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There is a debate between fans as to the romanization of the name of the wolf-girl character in Spice and Wolf.

Some claim it should be romanized as Holo, whilst others say Horo.

Is there official word on which is correct?

Gao
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Megan Walker
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3 Answers3

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According to Yen Press (the English publisher of the Spice and Wolf novels), they were instructed by the Japanese licensor to use "Holo".

Source: This comment at Yenpress.com

There was also a scene in the anime, season 2 episode 4, showing a hand-written letter that included "Holo".

Screenshot of where it says Holo in the letter

Poor writing, but I think it's obvious that it's an L not an R.

Memor-X
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atlantiza
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    Korbo? Are you sure that is right? – Euphoric Dec 12 '12 at 17:49
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    @Euphoric Not sure if you're joking ("Korbo" is a fairly popular joke within the English-speaking S&W community) or not, but yes that is the right screenshot. :P – atlantiza Dec 12 '12 at 17:51
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    Screw "official" translations. :| I personally like "Horo" much more. +1 though for the research. – Xeo Dec 12 '12 at 18:41
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    Btw, we've all been reading it wrong all along! I just had an epiphany - it's "Horlo"! Remember how they always say the "r" of the kana sounds like a mix between l and r? It all makes sense! /sarcasm – Xeo Dec 13 '12 at 02:23
  • Although it looks more like *Kalo* to me – Jan Nov 13 '16 at 16:07
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According to one episode in 2nd season and official translation of light novels it is Holo.

But Horo has been used for so long, that it is hard to fans to accept the official romanization. Also, in many languages, the official japanese dubbing too sounds more like Horo than Holo.

Euphoric
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This indeed splits Spice and Wolf fans into two as ホロ is "Horo" in romaji, but in official English translation it's "Holo".

For Japanese viewers, the name is "Horo" (ホロ). For English viewers, the name is "Holo".

Which of the names came first? You know the answer to that already. In the end, both are official and valid names for wolf-girl protagonist

It's also known that HorribleSubs used term "Horo".

Aki Tanaka
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Amat
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  • I don't think referencing HorribleSubs (or CrunchyRoll) is a good argument since they might not have known the official English name in the first place... – Aki Tanaka Dec 17 '17 at 09:36