Shiladitya Ray
Spice and Wolf (also known as Ōkami to Kōshinryō in Japanese) is a fantasy romance anime television series which is based on a light novel series of the same name. Written by Isuna Hasekura and illustrated by Juu Ayakura, the light novel series was first published on February 10, 2006. A year later, the series was adapted into a manga series, illustrated by Keito Koume.
With the series gaining popularity, it was picked up to be made into an anime television series, and Season 1 of Spice and Wolf premiered on January 9, 2008. It was an immediate hit amid fans of the light novels and the manga series, and subsequently, on April 30, 2009, an original video animation (OVA) special episode, meant to be the prologue to Season 2, was released. Just months after the release of the OVA, Season 2 of Spice and Wolf made its way to viewers’ screens on July 9, 2009. Since then, fans have been waiting to hear news on Season 3, and here’s everything we know about it thus far.
Spice and Wolf Season 3 Release Date: When will it premiere?
Spice and Wolf season 2, also known as Ōkami to Kōshinryō II, premiered on July 9, 2009, and the season finale was aired on September 24, 2009. Although nearly a decade has passed since then, there is still no news on a third season.
This, of course, is not a very good sign as far as the future of the show is concerned. In many cases, consecutive seasons of anime shows are separated by gaps as long as five years, but a show getting renewed after a decade is rare, if not unheard of. While this does paint a bleak picture as far as Spice and Wolf season 3 is concerned, fans are not ready to give up hope yet. It’s worth noting here that the light novel series is still being published, so there’s enough source material for several new seasons, let alone Season 3.
Given the above fact, there’s a slight chance that someone might take up the responsibility of making a third season. Our best guess is that if the anime does get renewed, Spice and Wolf season 3 release date could be sometime in 2021 or 2022. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for news on Season 3, and if something comes up, we’ll be sure to update this section to reflect the same.
Spice and Wolf English Dub:
If you like watching anime shows in English, Spice and Wolf has a good English dub done by a talented set of voice actors. If you want to watch the show in English, you can find links to dubbed episodes on Funimation, Amazon Prime, and Crunchyroll. You can also stream it on Netflix with its original Japanese audio and English subtitles.
Read more in anime preview: Re:Zero
Spice and Wolf Plot:
The show is set in a fantasy world which has a historical setting and distinct European influences. In this backdrop, the show follows the travels of a young travelling merchant called Kraft Lawrence, who roams the land, peddling various goods from one town to another.
Kraft is a 25-year-old merchant, and it is soon revealed that he has been a traveling merchant for more than seven years. Kraft’s goal in life is to make enough money for his travels to open his own shop. However, the young merchant’s life takes a bizarre turn when he finds a naked, wolf-like girl asleep in his wagon one day in the town of Pasloe. Although Kraft is initially wary of the girl, he gathers the courage to interact with her and learns that she is a 600-year-old wolf deity named Holo who has been looking after the villagers in and around Pasloe for generations. However, Holo tells Kraft that she has grown tired of fulfilling the wishes of ungrateful villagers and wishes to escape this life and go back to her homeland in the north, a place called Yoitsu.
Before she heads back, Holo also has a wish to see how the world has changed in the years she was stuck at Pasloe, and after much bickering, she manages to strike a deal with Kraft. In exchange for Kraft sneaking her out of the village, Holo promises to help him in his business, and together the two set out on the countryside. As Kraft and Holo move from town to town, they have to contend with the ups and downs of business. However, with Kraft’s experience and knowledge in commerce, and with Holo’s ancient wisdom, the duo starts making some good money, and Kraft inches closer to his dream of opening his own shop.
That being said, the show is not about trading or mercantilism, but a story about the search for a lost identity in an ever-changing world.
Spice and Wolf Characters:
In their travels across the land, Kraft and Holo meet dozens of characters. Below, we’ve given you a brief background on the important ones.
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]Kraft Lawrence: The main male protagonist of the show, Kraft is a 25-year-old traveling merchant. At the age of 12, he became an apprentice to a relative of his who was a merchant, and learned the tricks of the trade. Six years later, having seen some parts of the world and having experienced what trading is like, Kraft set out on his own, peddling goods from town to town to earn a living. Seven years of peddling, however, has caught up with Kraft, and the merchant now dreams of making enough money to settle down and open a shop of his own. After his bizarre meeting with Holo, Kraft’s fortunes take a turn for the better and his experience coupled with Holo’s ability to read people’s intentions result in some great profits for the duo.
Holo: Holo is the main female protagonist of the show and is a wolf harvest deity hailing from a remote region in the north known as Yoitsu. As a deity, Holo had made a promise to the people of Pasloe to become their goddess of harvest. With the people’s prayers, Holo thus started doing her work, and year after year, generation after generation, the people of Pasloe reaped full harvests and had a life of prosperity. However, as the years passed, the people’s reverence for Holo started fading as they started taking her for granted. With irrelevance looming on the horizon, Holo thus decides to leave Pasloe and head back to her homeland.
Fortune strikes her when Kraft finds her, and she manages to strike a deal with him to sneak her out of Pasloe. Kraft, being the savvy merchant that he is, immediately recognizes that Holo has a knack for reading people and understanding their intentions, and requests that she join him in his journeys as a merchant. Having had dreams about seeing the change in the world, Holo agrees readily, and the two set out to make their fortune. As far as Holo’s personality is concerned, we come to know that she’s a self-sufficient and fiercely independent girl. However, having been a deity for centuries, Holo is used to reverence, can be very haughty at times. Despite all her defenses, she is actually extremely lonely, and fears being lonely her entire life. As a result, she is extremely fond of Kraft and fears losing him.
Read more in anime preview: KonoSuba
