There’s a new anime series out there about a beautiful girl, and handsome guy, action and adventure on the high road, political intrigue, and wheat, currency, commerce, and “bean counting” ???  Hey, wait a minute here!  This anime is called “Spice and Wolf”!  Where’s the spice?  Where’s the wolf?  Huh? The story begins in some alternate universe in a land that is on the cusp of an industrial revolution.  The main character is travelling merchant, Lawrence, and he stops in small town to rest and catch up with an childhood female friend.  The town is in the middle of their harvest festival and the girl of interest has been declared “Horo” the wolf god and the bringer of a good harvest.  In the background of all of this, the society is in transition.  Farming methods have improved and the people no longer feel the need to honor “Horo” and have abandoned this god and others for a mono-theistic religion.  What’s the real god Horo to do without worshippers?

Horo and Lawrence meet up and Horo relays her tale.  Lawrence decides that the god could bring him luck in commerce and so off they go.  We see Lawrence negotiating and the wise god Horo stepping in and bettering the deal with her salesmanship.  There is great amount time devoted to having the characters explain in great detail negotiating and sales tactics as well as the  beans.  Then the story moves on to political intrigue driven by a currency devaluation scheme — oh, the excitement … Again much care is taken to explain in detail the inner workings of the politics and the ecomonic forces of this fictitious world.  It’s very geeky.

Anyhow, if you like beans this is the anime for you.  There are twelve episodes in total.  6 have aired.  I imagine due to the nature of the story, “beans”, we won’t be seeing this anime licensed in the US at anytime, so online maybe the only way to experience the econ-geeky joy of “Spice and Wolf.”