It's just unbelievable that Yen Press has decided to change the cover of the Spice & Wolf cover into something that's quite misleading to attract more potential readers. I think the readers, who never knew what Spice & Wolf was, are much smarter than Yen Press thinks. Most reader do some research on the internet before buying, if the novel is good they will buy, the cover won't change that. So changing the cover to gain a bigger audience does not work in my opinion, it only piss off the dedicated fans who only want to buy a complete work in English translation including the genuine Japanese cover.
As someone has said the DVD cover also contains a naked Horo, but we are talking about the
light novel; and who says the DVD cover is good to go, this DVD cover also seems to be a product from similar tactics that Yen Press is using now to lure more audience.
Another weird thing is that the original interior Japanese artworks are unchanged, so the entire book/novel is stripped from it's original cover and is replaced with a "more mature" cover which does not entirely match the interior artworks. For me this mis-match of the exterior and interior makes the novel already "incomplete". "Luckily" the original 'Japanese' cover is available for the dedicated fans, but for a price, since you will have to buy the december issue of the Yen Press Plus magazine which includes the cover.
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Originally Posted by Yen Press
We hope you’re all as excited as we are to see SPICE AND WOLF hit shelves in December complete with all of the original interior illustrations, and we hope you’ll all help to make this unique and wonderful novel the runaway success it deserves to be!
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source
I think it's more appropriate to hold/set up a poll at Yen Press' site to research which cover the whole audience prefer: the original Japanese cover or the new, more mature designed cover? Everyone can vote, including the dedicated fans, casual readers and all other potential buyers of the light novel. Also deciding which cover to include with the light novel by poll is more fair/democratic for everyone, Yen Press also can have a better view what everyone wants.
If Yen Press truly understands us, just do a poll at Yen Press's site, since it's good for everyone, good for Yen Press (maximum sell and its "estimation"), the dedicated fans (complete product) and all other readers!