Spice and Wolf 2 - Not as Good as the Original
Posted by 0rion on January 16th, 2008 - 10:30 pm
OK, time to nitpick. Having read the first of the Ookami to Koushinryou novels, as well as read a bit of the manga, it is now my contractual obligation to tell you how the anime sucks and is nothing like the original, which is of course a paragon of excellence, prosaic and beautiful in ways this adaptation can never be!
Just kidding, of course. The Spice and Wolf anime has thus far been excellent, and I continue to look forward to each new episode. That said, I feel it has several distinct shortcomings.
My primary complaint is in the development of the characters. One of the greatest strengths of the novels is the realism of the characters. Both Horo and Lawrence are very well rounded individuals with complex, multi-faceted personalities that go far beyond the usual tropes and character molds that you tend to see in these kinds of stories. And while the anime has remained very true their personalities, for the most part, it seems to have left out several key aspects of what made the characters so interesting and believable.
In the novel, the initial factor that drives Lawrence and Horo together is simply loneliness. Lawrence, traveling alone and usually far from friends and family, initially agreed to let Horo travel with him because he needed some company. As for Horo, while she has lived for hundreds of year is incredibly wise, she’s just as susceptible to loneliness as anyone else. Part of what makes the two of them such a great team is the way they’re able encourage one another and complement each others’ weaknesses.
The need for interaction and relationships with other people is one of the most fundamental aspects of human nature, and one that the novels explore in very interesting ways. Leaving this out might seen like a fairly minor detail, but it actually changes the story quite a bit, not to mention removing one of the more interesting aspects of the interaction between Lawrence and Horo. The way they come to rely on and support each other is one thing that helps make the original story so compelling.
Another thing that I was disappointed to see was not included is the cool little graphs the manga adaptation uses to illustrate the business deals and economic stuff. Those really helped to quickly explain what was going on, and did it in an entertaining way. Of course, we’re still only two episodes into the anime, so perhaps they’ll make use of that later on. The manga also makes good occasional use of the chibi look for Horo, which I always find humorous, and so far they haven’t really taken advantage of that in the anime either.
Lupus over at THAT Animeblog points out several other differences, including the way Lawrence’s reaction to seeing Horo’s true form was changed in the anime, and while I agree, I think most of the other changes are only superficial and don’t really affect our understanding of the characters too much.
All right, enough with the rant. Having said all that, I think this anime is a great adaption so far. Certainly it’s much better than what’s happened with Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima light novel adaptations, both of which have been far less than stellar.
And for a relatively second-class studio, I must say, Imagin has done surprisingly well making this series look good. The scenery in particular is beautiful, and makes the world so much more vivid and immersive.
In this episode we do start to see glimpses of Lawrence and Horo’s personalities, as well as the interplay between them. I really love the fact that you can’t put the characters in this series in a box with simple labels like “tsundere” or “generic badass tough guy”. There haven’t been too many shows recently in which the characters really have that kind of depth, where they feel like real people. Most characters are entirely predictable and straightfoward, where Horo and Lawrence continually surprise you with new facets of their personality.
In particular, one of the highlights of this episode was when Horo looked back at Lawrence and blushed, apologizing for not living up to her image as “Horo the Wise”.
“Hi, I’m not suspicious at all! Haha!”
Gosh, this guy’s face just makes me want to hit him. Whenever he’s on screen I want to punch that crooked grin right off of it.
“Dammit why doesn’t this place have any coin-op dryers?”
Once again Horo takes the record for most time nekkid onscreen in an anime episode.
“Well well, what have we here?”
“I like it a lot bigger, like a wolf.”
“…”
“Quiet, woman! Get back in the kitchen!”
Neko Mimi Mode!
A few other random thoughts…
- One other interesting difference between the anime and the manga is that in the manga adaptation Horo is a lot bustier, and Lawrence looks a lot more ripped.
- In the first episode, it sounded as though Fukuyama Jun was having a bit of trouble figuring out how to handle his role as Lawrence. It seemed like he kept drifting back towards his Lelouch voice from time to time. Fortunately, he seemed to have nailed the voice much more solidly in episode two, managing to make Lawrence sound young while also portraying him as savvy and experienced.
- Also, Horo is <3. Just thought I should mention that. I loved the scene where, after Lawrence was unsettled by all her talk of wolves, she sat and looked at him silently for a while, and then her ears drooped. Such a great moment in conveying her personality without needing any dialogue, as well as very cute. ^^
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holy crap you scared me
i read the first paragraph and thought you were about to drop the show from your routine cause of one episode.
i havent read the manga but chibi horo in the show PLEASE! i just want to see what she looks like.
and for my final note of this comment: Horo is <3
“The need for interaction and relationships with other people is one of the most fundamental aspects of human nature, and one that the novels explore in very interesting ways.”
Now you’re making me want to read the novels now. As well as hope that they expand on this theme in the anime, cause it would make it so much awesomer. Curse you.
And I agree that Horo is love.
manga Horo = seductive Horo, especially with the fanservicey focus shots o__o
I’m just glad the anime didn’t resort to that… you barely even notice the fact that, Horo is nekkid, like it’s but natural, and I like it that way ^^
I need to post my own thoughts on this at the weekend, since I’ve gradually thought of more and more to say about it. I’ve surprised myself at how enjoyable I’ve found it to be…twelve episodes now doesn’t seem like enough.
I actually found the interplay between the two of them my favourite aspect but yeah, it’s an important point that didn’t really crop up. The value of their companionship is something I guessed for myself but it would have been better to have been explained more fully rather than merely implied. With that minor thing aside, it’s great fun - one of my current favourites right now.
Watching Horo fiddle her tail is…fascinating, to say the least
.
Lol that surprised me too within your first paragraph.
Although before reading this, I did suspect something was missing but really couldn’t put my finger on what. Now seeing this it now gives me a better understanding of what was missing (usually the majority of what was said in the rant).
As well the way that they seem to interact with each other would seem like they almost good friends or even just a partner that’s just there. For some reason whenever those two are together you don’t even sense that they there would be a pairing (like what is done in most anime or such) but of something better than that they can interact with each other on such a different level.
Thanks for another great review ^^
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