Holo (Spice and Wolf)
Holo is a female anime and manga character who features in Spice and Wolf.
Contents |
Biography
Holo (Japanese: ホロ, Hepburn: Horo) was a wolf goddess who lived in the world. Originally, she hailed from a place in the north known as Yoitsu. This was until one day when she was approached by a group of travellers who asked for her aid in bringing them a good harvest. She came to agree to the terms made to her where she journeyed with them to their village. Thus, she came to be bound by a promise to the town of Pasloe for several centuries, ensuring a bountiful harvest of wheat for the residents. As the villagers became more self-reliant with time, however, Holo was neglected.
After centuries of watching over Pasloe, she escaped from the field she had been living in by inhabiting the wheat on a merchant's cart. She joined the merchant, Kraft Lawrence, on his travels thereafter.
When they decided to settle down, they picked Nyohhira where they opened the Spice and Wolf bathhouse before marrying. Holo operates the bathhouse alongside Lawrence. After their daughter, Myuri, sneakily joined Tote Col on his travels, Holo and Lawrence began traveling again.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Holo was a shapeshifter where her true form was a giant wolf. She was able to take human form where she became a beautiful 15-year-old girl with red eyes and long flowing light brown hair that reaches her stomach. A pair of wolf ears jut out from the top of her head and a long, thick wolf tail grows out from the lowest part of her spine. The fur on both her ears and tail are the same color as her wolf form. The outfit she initially wore was a purple shirt with a black, fur-lined vest, a black skirt, black and white pants, and a long beige hooded robe. The linings were black bear fur. After these clothes were destroyed, Holo purchased a pink shirt with purple trim, black pants with matching cuff trim, a red silk sash, a light blue anklet on her right ankle, two high quality hooded robes, and cow leather traveling shoes. Later on, she acquired a headscarf made of white rabbit fur trimmed in dark red, and a black collared short cape fastened with a walnut button and matching trim.
Despite her wisdom, Holo knows very little about human society. Part of this is due to the fact that she has gone centuries without interacting with humans, which has made her very out of touch with the times. She completely lacks Lawrence's near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the world, which often results in him giving her lectures on how things work. Nevertheless, Holo does know other things about humans, particularly about how they live. Indeed, she often understands people better than they understand themselves, and isn't above emotional manipulation when it suits her. She is carefree about certain human conventions, but not because she doesn't understand them- she just did not care. All in all, Holo is a very proud "wolf", but does understand that she does not know everything, An example of this is when Lawrence explains why people get sick via the four humours.
Though she was a deity, Holo still suffered from the same faults as many humans. For one Holo does experience jealousy toward other girls who talk to Lawrence, This was not shown better than with her and Lawrence meeting the lovely shepherd girl Nora Arendt. Holo was against hiring Nora as a bodyguard not only because they did not really need one, but also for the fact that Nora and Lawrence became close very quickly. The fact that shepherds were enemies of wolves was factored in to Holo's initial dislike for Nora. Holo also hates being worshipped as a goddess, particularly since it seems nobody needs her any longer, though if pressed, she would admit, however reluctantly, that she does technically fit the requirements.
She had a love for alcohol with her often drinking when given the chance to do so and usually getting drunk because of it, though was still somewhat able to sustain her wit.
Holo was noted for being a very proud 'wolf' but did understand that she does not know everything.
It was shown that Holo did experience jealousy toward other girls who talked to Lawrence.
Holo met Lawrence when she stowed away in his card by transporting herself into the wheat in his cart, at first Lawrence was afraid of her as she revealed her true form to him, however Lawrence allowed Holo to travel with him and had her pose as his wife to avoid any suspicion, this brought a smile to Holo and she would tease him about it. Their bond grew over their travels each expressing their loneliness to one another and that they both hate waking up alone. Holo and Lawrence eventually married, opened a bathhouse together and had a daughter named Myuri.
Holo met Amati when she and Lawrence arrived win Kumerson, Holo wished to try the local fish and Amati was able to procure her some. Holo's opinion of Amati plummeted when He challenged Lawrence for ownership of her, Holo was angered by this as she was a person and not a pet or object that could be bought, she also hated how Amati treated the man she loved so she worked behind the scenes with Dian Rubens and ruined Amati. Holo also hated that Amati was going to force her to marry him as he forged a MArriage certificate without asking her if she felt the same.
Powers and abilities
Holo was in reality a god whose true form was that of a wolf. Being a wolf, Holo had great hearing. She was able to hear tiny sounds much farther away than humans, or from the other side of solid walls and floors. Her ears are so sensitive that she can hear the subtle differences in the purity of coins by shaking them together. Holo's ears also have the ability to determine if a person is telling a lie or not. However, she admits it's not 100% accurate. She also had a better sense of smell that she could could use both in her wolf and human form. Like most canines, wolves have an excellent sense of smell and can pick up a particular scent from distances far greater than humans. This allows Holo to be able to detect dangers such as wolves and other people much quicker than Lawrence.
While she can howl perfectly well in human form, Holo can muster an extremely loud and powerful howl after taking a very deep breath. In an enclosed space, it can crack and disturb stonework. It was used in the underground tunnels of Pazzio to scare off a pack of tracking dogs. However, doing so is like intense, prolonged screaming that hurts the vocal cords, causing coughing and a sore throat.
She could then adopt her true form of a massive wolf that was bigger than an elephant. In this form, she can move at high speeds, much faster than any other known land-bound creature, due to her large size accompanying the appropriate musculature and stride. She also uses her huge jaws in order to defend herself and Lawrence. To activate this form, she must either consume wheat or fresh blood. She can also transform only part of herself, such as one limb, but this takes several moments and puts a strain on her.
Holo could cause nearby crops such as wheat or rye to grow and wither faster if needed almost instantly. However, since the crops need a great amount of nutrients from the ground that can only be replenished naturally, doing so puts great stress on the soil. Holo understands this cycle well, and when she first arrived in Pasloe, had warned that poor harvests were naturally inevitable for the fields to recover from several years of bountiful harvests.
Notes
- Holo was created by Isuna Hasekura and Jū Ayakura where she featured in the setting of the Spice and Wolf universe.
In other media
Television
Video games
Appearances
- Spice and Wolf:
External Links
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