Spice & Wolf was the very first light novel I ever bought. I bought this even before I ever bought a single manga volume or figure or anything related to anime and manga. The original Spice & Wolf anime was probably the first anime that really stuck with me. For a long time I considered it to be my favorite anime of all time. Obviously I got older and watched more anime. More new anime came out, and nowadays I’m not even convinced Spice & Wolf would be in my top 10. But it’ll always be an anime that has a special place in my heart.
As some of you might now, I have been reviewing some of the novels on my blog in the past two years. I read all the way up to volume 7 – side colors – before taking a break. The early volumes of Spice & Wolf aren’t as good as the anime. They’re fine, they’re a light read on an interesting subject and I definitely enjoyed reading them, but animation, music and voice acting definitely improved on the base product a lot. At its core, the early volumes feel very dry and predictable. It’s only by the time we get to Volume 8 that I started getting more invested in it. So with a reboot of the anime on the horizon, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Spice & Wolf one last time.
Volume 8 and Volume 9 of Spice & Wolf cover the Town of Strife arc. It’s a story that spends two novels on the same plot points and takes more time to develop its supporting cast than any of the previous volumes do. Not to mention the fact that some of the characters in this volume were already introduced before, making them more memorable. I can guarantee you that in a year I can still name Col, Eve and Lud Kieman by name, but I can’t name you anyone from the first several volumes. I remember the currency exchange guy that Lawrence was friends with early on, but I couldn’t tell you his name. We also finally get a world map in this volume, which does feel nice. Maybe not a world map per se, but at least a map of the region the story has taken place in so far.
To quickly go over the plot of Town of Strife without going into spoilers; Holo, Lawrence and Col arrive in the coastal town of Kerube. There they are in hot pursuit of a rumor about wolf bones. They’re still trying to learn more about Holo’s hometown and possible friends. In this town, there’s something happening surrounding a different legendary creature. Holo and Lawrence get sucked into the chaos and have to navigate a web of intrigue in an attempt to not get into trouble and perhaps even make some money at the end of it. We get the return of Eve, who betrayed Lawrence before, and Col who was picked up on the way here is still traveling with the two.
The benefit of having two volumes for this story is that the author can take their time setting up the different plot points before resolving them in the second half. It gives the reader a bit more time to breathe and it makes it a much more pleasant story to read. With that in mind, I’m happy I was reminded of why I initially fell in love with this series so much. Adding to that, I’ve seen the promotional artwork for the upcoming reboot and it looks absolutely gorgeous. The soundtrack is being done by Kevin Penkin, who has done a fantastic job on the other shows he’s worked on that I’ve watched (Made in Abyss, Shield Hero, Tower of God). All things considered, I’m very excited for a reboot of this show, and it should be a comfy watch. I also still have two more unread novels on my shelf that I might check out in the future. I’ll let you guys know if they’re any good! Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 