Seirei no Moribito

   Seirei no Moribito or Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (2007) is an anime series based on Nahako Uehashi's first novel of the same name. The series was animated by Production I.G. (Known for Ghost in the Shell, Sengoku Basara, the animated sequence in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1, and many more) and directed by Kenji Kamiyama and premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

   The story takes place in a fictional universe where Balsa, a wandering spear wielder. vows to atone for eight deaths in her past by saving an equivalent number of lives during her journey. She eventually rescues a Prince, and is tasked with becoming his bodyguard (With his father, the emperor having ordered for his assassination). The two begin a perilous journey to ensure the prince's survival. And in the midst of complications such as Balsa's own past coming to light as well the rising of a legendary water spirit that has the power to destroy the ki-- whoops! ... Anyway, in the midst of all that, Balsa and the Prince also begin to bond throughout it all...

   Production I.G was founded on December 15th, 1987 by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. Aside from various anime television series, OVAs and theatrical films, the studio is also involved in video game design and development, particularly being know for developing intros, cut-scenes and artwork for games (Such as Tales of Symphonia). Not only that, the studio has also been known for music publishing and management. Needless to the say, Production I.G. is one of Japan's most prominent studios.

   The studio is one of the forerunners of digital animation techniques, and while they are not exclusive in their usage of computer technology, they are given praise for their advances in digital compositing, digital effects, digital image/storyboarding, and digital color grading. The film Ghost in the Shell (1995) marker the first ever overlay of computer generated visuals onto a hand drawn background. Surprisingly, however, many of the digital looking effects in the film were laboriously hand produced.

   BUT, back to the series itself. It is pretty apparent that many quality series have come about from this studio (Sure, there's bound to be a few failures every now and then, but so far, nothing that really stands out when it comes to Production I.G) and Seirei no Moribito is a prime example of that. A deeply underrated series, it is not just one of the most beautifully animated series that came out in 2007, but also one of the most well written (This credit obviously goes to Nahako Uehashi, but we will definitely have to thank director Kenji Kamiyama as well for being able to properly translate into a decently paced anime series).

   It is always a pleasure to see a strong female character like Balsa (Again, hat's off to you Madam Uehashi), who is just so well rounded from the very beginning (Especially when it came to her backstory) and STILL continues to develop as the series progresses. She is strong, independent, brave, stubborn... and this is sort of where a well written male character comes into play, and while the Prince turns out to be an amazing character as well, he is not who I am talking about. While it could be said that Balsa's childhood friend is simply written in to be a love interest for Balsa, I find him to be just as well written as Balsa, and plays a much more important role than simply harboring a crush on her. Being a seemingly mild-mannered but still sharp witted herbalist, his relationship with the Balsa the ferocious warrior is played beautifully off one another. And do not get me started on Balsa's mentor... If I end up talking about all of these characters, this post is going to turn into a novel.

   So, much like the Sword of the Stranger (2007... they both came out in the same year, what are the chances of that?), let us once again get down to the fight sequences in the animation. 

   I am probably the only idiot here that had initially thought that the story took place in a real-world setting and not a fictional one (Ah, I can still remember the look my friend game me when I admitted this to her...). But truth be told, you have to give me a break here when I say that the characters and settings are just so believable that it is able to briefly fool idiots like me into thinking that this took place during some obscure part of Japan history... until we read the summary that is (And how many times do I need to apologise for making this mistake?). 

   As the title suggests, there is of course a more mystical side that is shown later on as the story progresses, but honestly, I will always remember this series for its amazingly crafted world, one that I believe could have taken place in the real world... an alternate side to Ancient Japan (Or some other Asian country, but it's pretty obvious that this series has a lot of Japanese influence to it) history. None of these human characters possess super human powers (Even the ninja-esque characters still come off incredibly realistic as compared to so many examples seen in the past), they are just all so... real, so human. They are strong and skilled simply because they trained themselves to be since birth, and that is something I absolutely love about all these characters.

   Not that I have gone all out to look for them, but I don't think there are many anime series that featured spear wielding characters, let along ones that are given such incredibly detailed animation sequences once they do start dishing out the thrusts and stabs. There is just so much thought put into every fight scene, they strike, they block, they parry, they distract, they do everything that has to be done to survive in a real death match. Each character has such a different fighting style to one another as well. Even if they happen to be wielding the same weapon, there is notably more grace in one character as compared to the other (The little things, people, the little things). There aren't many anime series that would go that far when it comes to the choreography of their fight scenes.

   I am really hoping that the other novels will be animated one day, especially as I have heard from my friend about how interesting the story gets. But yes, if you haven't checked out the series yet, do take the time to binge watch it. Beautiful animation, well-written characters and a decent storyline, what more could you ask for?