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

[Mei]

Can I ask a stupid question? Has this one now already aired? Because I have it down on my list to not starting for another week, on Saturday
Is it airing on another station apart from NHK-BS2?

[monir]

As it has been already mentioned by Mr. P three posts back, this was a special preview. We have seen those kind of preview for other shows as well such as Moonlight Mile, Ergo Proxy, etc..

[Mei]

Originally Posted by monir

As it has been already mentioned by Mr. P three posts back, this was a special preview. We have seen those kind of preview for other shows as well such as Moonlight Mile, Ergo Proxy, etc..

Sorry I didn't understand a few posts back what was meant by preview of if it was the first episode or a small preview. I understand now though.
I guess I will still wait for its air date though.

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by Grv

Not sure it's airing in HD is it?

It's running on BS2 with 5.1 surround sound, so it's safe to assume than an HD version would also be forthcoming, similar to Chevalier D'Eon.

Originally Posted by monir

I didn't watch this episode. I drank it.

My favorite sky was in Tanda's scene.



BTW, Tanda is Dewey Novak (from Eureka 7), which is an instant sign of cool.

[Grv]

It's just that I wouldn't be surprised to see them hold off on HD to give people (more?) of a reason to buy HD-DVDs.

We wait and see of course until episode 1 airs officially, the cappers will let us know I'm sure

Incidentally, when does this thread move to the licensed forum? Given that it's pre-licensed.

[orion]

Maybe they are waiting for "Geneon USA" to be in the credits or Geneon USA to officially announce it.

Either way, this will look great in HD. The sky and water effects were great. The castle room scenes were great. Yep, loads of money spent here.

[monir]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

My favorite sky was in Tanda's scene.



BTW, Tanda is Dewey Novak (from Eureka 7), which is an instant sign of cool.

No way! I didn't even recognize the voice. And that picture is just adding to the mounting evidence of how amazing the background art is.

Originally Posted by Mei

Sorry I didn't understand a few posts back what was meant by preview of if it was the first episode or a small preview. I understand now though.

Perhaps "screener" would be the appropriate term than "preview". Btw, why wait?

[Crystal_Method]

The first episode has proven to show how incredible this show is and hopefully is going to be. The animation was so good and I don't even have words to describe the art.

Spoiler:

I wish I had a futon as big as the one in the guest room. It probably could fit 15 people with no problem. Also there's brahman cows in Japan? I never knew that. Or maybe this doesn't even take place in Japan... I guess I'll find out when it's subbed.

[issei]

an amazingly lush first episode, with a great balance between action and foundation-work for the plot and premise. of course, it remains to be seen if they'll keep it up, but for now, i'm definitely going to be following this series.

[Jazzrat]

Originally Posted by Crystal_Method

The first episode has proven to show how incredible this show is and hopefully is going to be. The animation was so good and I don't even have words to describe the art.

Spoiler:

I wish I had a futon as big as the one in the guest room. It probably could fit 15 people with no problem. Also there's brahman cows in Japan? I never knew that. Or maybe this doesn't even take place in Japan... I guess I'll find out when it's subbed.

It's an alternate world if i m not wrong that's loosely based on the Heian period of Japan.

[JediNight]

Between the archaic dialects and royal speech, I didn't understand much watching this raw unfortunately

Spoiler:

So at first the lady was asking Barsa to take the Prince with her to save his life for some reason I can't make out. And offering a large bribe. So then she turns the tables and catches her at bladepoint, then just takes the small bag of money and makes off with the Prince anyways? That didn't make much sense... Then we also see the compound on fire as they run away. And the whole 8 spirits thing...

Apparently I missed too much to get what was fully going on.

[wao]

OK, I watched it. But of course I have to blather on about it! It's the first episode after all. I always talk lots of crap on the first episode.

Like I guessed, more than intense and detailed character animation we got treated to some excellent composition and an amazing piece of work in general.

Spoiler for blah blah I love eyecandy blah blah:

The biggest most obvious jaw-dropping aspect must have been the BACKGROUNDS. God. So full of details! So rich in colour, so intricate and agagagaga. I would die for a wallpaper.

But the backgrounds wouldn't have worked with the really, really impressive storyboarding. The part that really took my breath away - since I've been spoiled by watching the trailer and such that included some of the other amazing scenes - was when Barusa was walking down that hill and saw the children in a distance. To be honest, more than the fighting and the conversation with the Queen - while those were good too - I was impressed by that scene. Another one I liked was when Barusa was walking on the bridge. That was just so technically perfect! *drools*

Of course, one scene that impressed me even in the trailer and still impresses me now is the one with the carraige going astray on the bridge. The carriage looked like an excellent example of 3D animation in 2d anime done right. It interacted with the 2D characters really well and was used in what I personally thought was precisely what 3D should be exploited for in 2D animation - that is, animating large complex inanimate objects. 'Course, the 360-degree part in the beginning of the show was good too, although it felt like a tad of an overkill.

And heck, despite what I say about the 2D animation it was certainly not bad. However, more than z0mg awesome animation it felt more like "this has had a LOT of money and time spent on it". It was still a heck of a lot better than a lot of first episodes you see out there, I think.

I think what I like greatly so far is the good mix between the epic storyline but also the painstakingly detailed world and background design.

Spoiler for etc:

I don't just mean visually, but in terms of simple things like the written text, architecture, clothing and more complex things like the way the people act. It's something that many anime set in other worlds don't really get down as well as I like, but that's usually the case in many film adaptations of fantasies anyway so I let it pass... But throughout the whole thing, not one time did I ever have that "uh, aren't they missing this?" feeling at all. And I don't think it's because they were covering it up nicely (that's what most shows do, again I don't mind it though) - but because they have it all down.

Anyway, I have my doubts as to how they could keep this up but you never know - the world of GITSSAC was so detailed I'm willing to believe they can do the same here, although it might be a bit harder for the staff to imagine it up.

Of course, I love Barusa - I was very pleasantly surprised by her attitude! Truly a world-wise person.

Spoiler for z0mg!:

She's serious when she needs to be but doesn't get tense to the point where it's detrimental; I loved her casual manner after finding out the real reason when being chased by those dudes (where other characters would either yell, kill, or run away or something). Another part was when she got to her room... I enjoyed her humorous amazement at the size of the futon - and her subsequent decision to just heck it all and enjoy sleeping on it for once. Yay! Sleep is good! For all the hard work you have to do, it never hurts to have some good sleep especially if you're given a comfy bed. Thbbbpt to all those unrealistic heroes who don't believe in sleeping. But of course she's not stupid enough to not notice when someone's around.
And yet on the other hand, she's sooooo coooooool I don't need to go into superlatives about it because everyone else has. I don't mean it sarcastically, this is like Motoko #2 or something! Except more likeable perhaps.
To be honest, I don't like watching really admirable/amazing/cool leads all in a row - I derive much more pleasure watching people with inherent flaws or hopeless people getting better or just ordinary folks even - but I haven't watched one in some time, and I'm totally enjoying this. It was the same with Motoko and Kino. Looking forward to see more of her, at any rate.

I never thought I'd enjoy the script of the show so much, but I ended up finding much delight in hearing (and seeing) the levels of formality within the show.

Spoiler for and so on:

I especially liked that really deliberate (?) and formal way in which the palace attendant talked to Barusa, and I loved the quiet and delicate way the female attendants opened the doors to Barusa's most intricate and grand room (god, what a futon!)
I was also surprised at how serious and queen-like Chagum's mother was. I guess I'm too used to the usual queens you see in anime who are all kind and benevolent (or batshit crazy). Not to say she wasn't a kind mother who cared for a child, but she acted very fittingly. I liked how this sort of broke down slowly later - she kept it up until Barusa very calmly appeared to turn her offer down which of course must have gotten her desparate for totally understandable reasons.

...and now I've forgotten the rest of what I wanted to say, which is in fact perfectly fine since I've yapped on enough.

One last thing though, I still still still wish they had an instrumental opening... *grumbles* I guess I wasn't expecting such an upbeat/light mood to the show. Same goes with the music, maybe I'm spoiled by Kunihiko Ryo or I'm just biased against Kenji Kawai (this is true I think), but I didn't think it matched up to the rest of the show. But that's okay, this is already pretty great as it is.

And now let's just hope they keep it up.

[Jazzrat]

I know this is very minor but if you look at the scene at the night market where Barsa was eating, you see a lot of effort by the animator to keep everyone moving and animated. Very similar to the qualities in GITS:SAC SSS.

Another memorable one is the song the children at the rice field was singing. It really made that scene come to life for me.

Watching this gave that old nostalgia of the old chinese "wu xia" movie feeling (without the remote controlled magic sword of course )

[Iwanihana]

Here is a plot summary of episode 1 in clean point form. Hope this helps.

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by monir

I didn't watch this episode. I drank it.

Spoiler:

How much did they blow on those rice field to capture the detail? A trillion yen?

Anime like these make one feel that it is good to be an anime-fan. Let the Spring season begin.

Those screenies are so gorgeous that it makes me forgive the lame-ass anachronistic OP song.

[Sonhex]

I'm a little late to the party, but what the heck - it's awesome and I love it. Barsa is truly an inspired heroine, refreshingly honest and funny, and everything else such as music (gosh I actually liked the OP, believe it or not), acting (I had forgotten how sexy Mabuki Andou's husky voice is!) and the omg backgrounds (stunning is not the word!) is almost too good to believe. The art direction is jaw dropping in places and better than many anime movies I've seen and that's no exaggeration. The fact it does exceed every expectation is a fantastic revelation.

Okay, on the downside the ED is shamefully banal and I did feel the direction was very safe rather than doing something imaginative, but it does not detract in anyway from the sheer beauty of it. But yeah the big question - can they keep it up for 26 episodes? Well I think they'll try especially if they have the budget (which they have) and since we haven't even seen any intense action yet I think it'll even go one step further. Just how further is possible remains to be seen, but it will be awesome to find out.

Spoiler for ep1 spoilerish thoughts:

And, er, I guess it would be a little too predictable if Barsa had lost a child in her youth and thus explains her protective whims toward Chagum? Actually I quite liked the way Chagum instantly defended his mother when he thought Barsa had upset her. It's interesting to contrast this child with the more heroic lad in the ED. But the complete absence of Barsa from the ED bother me for some reason...

[issei]

i didn't even bother watching the OP or ED at all; the songs seem so wildly inappropriate, and beyond that, i'd have to mute the sound to be able to tolerate watching the animation. small price to pay, though, if the overall quality matches episode 1's.

now that some time's passed after my initial reactions, the central draw to the series for me is definitely in the details, such as:

Spoiler:

+ barusa dropping proper payment for her untouched food at the open-air market (which was, itself, beautifully animated, and, by the way, that top-down shot of barusa's bowl of food made me so goddamn hungry!)

+ barusa's conversation with the old man in the very beginning of the episode
+ the uncovering and covering of barusa's spear at various moments
+ chagum's mother's methods of negotiation
+ spittle flying from the bull's mouth
+ chagum nodding off at first during the conversation between barusa and his mother -- because, after all, he's still a kid

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by Sonhex

Spoiler for ep1 spoilerish thoughts:

And, er, I guess it would be a little too predictable if Barsa had lost a child in her youth and thus explains her protective whims toward Chagum?

That's not how it is.

Spoiler:

When Barsa was a child, she was saved from death by her teacher, Jiguro, and 8 other people. Those 8 people died protecting her, so Barsa vowed to become a yojimbo (bodyguard) and protect 8 other people in her life. Chagum would be the last of those.

[Joojoobees]

The artwork is gorgeous. I can't understand a word of it, but it looks beautiful. There is a lot of care put into the way light is handled. The yak or whatever that creature was pulling the carriage on the bridge looks great. The level of detail in every background seems incredible.

Spoiler for basket peddler BG:

I'm really looking forward to seeing this series with subtitles, so I can understand what is said.

Since it is already pre-licensed by Geneon, are there any guesses as to how long it will take to arrive stateside?

[Crystal_Method]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

It's an alternate world if i m not wrong that's loosely based on the Heian period of Japan.

Yea, that makes sense.

Spoiler:

I was thinking it might be China from all those rice patties in the first scene.

Originally Posted by MrProphet

That's not how it is.

Spoiler:

When Barsa was a child, she was saved from death by her teacher, Jiguro, and 8 other people. Those 8 people died protecting her, so Barsa vowed to become a yojimbo (bodyguard) and protect 8 other people in her life. Chagum would be the last of those.

Spoiler:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if she's doing this for some kind of redemption or payback(can't really think of a good word to describe it.) wouldn't she do it for free? I mean I know she didn't take that whole chest of valuables, but she did take the bag of money she was first given, which I have no doubt has a good amount of money. Or maybe I'm being to unrealistic...