Ookami to Koushinryou: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF, episode 3
Alternative Names
*Ookami to Koushinryou (2024), Spice and Wolf (2024), สาวหมาป่ากับนายเครื่องเทศ *
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Holo had been calling herself a wise wolf up to this point, but we finally get to see that wisdom come into play this episode. She managed to add a 50% premium to Lawrence’s pelt sale through what amounts to a bit of apple perfume paired with a compelling story. If you ever find yourself in a workshop or seminar about marketing, you will often hear about how the story of a brand or product is one of the most important aspects of marketing. If people buy your story, then they will buy your product. Turns out that is also true in Lawrence’s world.
Finally, turns out that the silver content is being reduced in the coinage. I was trying to figure out how Lawrence might profit from a devalued currency, but was having trouble. It wasn’t until he said that he was heading to the Milone Trading Company that I had an idea. Essentially, what is happening is that the currency is being devalued. Countries in our world will intentionally devalue their currency for a couple reasons, but the primary one is to make imports more expensive and domestically produced goods cheaper on an international market thereby boosting their exports. China and Brazil are two examples of countries that have strategically devalued their currency with this in mind.
The important part of this is that the Milone Trading Company is a foreign company. So, most of their goods are being imported from abroad. I think that Lawrence is going to buy up imported goods now from Milone and then sell them later after the currency has been further devalued and imported goods are more expensive. The other idea I had is that he might be trying to sell the devaluation information to Milone as they would surely stand to have their business heavily impacted by this.
Anyway, I hope we see more of Lawrence’s money changer friend. He was fun (@rikka@ani.social):
(If any of you all did not see season 1, please skip this comment. It’s actual, heavy spoilers.)
When you mentioned Brazil, you were likely referring to the devaluation of the real in the 2010s, right? The situation actually resembles older events:
what's going on
Money printing.
Brazil mass printed money in the 1980s, and the Trenni kingdom is doing the commodity money equivalent of that, melting old coins with higher silver content to issue more of a newer coin with less silver, but same nominal price.
Even the motivation is the same, the government is trying to pay off its debts. Likely the internal consequences too*.
The kid dealing with Lawrence is part of a huge scheme. His company is amassing the old silver coins, to exchange them with the kingdom itself - basically “Look, I gathered 100 high purity old coins. You’ll be able to make 150 shitty coins out of them. But I want some part of the profit, and a few concessions”.
*It’s a bit off-topic but I remember those events in Brazil well, because they taught me what inflation is. First I was able to buy four sweets with a 100 cruzeiros cowfish coin, then two, then only one. I was eight back then.
Holo is on the fast track towards becoming one of my favourite characters. Plus she and Lawrence make for such a nice pairing I can hardly wait to see the ship set sail.
Holo enhancing the Pelts with Apple flavour is a tactic I am surprised no one else has thought of yet. Wise Wolf indeed, though a gluttonous one as well judging by the size of that Apple pile on the cart. A bit more grease between Holo and Lawrence’s interactions would do them well though, as is someone with a fine tooth for conversation subtext might pick up the disconnect between what Lawrence intends and what Holo has planned and subsequently use that to their own advantage. I do wonder what Lawrence has thought up, I can think of several ways to benefit from inflation (really that’s what’s going on here) but none of the options I can think of work in the historic context or without substantial starting funds.
I think what is happening is that the country is devaluing their currency. A country might do this for a couple reasons, but usually it is an effort to promote their domestic goods and boost exports, making imported goods more expensive by comparison (China does this for example). I suspect Lawrence is going to buy imported goods right now, wait for the devaluation to happen (maybe even start rumors/panic about it), and then sell the imported goods for a premium later.
End result of that is prices increasing across the board, historically coins were weighed due to this exact scenario (and general counterfeiting). All inflation really describes is prices going up, it doesn’t necessarily need to be caused by more money being created. Instead it can have many other causes like is the case here with the material value of the coinage being reduced.
Buying imported goods would be an option but it requires considerable starting funds. Plus it might take a good while for the currency to notably decline in value. Selling the information also doesn’t strike me as a good option since Lawrence has neither a reputation as a data broker nor any proof besides a pair of very sensitive wolf ears. So I suspect his scheme must be something more niche I haven’t thought about yet.
What is going on? Is this something new?
This is a discussion thread for episode 3 of the new Spice and Wolf anime. If you hadn’t heard, the show is currently airing and is a re-adaptation of the story rather than a continuation from the previous show (even though the main voice cast is returning). It’s still early in the season (probably 24-25 episodes, so plenty of time to catch up and join in the weekly episode threads!
Thank you, I have heard about some new S&W anime, though I was hoping it would continue the manga, not readapting it.
Such a shame, I might give it a try, but I have the original and it’s so good, why do we need to redo that…
Since you said you’re reading or have read the manga, I’d highly recommend the light novels. They’re great if you like the series!
Unfortunately I don’t have it, and haven’t read it.
Only watched the anime, both series, which I love so much, one of my top all time picks (first will always be Madoka though). Absolutely top music score, I would listen to the OST during work, when I still could listen to anything. I also want to see where the story moves forward, but haven’t yet found the time :(
Well, the LNs are licensed by Yen Press assuming you want to acquire them either digitally or in physical form.
Side note: I could never get into Madoka no matter how many times I tried. I don’t know why, and I can’t hate the series, per se, but I just could not finish.
I don’t know many anime watchers, and everyone around me loved it. One colleague had issues at first, I told him to get past the third ep, and he finished it that day.
I remember my first time. It was midnight, I knew I had to go sleep, but thought I check out first episode for the heck of it. The animation is beautiful, score is very captivating, so I decided to forego sleep a bit more. It was very lighthearted, kind of silly but in a good way, very unlike most anime I’ve seen before. Then I finished the series at 4AM absolutely emotionally rocked, I never cried so much in my life, and I have been through some shit.
It’s totally because the core feels very personal to me, and it gives me hope I’ve never felt or could imagine before. But everything other is absolutely top tier, too. I love Shaft, saw most of their stuff way back when, and this is definitely one of their most timeless pieces, because it’s so stylized. OST is kind of hard to listen to randomly, but fits the anime perfectly. And the story… it just feels right, and complete. Without any spoilers, definitely one of the very few complex story element implementations done correctly.
Unrelated to this, don’t ever watch anything beyond the anime, or first two movies. Anything after that never happened, is not related to this story, and Madoka is finished and done after the 12th episode.
I think the third episode was where I really fell off. I think Madoka is unique in that I couldn’t bring myself to say it was bad, so I just left it as an unscored drop on my AniList, with the caveat that said drop isn’t exactly a statement about the show’s quality, but more that the show (and really most Shaft shows) just don’t strike my fancy. The lone exception as yet has been 3-Gatsu no Lion, which is absolutely fucking fantastic.
continue the manga
Pretty sure that’s the idea, but they need to start over to continue. The original skipped a book.
I’m liking the show more now that it feels like it’s getting going. Lawrence still feels like more of a supporting character than a main, but at least our little mystery is heating up. So far this smells like a ye olde pump and dump to me.
Can we have a discussion going already about whether or not this is unnecessary? So far I absolutely see no need for this over the old adaptation. It doesn’t exactly makes anything better. It’s Fuits Basket all over again.
I haven’t watched the original, but this being planned to be a more faithful adaptation to the LN makes it necessary. Like Fruits Basket, as you said.
The reason for this is honestly pretty simple: the original skipped a book that was in between the two arcs of the 2nd season. One that becomes more important later on and their intent seems to adapt more than the original. So it’s very much necessary. It’d be quite jarring if they just adapted the skipped book and then continued where the original left off. Honestly, even if they hadn’t skipped in the original and just continued, it’d be quite jarring.
