I liked this episode very much, but unfortunately the poor animation quality knocked a would-be 9 rating down to
8.
The banter between Horo and Lawrence at the beginning of the episode was exceptionally well done. For once, I found Horo undeniably cute, in sharp contrast to last week, when I found her very irritating. The difference lies entirely in the wittiness of their conversation. Horo's teasing led to an unexpected confession from Lawrence. I couldn't help but chuckle at how hen-pecked Lawrence has become. He is literally eating out of Horo's paw.
Oh, it's also cute to see other men trying to hit on Horo. Obviously, a woman like her would have instant admirers.
But this scene becomes exceptionally good when compared to later events. Horo and Lawrence suffer the first serious test to their relationship, when Lawrence's business takes a sudden dive. Firstly, it was Horo's intervention that allowed Lawrence to "acquire" armour at half-price, which led him to his present predicament. Secondly, Horo's presence prevented him from getting much needed loans. When you consider the dire consequences of bankcruptcy, it's no wonder that Lawrence would snap at Horo in the end.
It's sad but true -- business failures can cause severe strain on otherwise happy relationships. It has happened in the past, it continues to happen today, and it is interesting to see it portrayed in this story as well.
Once again, it looks like Horo would have to pull some tricks next week to save Lawrence's "tail".
Quote:
Originally Posted by metronome
wait a minute I dont get it.......
how can they sell the credit to another company ?
I don't know how this work in old time, but in the new modern time like today, it is not that easy to sell the credit like that, it usually takes a looooong time, some countries even prohibit this. Contract of promise to pay is usually between known entity, not to the holder of contract; not to mention that the contract has different time limit too, make it even harder to process if you wanna sell the credit. Well, may be I am not smart enough about this  |
By the way, it's not unusual to sell your debt. In this case, since the Latopeiron Company was on the verge of bankcruptcy, it had no choice but to sell its debt to Remerio to settle the open transaction. The process is very similar to
factoring, except that it doesn't seem that the debt was sold at a discount (perhaps it was, but we aren't told).
According to the Wiki entry, factoring has been around since the 1400s, so it was not unknown during the Middle Ages. As for modern times, the whole reason why the US is facing a possible recession this year is because many people had gone crazy when it came to debt-trading (sub-prime housing mortgages, in this case). So, yeah, it's not an old phenomenom, and it seems that we still haven't learnt the lesson till today.
Horo mentioned, in this episode, how she was uncomfortable with credit trading. I suppose that was a foreshadowing of things to come. Certainly, if Lawrence had not bought the armour on credit, he wouldn't be in as big of a hole as he is in, right now. But, I wonder if Horo's quote reflects the author's sensibilities -- East Asians in general are uncomfortable with debt, but Westerners have always stressed how debt is cheaper than equity, and use leverage as a way for achieving high-ratio growth. Ah well, it doesn't matter -- this is not related to
Spice and Wolf anyway.
(My thanks also to
Ayako for the background details from the novel.
)