Last Wednesday, a new promotional trailer for the Spice and Wolf anime was released, which will arrive very soon. This second video, lasting just over a minute, shows us Kraft Lawrence and Holo deepening their bond through their itinerant sales journey. This new project based on the original novel by Isuna Hasekura is set to premiere on Japanese television in April 2024 and will reach your screens via TV Tokyo, as well as other affiliated networks. Outside Japan, the series will be available for simulcast on Crunchyroll.
This new project involves the studio Passione, known for animes such as “Citrus, Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou,” or “Mieruko-chan,” with Hijiri Sanpei as director, and Takeo Takahashi taking on the role of chief director of the project, leaving the musical composition in the hands of Kevin Penkin. Meanwhile, the voice casting for this new Spice and Wolf anime includes the same two actors who voiced the protagonists of the first anime: Jun Fukuyama will voice the traveling merchant Kraft Lawrence, and Ami Koshimizu will bring to life the wolf goddess Holo on screen.
This new Spice and Wolf project coincides with the celebration of the franchise’s 15th anniversary, marked by the moment when Isuna Hasekura‘s novel was first published. And to make the announcement even more special, a first conceptual image has been presented, as well as a first teaser trailer, officially launching this animated project.
As we already know, this is not the first animated adaptation that this franchise has. Kraft Lawrence and Holo have already accompanied us in a Spice and Wolf series that has had two seasons on Japanese television. The first of them, with a duration of 12 episodes, was brought to us by Imagin in production, with Takeo Takahashi in the role of director and script by Naruhisa Arakawa, aired between January and March 2008. The second, however, was handled by the studio Brain’s Base, with 12 episodes just like the first, aired during 2009. This series was followed by a series of 2 short episodes, titled “Ookami to Koushinryou II: Holo no Short Anime,” which was included in the Blu-ray edition of the second season, as well as an OVA titled “Ookami to Koushinryou II: Ookami to Kohakuiro no Yuuutsu,” with a duration of 23 minutes.
Ōkami to Kōshinryō is a story that immerses in an era set in a fictitious Europe and unfolds in a plot that combines mythology with doses of economics, trade, and itinerant sales, presenting the viewer to Kraft Lawrence, a 25-year-old guy who earns his keep as an itinerant seller, traveling between towns and cities to trade. One night, when he stops in the town of Pasroe, he finds in his cart a girl named Holo, a wolf deity, over 600 years old. Holo introduces herself to Kraft as the harvest goddess. The wolf goddess is determined to leave these lands to return to her homeland in the north. To do this, she reaches an agreement with the young itinerant seller to accompany her on her journey back home.
As it could not be otherwise, we continue adding titles to your agenda, this time in April specifically. We invite you to leave us your opinion on this story in the comments, which you surely have known for several years. You know, we’ll be reading 😉
Images Source: TOHO Animation Official YouTube Channel, YouTube
