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It's been a while since I've seen [u]Seirei no Moribito[/u], but I must say that it's one of the few shows that have stuck with me for a long time.

Again, it has been a while since I've seen this show, but I just noticed it on a different site for the first time and I thought it only seemed fair to give praise to such an amazing work.

The storyline, all though probably not entirely unique due to it's Asian heritage, is laid out for the viewer in such a manner as to feel quite unique. Although this series is pretty much your standard 25-ish episodes ... long, I felt like I got WAY more out of this show than I would have gotten out of many shows twice its length. Pacing in the show was great from what I can remember. No major waits between important story developments, whilst still maintaining the ability to tell quality side-stories (almost all of which add something important back to the main storyline). And probably the best part of all (at least for me), is that all of the plot twists and side stories that are presented are at some point wrapped up and tied off nicely with a pretty bow, rather than being left in some discarded heap because the development team didn't have the time/funds/desire to finish them.

The music in this show might have been it's "weak point" in that it lacked any kind of super memorable OP or ED, but the music played during the show itself was always fitting, and never over-bearing. Subtly with background music is always important, and as with most everything else in this show, it was done amazingly well. I also might add that the sound quality of the show itself was amazing. The weapon sounds and such were quite authentic sounding, and this really added to the experience. The voice acting is also fantastic and very well cast.

What really made this show special though is without a doubt the characters. I found very few, if any, of the main characters to be two-dimensional, something almost unheard of these days. Chagum may have started out a little cliche, but his development over the course of the show made him a very interesting character. But the super star of the show and our main heroine is Balsa. Easily one of the best characters I've ever come across in an anime, Balsa is amazing. Instead of pulling the classic "pretty woman with overly large assets that's either perfect or totally useless"... they made her real. She's a woman with what one might consider "mild" traits in the anime world (I put that in quotes because I find her quite beautiful). She wasn't drawn to be some kind of moe-nightmare or knockout beauty, infact they don't even try to portray her as young. She's drawn to be exactly what she is-- a middle-age woman that has spent a large portion of her life as a spear-for-higher. And she acts like it too. Balsa is a tough-mother, and is absolutely the best at what she does. But what makes her real, and thus fantastic, is what the viewer slowly learns of her past. They also do not make her unrealistically invincible, which I think is vital to this story. Balsa will forever be one of my most loved characters.

Animation for this show was also amazing. A fantastic job was done by the artists to make all of the movement animation not only fluid in general, but especially during fights. They also took great care in accurately portray the different warrior styles. Many of the different warriors through out the show actually wielded and used their weapons correctly. Spear wielders actually fought like spear wielders, sword fighters fought like sword fighters, etc. It's obvious that this studio put a lot of time and effort into researching and getting the different stances and weapons correct. The background art and characters designs were also all beautifully done. And one last time I'll mention that they did a good job of making the characters in this show feel much more real by portraying them more accurately, rather than taking the standard anime route and making them feel extremely over the top.

All-in-all, this is one of my personal all-time favorite shows, and I absolutely recommend it to anyone and everyone. There are very few weaknesses in this show, and none of them detract from the show in any way. Except you might want to physically harm Chagum from time to time. No biggie. Haha.