Out of curiosity, which blog would that be?
This one
. I haven't checked any of their other posts outside of Spice and Wolf so I can't speak for the quality or even accuracy of their comments, but.
Thank you. That was an interesting read; I particularly liked their comments about the wide shots, which does make the city feel so much bigger. A far cry from how the original anime did it!
Really like the look of the new anime. The dub cast all sound great. Shame the OP is really bland compared to the original.
Episode 4: We finally get the heart-to-heart between Lawrence and Holo, and I am pleased to report that my heart has melted all over again. Just in time for goons to ruin the moment! But yeah, our merchant and wolf are more expressive this time around, and I want to give both of them a big hug.
Episode 5: We got our cute wolfgirl back! And she is every cute, and she knows it, and she will do a little dance to prove it. Okay honestly that dance felt a little out of place and seems to be there just to sell Holo more. It’s one thing I will mark this remake down for, compared to the original.
Everything outside of that is fantastic though. Holo definitely got overexcited and jumped a stranger thinking it was Lawrence who came to her rescue, which led to some great banter between our two not-lovebirds. Yarei’s admonishment also helps Holo decide to have a cleaner break from the village she resided in. Kick the sand in their faces!
For anyone trying to keep track of the economics, essentially Medio and Milone are trying to get the lion’s share of the Trenni silver and forcing the king to buy them back at above market rate, including potentially having to sell trading/mining rights. Medio kidnapped Holo in order to threaten Milone— if they didn’t back off from the silver coins, Medio will give Holo to the Church and accuse Milone of colluding with demons, which would be a death sentence for the company. Lawrence’s solution was to have Milone complete the deal while he and Holo go on the run, meaning Medio would not have leverage against Milone anymore.
Side note: the unspoken alternative to this plan would have been Milone killing Lawrence and having Medio take the fall for housing Holo. Of course, that would have been too tragic, and I suppose Medio could still have argued Holo was seen negotiating with Milone, so Milone would just be covering their tracks.
Episode 6: We finally see the Wise Wolf cut loose, and frankly, it's a bit underwhelming this time around. Holo is supposed to look like a terrifying beast barely illuminated by the scant lights, but here she's in plain view and, well, looks downright cute, more like a really big doggo than a fearsome wolf of the wilds.
Edited by Dracoblade on May 7th 2024 at 10:10:23 AM
Haha, I have to agree. Why would Lawrence even be terrified? She’s positively adorable!
In any case, it’s great that Lawrence and Milione won the gamble. And Lawrence gets to continue traveling with Holo, which is the biggest boon of all.
Episode 7: Why do you even try to resist, Lawrence? Between her puppy dog eyes, wagging ears and fluffy tail, it's nigh impossible to resist Holo's charm. Just buy her what she wants! She'll net you more coins soon anyway. I'm sure there are more merchants out there with crooked tables.
(Spoilers from the original anime) I cringed when Lawrence asked for the armor. Oooof. We also see Holo in her town girl getup this episode, so unfortunately it seems we skipped the part where she haggled for it.
Also I've said it before the voice acting is killing it. Holo makes some soft "hungry puppy" moans and it sells her fascination with sweet things so well.
Edited by fillerdude on May 14th 2024 at 3:01:58 AM
Yeah, the V As are both great, both Holo's is doing a really good job with her performance.
Yeah, this is really growing on me. I've been checking out a blog that lists things like the storyboarders per episode and so on, and I think this episode's director did the best job so far with keeping things energetic.
Also, just to put my guess out there (again, this is my third time watching but I'm still going to have to call it a guess): the thrust of the currency debasement is that the kingdom of Trenni itself is putting the word out about an increase in silver purity that isn't happening. Instead, they hope to get a bunch of merchants collecting the older, purer silver coins and get them to trade in for the newer, impure coins - in essence, pulling the reverse scheme Lawrence has in mind, securing a large stash of new (well, old) silver for the same cost on-paper given the otherwise high stability of Trenni silver.
I don't quite recall what the plan is to forestall merchant discontent after that, though I guess this episode did introduce both the concept of trust in a coin's stamped value versus its actual material content and the concept of "he who gets fooled shouldn't be angry."
It's been fun.