next episode already; I usually do that with the songs that I love at first hearing. Animation-wise, the OP is nicely done as well; there are many smooth transitions and sceneries that fit the tenderness of the song.
Before watching the series, I thought it would be more of a fantasy comedy, but the opening makes it quite clear that the whole thing is more dramatic, which is actually a good thing.

Aww, I can’t decide between Chloe and Horo!

The first episode is basically an introduction of the characters. The story itself takes place in a rural area sometime in the Middle Ages (which casually reminds me of Claymore a bit). In a nutshell (I don’t want to tl;dr summarize…) this is what happens in this episode:

So we have Lawrence, a traveling merchant who heads to the town of Pasroe to trade. He happens to arrive during the harvesting period, where Chloe, the town’s merchant and his apprentice, gets to cut the last stack of wheat, symbolizing Horo. Horo is a wolf goddess that blesses the growing of wheat in the region, but with modern harvesting techniques, she is not needed anymore. Perhaps that is the reason why Chloe is locked up for ten days with the stack of wheat?

But Horo is free. During the night, Horo emerges naked from Lawrence’s carriage, because there was a bigger stack of wheat than the last one that has been harvested by Chloe. Horo confides to Lawrence her current problem about being useless to the townspeople, and expresses her wish to go back to her home town in the north called Yuitsu.

I think I’ll stick with Horo though. Aw, isn’t she a bit tsun here?

The story picks up at a slow pace, but I fail to see what could happen from now onwards, which might be a bad thing if this episode had sucked, but it didn’t at all. It makes me want to watch the next episode badly.
After watching it for the first time however, I got a bit lost with the traditions of the villagers – but after watching the cutting of the last stack of wheat, I began to understand what Horo meant with the bigger stack of wheat. Because as Chloe was cutting the stack, there was a thump in Lawrence’s carriage; in that moment, Horo was in the carriage, and everything made sense now.

On top of the interesting story, there is also an interesting design and animation. I don’t know anything about IMAGIN (need to ANN it lulz), but with a portfolio including popular titles like Strawberry Panic, Rayearth and Eureka Seven, they seem to be doing a fine job with Spice and Wolf as well.
So, I like the design of the characters, especially that of the two gorgeous females, Chloe and Horo, and I really can’t decide which one of them is cuter. I think I would pick Horo after all, because of the kitsune-mimi and the beautiful red eyes. Awwwww~

Good: no details on nude scenes (read: nipples, bounce, camera angles, etc.). As long as it remains a natural factor, i.e. that wolf girls should appear naked in wild nature, I’m perfectly fine with that.

Suddenly, apples! Hundreds of them!

The ending was pretty funny though, but that was because of the Engrish singing. Agreed, not every Japanese singer can pronounce as well as Rie Fu for example, but still… Well, I didn’t really adhere to the song. Perhaps I do dislike EDs by definition, except if they are really catchy and by groups/singers I like. But I have to admit that the ED animation is pretty well done, and I wonder why the image of the apple appears so often there.

In my limited /b/tard vocabulary (if I may call it a vocabulary), I would say “I like where this is going”. I am very satisfied with S&W, and I hope it will remain in the next episode as well. And like Claymore/Baccano, I will not spoil myself on the manga yet.