狼(おおかみ)と香辛料(こうしんりょう)(Spice & Wolf)^A) is a series about a peddling merchant who ends up having to take a wolf goddess on a trip back to her ancient homeland. Along the way, he teaches her mercantile tricks and she grants him her wisdom.

It’s nice, though I’m not super sold on the music.

The anime is really good at getting across the fact Holo is really freaking old, with the signs varying from subtle to not-so-subtle. She’s also ignorant of the real world in ways that make logical sense: not being good at distinguishing coins for example.

I played the DS game, yes.

I think it’s a nice little game with some pretty decent mechanics. I enjoyed playing it a lot, though it’s not particularly difficult.

When I first heard about Spice & Wolf, I heard that it was about economics…but after watching it, I realized that it isn’t about economics. It’s actually about being a merchant in a medieval setting. Those may sound similar but they aren’t the same at all.

I think this reflects more poorly on the Western anime community than it does on the series.

Hint: Spice & Wolf is better.

Maoyū Maō Yūsha is more explicitly focused around economics – and suffers from anachronisms as a result – while Spice & Wolf is, as stated above is more about what it’s like being a merchant.
It actually isn’t super fair to compare them as a result…though I heard that the author of Maoyū was inspired by Spice & Wolf and possibly made it as an unofficial successor…so…

It’s not super clear why the demon king in Maoyū knows anything about economics because, logically, she shouldn’t know any of it: she’s technically the one discovering it. This is why the series is anachronistic – which, yes, does sound silly in a fantasy world…but the fact is that she shouldn’t possess the information that she has. So the actual suspension of disbelief falls apart in Maoyū.

Whereas in Spice & Wolf, neither Holo nor Laurence possess information that they wouldn’t logically have in their positions. Laurence only possesses information that he’d have gained in his position as a merchant and Holo has gained most of her information from her experience as a god helping the harvest for centuries.

• aniDB