User:Fireheart14/Manga

The light novel, manga and anime series Spice and Wolf features an extensive cast of characters created by Isuna Hasekura. The series follows Kraft Lawrence, a traveling merchant, who meets and begins traveling with a pagan wolf-deity named Holo after he unintentionally frees her from the village she has been bound to for hundreds of years. As they make their way up north to Holo's birthplace, they engage in trade to obtain enough profit so that Lawrence may realize his dream of settling down and opening his own shop one day. At the same time, they must deal with the hazards of business and evade the attention of the Church.

Kraft Lawrence
Kraft Lawrence (クラフト・ロレンス) who chiefly goes by his surname, is a 25-year-old traveling merchant who goes from town to town buying and selling various things in order to make a living. When he was twelve, he became an apprentice to a merchant relative, and set out on his own at eighteen. His goal in life is to gather enough money to start his own shop, and he has already been traveling for seven years while gaining experience in the trade. He meets Holo one night and eventually agrees to her traveling with him. She helps him by providing her wisdom which helps to increase his profits and get him out of jams. As the series progresses, both Lawrence and Holo demonstrate a growing affection toward each other. Although Lawrence rarely shows different facial expressions, he truly cares for Holo. He shows his affection through his actions, such as when Holo gets captured by the church and Lawrence completely panics. Lawrence mentions he has been attacked by wolves eight times.

Holo
Holo (ホロ) is a wolf harvest deity originally from a place in the north known as Yoitsu. She made a promise with men from a town called Pasloe that she would ensure the town would have good wheat harvests year after year. However, as time went on, the townspeople slowly started to forsake Holo and did not rely on her as they once did. As such, Holo escapes from town in Lawrence's wagon and started traveling with him to see how much the world has changed since she has been in Pasloe. Holo has chosen the form of a girl younger than Lawrence, though she still retains her large white-tipped wolf tail, and ears. At times she can produce an ear-shattering howl. Her true form is that of a very large wolf which many people revered and feared.

She refers to herself as the "Holo The Wise Wolf" (ヨイツの賢狼). She is typically very haughty and self-sufficient, though due to her isolation for hundreds of years in Pasloe, she gradually feels very lonely, and sometimes shows a more fragile side of herself. She relies on Lawrence for company as she fears loneliness, which is something that Lawrence is very aware of and tries to comfort her in his own way. Holo is also very aware of the different time spans that she and Lawrence have, as a human lifespan is like a blink of an eye for her kind. Holo is quite scared of that fact, but hides it with jokes. She has a peculiar way of speaking, modeled after that of the oiran high-class courtesans. She is fond of delicious food and alcohol, but especially loves apples. She takes pride in her tail and takes special care of it, constantly combing and maintaining it.

Merchants
The Phantomhive Estate belongs to the English noble family Phantomhive and is located outside the city of London. The Phantomhive family is a secret executive agency controlled directly by the Queen and is often referred to as the "Evil Noblemen" and the "Queen's Watchdogs". They are tasked with eliminating anything that worries the Queen by any means necessary. They are able to control and manage the underworld of the United Kingdom to avoid any information of its existence from reaching the general public. The current head of the family is Ciel Phantomhive, son of Earl Vincent and Lady Rachel Phantomhive who were murdered and their original estate burned (the estate in which Ciel currently resides in with his servants is an exact replica of the original estate) . In addition to the services they provide for the Queen, the Phantomhive family runs a toy and confectionery company called Funtom Company.

The estate currently has five servants, but their positions as servants are a front for their real jobs of protecting the Phantomhive Estate as well as protecting Ciel, who they are deeply devoted to. Baldroy serves as the household cook. Finnian is the gardener and Mey-Rin is the maid. The three were personally chosen and trained by Sebastian for their duties. Tanaka has served under Earl Vincent and Lady Rachel, but has not been seen doing any work during his service under Ciel. Sebastian Michaelis, a demon, acts as the butler. Lady Rachel and Earl Phantomhive each have one sister; both have married and become parts of other noble families before the start of the series. Madame Red, born as Angelina Durless, married into the Barnett family. She commits the murders investigated in the Jack the Ripper case and is killed by her accomplice after she is exposed. Marchioness Frances married Marquis Middleford and their daughter, Elizabeth, is engaged to Ciel.

Yarei (ヤレイ) is a merchant who appears in the first light novel and the first story arc of the manga series. He is a farmer of Pasloe and has a long history of facilitating deals with Lawrence. On the day Lawrence passes through Pasloe Yarei "catches the wolf" in the town's yearly harvest festival. Instead Holo escapes to a larger sheaf of wheat in Lawrence's wagon. When they meet again in Pazzio Yarei certainly knows of the existence of Holo, but looking her in the eye he avows his faith in modern methods and seeks to turn her over to the church for burning. In the anime series, his role is filled by Chloe.
 * Yarei

Chloe (クロエ) is a merchant who appears in the first story arc of the anime series. She is a villager of Pasloe and has known Lawrence for a long time. In fact, Lawrence taught her how to be a merchant. She had a slight interest in Lawrence, but tries to push the feelings away. Despite still not knowing how she should feel about him, she respects him as her teacher and a good friend. They later break off their friendship when Chloe allies with the church to capture Holo and Lawrence. She replaces the character of Yarei from the light novel and manga series.
 * Chloe


 * Zheren


 * Richten Marlheit


 * Jacob


 * Hans Lemerio


 * Martin Leibert

Fermi Amati (フェルミ・アマーティ) is a merchant who appears in the third light novel and the third story arc of the anime series. Like Lawrence, he goes by his surname for business purposes, and works as a fish broker. He has a crush on Holo, and proposes to her. Due to Holo's good acting, he believes her to be gentle, kind and a soft spoken, polite young lady.
 * Fermi Amati

Mark Cole (マルク・コール) is a town merchant who appears in the third light novel and the third story arc of the anime series. He works as a wheat seller in Kumersun. He and his apprentice, Eu Landt, assist Lawrence in his contest with Amati, and provide dialog counterpoint to Lawrence and Holo.
 * Mark Cole


 * Eu Lant


 * Gi Batos


 * Fleur Boland

The Church

 * Merta


 * Rigoro Dedre

Others in series

 * Weiz

Norah Arendt (ノーラ・アレント) is a young woman who appears in the second light novel and second arc of the manga and anime series. She is a skilled shepherdess from a church-town named Ruvinheigen. Her companion in this profession is a well-trained sheep dog named Enek (Enekk in the anime). Lawrence entrusts her with a task after they meet.
 * Norah Arendt

Dian Rubens (ディアン・ルーベンス) is a chronicler who appears in the third light novel and the third story arc of the anime series. She lives in Kumersun's walled ghetto with other "suspect" persons such as alchemists. She loves to collect pagan tales and beliefs and has written them into a set of books. Lawrence has come to her to ask for information about Holo's birthplace Yoitsu. Since Dian sounds like a masculine name, she asks Lawrence to call her Diana. According to Holo, Dian is not human, but a bird even bigger than Lawrence. She fell in love with a traveling priest and spent a few years helping him build a church, but left because he noticed that she never seemed to grow old and became suspicious.
 * Dian Rubens


 * Aroldo Eklund


 * Helena

Merchandise
Characters of the series have various pieces of merchandise created in their likeness. Jun Planning planned to release dolls of Sebastian, Ciel, and Grell in March 2009. However, on April 20, 2009, the company suspended all operations in Japan and prepared to file for bankruptcy. The company was later able to release a Ciel doll in September 2010. Good Smile Company released a figurine of Sebastian Michaelis in July 2009. Retail clothing chain Hot Topic added t-shirts featuring Sebastian to its merchandise.

Reception
The characters of Black Butler were well-received. Casey Brienza of Anime News Network felt that the butler was "gimmicky, [but] proves to be [an] effective character type". The servants of the Phantomhive household were described as "charming incompetents" by Carl Kimlinger, also from Anime News Network.