Leonid Kutergin

Kensuke Nimura is just your average high school student—except for the fact that he can see spirits. This ability generally hinders him more than it helps him, especially in trying to get a girlfriend. However, everything changes one day when he encounters Kagura Tsuchimiya while being pursued by evil spirits. They accidentally kiss and manage to destroy the source of energy that is drawing the evil spirits. A few days later, Kagura transfers into Kensuke's class, much to his surprise.[3] Kagura is an agent of a government agency that secretly defends the public from supernatural enemies. She wields a Ga-rei, a "spirit devourer," named Byakuei that she uses to fight. Kensuke's spiritual awareness and his attraction to Kagura compels him to follow her to the agency, where he is recruited to fight the supernatural.[4][5][6]

Their first enemy is Yomi Isayama, Kagura's former best friend, now an evil spirit due to a stone known as a sesshouseki embedded in her forehead.[6] Also introduced is another old friend, the perverted Izuna Noriyuki.[6] Yomi tries to release an ancient immortal demon sealed under Tokyo.[7] The Agency manage to stop her after a long battle, resealing the demon and putting Yomi to rest in the process. A mysterious boy removes her sesshouseki and disappears.[8][9][10][11][12]

The next story arc concerns the re-emergence of the Juugondō organization and its heir, Shizuru Imawano. She encounters and alternatively threatens and flirts with Kensuke, angering Kagura.[13][14] Soon, a contest begins between her and Kagura as to who can collect more sesshōseki, with Kensuke—and the Kyūbi-kitsune (or nine-tailed fox)—as the prize. The pressure is building as Kagura starts losing control of Byakuei and the Juugondō arrive in full force.[15][16] Shockingly, Shizuru's long-lost sister Setsuna arrives, kills her father and takes over the Juugondō. She attacks and demolishes the Agency and the government try to distance themselves from the Agency for fear of revealing secrets to the public.[17][18]

Kagura, Kensuke, Kyouko and Iwahata survive and meet Izuna and Shizuru at an agency hideout. After resting, the group faces off against Setsuna inside Tamamo-no-Mae's garden, with Kagura as the winner.[19][20][21] However, Kensuke was gravely injured in the battle, leading Kagura to use the power of the sesshōseki to save his life. As a result, she loses control and becomes the core of the newly created Kyūbi, destroying the center of Tokyo. Kensuke manages to reach the Kyūbi, using his new Michael Revolution sword to free Kagura.[22][23]

Due to her brief time as the Kyūbi's core, Kagura has suffered amnesia, much to everyone's shock. She and Kensuke resume their daily lives at school, but start investigating ghosts alongside Kensuke, Tanaka, and Izumi, a new student who bears a resemblance to Yomi.[24][25][26] Investigations lead the group closer to Naraku, the area in Tokyo destroyed by the Kyūbi and now filled with spirits. Kensuke later meets Mikado and Tsuina from the Agency. A few days later, Kensuke and Izumi are attacked by Kirin, a black wolflike monster from Naraku, who cuts Kensuke's right eye.[27][28] Izumi is later revealed to be Yomi, who has dissociative identity disorder, alternating between Yomi and Izumi.[29] When the revived Agency imprisons Izumi with the intention of exorcising Yomi, which will likely kill Izumi as well, Kagura breaks her free and the two go on the run.[18] Kagura resolves to defend Yomi, disregarding others' opinions. Fending evil spirits and eventually the escorts of the Black Priestess—Yomi—they are cornered on a snow-covered cliff. There, Kensuke and Tsuina arrive to save them, leading to Kagura completely regaining her memories.[18] The ensuing ruckus causes the cliff to collapse, causing them to fall near Micheal Kohara's residence, where Izuna and Shizune find them unconscious.[18]

After recovering, Kensuke and the others learn of Earth's impending destruction at the Black Priestess's (Yomi) hands and the White Priestess's (Kagura) potential to stop it.[18] While everyone recuperates from resulting disbelief, government agents arrive to efface them: Izuna sacrifices himself for Yomi, relieving his guilt at allowing her previous deaths.[18] She retreats with her retainers, mired in sorrow and her miasma, despite Kagura's pleas.[18] After resurrecting Izuna with an escort's soul, Yomi arrives at Tokyo's Naraku, releasing all her miasma and disrupting the Reimyaku. Consequently, this gives rise to Immortals and Narakus worldwide. Kagura, Micheal, Kensuke, Tsuina and Shizuru search for Yomi. Following clashes with the Tengu, Okama and a revived Kyūbi, they encounter Yomi and Izuna, now a corrupted soul like herself. During the battle the Black Priestess's Black Kirin (opposing the White Priestess's Byakuei, together they are yin & yang) breaks Byakuei's chains thus tearing apart both Byakuei and Kagura's souls. To save Kagura, Yomi melds with Kagura's soul after comprehending Kagura's devotion to her, as Byakuei dies.[30] Izuna subsequently vanishes. Two years later, after the miasma clears and society rebuilds itself, Yomi, Kyouko, Kensuke, Kagura, and Izuna, a free-floating ghost, continue exorcism duties and live together, per Kensuke's suggestion. Mikado finally proposes to Tsuina.

Spice and Wolf's story revolves around Kraft Lawrence, a 25-year-old traveling merchant who peddles various goods from town to town to make a living in a stylized, fictional world, with a historical setting with European influences.[6] His main goal in life is to gather enough money to start his own shop, and he already has been traveling for seven years while gaining experience in the trade. One night when stopped at the town of Pasloe, he finds in his wagon a wolf-deity named Holo who is over 600 years old. She takes the form of a 15-year-old girl, except for a wolf's tail and ears. She introduces herself as the town's goddess of harvest, who has kept it blessed with good harvests of wheat for many years. Holo has experienced increasing isolation and disillusionment at the townpeople's move away from her protection towards their own methods of increasing the harvest. She is especially hurt at their forgetting of the promise made between her and a farmer when she arrived in the village and their criticism of her as a "fickle god" for needing to replenish the soil with smaller harvests. Because of these changes, she wants to go back to her homeland in the north called Yoitsu; she believes the people have already forsaken her and that she has kept her promise to maintain the good harvests. Holo also wants to travel to see how the world has changed while she has remained in one place for many years. She manages to bargain her way out of the village by making a deal with Lawrence to take her with him. As they travel, her wisdom helps increase his profits, but at the same time, her true nature draws unwanted attention from the Church.

Light novels

Spice and Wolf began as a light novel series written by Isuna Hasekura, with illustrations by Jū Ayakura. Originally, Hasekura entered the first novel in the series into ASCII Media Works' twelfth Dengeki Novel Prize in 2005 and the novel won the Silver Prize.[14] ASCII Media Works published 17 novels between February 10, 2006 and July 10, 2011 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint.[15] The tagline for the novels is "Merchant meats spicy wolf.", an example of Engrish. The author of the novels has commented that what "meats" in the tagline really means is kept a secret, alluding to a possible intentional misspelling of "meets".[16] In celebration of the series' 10th anniversary, Hasekura began writing a sequel in the 49th volume of Dengeki Bunko Magazine, released on April 9, 2016.[17] In 2016, publication of new books in the series resumed with the release of the eighteenth volume, along with the start of a spin-off series titled Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf,[b] focusing on the characters Cole and Myuri, Lawrence and Holo's daughter.

In September 2008, the novels were licensed by Yen Press for distribution in English.[3] The first volume was released in December 2009, and a new volume was released every four months.[7] While Yen Press redesigned the cover of the first novel, a dust jacket retaining the original cover art was released to select online retailers,[18] and Yen Press also bundled the same jacket in the December 2009 issue of their manga anthology magazine Yen Plus.[19] Despite the different cover art, the illustrations within the novels remain unchanged.[19] Yen Press later announced that future volumes of the series and reprints of the first volume would retain the original artwork while dust jackets would carry the new covers, citing that the redesigned covers were requested by retailers in order to appeal to a wider audience.[20] Yen Press has also licensed the Wolf and Parchment series, with the first volume released in November 2017.[21]

Manga

A manga adaptation illustrated by Keito Koume began serialization in the November 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' seinen manga magazine Dengeki Maoh. The first tankōbon volume was released by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Comics imprint on March 27, 2008; 16 volumes have been published as of February 2018. Yen Press licensed the manga series at New York Comic Con 2009, and began releasing the series in English in North America.[22]

A manga adaption of Wolf and Parchment by Hidori began serialization in the July 2019 issue of Dengeki Maoh.[23]

Internet radio shows

An Internet radio show hosted by Animate called Ōkamikku Radio (オオカミックラジオ) aired ten episodes between December 7, 2007 and April 25, 2008.[24] One episode was broadcast every other week on Friday, and the show was meant to mainly promote the anime series. The show is hosted by Jun Fukuyama who plays Kraft Lawrence in the anime, and Ami Koshimizu who plays Holo.[25] The show contains eight corners, or parts to each broadcast which includes news about the series, comments and submissions from listeners, and a radio drama. A second radio show titled Ōkamikku Radio II aired ten episodes between June 10 and October 28, 2009 with the same producer and hosts.

Anime

An anime adaptation produced by the animation studio Imagin aired in Japan between January 9 and March 26, 2008 on the Chiba TV Japanese television network;[26] twelve of the thirteen episodes were broadcast, with episode seven being a DVD exclusive.[27] The episodes are being released in six DVD compilation volumes in Japan; volume one contains three episodes while the subsequent volumes contain two episodes each.[5] The volumes were released between April 2, 2008 and August 29, 2008 by Pony Canyon in Japan; volume three contains an original video animation (OVA) episode in addition to episode six of the television broadcast.[5] A Blu-ray Disc box set of the series was released on January 30, 2009.[28] The series is directed by Takeo Takahashi, written by Naruhisa Arakawa, and character designs are provided by Kazuya Kuroda. Takahashi was quoted as being a big fan of the novels.[29] The opening theme is "Tabi no Tochū" (旅の途中) by Natsumi Kiyoura, and the ending theme is "Ringo Hiyori: The Wolf Whistling Song" (リンゴ日和 ～The Wolf Whistling Song) by Rocky Chack; both maxi singles were released on February 6, 2008.[30] The anime's original soundtrack was released on March 12, 2008. The anime is licensed for release in English by Kadokawa Pictures USA and Funimation Entertainment,[31][32] and a complete thirteen-episode DVD box set was released on December 22, 2009. The series made its North American television debut on November 16, 2010 on the Funimation Channel.[33]

A second season of the anime titled Spice and Wolf II aired twelve episodes in Japan between July 9 and September 24, 2009.[34] Most of the staff from the first season returned, except for Toshimitsu Kobayashi replacing Kazuya Kuroda as the character designer and chief animation director, and Spice and Wolf II is animated by Brain's Base and Marvy Jack instead of Imagin. The voice actors from the first season retained their roles.[35] Another OVA, animated by Brain's Base and Marvy Jack, was released bundled with a picture book entitled Spice and Wolf: Wolf and Gold Wheat (「狼と香辛料」狼と金の麦穂, Ōkami to Kōshinryō Ōkami to Kin no Mugiho) written and illustrated by the same creators of the light novels and was released by ASCII Media Works on April 30, 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko Visual Novel imprint.[36] Funimation licensed Spice and Wolf II[37] and released the series in English on August 30, 2011. The second season made its North American television debut on August 31, 2011 on the Funimation Channel.[38] On September 11, 2012, Funimation released a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of both seasons. The April 30, 2009 OVA is included on the season two disc as episode 00.[39]

Visual novels

A dating and business simulation visual novel based on the series was released on June 26, 2008 under the title Spice and Wolf: Holo's and My One Year (狼と香辛料 ボクとホロの一年, Ōkami to Kōshinryō Boku to Horo no Ichinen).[40] The game is made by ASCII Media Works playable on the Nintendo DS.[41] The player assumes the role of a nameless character (the titular "Boku" who closely resembles Kraft Lawrence) as he travels around with Holo for a period of one year in the game. The story differs from that of the original novels or anime and is presented as an additional Spice and Wolf world.[42] Ami Koshimizu provides the voice of Holo in the game.[41] The game was released on the same day in limited and regular editions; the limited edition was sold at a higher price, but comes with a life-sized poster of Holo, among other things.[41][43]

A second dating and business simulation visual novel was released on September 17, 2009 titled Spice and Wolf: The Wind that Spans the Sea (狼と香辛料 海を渡る風, Ōkami to Kōshinryō Umi o Wataru Kaze).[44] The game was again made by ASCII Media Works and playable on the Nintendo DS. The player once again assumes the role of Kraft Lawrence.

A virtual reality visual novel titled Spice and Wolf VR (狼と香辛料VR, Ōkami to Kōshinryō VR) made by Spicy Tails, a dōjin group founded by Isuna Hasekura, was released on June 3, 2019 for Microsoft Windows supporting the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets as well as the standalone Oculus Go headset.[45] It was later released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on September 5, 2019, supporting the Nintendo Labo VR Kit and PlayStation VR respectively.[46] A port to the Oculus Quest headset was released in November 2019. A sequel, Spice and Wolf VR2 (狼と香辛料VR2, Ōkami to Kōshinryō VR2), was released on December 10, 2020.[46]

ASCII Media Works reported that as of November 2009, over 3.5 million copies of the first twelve novels have been sold.[1] The light novel series has ranked three times in Takarajimasha's light novel guide book Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! published yearly: first in 2007, and fifth in both 2008 and 2009; in the 2007 issue, Holo won Best Female Character.[47] The first manga volume of the English release in North America debuted at No. 4 on the New York Times Best Seller Manga list,[48] while the third volume reached at No. 3.[49]

In April 2008, the maid café Cafe with Cat in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan hosted a specially themed event called Cafe with Wolf for a period of three days between April 4 and April 6.[50] The event included three new items on the menu and tied in with the sale of the first anime DVD volume which went on sale on April 2, 2008. People who bought the DVD from the Comic Toranoana Akihabara Honten store (which is on the first floor below Cafe with Cat) and brought the receipt with them into Cafe with Wolf were entered into a lottery to win rare Spice and Wolf goods.

Человечество, будучи поставленным перед угрозой уничтожения от рук инопланетных пришельцев — Зентреди, высылает флоты колонизационных кораблей в космос с целью реализовать миссию по обеспечению собственного будущего. В одном из таких флотов под названием «Макрос Фронтир» жизнь старшеклассника Саотомэ Альто навсегда меняется, когда флот неожиданно атакуют неизвестные существа, как раз в то время, когда он проводит показательное выступление на концерте чрезвычайно популярного поп-идола Шерил Ноум.

Отряды пришельцев сеют разрушение и хаос; и у Альто, чтобы защитить Ранку Ли — молодую девушку, которую он встретил всего несколькими часами ранее, не остаётся иного выбора, кроме как занять место погибшего пилота в кабине новейшего боевого юнита. Отметив его действия в ходе инцидента, частная военная компания «S.M.S. Skull Squadron» приглашает Альто присоединиться к их организации, в рядах которой он впоследствии и продолжит защищать как своих друзей, так и «Макросс Фронтир».

Микото Мисака, одна из сильнейших эсперов 5-го уровня в Академия-Сити, узнаёт страшную правду. ДНК, полученное от неё в детском возрасте, было использовано для создания огромного количества клонов. Выращены они были с одной целью — создания сильнейшего в мире эспера 6-го уровня. В результате данного эксперимента множество копий, к каждой из которых Микото относилась как к родной сестре, были принесены в жертву.

Какие испытания выпали на долю Микото и её подруги Куроко? Об этом мы узнаем во втором сезоне «Рейлгана».