Forum - View topicREVIEW: Spice and Wolf Novel 2
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Bored_Ming
 Posts: 242 Location: The Edge of ...... |
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Thanks for the review Theron. I've had mixed reactions with reading the novels after watching the anime. I know exactly what's coming since the anime has faithfully followed the novels. My reading experience has not been ruined. But knowing the outcome lessens the impact of key scenes. As Theron mentioned, I like the fact that more depth is provided in the novels for some situations. I will continue to buy and enjoy reading the novels. I just look forward to fresh material in novel 5 since I'm assuming 3 and 4 will cover season 2.
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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I haven't watched season 2 yet, so I haven't verified it, but as I understand it, season 2 covers books 3 and 5, skipping 4 entirely. So, for better or worse, you'll be getting fresh material in book 4. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7411 Location: Maine |
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Just finished the first season on FUNi's website and just finished the second novel myself. There's an unfortunate change in the resolution of the novel that couldn't be done in the anime. In the anime when returning to confront Remelio (Remerio? Lemerio?) Lawrence uses his skill as a trader to force a new contract out of him. In the novel Holo helps out by taking her wolf form and clenching down on Remelio's head while Lawrence talks. The anime wouldn't be able to pull that off because they decided from the start to make Holo's wolf form much larger than described in the novel and it would have never fit in the trading company office. Too bad, it would have been a much better situation visually.
The scene with Lawrence returning to the inn after begging for money was different, too. In the novel Lawrence approaches Holo laying on the bed and it describes an aura around her that's so cold he can't get close enough to touch her so he feels rejected by her and throws the money pouch to her. In the anime it's more like he's hesitating to get close. Having experienced both I really think the novel is superior. Half of Lawrence's character is in his head, he's constantly thinking, constantly scheming, and constantly trying to figure out the best ways to make money. He also reads the people around him on a regular basis, especially Holo, and gives accurate assessments of their personalities and motivations. Yet the anime leaves you completely clueless to what he's thinking so he comes across more like he's doing things at the spur of the moment without thinking it through and it's never explained why he makes some of these decisions. Would have done a lot of good to let us hear what Lawrence is thinking in the anime, but that third person perspective gets in the way. Very excited about reading the third novel later this year. Not so much about watching the second season of the anime. Emerje |
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teferi
 Posts: 400 |
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Wait, how is Holo any larger in the anime? They describe her bones as being like tree trunks (in the scene in the first novel when he touches her wolf leg)O.o If anything they were probably just trying to save money.
Ditto. Although I'm looking forward to volume 4 more; they skipped straight to volume 5 in the anime apparently.
Come on, half of what he does he rants on a monolgoue trying to teach Holo, in both the anime and the manga. His motivations for his actions are more thoroughly explained in the novels, but its at the expense of the lively back-and-forth chatter between Holo and Lawrence. The dialogue just seems kind of stilted compared to the anime, and that's most of what's so great about the series. If Lawrence's thought process in regards to trading was the best thing about the series, it would be flat out boring. It'd hit that kind of paradox where because the writer has decided Lawrence will be a skilled trader he ends up being one, if less so because of any knowledge on the author's part and moreso because he wanted it to happen. Kinda like Deathnote, where the author decided Laito was a genius, so regardless of how horribly contrived his schemes were they worked out. Thankfully there's more to the series than that. |
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chefneer
 Posts: 1686 Location: Fort Worth, Texas |
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This is one of my favorites, both the anime and the novels, for a number of reasons, one being the interaction between Lawrence and Holo, which can be fun. Another would be the discussion of the principles of medieval trade, which is interesting to me.
One of the things that I like too, is Holo's behavior; the way she acts, the things she says, and the way she says them. Many of these things (not all, of course, wolves don't generally turn into cute girls) are typical of wolf behavior and it appears that the author did his homework on wolves when he wrote the series. That's pretty cool. The romance aspect is entertaining too. I mean, how do you have a romance with a centuries old wolf deity? Talk about a challenge! |
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Emerje
Posts: 7411 Location: Maine |
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From the description given of Holo's partial transformation early on in the first book she's still capable of keeping her arm inside the wagon, while in the anime she has to stretch it outside. I think the tree trunk thing was more of a simile than an accurate approximation. If she really was that large (like the one the anime shows stalking them in the woods) she definitely wouldn't have fit in that office, even the anime couldn't pull that one off with what would then have been a smaller Holo.
I don't think it's the best part of the series, I think it's the best part of him. The anime already seems to paint him as weak minded (passing out when seeing Holo's arm transform in the anime as opposed to cautiously observing her in the novel) and more spontaneous (being the one to choose to trade armor in the anime rather than talked into it) not being able to hear what he's thinking just makes him out to be Holo's haphazard sidekick rather than the co-star. Emerje |
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teferi
Posts: 400 |
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Erm... In the anime she never does a partial transformation, she goes straight to a full transformation and Lawrence freaks out. Although honestly, it's not like they couldn't have made it a big office, she only has transform once she gets into office.
They emphasize his fear of Holo's wolf form in the novels too. In the first arc down in the sewers he's pretty thoroughly terrified of her (she kind of tells him off for it, something like ,"so that's your answer?"). It's not until afterwards that he becomes used to it. And the armor thing isn't really that big of a deal, he even says it himself that bringing armor to Rubenhaigen is a pretty regular thing to do. He didn't have any idea that the campaign (which held the price of the armor up) was going to be cancelled, so it's really the same difference whether he asks for the armor or not. And even with all that he's still the main character. heack, early on Holo is practically a supporting character for all it matters. Throughout the first two novels she more or less is just there to act as a)fanbait b)a foil for lawrence to rant about trading and c) A plot device to save lawrence's ass when he screws up. Him being less adept at trading also emphasizes the differences between them as far as lawrence being a human and Holo being a wolf/god. And that seems to be a pretty important theme throughout the series, so if anything the anime doesn't really detract from those points in the novels, so much as they do a pretty good job of portraying Lawrence going through the motions without having muddy things up with too many inner monologues. Honestly, it's a much better tradeoff than you make it out to be. I've read the first two novels at least ten times each (they're so short dammit -_-", it's hard holding off and not grabbing .pdfs), and watched my DVDs about three times, and the thing that annoys me the most is how Funi and Yen Press are on a completely different page as far as some of the names (especially Rubenhaigen vs Lubenhaigen. Lubenhaigen sounds like a german Preparation H or something O,o). Meh, w/e probably can't convince you anyways. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18457 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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No, she does in the first episode of the anime. You have to watch very closely in the scene where it flashes back to Lawrence and Holo's first encounter while they are talking in the inn; starting around 18:50 there's a few brief glimpses of her transformed arm if you pay close attention. |
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