Hi i'm Junebug, the bug from online. I'm very cool and everyone who has ever met me loves me.
spice and wolf
how much is it like "yeah capitalism wooo" and how grossly pedo is it
i could never figure out and nobody talking about it online ever makes it clear. and i could be completely wrong maybe i'm thinking of other shows but how bad is it in those regards
It's been a long while since I watched some of it, but I think I'd say it is pro-capitalism, but it's a minor theme. Like definitely not anti-capitalist, but only a few steps above like, how some isekais or dungeon explorer animes have characters exist within a capitalist society. The bigger thing online is how it's fandom was/is associated with people who are much more pro-capitalism than the show, IMO.
As for the latter question... I don't have a super clear memory unfortunately. I don't remember anything notably bad, but I watched it in the same period of life as like, uncritically watching Evangelion, if that tells you anything about my barometer at the time. (still think Evangelion is a piece of art, but... it definitely has significant flaws, including much sexualization of minors)
I've watched it more recently, and while it does depict capitalist maneuvering rather favorably, I really do not remember any pedophilic content. The closest two examples I can think of are:
1.) The main character being an 800 year old pagan harvest goddess reincarnated in a body resembling a fifteen year old girl. I'll admit that sounds bad, especially given that she's introduced completely naked, but the show avoids every bit of characterization one would associate with this trope. The goddess actually behaves like a harvest goddess, the nudity is the naturalistic/spiritualistic kind, the presentation of it is really disinterested in whatever sexual qualities said nudity might possess, etc.
2.) At one point in the second season the goddess proposes that the other main character, the world's oldest looking twenty five year old, have sex with and impregnate her. "Propose" is as far as it gets: she's emotionally desperate (and it all might be an act?), the other main character recognizes this and doesn't even try to pursue this course of action, etc.
If you're looking for an overall characterization of the show: it's basically a graduate student turning their seminar on early modern European trade networks into a manga. Make of that what you will.
thanks a ton! i think i confused it for something else, that makes a ton of sense
my only exposure to it is 'libertarian weebs fucking love it and the foxgirl sleeps naked in the first episode' so good or not i've entirely written it off forever
My memory of the light novels is "capitalist in that capitalism is the means of success, pretty consistent will-they won't-they with merchant dude & fox girl."
I'm literally so trollable because I'm annoyed people were saying fox girl even though I know they're just being mildly inaccurate on purpose.
Anyway, where some shows create plot contrivances in order to get their characters naked, Spice and Wolf has a plot contrivance to give her clothes. She came across as younger in the light novel (They say "body of a young girl" more often) and it would be gross if the show was horny but thankfully it's really not.
I think the show has the kind of shallow critiques of capitalism you'd get from a liberal, there are a lot of rich and powerful people who are bad and portrayed bad, but also a few "good ones" that we are supposed to believe our main character will also be. There is also a part where the main character promotes the four humors theory of medicine so it is at least interpretable as "Ah this main character just doesn't know shit and him pursuing ideals is not an endorsement of them."
I think it's a good show, great soundtrack, agrarian economics are a fresh avenue for conflict, and I can get invested in the character's and their development.
Oh I gotta say that I make no promises aboot the quality of the upcoming reboot and I am in fact terrified that they're going to fuck it up, I suspect the quality of the original was a bit of a fluke.
In the book Lawrence is 29 and Holo is specifically said to look 15, so yeah pro-capitalism and pedo (but but but she's a 1000000 year old wolf goood111).
