Seirei no Moribito- Episode One [Balsa The Female Bodyguard]

Seirei no Moribito

This is the second anime I’ve watched this season involving an older woman and the boy-ward she protects. The first is of course Claymore. There are some similarities, but on the whole the two series feel completely different.

The setting for this series is (I believe) some kind of Pseudo-Korea. I personally wouldn’t have been able to discern this, but that’s what I’ve read elsewhere so I’ll trust it for right now. The series is based off a series of novels Nahoko Uehashi. Scholastic has the rights to release the novels over here (let’s hope they get it done!). Like Juunikoki (The Twelve Kingdoms), only the first storyline focuses on Balsa and Chagum. However, like Youko’s story, it’s that segment that this anime has decided to focus on.

I did enjoy the first episode quite a bit, and will be continuing. I liked it more than the pilot episode of Claymore as well. However, the Claymore manga does start out a bit slow, and I knew that already. Not being outstandingly thrilled from episode one was something I expected. Because I’ve read far in the manga, and trust Madhouse’s ability to animate the series, I believe Claymore will get extremely good later on. Because of that, I’m not going to say this series is better because the pilot is better. The fact that this series is based on a novel, and is only twenty-six episodes, makes me think that the possibility of redundancy is less. Let’s hope I’m right.

This was on my definites list for sheer virtue of the solid looking animation and overall pretty. I knew very little about the premise going into it, outside of the fact that it was about a female bodyguard given the task of protecting a boy who holds a sacred power within him. After the first episode, we still know very little. However, I did do a cut and dry quick summary of the plot as of so far.

Click ‘read more’ for summaries, images, etc.

First Episode Summary:

Balsa is a female bodyguard warrior who ‘for certain reasons’ killed eight people who were dear to her (I imagine we’ll get the obligatory tragic past later on). To repent, she has taken up this job so she can protect and save the souls of the amount of people whose lives she took. In a chance encounter, she saves the Prince of the Kingdom she’s traveled to after his Oxcart falls into a raging river. When they are underwater, a ‘barrier’ of some sort, seemingly coming from the boy- manifests around them. Balsa takes the prince to shore and after actually being scolded by some royal guards for being near him (despite the fact that she saved him, nice) and a commoner, leaves. Later on she is approached by a group of men who tell her the Second Empress would like to meet with her. Balsa agrees and is taken to the palace. After receiving a small reward for saving the Prince, she plans to leave. However, she is advised to stay the night. Agreeing to do so Balsa falls asleep (on the biggest futon known to man), and is woken up in the middle of the night by the Second Empress and her son, Chagum, the Prince she saved.

The Second Empress has a proposition. She would like to have Balsa take the job of protecting the Prince from an assination plot by the Emperor. Supposedly the oxcart incident from earlier was one of many attempts to kill him. The reason behind the Emperor’s desire for his death is that Chagum began having dreams a few months before in which he would mutter incomprehensible things (yeah of course this is going to be connected to that barrier from earlier). The Divine Star Seeker (I think that’s his title), revealed to them that he believed Chagum was possessed. Seeing this as a weakness in the royal family, the Emperor wanted the Prince dead.

The Second Empress wants Balsa to run away with him and become his permanent bodyguard, and after much discussion and reluctance- Balsa agrees (and tells her to have the soldiers trusted by the Empress set fire to Chagum’s room to distract the others). She tells the Empress that Chagum will be the eighth life she’s saved- and she runs off with him. Episode ends.

Characters so far:

Balsa- This female warrior will turn thirty the year the series begins, which is practically ancient for an anime heroine. Balsa is a warrior who, as stated above, is working to repent for the deaths of eight people who were dear to her. Balsa is calm and collected, but not completely lacking emotion. We see her smile at more than one point in the episode, and she seems fairly personable. However, it’s obvious she has her own unique ideals and likely prefers to work alone. It’s fairly obvious that she’s extremely intelligent and clever as well, with the true instincts of a warrior.

The Second Empress- Although we know little about her, I don’t know how major a role she’ll play so I’ll go ahead and profile her. The Empress appears to love her son very dearly, but at the same time hold some respect for the Emperor despite his actions. She tells her son ‘not to hate his father, as he believes he’s doing what’s best for the kingdom.’ However, she has enough of a spine to seek out a way to save him because she disagrees with his actions, and that’s where Balsa comes in. The Empress is perhaps a bit sheltered, and Balsa calls her naive.

Chagum- The Prince that Balsa is given the duty of protecting. He has some kind of supernatural power that manifested a barrier underwater even when he was unconscious. Chagum began muttering things in his sleep, and was diagnosed as being possessed. His mother told him that the minute the Emperor decided to assassinate him, he was no longer a prince. Chagum doesn’t show much of a personality in this first episode, as he spends most of it sleeping. However, he does get very angry when he feels someone may have insulted his mother, and is upset over having to leave her behind. He appears to be the secondary lead after Balsa.

Opening/Ending:

The opening song is quite memorable. It’s a L’Arc en Ciel (Ready Steady Go from FMA, Heart of Sword from Kenshin) song called Shine and as is usual with their stuff, is catchy and well done. The footage is nearly completely void of battle, and instead focuses almost entirely on the relationship (platonic, I’d hope) between Balsa an Chagum. Probably my second favorite opening of the season behind RxJ’s Inori~ You Raise Me Up.

The ending is a nice song, but not too impressive. It’s called Itoshii Hito E, by Sachi Tainaka. This season isn’t really wielding anything noteworthy as far as endings (then again last spring gave us the unmatchable Hare Hare Yukai, from Haruhi Suzumiya). The entire ending focuses on Chagum, which I found unusual. However, a minute of him slowly opening his eyes is a bit boring.

Animation/Voice Work:

This anime is clearly operating on a substantial budget, being Production IG’s big show this season. The character designs are beautiful, and yes, do look kind of like Blood +. The animation is solid and lushly detailed, and technically is probably better than that of Romeo x Juliet’s (although I still prefer RxJ’s overall look).

Both Balsa and Chagum are effectively voiced by relative newcomers, neither having had a major role before this. Chagum’s seiyuu is only fourteen, which is neat. It’s rare they actually use a male child to play one in anime.

Conclusion/Caps:

I’m surprised that most of my choices have panned out as well as they have. Yeah it’s only the first episodes, but even that’s an accomplishment. I’ve legitimately enjoyed all I’ve watched so far, and Seirei no Moribito can be added to that list.

As usual, here are some caps. There are nineteen. As with before, please don’t post them as your own. If you use them, a link back to this blog would be great so more people can discover its existence.

SEREI NO MORIBITO EPISODE ONE CAPS x 19

Thank you so much for reading.

-Haro