This may have been overshadowed by the pre-NYAF preparations going on today but Yen Press released the above cover for the first Spice and Wolf novel, set to be released this December. [Amazon, TRSI]
Although I had an initial “I’m not sure about this” reaction to the cover, it has grown on me as the afternoon has progressed. It reflects the playfulness of Holo through her smile, one of a few visual focuses, as well as her lack of clothing while hinting at some hidden darkness – or maybe that’s just serving as convenient censoring and/or helping to highlight her pendant, another visual focus.
YP said that this is an attempt to garner more attention for the book from a general audience than it might get otherwise, even though they adore the original designs, and I support them for that. This looks like it would blend in fairly well among other young adult novels. I must admit that I’ve also liked the paperback designs so far for the Haruhi light novels – even though I know I’m likely in the minority – mainly for the vibrant red & yellow colors and balloon lettering. The single-character Haruhi covers are nice, too, but I’m already familiar with those and the created covers offer something different for my tastes. (The paperbacks also cost less!)
Of course, because Yen Press knew not everyone would like this new cover art, they will be packing in a limited-edition slip jacket with the original Japanese cover art into the December 2009 issue of Yen Plus. I’ll likely get that because although I sort of like the new cover, I doubt I’d like to look at it very often. (I also need to check back in to see what’s running in their monthly magazine!)
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