Japanese studio Spicy Tails held two successful crowd-funding campaigns on Kickstarter and Campfire in 2018 for its upcoming virtual reality (AR) anime Spice and Wolf VR. With the release expected to take place in May, the team has recently said that will now be delayed until June. The good news, specific platforms and date have been confirmed.
On its Twitter account, Spicy Tails states that HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Oculus Go will be the first to see Spice and Wolf VR launch, now dated for 3rd June. The studio has previously said that PlayStation VR and Oculus Quest will also get versions but hasn’t mentioned a date, simply Summer 2019.
According to Siliconera Spicy Tails’ Isuna Hasekura has said that the delay was merely down to quality, with the team making sure its as polished as possible.
Spice and Wolf VR follows the original novel’s story involving a 25-year-old travelling merchant called Kraft Lawrence. When he stops in the town of Pasloe, he comes across a wolf-deity named Holo who is over 600 years old. Taking the form of a 15-year-old girl – except for a wolf’s tail and ears – she wants to join him so she can see the world and eventually return to her homeland.
The Kickstarter campaign aimed to raise ¥8,000,000 Yen (£55,194 GBP) over 40 days, easily achieving that within 24 hours. Eventually, Spicy Tails manage to raise ¥30,978,009 from Kickstarter alone, with over 1,600 people backing the project.
Hasekura is the original series’ author and the projects scenario writer. Novel illustrator Ju Ayakura is in charge of character design. Both Ami Koshimizu (Holo) and Jun Fukuyama (Kraft Lawrence) will be reprising their roles as the voice actors. Spice and Wolf was first published in 2006 and it has been over ten years since its anime was broadcast in Japan.
In VR circles Spicy Tails is probably best known for Project Lux which came to HTC Vive at the start of 2018. The narrative takes place across five ‘episodes’ during a court trial set in a future where most humans have cyberbrains. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Spice and Wolf, reporting back with any further updates.