I wouldn't put my money on it. IMAGIN hasn't been known for its animation prowess, though thankfully, this series doesn't look to be one that needs to be heavy on that. If anything, charm and atmosphere of the show seems more important, and considering the mild, low-key background and settings charm that were in parts of SaiMono and Heroic Age, maybe it won't be too bad.

The manga is really fun to read. I'm really happy it's being scanlated.

I was thinking something similar (but of course I'll still watch it). But I agree with Nightengale.
I'm wondering what music they'll be using (I can imagine something classical).

Horo's manga design is far superior to the anime one. And I shudder at the "anime only" character...

I'm more worried about the story (I really hope they don't ZNTII it, as in ignore plot & character development and replace them with lame fanservice) than about the anime designs not matching up to the manga/light novel.

I think you have a right to worry. Director Takahashi Takeo and lead writer Arakawa Naruhisa made the ecchi comedy Cosmopolitan Prayers together. The director also did Hit wo Nerae and Love Love. The writer also did Lovege Chu and Jinki:Extend. I can only hope the novel keeps their feet on the ground. Not that the manga, at least, doesn't have quite a bit of nudity in the first three chapters, so an ecchi element in the presentation is reasonable, as long as plot and character aren't neglected.

I don't think we have enough information to worry about the art. The character designs are slightly smoothed down, but that's normal in anime, where designs have to be easy to reproduce. I just hope the animation and voice-acting can preserve the innate wildness of Horo's character. On the pages included with chapter three, which you mentioned earlier, the backgrounds I see look okay, but we don't see enough to judge.

I don't see those pages posted in this thread, so here they are:

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9851/25qz1.th.jpg http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/775/26ww5.th.jpg

Tenka Seiha's Blog has a winter preview which includes a link with a few PVs from the upcoming season. Obviously since I'm posting this here, Wolf and Spice is one of the PVs in that zip file, it's a cam rip though.

Moob and Musashi are working on the mango as it comes out. I idle in #moob most of the time and do some stuff for them randomly. We're waiting on chapter 4. Animu looks like it's gonna suck, but manga looks good and the novels are excellent, by today's standards. :)

The staff roll doesn't impress me one bit, but I decided I have to watch at least one episode because the opening is composed by none other than Tomohiko Kira from ZABADAK! :) I love his stuff in general, and reading what this anime is about, the content fits exactly into his forte of "Trad" songs. I only wish the OP was also sung by him or his wife Koko Komine so that it'd be a real ZABADAK song, but this is good enough for me. Normally I wouldn't watch an anime just because of the OP/ED, but as with Zegapain and Akino Arai I must at least see the first episode... It also helps that the ED's by ROCKY CHACK, who did the very nice Zegapain ED! :)
Now I only have to hope it doesn't suck anyway, because everyone does put out a stinker now and then...

And actually reading the review of the light novel it does sound vaguely interesting, but again I'm worried whether the anime staff will just mess it up entirely. At least the background art seems to be taken care of by Bihou, which as far as I remember is one of the better BG art studios out there. Stories in the countryside must have good BG art or they fail!

Does anyone know if the manga so far is a faithful retelling of the light novels?

The manga is, so far, very faithful, as far as I can tell from my limited understanding and what the translators in #moob have told me. It's also quite nicely styled. It doesn't focus much on action, but neither do the novels. Instead of action, we get merchant-speak. Talking about trading grapes for this and salt for that and going here and selling this, etc., etc.. Not sure how long that'll hold up, seems like there's a "Church" that doesn't like pagan deities such as Horo very much. Reminds me of Scrapped Princess a little. Just a bit. ;)

Hmm... I don't think I'll go buy the novels. It looks great (the manga) so far, but I don't think I'll like reading through 200+ pages, full of words, of trading talk...
At least the anime/manga will have visuals with the talking, in case I need to look elsewhere if they go into some speech on trading...

That's nice to know that even if the anime goes down the drain I'll at least be able to follow the original story in manga form. Unless the light novel scene picks up it could be 2009/2010 before it even gets translated and released and that's if it's licensed in the first place.

Well, if Spice and Wolf is remotly popular it'll get picked up. I mean Kagihime got picked up like before the series was out or while it was in the earlier run, right? But then there are lots of popular manga series based on popular anime series that haven't gotten picked up. Gah! Your right! It could be awhile!

Here's some Youtube stuff for you SaW/WaS fans (whatever you want to call it):

Trailers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTTvaT61JYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTvImLJfO9Y

Footage from C73:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySeQgpfxEw

Trailer:

Saw some images similar to the manga's.
One of my more anticipated series, for no real reason~ (Though I'm anticipating a lot of anime)

From that C73 trailer I have to admit it's looking alright, c'mon Imagin rise to the occasion.

I have to admit I don't really like Fukuyama voice on Lawrence, seems a bit off to me (somebody like Keiji Fujiwara would be a better option, but it's me). On the contrary Amy Koshimizu it's just perfect for this role and I'm especially looking forward at her performance. I'm still uncertain about the character design, usually I like Kuroda style but this time something seem lacking; at least Horo look more mature than in the manga (and I prefer this way).

In the rather bleak looking anime season that is Winter 2008, this will most certainly be the most anticipated from me. There are a lot of hopefuls, but this is the only one that I'm 90% sure I'm going to enjoy. A wolf-goddess AND merchants? Yes. Hell yes. Added to the fact that Ami Koshimizu is by far my favorite VA. Going to love this one.

I think I have a clip of her hugging a Horo bodypillow. I may be wrong, it may not be her, but I'm too damn lazy to be sure. Let me know if this is just a decent cosplay participant and not Koshimizu.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dRA0o2Jae94