精霊の守り人 - Seirei no Moribito

Everyone once in a while, comes a good book. To the book lovers, a fine read, to the creative mind, a source of inspiration, and to the Anime fan, one awsome series.

Seirei no Moribito is an original novel by Nahoko Uehashi, spanning 10 books and two story arcs, the 26 episode Animated series that started April 07 covers the first book of the Moribito series.

The story feels like a mix of Ghost in the Shell meets Samurai 7, for everybody else, let me explain:
the premise is actually quite simple, bodyguard Barusa is hired by the second Empress to protect her son, Cha-gum, the second prince, from royal assassins to kill him because Cha-gun is rumored to have been possessed by a water demon, and is the reason to the lasting drought.
As the plot progresses, Barusa and Cha-gum flee from their persuers and try to look for a solution to Cha-gum's possession. All while the immaculate young prince leaves the palace halls to live life very differently.

Production I.G, (Blood+, Chevalier, Ghost in the Shell series) has done an extremely fine job on the direction of art, style, and setting of the entire series. The capital of Yogo is shown as a city of hustle and bustle, people left and right, and beautiful background designs that rival movie budgets.
Although Asian looking, the story takes place in an alternate world where people use the lesser known 5000 words from the Chinese dictionary for daily usage. Kidding aside, Production I.G. has a ton of cash, and they aren't afraid to spend it. Unlike Chevalier, the animation and frame rate remains tip top all the way into the high teen episodes. And the series does nothing else but draws you in further.

As I like to say about series without an original plot, they have the time and energy to invest in everything BUT the story line, often a good thing, and in Seirei no Moribito's case, it worked out of the best. The original author did a hell of a job putting together a national scale story, spanning the blooming country side of rice paddies and ragged mountain tops, to the inner sanctums of the imperial palace.

While the episodes sometimes sidestep to show time lapsing and further character development, it maintains its tense and serious tone of the matter at hand. I particularly enjoy the characters reacting realistically to events and each other. Many episodes were self contained single episode short stories that gave a greater meaning to the larger plot line, furthering character development and filling in the missing pieces in their backgrounds. Its like a freaking book!


Its hard to not get to like the cast of characters in the series, from a young prince, to an old ass kicking shaman, to the middle aged female main character. You don't see that ensemble every day. All of the characters besides the immaculate Cha-gum exude the sense of experience, that they have seen many things, and lived to tell. Even the royal palace's pursuing hunters have their time on the screen, and portrayed in a way that its just impossible to not enjoy their presence in some way.

If nothing else, Seirei no Moribito has some of the most ass kicking fight scenes in all Anime. Production I.G. once again demonstrates their experience in presenting beautifully choreographed fights in incredibly smooth animation. All while an adrenaline pumping theme plays in the back ground. How can you not love episode 3?





The 1 vs 4 sequence was nothing short of mind blowing.

So what are you waiting for? Go take a look at one of the finer series from 2007.


Check out this pre-series pilot, it will give you a good idea what you will be in for.