On Tuesday, after the airing of the 25th and final episode ofSpice & Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf, the series' official website announced that a second season is in the works. A new visual was revealed along with the news, depicting an elated Holo looking back while holding Kraft Lawrence’s hand, leading him toward a beautiful meadow in the background.
The reboot comes 15 years after the airing of the original anime, and is a retelling of the story adapted from the light novel by Isuna Hasekura and illustrated by Jū Ayakura. While the entirety of the original anime was 25 episodes (excluding the OVA), the first season this time around has the same length, implying thatmerchant meets the wise wolfwill adapt more of the original light novel than the original.
About Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf
The Return of a Classic
The plot of Spice & Wolf follows a seasoned merchant named Kraft Lawrence, who has settled well into the lonely life of a travelling merchant, until one night, he has a supernatural encounter. A young woman with wolf ears and a tail, Holo, the wolf goddess, had fallen asleep in his cart. Her role has been to tend to harvests in the countryside, but this has gotten awfully boring. She bargains with Lawrence, asking to tag along on his travels in exchange for lending him her wisdom to increase his profits.
While this seems like a great deal for any businessman worth his salt, Lawrence soon learns that Holo’s unpredictabilitymakes her presence as profitable as it is a liability. The originalSpice & Wolflight novel by Isuna Hasekura and illustrated by Jū Ayakura was originally published in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint and collected into 24 volumes from February 2006, while a spin-off titledWolf and Parchmenthas been published since September 2016.
The reboot ofSpice & Wolfbegan airing in April, with the last episode coming out Tuesday, September 24, having run for two consecutive cours. The anime streamed on Crunchyroll as it aired, with an English dub currently streaming. The new series is a retelling of the original light novel story, rather than a continuation of the 2008 anime. The series changed production studios from Brain’s Base and Marvy Jack to Passione (Higurashi: When They Cry – GOU), and saw staff and cast fromthe classic anime return, with the director of the original anime taking on the role of chief director andSpice & Wolf IIepisode director Hijiri Sanpei serving as the director ofmerchant meets the wise wolf.
The series had music by Kevin Penkin, who did the music forTower of GodandMade in the Abyss. The returning cast includes Jun Fukuyama as Kraft Lawrence, while Ami Koshimizu reprised her role as Holo, and Mai Nakahara; who played Nola in the original series, came back to play Norah Arendt in the reboot. At this point in time, we have no information about the expected release window of the upcoming second season.
Both the originalSpice & Wolfandmerchant meets the wise wolfare available to watch onCrunchyroll.
