Spice and Wolf, season 2, episode 7 – X-rated

After a long break, Horo is back in full force, taking over every scene with moe moe kyun and rapier wit. Hanging with witty people naturally makes you wittier. So there’s no doubt that smooth talking Lawrence owes his new slick style to hanging with Horo.

It’s crazy that even though nothing really happens during the first third of the episode, besides some affection and clever banter between Lawrence and Horo, the show’s still mesmerizing and time flies by. Horo really steals every scene that she’s in. I especially liked her mimicking the dead fox – although it’s a little freaky that it still has its head attached. On their way to Renose, a city known for its fur trade, Lawrence asks Horo if she feels badly seeing the furs of her former wolf kin. She responds by telling him that it’s hunt or be hunted. And there’s no pity for the hunted. That is the natural way, unlike say slavery, which she considers to be much more egregious, although Lawrence thinks they serve an economic purpose. To be fair, it’s medieval times. Not exactly the most progressive of times.

Every once in a while, I watch an anime and think "hug her" or "kiss her" right now damn it! Glad to see Lawrence has the same feelings. However, he punks out of actually doing it. Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s much harder once you’re actually in the situation. But that’s no excuse!

Renose is a very dark, dingy town with a cast of less-than-friendly looking characters. Quite a contrast to the bright lights and celebratory Kumerson. As they’re being patted down before receiving permission to enter the town, there’s a bit of a false alarm when an inspector finds Horo’s tail, but dismisses it as a cheap wolf pelt. Predictably this doesn’t make Horo happy, although I was surprised she didn’t fuss about it more than she did. In fact, she seems to admit that her fur isn’t the highest of quality. But it seems to be good enough for Lawrence.

Did I say nothing really happens in the first third of the episode? Well, actually nothing really happens for the whole episode. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering all the drama in the last few episodes. Instead we just get some more cute Lawrence and Horo scenes. Horo sucking on a finger was somehow both adorably cute and sort of naughty.

 

Lawrence really has gotten wittier, and because the closer the two have gotten, the more whimsical and back and forth their relationship has become. While Horo can now seemingly can make Lawrence blush at will, Lawrence shows off his silver tongue and chivalry, sweeping Horo off her feet with a simple kiss of her hand. For a second, I thought someone was going to interrupt to tell these two to get a room.

Towards the end, we do get a little bit of plot movement, as Lawrence and Horo sit down with the owner of the inn, to try to get a lead on a Chronicler to find more information about Horo and Yoitsu. They learn that the only good source is a man named Rigolo, who unfortunately seems to be stuck in a strange situation going in the town – a problem with the furs apparently. And while Lawrence talks big about not wanting to get into a fight, the scent of trouble is too seductive for him to refuse. As they leave the building, they run into a strange person that Lawrence has already seen a couple times. Horo says it’s a girl, I think it’s actually Sheik, but based on Spice and Wolf’s track record, there’s no doubt that this new mysterious girl is a beauty.

However, before Lawrence starts sticking his head into other people’s business, he shows that he’s learned a lesson from before and takes Horo out to see the town.

There’s not much to say about this episode. It was just your typical Spice and Wolf episode doing what it does best: putting Horo and Lawrence together and letting them carry the episode. Like I mentioned, it was a nice, slowed-down change of pace, especially compared to the surprisingly cliffhanger-heavy last few episodes. With that said, this episode still put a bug in my head, wondering what the "50-man meeting" was, why the town seems so dreary, and what Princess Zelda is doing away from Hyrule.