Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” marks the start of a new cours for Kraft Lawrence and Holo the Wise Wolf. You can tell because there’s a new opening and ending theme song. You can also tell because our duo is journeying to a new town for wealth and fortune.
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling”: Details
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” is the 14th episode (you can check out my reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, Ep. 10, Ep. 11, Ep. 12, and Ep. 13 here) of season 1 (which hopefully won’t be the only one) of this economic fantasy reboot anime series by studio Passione (Citrus, Mieruko-chan, Yuri Is My Job!). Said anime series is the reboot of the 2008 anime Spice and Wolf by studios Imagin (season 1) and the duo of Brain’s Base and Marvy Jack (season 2). Said original anime series (along with this reboot) are the anime adaptations of the light novel series of the same name by Isuna Hasekura (World End Economica, Magdala de Nemure). Crunchyroll is the company licensing this anime for its NA release.
Tatsuya Hagino is the director behind Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling”, with Yukito Kizawa as the writer, and Takeshi Mori doing the storyboard. As for the Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF anime as a whole, we do still know that Hijiri Sanpei is the director. Takeo Takahashi is actually returning from the original 2008 anime series as the chief director. Tatsuhiko Urahata is the overall writer, with Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss, Tower of God, Bye Bye, Earth) as the composer for the music you hear in this reboot anime.
Speaking of music: we have some new pieces of theme music for this new cours. The new opening theme music is “Sign” by Aimer. Meanwhile, “Ringo to Kimi” (りんごと君, lit. The Apple and You) by NeRiAme is the new ending theme music.
Voice Cast
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” features the voices of Jun Fukuyama (J. Michael Tatum in English dub) as Kraft Lawrence and Ami Koshimizu (Brina Palencia in English dub) as Holo the Wise Wolf. Other notable voices in this episode include Saeko Chiba (Ryan Reynolds in English dub) as Fermi Amarti and Rikiya Koyama (Ian Sinclair in English dub) as Marc Cole.
When and Where to Watch
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on July 1, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this reboot anime as a whole only on Crunchyroll for now. If you want to watch the original 2008 Spice and Wolf anime for comparison, then you can do that on Crunchyroll as well.
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling”: Synopsis
Alas, Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF is still an ongoing anime series. In fact, Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” only just premiered a week ago as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis from Crunchyroll instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can read that synopsis below:
Lawrence and Holo continue their long journey north, reaching the town of Kumerson, where they see the first northern pagans of their journey.
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling”: The Good
It’s a pretty clear here. It’s the story of Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” that keeps me glued to the screen. It’s not even that the story of this episode is particularly tense or dramatic. On the contrary, it’s a very relaxing episode to chill to, all thanks to Isuna Hasekura. It’s just nice to relax to this episode’s story, watching Lawrence conduct business that doesn’t involve life and death, as well as watching the delicious meals he and Holo eat in this episode, one of which looks like grilled pike. Very bony fish, but very delicious judging from what I’ve heard about it.
Complementing that story is the animation. Even for this second cours, Passione is committed to maintaining a pretty high level of quality for that animation. You can especially tell when the animation goes into the stylized medieval illuminated text art that basically characterizes this anime. Not only that, but the food animation in this episode is surprisingly good-looking. Note: this anime isn’t a food-centric anime, even though food does prominently feature in it. And yet, the food all looks pretty good. Not as good as Black Butler -Public School Arc-, but still quite delectable, especially the aforementioned grilled pike.
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling”: The Bad
Alas though, Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF Ep. 14 “New Town and Nostalgic Feeling” is not the episode for action junkies. All due entirely to the fact that there is not a single bit of action in this episode in the slightest. If you want that, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, and/or Kaiju No. 8.
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