Category: Seirei no Moribito

It’s episodes like this one where you can see the fruits of the huge amount of time that the previous episodes have spent on building up. For those who were hoping for the plot to get moving: this one’s it, and this is not an episode you’d want to miss. The central event in this episode had to be Shuga, who ran into Chaggumu, making him and Barsa aware that people are after them. The result was an excellent episode. In the end, Barsa will not allow people to take Chaggumu away from her. When she made the vow, she didn’t only promise to protect Chaggumu, she’d also take care of him like a mother. Not only that, but this episode also placed a barrier between Barsa and Chaggumu, especially after he learned that Saggumu had died. But the real star of this episode had to be Tooya, when he tried to outsmart the warriors without knowing anything, by setting Barsa’s house on fire. With this, he hoped to warn Barsa that something happened, and he succeeded in this. But I loved how he just surrendered after it, since there would be no way to escape from these guys. I don’t know why, but somehow I love this reasoning. It must’ve been extremely hard for him to be lectured by the guy who he thought to be his friend, but turned out to be a member of these warriors. Thing is, I have absolutely no idea what will be happening after this. Barsa, Tanda and Chaggumu will probably go to Torogai-shi, but what happens after that? What will be the next step of the warriors? Will Yin find Chaggumu? How will the king react? What about Rarunga? I have absolutely no idea.]]>

I’ve wondered about this ever since Chaggumu “died”, but why did it take this long for people to pick up Chaggumu’s body from the canyon? Wouldn’t people need his body, because it’s holy, royal, important and inhabited by the egg of the water-spirit? Why on earth would people leave it there, when this episode showed that covering your mouth is enough to avoid getting suffocated by the fog? Anyway, this episode finally shoed me what the previous eight episodes had been missing: the four warriors that Barsa battled in episode three. Without them, this anime just isn’t complete, and only they make the best out of the huge amount of detail that went into the scriptwriting. The slice-of-life elements were nice and all, but their only role was to flesh out the different characters and develop Chaggumu. The political elements were interesting, but they’ll never beat those of Saiunkoku Monogatari, and the fight of episode 13 was great, but it never had any relation to the main story, making it feel a bit empty. But these four warriors all change this when they show how carefully they carry out their work. I’m glad to see that Seirei no Moribito is finally moving forward again. 🙂 It’s a shame that WRex has stopped doing his summaries for this series, as I rather relied on him to fill in the blanks I didn’t understand. It’s going to be tricky now to find out the new intentions of the four warriors. They’re still after Chaggumu, but do they want to capture him and take him in alive, or does he need to get killed?]]>

Okay, so I was wrong. This episode still spent its time building up. There were a number of events important in this episode: Saggumu’s fate, getting Shuga, who finally has been convinced that Chaggumu is still alive out of the library, and the fact that Chaggumu will certainly die if something isn’t done, because a certain “Rarunga” will be after his life once the egg inside of him has developed past a certain stage. For the latter, Barsa and Chaggumu will be going on a journey to try and find a way to stop this. Still, I’m getting worried. The episode was nice and all, but it should be about time for Seirei no Moribito to get fired off. The fact that there is a huge amount of detail doesn’t impress me anymore about this show, and I’m really hoping that the plot will turn up a gear in one of the next episodes. Lots of building up can be nice and all, but if the things they’re building up for are unimpressive, then the building-up would have been for naught. I’m not sure what happened to Saggumu, to be honest. The entire episode seems to suggest that he’s feeling unwell, and that cliff-hanger seemed to suggest that he actually died at the end of the episode! I suspect that he just needed a lot of sleep, but still, I’m surprised that his health is so bad.]]>

This one’s another plot-heavy episode, in which a few new things get explained regarding Chaggumu, by both Torogai-shi (who returns) and Shuga. We also get to see quite an exciting chase (god, that Torogai-shi is quite tough for her age), and Shuga gets locked up. Intentionally or by accident, I don’t know, however. In any case, the reason why Torogai-shi went on a trip was to speak with a colony of water-spirits. Shuga meanwhile acquires the favour of two of the palace guards, so tat he can finally get a chance again to look at the old library we saw him in a couple of episodes ago, when he was ordered to research Chaggumu by Seidoushi. They both find out the same thing (and please, PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong, because it’s a MAJOR plot twist): Chaggumu’s existence won’t cause the drought. It seems that two-hundred years, a similar story happened, when another boy got implanted with the egg of the water-spirit. If I understood things correctly, this boy eventually transformed into a water-spirit himself, and had to be slayed by the royal guards. Will the same thing happen to Chaggumu, or can he somehow be saved? Also, if you pay close attention to the episode, you see that Chaggumu is starting to behave like a mother to the egg inside of him. That really was kind of cute. ^^; This episode also introduced a new party: the fire-nation, as one of their beings starts attacking Torogia-shi. I’m not sure why, it either doesn’t like intruders, or it doesn’t like Torogai’s involvement with the water-spirits. In any case, I really enjoyed this episode. It was fairly easy to understand it, in terms of Seirei no Moribito, and I feel like I’ll be able to rely on other people’s summaries for the things that I missed, unlike the previous episode, where it took me a week to realize that the “ronin” actually was the leader of the royal hunters that noticed Barsa.]]>

Whoa! I can’t believe I was right about this episode, as for the first time since episode 3 we see another fighting-scene and holy god… that was awesome. I can’t believe how scary Barsa can be when she’s angry! Fans of the series will definitely rejoice with this episode! The story that holds this episode together is another complicated one, but I’ll try my best to understand it. Remember the guy from the previous episode, who got surprised when he saw Barsa fighting? Well, he indeed knows her, though he appears to have quite a bad relationship with her. From what I understood, at one point Barsa had the chance to kill him when he suffered from something (starvation?), but she didn’t. I can imagine that this would rather crack his honour, so now he wants revenge. I just know I missed something in this. Mostly because it was at that point where Barsa began to value life, and she began to see that every man was equal. It seems that at that time, the guy already was a big jerk, and she just couldn’t kill such a miserable person. Or something similar. Before he directly attacks her, he first decides to play with her a bit, and threatens to kill a couple of travellers unless she protects them, thus involving two innocents in his revenge. His henchman then continues to whirl projectiles at both her and the travellers, and it seems that he makes sure that Barsa doesn’t get any sleep for the night, meaning that she lost a bit of concentration. He also poisons the wells that she passes, in order to make her unable to drink. Still, that doesn’t seem to do anything to her, apart from making her even angrier at him, and she ends up cutting him in such a way to make him lose his memory. I can’t believe she really lost her temper against that guy. The travellers also play a role bigger than just “victims”. They’re a boy, along with his teacher who seem to be heading for some kind of destination. The boy doesn’t seem to like Barsa, and after all, when a strange woman starts following you and suddenly you get assaulted by strange causes, you’d blame that woman. The plan of the assaulter was probably to let his henchman kill the duo, while he kept Barsa busy, though the boy seemed to be strong enough to knock out this henchman. They then become involved even more when the teacher wants to go to Barsa, and they see her strike the guy down. There were two peculiar things about this fight, by the way: – At times, Barsa took the shape of a tiger. – The strike that Barsa dealt clearly caused blood to flow from the guy’s face, and next thing the blood and even the cut are nowhere to be seen. This suggests that Barsa can do supernatural techniques, just like Torogai. The questions remain: how, why and what? How was she able to do it? Why did she start to learn them? And what exactly can she do with them? Also, what was up with the wall with the strange markings on it? The question also remains: how far will the travellers become involved with the story? And how will this episode push the plot forward? The guy as now forgotten about Chaggumu, so he can’t tell anyone about it. Will his henchman do something? In any case, I’m really excited about Seirei no Moribito right now, as the plot has finally started to move forward, and something tells me we’re in for an awesome second half!]]>

You know, my prediction might actually come true. It’s quite possible that this has been the last of the quiet episodes for a while. Either that, or the next episode is spent on the transition from the first half of the series to the second half. The reason I believe this is because of two very subtle hints that were given near the end of the episode. Basically, this episode was about a local festival. It mainly focuses on Chaggumu’s relationship with his new friends, though the more important issue is that lots of people are attracted to this festival, and there’s no way of knowing whether some of these people have something to do with Chaggumu. Barsa, of course, forbids Chaggumu to go there, but in the end, Chaggumu remains a kid, and not to mention that he placed a bet with one of the local village kids. This kid insulted both Chaggumu and Mikado, and Chaggumu challenged him to a fight during the festival to make him apologize. If he were to lose, he and his friend would have to eat slugs. The thing is, that for the first time in the entire anime, Barsa makes a mistake. There’s actually nothing suspicious about a bunch of kids fighting, but when Chaggumu actually wins (by use of his brains, rather than muscles), the guy refuses to apologize and uses his father, who happens to be the strongest fighter in the village to get out of things. Barsa then decides to teach this guy a lesson, and if you pay close attention to the audience after the fight (she obviously wins), e see one ronin-like person who gets surprised at the huge skills of this woman, who just beat the strongest guy in the village with ease. Something tells me that he heard about the woman with incredible skills who protected Chaggumu before he died, and I suspect he’ll go and investigate. The second hint backed this up even more. Notice the frog and the snake at the end of the episode? Well, if that isn’t symbolic foreshadowing then I don’t know anymore. I’m looking forward to the next episode to see if my theory on this is correct. Also, it’s great to see some actual fighting-scenes again. While they weren’t as spectacular as episode three, they were full of detail. Chaggumu may not have the largest amount of strength, he fully utilized the strength of his opponent. I also love Chaggumu’s determination. He’s not scared at all to take risks to achieve his goals, and this episode did a god job in fleshing out his character.]]>

Personally, I really liked this episode. It focuses on Tooya and Saya, and especially the two of them get a bit of development. It seems that they’re not siblings after all. Saya seems to be the daughter of a rich family, and through some circumstances that I didn’t manage to pick up got to live together. At the beginning of the episode, we see Tooya being down, since the family took her in again. The problem is, though, that Saya collapsed afterwards. It’s not really an illness, but it seems that her spirit left her body. The culprit seems to be a ceremonial offering of rice and a bowl of water with a water lily on it (hanazake is what Tanda calls it). It combined with Saya’s worries to make her soul split from her body. Tanda manages to get her back, though, with a bit of magic of his own. He’s able to leave his body as well through a ritual, and gets Saya back, bringing her and Tooya a bit closer together. I remember that tj han recently wrote an entry about how romance can only be done with pretty characters, but I think that Tooya is making a good start to change this. Something interesting happened when Tooya and Saya’s story was resolved (which was too cute, by the way), though. Tanda either found himself unable to return, or he was so caught up in being a spirit that he didn’t want to return. I can imagine that that might turn out bad if attempted for too long. Not to mention that Tanda soon finds out that he can travel immense distances by just going through a wall. The animals he sees there are huge. I really wonder how this will be used in the future episodes. Luckily, he realizes this in time and contacts Chaggumu through the egg, and Barsa manages to save him because of this. In any case, we’re now at episode 11, which means two episodes until episode 13, my predicted turning-point of this series. The next episode will probably be another quiet episode, like the past few have been, and something tells me that the plot will start moving with episode 13.]]>

Remember any anime in which a member of royalty suddenly becomes a commoner? Well, all of them have the obligatory episode in which this royal person ends up in a crowded place, and has to get accustomed to the customs of the normal people, and often ends up doing something completely reckless. This was exactly such an episode. I kept wondering where it went. While it was a bit disappointing to see nothing of Shuga, the episode itself focuses on Tooya, who finally managed to find Barsa, Tanda and Chaggumu. Barsa then asks him to take Chaggumu and explore the shopping areas of the city a bit, while Barsa would keep an eye on them from afar. The two of them eventually end up near a group of entertainers who are hosting a local gambling game. Basically, you spin three coins in a round bowl, and try to guess how many coins fall with their shiny side up. Chaggumu manages to see that the entire game is just being manipulated, though initially he doesn’t do anything about it. Only when Tooya takes the initiative, but fails he gets in action and unmasks the guys. While the plot progression in this episode was ridiculously close to zero, I quite liked the last quarter of it, when Chaggumu unmasked the plan, and people started to cheer on him. We’re only three episodes removed from episode thirteen, a point at which most anime insert some kind of climax to mark their halfway point. I wonder if Seirei no Moribito will be doing the same, or will it really be waiting till a random point until it takes off? Looking at the pacing of the past ten episodes, there really is no way to be able to predict this.]]>

A Shuga-episode. After episode seven, I thought he’d immediately conclude that Chaggumu is still alive, but in the end, it wasn’t that simple. Chaggumu meanwhile makes a few friends. After an absence of an episode, Shuga returns. We first see him talk with Chaggumu’s mother. She believes that Chaggumu is still alive at that point. Call it a mother’s intuition. A bunch of children meanwhile comes to visit the house Chaggumu and Barsa are staying in, thinking the old guy still lives in it. Chaggumu of course doesn’t know what to say to them, and remains silent. Barsa then arrives and let them in. People are meanwhile very busy finding out why the drought is still being predicted. Shuga gets rather angry at them, as they seem to act like Chaggumu never had anything to do with it. It does make sense, though. I originally believed that they’d question the reports of Chaggumu’s death, but instead the machine who did the prediction is re-investigated. Because of this, people have forgotten all about Chaggumu. Then why did he have to be sacrificed in the first place for all this? He then sees Gakai with some servants search his room, and take away his research, or something similar. They intend to deliver it to Saggumu, who requested it, though somehow Shuga doesn’t approve to this. He then forcibly tries to take it back, but fails, knocking over Gakai in the process. Saggumu then calls him for a visit. He then tells him about how Chaggumu used to love animals, and we saw a flashback of the two of them while they were younger. Chaggumu accidentally knocked a rare bird out of the sky with a rock, and then he begged his brother to somehow save it. If I’m not mistaken, then that same bird resides now in Saggumu’s office. He then returns the papers with Shuga’s research. If I had to guess, then he did this because they’d otherwise be destroyed because of Chaggumu’s death. Shuga, however, refuses to accept them, saying that he doesn’t need them anymore. I’m not sure what was up with that, though. Chaggumu, meanwhile gets forced by Barsa to make a few friends. Clearly, the two of them really have it easy now, and they’re able to relax a bit. I really wonder how long this will last. The final part of the episode focuses on Shuga, who probably abandoned looking after the prediction-machine and went out to the country in order to find the true cause of the drought. Eventually, he runs into Tanda, collecting food for probably the night’s dinner. They talk a bit, and eventually Tanda shows him the egg of a praying mantis. I’m not sure how that could lead to him thinking that Chaggumu is still alive, but it does. We’ll have to wait till the next episode till we find out what he does with this. It’s good to see that this anime has been doing a lot of building up, but I hope that the second half will be a bit more exciting. The past few episodes have been interesting, but the sense of conflict has just disappeared. If I had to guess, then Shuga will continue to investigate on Chaggumu and then he’ll find out that he’s still alive. Starting from that point, Seirei no Moribito could get very interesting. But until then, I’m going to enjoy the quiet moods of the episodes.]]>

Whoa… this probably was the hardest to understand episode yet! Anime like Seirei no Moribito and Saiunkoku, who already feature lots of talking, sometimes have a tendency to show entire episodes who just focus on a bunch of people talking, with nothing more. This was one of these episodes. Eighteen minutes just play inside a small blacksmith’s house, nothing else. No flashbacks, other characters, nothing. Well then, there was one thing I did understand: Barsa’s spear had been quite damaged, so she goes to a famous blacksmith in order to get a new one. At the end of the episode, we see her happily practicing with her spear. What happened between these scenes was extremely different to grasp. I do suspect that the blacksmith wasn’t keen on helping Barsa at first. This is probably because of her past, and judging by the fact that Tanda had to heal her quite often, she probably frequented his place as well. Either that or he’s seen her wanted-posters. Then, after a while, two of the hunters enter the shop, picking up some swords that they ordered. What follows is a long discussion, between the blacksmith and the hunters, while Barsa and Chaggumu hide out in a different room. The blacksmith nearly betrays them when he tells the hunters that their swords are in the same room where they’re hiding out in. At the last moment, though, he changes his mind, and puts up a discussion, so that it’ll be natural for him to pick up the swords himself. At least, that’s what I suspect. To find out the subject of this discussion, I’m probably going to have to wait till Wrex posts his summary, but I suspect he was telling them about Barsa’s history with her father. The way Barsa looked seems to suggest this. The hunters then compare this story with probably Chaggumu’s. This really was a discussion you’d expect in a novel, not in an anime like that. But still, I liked it, even though I didn’t understand a word of it. The music also was amazing, near the end of the episode. I was surprised we saw nothing of Shuga. You’d suspect that this episode would show him talk to various people, to convince them that the drought isn’t over, but we saw nothing of him. Torogai-shi also was absent.]]>