From the way it starts out, you’d expect Seirei no Moribito to be a no-holds-barred, ass-kicking affair, but many of the episodes are actually more slice-of-life than anything else. Fortunately, Chagum and Balsa have a much more exciting life than I do, and so while a few episodes may have been slower than I would have liked, the overall package is very engaging. The storytelling and pacing were very good (especially towards the end), and I liked the way the mystery of the egg finally unfolded.
Story
The story follows the female yojimbo Balsa as she protects young Prince Chagum from a variety of enemies and frienemies. I have to point out the choreography in episode 3 as this episode contained one of the very best fights I have ever seen in an anime. The way the Hunters worked together to attack Balsa (and coordinate attacks with whistles) was amazing, but Balsa’s ability to fend them off was even more impressive. Of course this was capped off when much later in the series Tanda remarks how totally sweet the Hunters are, and Balsa just smirks and barely refrains from talking some serious smack.
Characters
However, once the misunderstandings are put aside, Seirei no Moribito goes from being a story about desperate escape to a story about raising a child. Chagum’s growth from a well-intentioned but helpless kid, to a mature adolescent was actually extremely engaging. It was easy to tell how Chagum managed to touch the lives of everyone around him, and when he was strong enough to say goodbye to Balsa at the end, I was truly moved. By the end I liked Chagum just as much as Balsa, although of course I would still pick Balsa to be on my side if a fight was going down.
I also want to mention that Seirei no Moribito had some interesting role reversals. We had the patient, easy-going Tanda as the traditional wife character, while strong, stoic Balsa was more of the husband. Heck, we even had Chagum giving birth in a rather uncomfortable scene (fortunately, they gave him a C-section). By defying stereotypes, Seirei no Moribito gave a freshness to the relationships between the characters, and these relationships really defined the series as a whole.
Tilt and Verdict
The production values for this series were astronomically high, and there was very minimal flashbacking used. All of the fights (although really only Balsa and Jiguro ever fought) were beautifully choreographed and animated, and the animation was consistently high throughout the series. The OP/ED were nice, and although they weren’t my favorite songs, they were memorable. I liked the BGM much better, and the folk/farming song was wonderful as well. While Seirei no Moribito was not quite what I expected, it was an absolutely wonderful story, and one I would watch again. I wonder if any of the other books will ever be animated…
Kabitzin’s Rating: 5/5
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5 Comments
Since I was catching this concurrently with Claymore, I couldn’t help but lament why Raki couldn’t have been more like Chagum.
Great review. Do grab the OST if you haven’t. One of Kenji Kawai’s best work imo.
The Chagum birthscene felt really weird because it was so realistic except it was a young boy giving birth and then when the stork- I mean the nahji came to take the egg away I couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. Overall this show totally deserves the top score you gave it though and I think it will rest among the top3 shows I’ve seen for a long long time.
Stripey: Lucky could never be like Chagum. Lucky was full of crap, saying he was going to protect Clare, while really just serving as a teddy bear. Chagum on the other hand had the big picture in mind. Chagum knew getting some fighting skills would (at most) help him keep the egg alive, and he knew enough to let Balsa take care of the fighting. Plus, Chagum emo was understandable, considering almost everyone tried to kill him.
Matte: Yeah, I laughed too at the birth scene, even though I suppose it should have been tender. They had Chagum snuggle with the egg, and then Balsa freaking threw the egg at the bird! Fortunately, we do not usually throw the baby out with the bathwater spirit.
Maybe I have a ridiculously low attention span but I kind of wish Seirei had a lower episode count so we wouldn’t have to deal with some of the dull stuff in the middle. I can accept Serei as a slice-of-life type of show but some of it was just pointless.
Well negatives aside, overall I DO think Seirei was worth watching. It’s a refreshing story with great characters and excellent production values. Also, it’s a type of show that can be appreciated by everyone. I remember playing this at my anime club yesterday and everyone enjoyed it.
P.S: I like the new layout ^^.
@ kiseki gurl: Yes, you must have a really short attention span. It was neither dull nor, at any point, uninteresting.
All I can say is, this has to be one of the most refreshing anime series I have watched in a long time. I am sick to death of anime where its basically never-ending monologues of self reflecting pity coupled with sudden bursts of ‘profound’ realizations and enlightenment! You know the ones, I am talking about… character X reminisce about life with character Y who is dead due to a very tragic accident and possibly X blames him/herself for it… throughout series flashbacks of Y’s death appear in X’s mind… towards the end X makes a breakthrough in his/her thought process and realizes their way of thinking was wrong usually from a dialogue between character Z who is a fatherly/motherly figure to X. In between flashbacks, intense fighting occurs and X’s fighting abilities improves exponentially to the total number of episodes of the series.
I have nothing against insane and over-the-top fighting per se (I love Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) but they shouldn’t put in all that emotional ’self-reflecting and enlighten others’ filler crap where the opponents discuss about themselves for half an hr and fight for one minute.
Final words: Seirei no Moribito is a great story. It’s like watching a 12-hr long Miyazaki production and never wanting it to end.
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