(L) Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit)

[Burner of Anime]

I found ep8 to be strong when the old smith had to decide to follow the law as a citizen of the state or to follow justice as he saw it. The smith was someone whose loyalty to his nation is put into balance with his life work- arming people who kill one another with them.

Personally, without hearing both sides of the story I'd have picked following the law. But doing that would be a death sentence for both Balsa and the prince. On the other hand, rearming her has that small sliver of hope that someone isn't going to die. The irony in this, Balsa is likely using the same spear the smith made for Jigoro- the one intended as the weapon for a guardian of life.

The thought here is that the work finally has meaning because the intention has ripened- even though it took over 25 years to do so. It's not justice per se, this sentiment is probably the closest the smith forging killing tools for years can come to.

Perhaps this will make the long nights easier to live with.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Lost

Episode 8 :
Exactly! This wasn't the kind of "conversation" where one side launches into a story that is met by the other side with monosyllabic replies or stereotypic reactions. This was a conversation, where both listeners were compelled to join in, even in giving their opinions ("How cowardly..."). Every second of that conversation was a pleasure; because everything he said was a precious nugget of information, not just on Balsa's background but that of the smith's and soldiers'.

What's interesting is that the blacksmith deliberately tested Balsa's resolve and sincerity in at least two points during the conversation.

First point was when he told the guards to get their new swords from the storeroom. He didn't stop Jin until the very last moment, just before Jin opened the door, in fact. Balsa was all poised to strike, but incredibly, she continued to hold back.

=> If nothing else, the blacksmith is probably 50% certain by now that Balsa is not the bloodthirsty killer the rumours say.

Second point came when he masterfully manipulated Mon into revealing Balsa's actions up till her time of "death"

=> He's 100% certain by now that Balsa is one who deserves an ultimate blade.

Originally Posted by Lost

It would be interesting if the ultimate blade this smith wishes to forge is not the one found on a sword, but on a spearhead.

Why of course. Where else would it be?

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by monir

The comparison is valid in regards to the attractive quality of those two respective shows. Fortunately the similarities end there. Geneon USA can count on my schillings for I'll shell at them with eager hands when the R1 becomes available.

Oh no, I didn't mean anything serious such as that. I was just poking fun at an inside joke of sorts that occurred within the Mushishi thread. Take a peek if you dare.

I'm not sure if Lost would get it, (or wao for that matter, but I have a feeling she'd rather forget it even happened in the first place). But what the hell... I figured I'd just toss it out there just for the hell of it.

On the serious side, I don't think I can compare Seirei no Moribito to Mushishi. It's probably unavoidable to draw comparisons with other titles such as Twelve Kingdoms due to relatively similar settings and motifs—or possibly with GITS SAC with respect to how Kamiyama approaches each of the two stories. But Mushishi and Seirei? Apples and oranges in my opinion, and I feel that both titles can stand on their own in their own right. I do agree with your point about quality though.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Nope of course you can't compare Seirei to Mushishi -- they belong to two entirely different genres.

Suffice to say that Seirei no Moribito is to me what Mushishi was for me last year.

What I meant is that Seirei no Moribito engages both my heart and mind, in much the same way that Mushishi did last year. That's just my subjective opinion, and I had not intended to compare the two series objectively.

[wao]

Seirei and Mushishi are similar with regards to the fact that they both are very mature anime and very, very solidly produced. Seirei's just more on the shiny side.

And I remember what you're talking about, kujoe I think it isn't as easy to have here though, I mean Ginko literally had a harem to himself but here it doesn't fit a... I didn't say anything


I think Geneon has a chance of aiming this at an atypical audience - they could feasibly market this even to non-anime watchers, just general lovers of Asian culture and oldish settings. It's something you can easily recommend to people who don't watch anime (that's one mark of a good show) I just wouldn't know what channels there are for such an audience in the US, never heard of any...

They so should air this in Singapore What am I dreaming of though... I just want to selfishly see it on TV.

[gaguri]

Serei and Mushishi doesn't have much similarity except for having solid production and being the-most-solid-show-of-the-season. Format, style, themes, and pretty much the very essence of the show is different, they reach out to the audience's heart in a completely different way. Comparison to Twelve Kingdoms is much easier for obvious reasons.

I like the notion of redemption running parallel among different characters btw. How Balsa is trying to save eight lives without killing anyone to redeem herself from the eight lives she owes, and how the Smith tries to create the ultimate weapon to redeem himself from creating a weapon that failed to protect the lives of the wielder's friends decades ago. Maybe it was the wielder's fault only and not the smith's, but I felt that he was still holding some guilt over that incident.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by wrex_japan

Ep. 9 screencaps and summary.

Haha, yeah, Tanda was like a kid. And yes, too much rest for my tastes.

I couldn't wait for subbed Episode 9, so I went ahead and watched it raw. Hehehe, it seems that my Japanese lessons weren't totally wasted after all. Even with my rusty command of the language, I understood roughly 25% of the episode. But I managed to fill the other 75% with the help of Wrex's blog. Thanks!

All in all, a good solid episode. I'd gladly rate it 9 out of 10, although I do feel some sympathy for those who want to see the action pick up already.

Spoiler for those who haven't watched Ep. 9 yet:

An excellent episode for adding further depth to already very interesting characters.

We see more examples of how much Prince Sagum cares for his brother, while Shuga finally finds new motivation to stop feeling helpless.

Personally, I think this episode is built around the theme of parenthood — to what extent should you protect your child? Balsa’s approach to parenthood is juxtaposed with Shuga’s own advice to the Emperor about how children should be allowed to learn from their own mistakes. As for Balsa, what can I say? For a warrior woman, she makes a great Mom, haha. It’s lucky perhaps that she has always been a tomboy — she understands full well how boys need to learn to take care of themselves.

[leongsh]

After watching Episode 10, I am extremely impressed with Chagum. Dignified, righteous, clear-headed, observant and poker-faced enough to take a massive gamble. He will make a fine emperor.

[wao]

Sheesh. Can this show stop being so perfect? Seriously, it's driving me insane. How the hell do they do it?

How do they make a story which would otherwise be seriously, seriously dead boring in some other anime really come alive in every way? The pacing, the direction, the insertion of music, the way Chagum acts, the people actually moving in the background, the very feel of the city and how people are like in society... I'm almost starting to think a place like this really existed or something...

Also, I completely agree with leongsh up there - you kind of wish someone like Chagum would be a leader nowadays... in every sense of the word I really kowtow to his amazingness. He's really... wow.

Yeah. Wow. Now I'm going to go and stare blankly at a wall for a while because this is really too damn perfect.

When I first heard about this anime I seriously thought it'll all be shiny glossy eye candy and nothing much else, but by george was I completely, completely wrong about that. I didn't think they'd get everything down so right, from the setting to the development of the characters and the way people act and even the smallest of details (did you see the way the guy made those little sweet things? You don't even see that sort of detail come in anime set in modern settings, let alone in a fictional setting where you have to make it all up. They could have focused just on the tip, they could have even done without showing it, but they showed the whole thing. And that makes it feel all the more authentic and convincing.).

I don't know how to talk about this anime without sounding like some rabid fangirl, but then again, this has long gone past being an ordinary anime...

[wrex_japan]

Originally Posted by leongsh

After watching Episode 10, I am extremely impressed with Chagum. Dignified, righteous, clear-headed, observant and poker-faced enough to take a massive gamble. He will make a fine emperor.

Yes, he'd make a great leader. Ep. 10 screenshots and summary. The kid is just too good.

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by wao

Sheesh. Can this show stop being so perfect? Seriously, it's driving me insane. How the hell do they do it?

If this keeps up, I have a feeling we're going to run out of words to describe how good this show is eventually.

Watching Chagum is a mixed sense of joy for me. It's like gladly watching him grow up to be great person while wishing he never grows up at all. He'll be a great leader of the people one day. Gosh darn it, I feel like some parent already.

[NakedAngelX]

Just watched 10 and althought it's a peaceful episode, but the character development's amazing, or rather we found out so much about Chagum

Spoiler for Seirei ep 10:

Balsa's trying to let Chagum fit into the society, amazingly chagum figured out the trick of those 3 guys. And he bet his mother's pendant with the guy in a fair match. That took courage! Freaking awesome!

[TinyRedLeaf]

Nothing much else to add other than, yes, I agree, Chagum for President!

(Ooops, sorry, wrong world, wrong country, wrong era... )



P.S.: I am starting to miss Balsa-neesan's leet spear-fighting skills though.

[Joojoobees]

Unfortunately I'm a couple of episodes behind, because I'm waiting for English subs, but I started wondering if this lull is setting up for a mini-season climax, meaning the action is scheduled to hit at episodes 12/13.

While waiting for this show to begin, I was hoping for good writing to go along with what promised to be beautiful animation, but, I must admit that the characterization is much more ambitious than I was expecting.

[MrProphet]

My guess is that things would get moving as soon as the foretold drought finally hits the fan, so to say.

Everyone would immediately realize that writing Chagum off was a mistake and would once again scramble to find him. Although Barsa and Chagum are well-positioned near the capital, since it's the last place anyone would look, they'd still be in danger yet again.

And as soon as Torogai returns from the Knot, we'll know more about what's going on with Nayugu and if there's a way to stop the drought without destroying the Egg. I think that would certainly propel characters toward the second part of the series and the ultimate resolution of the plot.

And don't forget... there will be anime-original episode somewhere in the middle, not based on the novels.

[SeijiSensei]

Subs are now through ep 9.

Does anyone else think this must be a rather risky series for I.G.? It seems awfully unconventional for an fantasy adventure show given how many episodes have no real "action" (at least in the physical sense) at all. Another show like Blood+ woud seem like a safer bet than Seirei.

Seirei airs ahead of Saiunkoku Monogatari on Saturdays at 8:00 am on NHK/BS2, a time when most teenagers are dead asleep. If I.G./NHK see this as a good complement to SaiMono, they must be targeting the josei audience. NHK's live-action interview show with the VAs in SaiMono showed an audience dominated by ladies in their twenties and up. Is that the target for Seirei no Moribito?

Seirei never appears in the ratings so I can't tell how popular it is (I don't think ratings are published for BS2 since it's a pay service.). Yet it's obvious that a lot of time, love, and money has gone into this show. I.G. probably has pretty deep pockets for an anime house, but still, I hope they get rewarded for taking on this project. I know I'll be buying the R1 discs when they come out, though I think the "pre-licensing" deal may turn out to backfire when they discover there's no built-in audience for SnM upon its arrival in the States.

[MrProphet]

BONES' "Eureka 7" also aired at 8:00 am.

Not that this is exactly a true comparison, but on Eureka7's case Dai Sato claimed that he was targeting the crowd that just returned from clubbing and wanted to watch something funky and cool and hip.

[wao]

...And Eureka 7's ratings were not really quite stellar for a show that had so much budget put into it (noticeably it got the highest ratings on the days when Kaiketsu Zorori was having a break. Not that Zorori got wonderful ratings either, so I guess the target audience was split.

But I think it's safe to say in E7's case it was obviously making money off the DVDs and not the ratings - I don't have the stats anymore but I think sales of the DVD used to get into teh top 50 for DVD sales (any kind of DVD) quite often. In the end I still don't think it really has made a lot of money for Bones, though... I don't know how much of a cliche it's been flaming the show for not being smart in targeting its right audience or something.

As for Seirei no Moribito, people do get to watch it by this wonderful thing called tape recording, except that I think more people actually want to watch it compared to E7, there's much less negative publicity of it out there, it has an original fanbase, it has really unbeliveable production values in a realistic design setting, and maybe because it's NHK, too. I'd like to know too, really...

In an R1 setting I think they might market this to a wider audience, hopefully they make it visible and noticeable by airing it on channels people actually watch, at a time where people are actually able to watch TV (i.e. not 3am in the morning). They might get an audience among the scholarly sort of folks who like serious, detailed and well-produced Asian period dramas, not just the type of people who would be attracted to shiny anime.
It's got good enough quality for people who aren't used to anime at all to like it as well, too, so perhaps they'll be looking at a wider audience (and it's a good use of money, since it's one of the things that make it have a wider appeal)

And if I'm not wrong the prelicensing deal also included the Hong Kong and Taiwan region? I'm less convinced they'd actually make mcuh money out of that though.

[MrProphet]

And Eureka 7's ratings were not really quite stellar for a show that had so much budget put into it

Yeah? Ever seen the ratings for Code Geass or Haruhi? They were dismal, even lower than the ones for E7. But the DVDs are selling like crazy.

I'm just saying. "Teenagers" the guy was referring to above don't watch anime at 8:00 am, no matter how you slice it. Moreover, "teenagers" don't watch anime on a satellite channels much either. So "teenagers" (i.e. prime time shounen viewers) aren't really factored in the equation that much.

And, forgive me to say, but "negative publicity"? Methinks you are just projecting your personal attitude toward E7.

Anyway, anime studios don't make ANY money off TV broadcasts. On the contrary, they pay the TV stations to buy broadcasting rights. All the money is made in licensing and merchandising. TV airings are basically there to generate the buzz and advertise the future video releases. The more people watch it, the more people might buy it. But it's not a direct correlation.

That's what happened to Ah! My Goddess TV. People weren't watching either series. But they were buying the first series DVDs and they weren't buying the second series DVDs. That's what got it canceled, not the low ratings across the board.

[orion]

It's probably not Adult Swim material either way imo. IFC likes action titles and this ain't one yet imo.

Hopefully, Geneon USA didn't have its soul sold for a bad gamble 'cuz it's a niche title in R1 slowly going to ultra-niche imo.