AlternateSam.com » Holo

Spicy Wolf Manga

AlternateSam — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:51:13 +0000

Damn the wolf ! I have just started on the manga version of Spice and Wolf as the anime version of season II got me hopelessly addicted. The manga is slightly more in-depth with rather lucid economic theories being expressed, in a much clearer way with graphs and tables as compared to the anime. The artwork compared to the anime is also slightly different as well, with the changes probably coming in when it transitions from paper to screen. I guess I will be hunting around for the art books this Friday at Kinokuniya.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode VI

AlternateSam — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:46:36 +0000

Wolf and Trustworthy God

-The price of the pyrite keeps going up and Lawrence believes that Holo is on Amati’s side, not his. He then received news that a town-merchant is interested to sell him his stock of pyrite to avoid profiting too much too obviously, and he then sold all his pyrite stock on hand but this only served to drive the price up as someone snapped them up promptly.

- Deanna’s messenger came and informed him that her negotiations failed so no assistance from her in the form of pyrite is going to come.

- In a last ditch effort, Lawrence sells the remaining pyrite stock he just acquired, and to his amazement, Holo turned out to be the one buying the pyrite from Deanna, and together they crashed the pyrite market by selling all their stock.

- Holo revealed that it was all a ploy to take Amati to the cleaners and she was upset that Lawrence even suspected her when he should trust that she was on his side throughout.

End of this story-arc and it was quite a heartwarming ending, with Holo blaming Lawrence for having insufficient trust in her and him admitting his fault. It turns out that Holo made numerous hints to Lawrence in order to assist him but in his confusion and panic, he over thought stuff and didn’t take note of them at all.

Lawrence proceeds to apologize to her sincerely and made a sorta confession to her about how he feels. It turns out that Holo also figured his plan from the start and was slightly impressed by it. She then searched Deanna out in the Alchemists’ Quarter and talked to her but was then interrupted by the arrival of Lawrence who was interested to purchase pyrite. This meant that she heard everything that he said about her being his ‘precious cargo’ and about his question on whether were there any previous instances of a pagan god taking a human as a mate.

Deanna turned out not to be human after all, but a large bird in human form (one of the pagan gods or animal spirits I guess, like Holo), which accounts for the many white feathers strewn on the floor in her house. Her back-story was that she had a relationship with a travelling priest and they worked a long time to build a church. However, the priest grew suspicious of her as she never did aged and that was the end of their relationship.

Holo declared that she wants to return to her homeland after all, even though it might no longer be existing. Both of them moved on to the town square as a couple to view the end of the festivities.

The last 10 minutes of this episode was sort of moe-overload with Holo presenting her sensitive and soft side, which I guess is the main reason why this anime is rather popular. Can’t complain though as I thought this was the best episode of the season so far, with an equal mix of revelation, thinking and story-line exploration as well as most importantly, character relationship development.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode V

AlternateSam — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:34:21 +0000

Wolf and Hope and Despair

- Bartose helps Lawrence seeks out Deanna with a special passphrase.

- He found out and had a long discussion with her to sell him pyrite, only to find out that her stock of pyrite was already promised to someone else.

- Deanna, sensing his disappointment and his resolve to win, says that she will try to negotiate to get the pyrite back and so Lawrence leave, but not before asking the lorekeeper whether are there cases of pagan gods and humans becoming mates.

- Amati gives him 14 gold coins (the equivalent of 300 silver coins) to complete his part of the contract and its do-or-die for Lawrence now.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode IV

AlternateSam — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:23:56 +0000

The show starts to pick up steam as the pace of the plot increases. Very very engaging.

Wolf and the End of Shallow Knowledge

- Lawrence figures out that the only way to beat Amati is to find a way to crash the iron-hot pyrite market.

- He approaches Amati after he finds out Holo has signed a marriage contract with him pending her guardian’s (Lawrence) permission, and negotiates a credit-trading contract which in effect upped the stakes between them

- Mark, his wheat-seller friend, is unable to help him so conspicuously to purchase enough pyrite to crash the market as it will affect his reputation as a town-stall merchant, as opposed to Lawrence who doesn’t need to care so much as he’s a travel merchant.

- However, Mark gives him a tip that the alchemists have a large stockpile of pyrite and he ought to head to them for help, which he does with great urgency.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode III

AlternateSam — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:11:20 +0000

Wolf and the Unfilled Gap

- Amati declares in front of the entire merchants’ guild that he will pay off Holo’s ‘debt’ with 1,000 Trenni silver coins by the evening of the following day and make her a free person, who he thinks will then marry him in gratitude.

- Lawrence, having complete faith in Holo that she will remain by his side, accepts the contract, and then finds out that to raise the necessary funds, Amati is planning something that has to do with the pyrites.

- He returns to the inn to find out that Holo can read after all, and has read the letter about how Yoitsu was destroyed.

- Holo was devastated and upset that Lawrence has kept it a secret from her all this while, and started saying some weird stuff like how’s she alone once again, how’s he must be tired of her etc, hence Lawrence left the inn to get some air and give her some space.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode II

AlternateSam — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:57:24 +0000

Wolf and the Calm Before the Storm

- Lawrence visits the Alchemist quarters, one of the few places they can live unmolested by the Church.

- He meets the Alchemists’ representative, Dian Rubens who confirmed his suspicions that the town of Yoitsu was destroyed long ago by a legendary “Moon-Hunting Bear”, and told him of a pagan story regarding Holo from long ago.

- He became very disturbed over what Holo said to him when he was leaving the inn and was jealous that Amati was spending the day with her.

- In the inn, Holo tells him about this normal rock which was the focus of a fortune-teller’s scam and Lawrence then received some news which made him rushed out of the Inn immediately.

The episode ends on a cliff-hanger and throughout the episode, the focus was on the growing bond between Lawrence and Holo. Lawrence slowly (very slowly) realizes that Holo might be more than a simple friend and how her presence has changed him. He hides the secret of Holo’s hometown being in ruins from her possibly to keep her from worrying, and this weighed down heavily on his conscious. He detests the burden that lying to her brings but decides to do it for the ‘greater good’.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode I

AlternateSam — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:36:07 +0000

I finally got started with the second season of Spice and Wolf. The OVA or episode 00 was released last week and it was fairly interesting with the usual Spicy Wolf quirks. The animation studio team changed so that might explain the slight drop in animation quality, but however the positive side is that the series got brighter or more ‘lighted’ up in terms of the animation. Overall, I guess I just got to get used to the slightly different artwork.

Wolf and the Sudden Split

- Lawrence and Holo are travelling to a pagan city delivering nails when they meet a young, fairly successful trader called Fermi Amati who was very taken with by Holo and helped them as a result.

- Holo is disturbed when she keeps thinking about how the duration of Lawrence’s lifetime is but a blink of an eye to her.

- Lawrence is disturbed by how his friends are also aging and doing well with their own shops while he’s still a travelling merchant, despite arguably being a better merchant than them.

- This is compounded when he realized that Holo does not have a clear idea how to get back to Yoitsu, her hometown, and hence the journey might be quite long, so he informs her that he might not be able to follow her all the way, a statement which he promptly regrets uttering.

Spice and Wolf II -

OP : Mitsu no Yoake

ED : Perfect World