Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 8

Rating: B

Like its name suggests, the episode “Fellow Traveler and Foreboding News” deals with two plot threads running in parallel: one concerning Lawrence and Holo’s encounter with the shepherdess Nora (and her dog Enek) and the other concerning various ominous notes about Lawrence’s business situation. Exactly how the two are connected is unclear as of yet, but the emphasis placed on Lawrence treating his encounter with Nora as a future business opportunity certainly suggests that the two paths will eventually converge again.

The source novel makes a point of emphasizing that Nora is both young (she’s implied to be in her mid-teens) and scrawny, and while the latter may not be as obvious, the former certainly is. She certainly sounds young, which is a credit to long-time veteran seiyuu Mai Nakahara, who also voiced Nora in the original adaptation. (You can also currently hear her as Princess Lily in Tsukimichi and Liz in The Duke of Death and His Maid.) The animation also does an excellent job of giving her youngish mannerisms and body language. By comparison, something looks and feels a bit artificial about how Enek is drawn and animated, though he still effectively shows his skills as a sheep-herding dog. They’re supposed to work closely in tandem, and this adaptation does a fine job of depicting that as well.

The scenes of Nora conversing with Lawrence also gives some sense of the kind of life Nora leads. She’s most likely an orphan raised by the Church and has taken on the job of tending the local Church’s literal flock. However, being a shepherd can be a lonely, isolating life, and because she’s young and relatively new (at four years), she’s forced to the fringes on top of that; is it any surprise that prime grazing territory is jealousy guarded? (Even in modern day, there have been troublesome disputes over this in the U.S. West.) The question left up in the air here is whether her skill is mystical or just a result of working well with an excellent dog. The latter seems more likely, since Holo is not reacting as if Nora is inhuman, and she would certainly be able to sniff that out. And from the meaningful look Enek gives her at one point, he clearly has an inkling of what she really is, too.

Of course, Holo being Holo, she’s less than thrilled about all of this. How much of that is her being territorial and how much is a general aversion to shepherds (the natural enemy of wolves) is debatable, but Holo has certainly shown before that her great wisdom doesn’t preclude her at all from more base emotions. Lawrence is becoming a bit more adept at managing her, but he still has a ways to go.

On the other front, nothing really outright declares that something is wrong, but the reactions of guards and officials as Lawrence comes into Ruvinheigen suggest that something is definitely up, and it definitely has to do with Lawrence transporting armor. The rider arriving at the end suggests that the merchant from the previous town might be delivering a bit of spite over being outmaneuvered, but the other reactions can’t have anything to do with that, and a merchant house which is getting no trade traffic for days smells of big problems, too; that can’t be a casual inclusion. By comparisons, the look that the priest gives Nora as she arrives also speaks to her not being so welcome, though exactly why is hard to fathom unless she is suspected by the Church of having a mystical character, too.

In terms of comparing adaptations, this one contains the exact same scenes and covers the exact same ground as the original. The original emphasizes a bit more that Nora isn’t the most welcome of individuals in town and gives a slightly greater sense of impending trouble, but this version covers its bases adequately enough.

On the whole, the episode does a solid but unspectacular job of covering this part of the story.