Here we have a Production IG fantasy series, directed and written by Kenji Kamiyama, who has previously worked on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which just so happens to be possibly my favorite anime series ever, and all of it based on a successful novel series. All of that already sounds hella promising. Here’s my review explaining why I think this series is good stuff and deserves more recognition.
Story:
Seirei no Moribito is the story of Balsa, bodyguard, skilled spear-fighter and total dreamboat, who is tasked by a Queen with the protection of her son prince Chagum who has a dangerous supernatural entity living inside of him and is being pursued by the assassins of his own father, the king, or the Mikado in this case. All of this is set in the fantasy land of faux-Asia, which is close enough to the real world to be vaguely familiar, but just different enough to be its own interesting fantasy land.
This initial set-up serves as the first act of the story, which has us following Balsa as she outmaneuvers the king’s forces both by using her wits and her incredible fighting ability. All of this is fairly exciting with satisfying amounts of action and is an excellent introduction to Balsa and the large cast of side-characters.
After this cat-and-mouse game, the pacing of the show slows down considerably in the second act and the entire series switches into an almost slice-of-life fantasy series with a semi-episodic presentation, which are used to further develop Chagum’s character, his relationship with Balsa and her allies and some world-building. It is this switch in pacing between the two acts that may come across as jarring to some viewers. Personally, I was surprised by it, but it didn't bother me a lot. Even with a lack of action, it’s still very much worth watching and seeing the characters grow and live together.
Once the series closes into its finale it all moves along a bit faster and the scale grows more epic again. Overall, the story behind Moribito might not be the most original one and the switches in pacing may throw off some, but I still found it to be executed quite well. It takes it’s time to properly develop the main cast, has some interesting twists along the line, is exciting when it needs to be and hell, it even manages to make flashbacks interesting.
World building:
I have a special little boner in my heart for some good, detailed world building and Moribito delivers in that regard, which is why I will make this short section to comment on it.
Moribito has its own version of everything from funeral ceremonies, regional superstitions over smaller gadgets, mechanisms and weapons to wildlife. There is a lot of attention to detail here, but the thing that really makes it shine is the completely seamless and natural integration into the series. The world in Seirei no Moribito really feels coherent, alive and like it’s been around long before the main plot of the series started.
Characters:
Okay, let me first heap some praise on Balsa, who is exactly the type of female main characters I’d like to see more often in my chinese cartoons. She competent, confident, intelligent, mature and I totally don’t have a crush on her. She’s also 29 years old at the beginning of the series. If any of you reading this know more anime with close-to-30 female leads, feel free to recommend them to me. You may keep all the lolis, moeblobs and tsunderes. Seriously though, the best thing about Balsa is how, despite the fact that she always has a plan for everything and is a capable enough spear fighter to hold her own against four elite soldiers, she never comes across as mary-sue-ish. This is a very delicate balance to hold for a main character, yet this series makes it look effortless. Aside from being excellent at her job as badass bodyguard, Balsa also has a softer side, which is evident by her interactions with Chagum and other allies. As the series progresses she becomes more and more of a mother figure to Chagum.
Chagum himself deserves a lot of praise for being a child character amongst a mostly adult cast, who despite his age and status never comes across as annoying or spoiled. The prince is intelligent, polite and willing to learn about the ways of the common people, despite being holed up in a palace for his entire life prior to the events of the series. The entire series I was expecting him to do something stupid or act spoiled and it never happened. So congratulations Seirei no Moribito, you managed to make me like a child character. Both Balsa and Chagum are the focus of the series and are developed extremely well.
It’s the secondary cast that could’ve used a bit more time in the limelight. While absolutely no one in the shows sizable cast is completely unlikable, which is an impressive feat in and of itself, I wouldn't have minded for the side characters to get some more attention, but that’s only a minor gripe in an otherwise fantastic show.
Also notable is how this series doesn't seem to have a clear villain, the antagonists are mostly just misguided or misinformed. Even the supernatural ones aren't evil so much as they are simply following their nature. A surprising amount of conflict in the series gets resolved by characters simply talking to each other and explaining their situation rather than through fighting, which is certainly a breath of fresh air and a mature way to resolve conflict (don’t worry, there are still cool fights in there).
Oh yeah, special shout-out to the character Torogai, who is one badass old granny that doesn't take shit from anyone. Welp, I guess this series made me like a granny character too, so there you go.
Animation:
All you really need to know about Seirei no Moribito’s visuals is that it’s Production IG at its best. Kenji Kamiyama’s signature realistic artstyle is one I really enjoy, the backgrounds are stunningly beautiful, the color palette is vibrant and it’s all held together by good cinematography.
A special mention goes to the fight scenes, which are almost movie budget-smooth and have incredibly satisfying to watch choreography. Also, all the outfits the characters wear are really well-designed without being overblown or unrealistic. I especially like the ones worn by the hunters which initially pursue Balsa and Chagum.
As for negative aspects of the visuals, there is the cg, which admittedly is still better justified/used more tastefully than in most more recent shows. It’s occasionally utilized to animate part of a crowd and in those cases it’s barely noticeable, but towards the very end of the series they use cg to animate a certain group of monsters and it doesn't look great unfortunately. It’s particularly bothersome cause the monsters are actually hand-drawn in other scenes and look great there.
Overall however, the show has excellent visuals, and aside from the occasional cg, is about as good as an anime show can look with a tv budget.
Sound:
Man, composer Kenji Kawai really outdid himself with this soundtrack. And that guy is already a well-known, incredibly competent composer, so that’s saying something. The background music does such an excellent job of enhancing every scene, no matter if it needs to be sad and emotional, creepy or fast paced for an action scene. It’s tasteful and fits perfectly and that’s all a good soundtrack needs to be. In fact, I’m listening to it as I’m writing this review and probably will for a while after I’m done.
It’s a shame the Op and Ed can’t live up to this. The opening is a rather cheesy pop/rock song, which L'Arc-en-Ciel fans will undoubtedly enjoy, but simply isn’t my thing nor do I think it fits the series very well. The ending is better, but not remarkable either.
As for the voice acting everyone on the cast does a good job bringing their characters to life, especially Balsa’s voice actor, who has a nice deep female voice that fits the character perfectly.
Of special note is the fact that Chagum was actually voiced by a young boy, instead of a woman, as is usually the case for young male characters in anime. This lends some really nice authenticity to the character.
Overall:
Seirei no Moribito is an excellent series with only a couple of minor shortcomings, which thankfully don’t sour the experience much at all.
If you want a classy, good fantasy anime that has all the feel of an old historical saga and you don’t mind a bit of slower pacing, then please do yourself a favor and give this often overlooked series a watch.
As usual, thank you for taking the time to read this review, please excuse any grammatical mistakes as English is not my first language and please feel free to leave me some feedback, as I want to improve.
