#__Spice And Wolf (2024) Review.__ ____ ___

As the first season of the new adaptation comes to a close it becomes time to ponder on we have experienced. Over the last three and a half months we watched and discussed what we thought about it. Many questions have been long since asked and answered, but one still remains: Was it worth it?

I'd say so.

I'll admit, it's been a while since I watched the original series. However, I do fondly remember it as one of my favorite animated series of the 2000's. From the world building and to the foil between the two leads, The 2008 adaptation very quickly became a cult classic. However, the cliffhanger ending at the end of the second season left many watchers (your truly included) wanting for more. When the new project was announced I believe we all were excited to see the journey we loved continue. Coming from this, I was a little scared when it was announced that this was going to be a different adaptation of the light novels, and became even more so when it was revealed that Studio Passione (of high school DXD 2018 and Higurashi: Gou infamy) would be leading the reigns.

_Adorable_ ___

However, I was pleasantly surprised. This show, though maybe not at exactly on the level of the first adaptation, was still perfectly enjoyable in its own right. The story followed the original Light Novels very closely, sticking even more accurately to the books than the originals. This not only kept the story from veering off into stupidity, but also sets up for future seasons better than how the originals (With their changed continuity) did. Along with preserving the story the same, the characters also kept their wonderful foil that made them so enjoyable, and with the Original VA's coming back they feel nearly identical to their first roles.

One big change that the series had was the hiring of Kevin Penkin as the score composer. Kevin, if you did not know, was the composer for both Made in Abyss and The Rising of The Shield Hero, along with co-writing the soundtrack for The Apothecary Diaries. Through his works, he has won several awards and is regarded as one of the best composers in the Anime Industry, and with this series he bring his A game. Though the original soundtrack was amazing in its own right, no-one can beat Kevin.

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However, I will day that the opening and ending of this season (though perfectly serviceable in their own rights) pale In comparison to Tabi no Tochuu and Jitsu no Yoake. Though I like the new ones, a part of me wishes that they just did a cover of the originals due to how freaking good they are. This is a pretty small issue overall, but still kind of irks me.

Last thing I want to talk about is the animation and artwork style. Despite my worries, I feel like Studio Passione did a serviceable job updating the original works to a modern style. Being perfectly honest, the animation of the original was not one of its strong suits, especially given that Studio imagin was a small and irrelevant studio that immediately went belly up after finishing season 2. Studio Passione also successfully made the art style more faithful to the original novels, which I believe is generally a good thing. However, as to be expected, the art style (in my personal opinion) was significantly less passionate compared to the original, and had a glossy and corporate feel that many Passione projects have. Additionally, the increased use of CGI in some scenes broke my immersion a little. Overall, though it did pass my approval (For what little that's worth) it did not leave me wowed.

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To sum up, I think this project was a good attempt at adapting the original VN's. Though I may not have liked as much as the originals in some aspects, I think it was a good Anime regardless. Overall, I am quite happy with this and I can't wait for season 2.

I'll criticise this anime pretty harshly so if you're a fan or you just can't take criticism in general (even if it doesn't concern you), don't even bother hate-reading and feel free to abuse that dislike button in order to assert dominance.

In all seriosity, this was way worse than I expected since the original show seemed to be relatively decent but then again it's 2024 and shows are probably supposed to be bad these days.

Let's start with the positive things about this anime: the music, or at least part of it. Now that we're done with that, we can talk about the bad part of SaW.

The show takes place in a historical fantasy setting (with an emphasis on historical rather than fantasy) but make no mistake: It's an anime so the historical "research" was probably done in five minutes and it would be a wild understatement to say that they took as much "creative liberty" as they could. It's not like any anime fan in the world seems to be interested in historical accuracy anyway.
The problem, however, is that this show has some kind of obsessive and weird anti-religious undertone and when I say "anti-religious", I obviously mean anti-christian. No anime or non-anime show ever criticised Judaism, Islam, Shintoism or any kind of religion or sect, nor will they ever do that. SaW explicitly criticises christianity which wouldn't be a problem per se (especially for me as an atheist) but the superficial and self-satisfied way they do it is what makes this so bad.

Other than that, there is not much to say about SaW since the story is often times pretty much non-existent and most characters besides the 2 mc's aren't that important anyway and just act as plot devices or mirrors for the mc's insecurities and problems.
And this is where we get to the main problem of the show: The main characters. You would expect them to be interesting/sympathetic/deep in a show that is so focused on just two characters and their "romance" over the course of many episode. But nope, they are terrible.

This is one of the many many MANY anime (and non-anime) where the male mc is basically a socially awkward, bland, lame and weak guy who can never stand his ground and has terrible communication skills for a man whose job it is to communicate.
The female mc, on the other hand, is mostly careless, smug, self-condescending, kinda mean and basically everything every normal person hate about tsunderes.
As so many anime (and non-anime), the people who are in charge of this seem to have a very toxic and childish view on romance in which one person has to dominate the other one constantly (but it's okay bro, it's the woman anyway, so it's cool!!!!!111) and people can't be allowed to like each other from the beginning.
They first have to go through endless episodes of senseless teasing and unnecessary arguing before they actually recognize that they "love" each other.

I'm anything but a romance fan and if I happen to watch "romance", I don't expect everything to go well throughout the show without the characters having any kind of development but let me tell you something groundbreaking: Having characters bitch around all the time and then having them falling in love at last is anything but smooth and elegant character development.

To summ it up: This show smells like 2020's and it stinks. Not that the original anime was great by any means (or even good) but it's another one of so many proves as to why modern reboots of anything in the world shouldn't be allowed.