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

[Sorrow-K]

Ep 14

That is one lucky rabbit...

Interesting ep, with a number of important plot twists, but I did find it interesting that they chose to be so subdued about the revelations in this ep. I suppose part of it is that characters (Torogai in particular) didn't really have time to dwell on the implications of these revelations, since she was too busy trying to survive, and we obviously still don't know the full story regarding the mystery as of it, but characters (particularly Shuga) seemed more perturbed by the fact that Chagum has gone through "hell" needlessly than the fact that the history books have lied to them. I suppose it's an indication of the fact that the former is more central to the story than the latter, but I hope that doesn't mean that they're just going to quickly pass over the true events of the founding of the empire... or, worse, not deal with it at all.

On the other side, everything seems to be an adventure in this show. Well, it is fantasy anime after all. It'll be interesting to see what role the fire people and the other mystical beings (including the mysterious one(s) that helped Torogai escape) play in the story.

[TinyRedLeaf]

On Episode 14:

Like SeijiSensei, I loved the gorgeous ink-painting depiction of Yogo's founding myth. And as for the plot twists, curiously, now that I've watched the subs, I get the same feeling that Sorrow-K mentioned -- it feels odd that the revelation of the truth doesn't shock Shuga as much as I thought it should.

I echo Shuga's question -- how is that no one knows the true story behind the Yogo's foundation? And more importantly, why did the founders of the New Yogo Empire choose to leave a record in stone, while distributing a fabricated myth in paper? I mean, if you really wanted to change history, then you ought not to have left any trace of the truth in the first place.

Shaman Torogai is one spry granny. I don't know how literally I should take her comment about having lived only half her life so far -- err...is it politic to ask how old she is?

Poor bunny-mouse -- it now knows how much it means to its owner.

[physics223]

I'm so going to watch this show. Just you wait. ¬.¬

[ZippyDSM]

dang I hate it was godly shows like this get picked fast,whos localizing it?

BTW can someone add this to the Licensed list in anisukis main search system?

to me to have a data base of whats Licensed and whats not and then have info links to them is as important as the torrents if not more so.

[MrProphet]

It's distributed by Geneon. Arguably the best anime distributor in the US (my opinion, of course).

[ZippyDSM]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

It's distributed by Geneon. Arguably the best anime distributor in the US (my opinion, of course).

Geneon....mmmmmm no...they raped saiyuki and made charatcers that did not cuss cuss constantly...

Altho this dose not have a modern vibe to it so they might not try so hard to "localize" the dub, for me its translation over Americanization or its boycott nation.....

Geneon and ADV are the some of the worst with "localizing" I wish Funi would keep to high "translation" standards but they don't always.

Oh well back to my cave :P

[EasyPrey]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

I echo Shuga's question -- how is that no one knows the true story behind the Yogo's foundation? And more importantly, why did the founders of the New Yogo Empire choose to leave a record in stone, while distributing a fabricated myth in paper? I mean, if you really wanted to change history, then you ought not to have left any trace of the truth in the first place. (emphasis added)

The introduction of "fire people" was ominous. The way they just burned the paper from Torogai's hand lead me to believe that they have the power to to burn anything combustible. I was also taken back by the emphasis given by Shuga that the first Holy Sage spent significant resources to have the truth carved in stone. We know that the fire people can burn any paper (like the paper burned from Torogai's hand). We also know that stone is immune to fire.

Spoiler for Pure Speculation (not a spoiler) about the reason for preserving the history in stone tablets:

It am willing to predict that the "water people" and "fire people" don't exactly mix and match. Either they are enemies, or they want the other side to be destroyed, for their own benefit. Either way you look at it, fire and water are each other natural enemies.

I can see the first emperor striking a deal with the "fire people" and came up with that BS history of founding the empire. The first Holy Sage (and possibly the current one as well) is cognizant of what the fire people can do to them. So they go around trying to kill the "egg" of the water people.

The first Holy Sage (being a smart guy), knew or predicted that someday the fire people will betray them as well. That is why he spent significant resourses of the empire in preserving the truth, in a format that the fire people could not destroy.

-EasyPrey

[MrProphet]

Episode 16 aired.

Spoiler for spoilers:

Mon, Jin and Shuga confirmed that Chagum's "death" was a hoax.



And Sagum is officially dead.



Now that the Emperor has no heir, Shuga persuades him to look for Chagum. He and the Hunters search the city.

[MrProphet]

Sorry for double post, but this just hit me.

I know everyone thought of Barsa being the local Motoko for obvious reasons, but this just dawned on me. The Hunters are Section 9. Mon is Motoko, the cool no-nonsense commander and Jin is Batou, "her" impatient and brash deputy. 8)

[EasyPrey]

The blog for episode 16 is out. The author gets 'A' for effort, but unfortunately gets a 'C' as a translator. Like so many people, author just does not know enough Japanese to be able to blog this complex show properly. Still, I do not want to discourage this author, since this is just about the only ongoing blog for this series.

http://psgels.blogsome.com/2007/07/2...o-moribito-16/

Why, oh why, did Wrex stop blogging this series?

-EasyPrey

[wao]

No! I stop following this thread for a while and find out wrex has stopped blogging it?! Why?!!! I'm going to emo in a corner for a while now. (Okay, he hasn't actually said he has, right? He's just not done it since episode 14...)

What the heck, even I have problems understanding the dialogue in this show and I can't be arsed to rewatch it 90% of the time, so I used to rely quite a bit on them to get what was going on for dialogue-heavy episodes. Oh well.

Maybe I should put it on hiatus after all, I kind of stopped at 14 and haven't welled up the energy to watch it... not that I'm saying it sucks, but I just feel darn lazy.

And the "local Motoko". Heh. Now you've got the image of a multinational Motoko franchise spreading out into the land of any anime...

[MrProphet]

Episode 15 was really good if you like Shuga.

Episode 16 was really good if you like the Hunters.

Episode 17 onwards should more or less start building up towards the finale. I think they are done with the mid-part.

[EasyPrey]

I just can't get over the "fire people". How they burned the notes from Torogai's hand (when she was trying to write everything down), so she could remember precisely what the water people told her.

As I said earlier, I think that "fire" and "water" are each other's natural enemies. One theory that I can come up with is that if the fire people keep killing the water spirit's egg, then eventually, there would not be any water left.* I.E. The place will turn into an inferno eventually.

* I am aware of the fact that scientifically water is neither created nor destroyed. It just cycles between solid, liquid and gas. However, this is a fantasy, so it is possible that, in this world, water is "created" by the water spirit.

Episode 17 predictions.

This is based upon the preview of episode 17 (from watching episode 16). Please note that I have this is strictly speculation and could be a spoiler if my prediction turns out to be true. Caveat emptor.

Spoiler for Episode 17 predictions:

We saw that how in episode 17's preview, Balsa's place will be on fire. I think that the fire people are the ones that started it.

It may be just a matter of time, before the fire people step in (to suppress the truth). One way or another, I think the fire people (and not the first emperor) will turn out to be the "villain" of this series.

-----

About episode 14: I was taken back by the resemblance between the first emperor and the current emperor. The same hold true for the eight warriors of the emperor. They just look like mirror images, almost to be point of being creepy.

The only explanation I could come up with is that the empire has contracted Dr. Evil to produce identical copies of themselves.

-EasyPrey

[lommm]

i wonder if the other elements have 'people'

air/wind people? earth people? heart people? oh wait, that last one is just Mati...




also. back in the spirit walking ep, we saw the other side. and Torogai is able to take her physical self there as well. so...

Spoiler for info after ep 15:

does this mean that the fish people and fire people can for sure do the reverse and travel to this side? and if people who die go to that side, can sagum's spirit come back?

[TinyRedLeaf]

I'm looking forward to seeing Episode 16 subbed. Let me put it this way -- the episode held my attention even though I only understood about 25% of it.

My (incomplete) impressions:

Spoiler for Episode 16:

Yup, it's another "talky-talky" episode, but you get the sense that things are in motion, so it actually feels quite exciting. Shuga and the shadow hunters realise at last that Chagum is still alive. Moreover, Shuga realised that Tanda (whom he met in Ep. 9) is connected to Balsa and Tohya. They stake-out Tohya's house, and follow Tohya as he makes a delivery to Balsa's watermill.

And what a stakeout it was! Apparently, Yun has a photographic memory, and memorised an entire ledger in less than a minute! That scene alone (from 15:37 to 16:50) makes this episode an absolute "win" for me.

Balsa is one rich bodyguard. She leads Chagum to one of her caches of silver, which she has been saving for emergencies, it seems. No wonder then that she is so nonchalant when it comes to spending money. I wonder how much it costs to hire her -- her fee is probably very exorbitant, not unlike Itto Ogami of Lone Wolf and Cub fame (except, of course, that Itto Ogami was an assassin rather than a bodyguard ).

By the way, I've come across some blogs that wondered how much time has passed in the story. If you observe the height of the rice in the closing scenes, I'd guess it has been around three to six months since Chagum fled the palace. The rice had just been planted when Balsa and Chagum moved into the watermill, and is now nearly ready for harvest it seems, and that would take around three to six months depending on the variety of rice being grown.

(I don't know about other viewers, but it's the little details like these that fascinate me. SnM continues to make me feel as though I were watching a live-action series, and that's a rare achievement for any anime.)

Basically, if you've wondered why the anime seems to have dragged on for so long, then consider how much time is supposed to have passed by since Balsa and Chagum have gone into hiding. Obviously, if you're trying to keep a low profile, nothing much exciting would happen.

On a negative note, the animation quality slipped noticeably in a few scenes, for example, during the market scene from 21:45 to 22:25. But overall, the art quality remains quite high, so such slippages are quite easily forgivable.

[SeijiSensei]

I'm becoming a bit concerned about when we'll see the rest of this series subbed, and it's has nothing to do with the fansub group's efforts.

The subbing group's tracker owner has announced that he's taking the tracker offline on 9/1/07 for expense reasons. Yesterday the group's page reported an SQL (database) error. Today it doesn't respond at all. There's another well-known group on this tracker as well; I can't see its page either. I check the fansub group's forum page but didn't see any discussion of where it's tracker page will be housed.

Hope this situation clears up soon. Even if the tracker problems get resolved in the next day or so, I certainly can't imagine that the entire series will be completed in fansubs before September 1st.

I tried to obfuscate as much as possible here so I don't run afoul of the rules on licensed torrents. If I've gone over the lines, mods, please delete.

Edit: As of 3:20 pm EDT today the tracker files for this series have reappeared.

[ZippyDSM]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I'm becoming a bit concerned about when we'll see the rest of this series subbed, and it's has nothing to do with the fansub group's efforts.

The subbing group's tracker owner has announced that he's taking the tracker offline on 9/1/07 for expense reasons. Yesterday the group's page reported an SQL (database) error. Today it doesn't respond at all. There's another well-known group on this tracker as well; I can't see its page either. I check the fansub group's forum page but didn't see any discussion of where it's tracker page will be housed.

Hope this situation clears up soon. Even if the tracker problems get resolved in the next day or so, I certainly can't imagine that the entire series will be completed in fansubs before September 1st.

I tried to obfuscate as much as possible here so I don't run afoul of the rules on licensed torrents. If I've gone over the lines, mods, please delete.

Edit: As of 3:20 pm EDT today the tracker files for this series have reappeared.

Its still being worked on by the community so no fear ^^

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by ZippyDSM

Its still being worked on by the community so no fear ^^

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

it has nothing to do with the fansub group's efforts.

As I said, my concerns have nothing to do with the fansubbing group, for whom I have the greatest admiration for the fine job they are doing. My concerns are about the future availability of its tracker given the reported intention of its owner.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I loved ep16.

Spoiler for ep16:

Now the hunters are completely good guys, working for the good of Chagumu as well as of the kingdom. I like the fact that we saw them as good guys even before now. Will Balsa fight them again, mistakenly thinking they are out to kill him? Will it take a message from his mother to get her to stop? Will she and Chagumu keep travelling, with Chagumu growing as quickly as he has up to now? What a king he will be.

[lommm]

you know, they can always use any number of random anime trackers available if they lose theirs.

and there is always IRC/XDCC 8:{