I hate this person V

All of the above make it unique without necessarily making the series good, but what makes it great for those that enjoy it is the writing. Simply put, Spice & Wolf has some of the best character writing and banter, one of the most endearing lead couples in anime, and one of the strongest, most nuanced and layered female leads in fiction of any medium.

There's an astounding level of conflict and duality to Holo's character; The fading spotlight on her centuries-long position as a local revered-and-feared Goddess has left her paradoxically proud yet insecure, independent yet lonely, and strong yet needy. She very frequently only thinks she knows exactly what she wants, and she hides everything behind a flirty playfulness that sometimes edges just close enough to her actual emerging desires to make her uncomfortable.

The soundtrack, apart from the OP & ED, is period-correct, fairly sedate, and phenomenal. Rather than using modern riffs or massively overwrought orchestral scores, S&W's simple strings, woodwinds, and drums perfectly fit the show's world.

The setting is fairly unique to the medium. Magic is extremely low-key and the ficitonal middle-ages Europe-esque environment is very grounded and believable.

The English Dub breaks entirely away from cutesy or moe voices and everyone sounds appropriate for their age. Kids sound like kids. Adults sound like adults.

S&W is one of the "least-anime" anime I've ever watched and it's all the better and more unique for it: It rarely breaks visual style. Artshifts, visual audio cues, and stereotypical anime indicators such as cross veins or the "giant sweat drop" are pretty much nowhere to be found. The only visual break I can recall off the top of my head involves some dotted-line whiskers and it happens exactly once.

It has nudity without it being the focus of the series, and the nudity is tasteful, confined to only a few scenes (apart from the OP&ED) and is actually used as character establishment: She isn't naked to titillate the viewer, but to establish her pride in her looks and total lack of modesty. Once that's established, she puts clothes on and stays covered for nearly the entire remainder of the series.

happy new year

-rep closet furry