Anime Review 19 Spice and Wolf

So I made this one random friend through our mutual friend at our first senior year event of the year. We've talked a little bit about anime like RWBY and Spice and Wolf and somehow he ended up recommending me Spice and Wolf. I was a little skeptical about this one because from his summary it seemed pretty sketchy, but at the same time intrigued. My curiosity always gets me to watch anyways. *sigh*

{Spoilers}

I would classify this anime as a historical supernatural anime with a splash of romance. The plot itself is quite unique. It's about a peddler named Lawrence that finds himself traveling north with a wolf goddess named Holo to bring her back home. Along the way he runs his business and has booms and busts. As you can see it's pretty different with its story that has the duality of running a business which in itself is mundane and the super-naturalness of Lawrence's traveling companion. If you were interested in business, perhaps this would be helpful. Some of their business tips were quite good and maybe could help people from being cheated and from making bad investments. I would say that the style is like Studio Ghibli films in the art and the music in certain respects. It vaguely reminded me of if Kamisama Hajimemashite and Princess Mononoke combined with the whole supernatural thing with wolves (although in human form Holo really looks like a fox). Ah, one thing that I strangely enjoyed was the OP and ED. The ED was very whimsical and fun and the OP, something about that OP's rhythm and melody was very pleasing. Even if you don't end up watching the anime, you should give the music a listen.

Overall I thought the anime was just alright. It wasn't anything that made me feel extraordinarily inspired or delighted. Maybe because Lawrence and Holo's relationship was so cliche and contradictory. At times I wasn't able to tell if Holo was being tsundere, patronizing, or an airhead. She was all of those things and while this might've been to add 'depth to her character' instead it made me feel, as a viewer, that they were inconsistent in her scripting. Also I understand that Holo is a wolf and wolves don't wear clothes, but the amount of nudity shown was a bit...much? If you're looking for a sort of fluffier anime that you don't have to think too hard about you should pick this one up. The pacing is quite slow so you won't have to worry about being stressed out by watching it. And hey, you might learn a thing or two about business.

At this point in time I'm highly unmotivated to watch the second season because the episodes are very predictable, but who knows? Maybe one day I'll be into historical anime and I'll come back to this as a throwback.