Jeoffrey

As I was browsing through the anime lineup for Spring 2024 and saw all the promotional materials for the upcoming remake, I suddenly felt an incredible urge to re-watch this series I once loved so much, even though it's been over 15 years since its release. Revisiting the series seemed like a good idea, especially for comparison. I must say, the first season of Spice and Wolf was an absolute delight. The series remains as amazing as I remember it. It's a charming, cleverly written, and highly entertaining show, with a constant chemistry between the central duo. Their teasing, mixed with moments of genuine honesty towards each other, still resonates deeply with me. It's not just the romance and characters that captivated me, but also the intricate world of trading, testing the purity of silver in various coins, smuggling gold, and the shrewdness of merchants, all portrayed realistically and believably. The animation, especially considering it's from 2008, holds up well, and the musical accompaniment is excellent. The use of flutes and violins in the simple yet effective musical motifs perfectly complements each scene. In short, the upcoming Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf will have quite a challenge to live up to because this original version is excellent. The first season still easily earns a 9/10 from me.

"Zazas zazas nasatanada zazas." Just like Christians have their Bible and Satanists have theirs, this series stands tall as the Bible for all "men of culture." So, if you're not a "man of culture," if scenes of a sexual nature in anime make you faint with anger, even the average ecchi and a hand on a breast, then I must say, I don't quite understand what the hell you're doing here! What did I enjoy about this series? Well, definitely the characters - their design and personalities. The plot, particularly in the first season, is intriguing, especially for someone who has played the original video game on which this is based. The series does a commendable job of capturing the atmosphere of the game. The sexual scenes here are also quite well-handled, numerous, and imaginative. There's likely something here for every "man of culture," though there are parts that might not sit right with everyone due to the various strange fetishes the Japanese are known for... Now, what are my gripes? Mainly, that no other series, including the New Testament, quite reaches the quality of the first season. If I had to break it down, we've got an 8/10 for the first season, 6/10 for Origins, 6/10 for New Testament, and 5.5/10 for Only. In conclusion? Black Bible was, like many other similarly themed series, a part of my youth (or when I was still 25...). It stands among the best of what I've seen from hentai, and surprisingly, time hasn't taken its toll on it yet. It's porn, it's explicit, it's ADULT entertainment! Criticizing porn for having a lot of sex is akin to shouting in the forest that there's too much wood... So, a 7/10 for all the seasons combined.

Basically, I'll write what I shared with a friend in an email yesterday when he asked me about this series. To me, it's straight down the middle - a 5/10 (within the hentai genre), mainly because I've seen far worse in animated pornography. Despite the terrible animation outside of the sex scenes, I do appreciate the character designs and the story, at least to some extent. There are moments here that are somewhat interesting too; I found the idea with the hitman, the cursed gun, and the exchange of briefcases intriguing. When it comes to the quality and explicitness of the acts themselves, it actually suits my tastes quite well. I've seen worse ones, even in five-minute clips, which are often just a loop of two or three sequences and positions. Here, it feels like someone actually put some effort in (unlike the rest of the scenes). Unlike some of my peers, this series didn't exactly thrill me, but it didn't offend me either. However, it's clear that it doesn't quite reach the above-average quality of other adaptations of similar games (like Bible Black or Discipline: Record of a Crusade).