AkibaBlog reports that Toranoana’s Akiba location will be hosting a Spice and Wolf cafe event to celebrate the series’ first DVD release. The food will include an apple tart and ice cream, grape juice, and…yeah, no clue what that other thing is. Nor do I recognize a date, though the first DVD is coming out April 2nd, so presumably that’s it.
Would so be there if I could!
So I was searching around for Ookami to Koushinryou images earlier and instead came across this. Apparently a game based on the series is in the works, for Nintendo DS.
The cool thing about it is the genre: renai and peddling simulation. AWESOME. I want to PEDDLE MY LOVE to a strange pseudo-pre-Renaissance Europe.
Apparently it also comes with a Horo character song CD, a Horo poster, and Horo’s pouch. Definitely want. May 29th! Whee!
Do want?
In before furry jokes.
Tags: 2ch, hatenkou-yuugi, ookami-to-koushinryou, Sayonara-Zetsubou-Sensei, shigofumi, true-tears, winter-2007-8, yatterman
Okay, it’s a pretty unscientific manner of gauging popularity, but I dare you to come up with something better. Hashihime has one of those reports about what anime has the most completed threads (=1000 posts) on 2channel, and the winner for winter ‘08 anime so far is Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei by a longshot– 67 to 17 for second-placer True Tears. Yatterman, surprisingly, takes third with 13. Shigofumi and Spice and Wolf round out the top five with 11 and 9, respectively.
Catch the rest of the list here. Make sure you read the added notes (like the fact that Minamike ~Okawari~ is sharing threads with its predecessor, making it hard to gauge). And try to ignore things like the fact that Hatenkou Yuugi accidentally got named Hakuten Yuugi (which is kinda funny; “Hatenkou Yuugi” would = roughly “Unprecedented Games,” “Hakuten Yuugi” would = “Infectious Games.” Like, as in a disease-type infection).
Original source: Hashihime
Ratings (out of 5):
Thoughts:
The merchant Lawrence arrives in a small town just in time for its annual festival celebrating the harvest and dedicating it to the local wolf god– a tradition perhaps no longer believed in, but celebrated nonetheless. There, he finds himself assaulted by two women: one a merchant-in-training who he’s known for some time who offers a “partnership,” and the other the aforementioned wolf god.
In the end, Lawrence finds himself abandoning the merchant girl and taking the wolf god on a journey, which will be the subject of the rest of the series.
The first thing that surprised me the most about this series is that none of the main characters look young. In fact, Lawrence could be considered a little on the old side. He’s probably at least 30– practically ancient in anime-land. The wolf god, Horo, is hundreds of years old and looks early 20s-ish; same with Chloe, the merchant.
The second thing that surprised me is that it’s set in a world vaguely like western Europe in the late middle ages, something you don’t see too often in anime. Horo is still a Japanese-style god, however; more like a youkai than an all-powerful being.
We see reference in the first episode to the village’s celebration being a “pagan” one and that they aren’t devoted enough to the “one true religion,” which could become a really interesting conflict in the rest of the series.
But even if it’s a relatively peaceful slice-of-life journey sort of thing, I think it’ll still be a lot of fun. I definitely recommend picking this one up.
Tags: juushin-enbu, kara-no-kyoukai, kinoko-nasu, madhouse, ookami-to-koushinryou, takashi-takeuchi
Hokay, let’s see…
And while we’re on upcoming anime, Ookami to Koushinryou has opened up its official site at spicy-wolf.com. The slogan in the upper-right corner is “Merchant meats spicy wolf.” Bad Engrish, or spicy innuendo? You tell me.