Anime Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit

[hyuuga_hinata]

A female bodyguard named Balsa travels back to the new Yogo Empire after so long.
There she meets the second prince,Chagamu.After she saved him from some trouble,she learns that the prince isn't what you'd call ordinary-he carries in his body the egg of the Water Spirit,which makes him,as the title says,the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit,which only happens once in a hundred years.
She is then tasked to take Chagamu far away in a safe place by his mother,the Empress,due to the fact the Emperor,his father,does not seem all too pleased with his son being a guardian so decides to do away with him.
Also 2 other supernatural beings are hunting down for Chagamu,well,the egg in him anyway.
She accepts,she'll recieve great help from the Imperial Court all the way.:whoops:

Based on the first two books from the acclaimed Guardian series, Guardian of the Sacred Spirit is a brilliant and wonderful anime series, complete with the production genius of Production I.G.:animesmil

SO cool!!!!!!XD

pic from:[url]http://allaboutanime.org/images/reviewposts/seireinomoribito-reviewpost.gif[/url] (always remember to cite sources!!!)

[Dagger]

Another super high-quality show from Production I.G. My only real complaint about it is some of the choices they made with respect to adapting the novel's plot... clearly they did have to add a lot of material to make it last twenty-six episodes, and that wasn't a problem for me. What I don't understand is why they changed or took some scenes away. I was looking forward to seeing [spoiler]Balsa knock the raging Chagum down again and again,[/spoiler] and they had something sort of like that, but it didn't create the same impact.

In terms of action, everything except the very last battle was perfect... and yeah, the fighting there was secondary to what was going on with Chagum, but making the [spoiler]La Lungas[/spoiler] CG was a biiiig mistake. Other than that, though, it's an amazing looking show with impressive world-building. I would love to see the next few books in the novel series get made into anime as well, although I don't know if that's likely to happen. Balsa is an awesome character (as is Chagum, though less so in the anime than in the novel), and I shed a couple of tears at the end.

~Dagger~

[TwistedChick]

[I]but making the [spoiler]La Lungas[/spoiler] CG was a biiiig mistake.[/I]

Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled with that choice, but they made up for it in skillfully capturing all the characters' reactions to them. I had this deepset fear throughout that last long sequence that [spoiler]Tanda was going to get himself killed.[/spoiler] It seemed inevitable to me. [spoiler]Thank God it didn't happen.[/spoiler]

Overall what this series did was make me want to read the books. Mission accomplished, I guess.

[Dagger]

I believe [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6634][u]Moribito[/u][/url] starts airing on Adult Swim tonight (1:30 am EST). Did I really not make a thread about this before? Huh. Anyway, it's a great show based on a delightful novel (which is now [url=http://www.amazon.com/Guardian-Spirit-Moribito-Nahoko-Uehashi/dp/0545005426/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219530155&sr=8-1][u]available in English[/u][/url]).

Beautiful spear-fights aside, I feel like it might be a tad too idyllic for AS. :animeswea The writer does a lot of careful world-building, and this is reflected in the anime as well. One of its biggest draws is the relationship between the main character, Balsa (a female bodyguard in her thirties) and Chagum (the young prince she's trying to protect). Extremely nice-looking show, at any rate, and it may prompt me to watch AS for the first time in at least a year or two.

Oh, and it's directed by the guy who did GitS: SAC, in case you ever find yourself thinking, "If there were a feudal-era, fantasy version of Section 9..."

~Dagger~

[Magus]

[quote name='Dagger']"If there were a feudal-era, fantasy version of Section 9..."[/QUOTE]
I admit that I was real skeptical (still skeptical) because I don't know what the series is like. (No comparisons. No detailed descriptions...) ANN don't really have a decent description of the series, and then no one really talks about the series. But that right there might've just sealed the deal with me.

I did hear that it don't have that much action. :( So would it be fair to say that from an action standpoint that it's similar to Peace Maker? (Not that much action but whatever action there is, it's good.)

[Dagger]

The combat scenes are phenomenal. I definitely think it's worth watching for them even you're not super enthralled by the rest.

But don't get too misled by my Section 9 comment, haha--as a character, Balsa has a lot of similarities to the Major, but rather than working with the elite organization, she tends to end up fighting them. Still, even though the fantasy setting seems about as far away from SAC as it would be possible to get, there's a hard-to-describe sense of kinship between them.** Maybe it's because they share so many staff members (not only the same director, but also the same overall production team).

**At least I thought so. :animeswea

~Dagger~

[Magus]

[size=1]FINALLY caught the first episode.

Well that was certainly pretty. Majority of the time, I don't really pay much attention to the background scenery and such, but the way the water was shown was great. The last thing that had me gawking over things like water and the looks of towns was Shenmue. (And that game came out, I think 8 years ago.)

I'll hold off judging the fighting for now. For what was shown, it was impressive but far, too short. And I need more of it. A series this pretty needs more fighting. (Fighting that last more than 30 secs)

I might've just found that fantasy/adventure anime I've been looking for since there aren't any new episodes of Scrapped Princess on demand.[/size]
_______________________________

Moribito's coming back to Adult Swim. [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-05-09/report/moribito-to-return-to-adult-swim-tv-in-summer] [i]Link[/i][/url] [size=1][strike](I seriously hate these tags)[/size][/strike] (I GOT IT ^^)

I don't know why they took it off the first time because this was the only reason why I'd even consider watching anything on Adult Swim. And instead of 10 episodes it's the whole series. It's suppose to return some time in the summer.

[Sir Drift-a-lot]

[FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="2"]I started watching [I]Serei No Moribito[/I] last month, and I just love it. Unfortunately I had to take a break from watching it because of my trip I went on earlier this month. Now that I'm back I've started it up again. Yay! I just finished episode 10, which was a beautiful episode in which Chagum really got to shine. Before he was kinda silent and out of the way, but now he's starting to get more screen time.
I hope to see some more fighting, but I really love how calm [I]Serei no Moribito[/I] is. It reminds me of [I]Juuni Kokuki[/I] (which is one of my favorite anime) quite a bit. I happen to love anime that feature strong, smart women who don't get in a fuss 'cause someone calls them 'boyish' or 'an old lady' or something like that, so you can imagine I love Balsa.
Right now I'd rate [I]Serei no Moribito [/I]10/10.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Kurosaki_Hollow]

its a show that possibly will not have any more episodes.......i rather watch all the other shows in between this one.