My copy of the second volume of Spice & Wolf has finally arrived. It’s very nice in that unlike the previous volume, this issue and those in the future will have the original anime style art featured on the actual cover and the free dust covers provided will have the “westernized” art on it, whereas the first volume was the opposite.

The novels themselves were quite popular in Japan, most likely for featuring an often naked wolf as the lead heroine. While I don’t find the author’s writing to be particularly outstanding, I do enjoy the often humorous and clever bantering that occurs between Lawrence and Holo. I never finished the anime myself but reading the novels are a different experience from what I remember of watching it. When watching anime, one automatically watches it from a Japanese point of view, but the novels are unique in that by reading them you can still acquire a very western tone, where the only thing reminding you that this is still a Japanese novel is the inclusion of a naked wolf goddess with a taste for apples.