One series from more recent memory that still definitely has a pleasing tone about it that I think fondly of is the Spice & Wolf property. With the second season landing back in 2009, we’ve seen Funimation do a few releases over the years for it in various forms. With a number of older properties getting new looks and some surprising series getting a new lease on life in anime form, this one is getting it as well as announced in February 2023.
With the series making an April 1st, 2024 debut with the subtitle of Spice & Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf, Crunchyroll recently began bringing out the first episode with its English last week. With the second episode going live on Monday night, it looks like they expanded on their dub offerings as they launched the first episodes of both the French and German dubs here.
The English dub has Michelle Rojas directing it from the adaptation by Matthew Greenbaum. The English cast brings back the two leads from the 2008 adaptation and expands on it with:
- Brina Palencia as Holo
- J. Michael Tatum as Lawrence
- Austin Tindle as Yarei
- Emi Lo as Myuri
- Doug Jackson as Village Chief
Additional voices include Daniel Van Thomas, Charles Nguyen, and Ben Stegmair.
The opening song is “Tabi no Yukue” as performed by Hana Hope while the ending is “Andantae” as performed by ClariS.
Takeo Takahashi is serving as the chief director with Hijiri Sanpei directing it as Passione. Both Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu return as Lawrence and Holo.
Check out our review of the series.
The previous works were directed by Takeo Takahashi based on the series composition by Naruhisa Arawkawa, it’s based on the original work by Isuna Hasekura and Ju Ayakura. Kazuya Kuroda worked on the character designs and served as the chief animation director with it produced at studio IMAGIN.
The Japanese cast includes Ami Koshimizu as Holo and Jun Fukuyama as Kraft Lawrence. The English cast includes Brina Palencia as Holo and J. Michael Tatum as Kraft Lawrence.
The light novel series, released in English by Yen Press, began in 2006 from Isao Haseuka with artwork by Ju Ayakura. There are twenty-three volumes in Japan with it ongoing while twenty-two volumes have been published in English as of this announcement.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: The life of a traveling merchant is a lonely one, a fact with which Kraft Lawrence is well acquainted. Wandering from town to town with just his horse, cart, and whatever wares have come his way, the peddler has pretty well settled into his routine—that is, until the night Lawrence finds a wolf goddess asleep in his cart. Taking the form of a fetching girl with wolf ears and a tail, Holo has wearied of tending to harvests in the countryside and strikes up a bargain with the merchant to lend him the cunning of “Holo the Wisewolf” to increase his profits in exchange for taking her along on his travels. What kind of businessman could turn down such an offer? Lawrence soon learns, though, that having an ancient goddess as a traveling companion can be a bit of a mixed blessing. Will this wolf girl turn out to be too wild to tame?
Previous promos and visuals:
