Spice and Wolf

Spice and Wolf is an American-Australian animated series created by Finley Small. Airing between January 1998 and April 1999 as part of Kids' WB, the series has been called a "unique fantasy" due to the plot focusing on economics, trade, and peddling, rather than the typical staples of fantasy such as swords and magic.

Plot
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. 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.

Characters

 * Neil Ross as Kraft Lawrence
 * Yeardley Smith as Holo
 * Maggie Roswell as Chloe
 * Sheena Easton as Nora Arendt
 * Jennifer Hale as Fermi Amarti
 * Ashley Johnson as Dian "Diana" Rubens
 * Ed Asner as Marc Cole
 * Edie McClurg as Eve Boland

Production
Finley Small conceived the series in late 1995 during a visit to Bear Bones' Australian department. The series was pitched as a "modern fantasy" set in European-flavored world.

Home media releases
Both seasons were released in a combo box set on September 11, 2002 by Artisan Entertainment. Shout! Factory re-released the series on DVD in 2012.