Economics, the anime (Spice and Wolf)

Even if economics isn't your thing, if you're a fan of girls with fox ears and bushy tails then Spice and Wolf might still work for you. It's a two-season light romance out of Imagin and released for North American audiences by Funimation (like more than half of all anime these days, I think). It was good enough to keep watching (or I wouldn't have kept watching it) and if you're into romance or economics you'll really like it. If you're into both, then you probably make more money than I do and should just get out of the house and take a girl/guy/both out on the town, maybe make some real romance instead of shutting yourself in and watching a formulaic anime about trade practices in a renaissance-ish guild system. Just saying.

So plot-wise it's pretty simple. This guy, Kraft Lawrence, is a merchant. More in the Dungeons and Dragons sense than the Wall Street one, even if sometimes it felt like a lesson for kids on commodities trading.

His companion is Holo, a local deity who's all high-and-mighty because she's a goddess, but who's a little down on her luck because nobody believes in the old gods anymore. Through an improbable series of events, she basically decides she's going with him wherever he goes, and you spent the next two seasons saying "hell you two, just get a room already."

Most of the plot revolves around their relationship, and the seemingly endless supply of back-door deals and trading shenanigans that Lawrence is always trying to find his way out of. The questions are things like "who's trying to boost the price of one country's silver coins so they can take advantage when the bubble pops?"

That, and how long can a guy travel with someone that looks like this and *not* strike up a relationship?

Also: that's a fox tail. Not a wolf's. But wolves aren't foxy, I guess.

Anyway, it wasn't really my thing, but I guess it was cute.

Speaking of, I'm getting the hell out of Ikebukuro for the next two weeks, so against my better judgement I'm going with Celty's advice and letting Shinra do a couple of posts while I'm gone. I still kind of want to punch him, but the stitches held up fine, and Celty says this would be a good way to repay him. If there's and Yaoi on here when I get back I'm going to slug him.

Yeah, so 2 and a half bushy fox tails out of five. Maybe three. See you in a few weeks.