Anime: Seirei no Moribito

This anime series is on my top 10 anime list and it's a new series, the last episode (ep. 26) being aired in Japan last September. "Seirei no Moribito" is based on the first novel of a fantasy series written by Uehashi Nahoko. The title stands for "Guardian of the Sacred Spirit" and the story is as the title depicts! The anime is set in a world much like ancient Japan or even a bit of ancient China. I'm really into this historical fantasy genre ("Juuni Kokki" and "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" also being on my top 10 list!). Anyway, the story starts off with a female spear warrior called Balsa (who works as a bodyguard in order to atone for a past sin) saving the life a young 12-year-old royal prince of named Chagum. Due to several assassination attempts (because Chagum was believed to be carrying the egg of a water fiend/spirit) by the Emperor, Balsa ends up being his bodyguard and takes him away to be hidden.

To summarise, this story concentrates on the mother-child relationship between Balsa and Chagum and shows how Chagum copes with the trials of being the so-called guardian of the egg. There are a lot of very cool fighting sequences (a spear is really cool if one knows how to use it!), really touching moments and even humorous ones. All the characters were developed really well and at a good pace. Some people might find this series a little too slow for their liking, but to each his/her own. Trust me, it really picks up near the middle of the series and the ending is totally worth it! I give it 9.8/10.

Oh, almost forgot, another plus for this series is the music, especially the opening and closing themes. The opening theme is a song by L'Arc~en~Ciel called Shine and the closing theme is called Itoshii Hito e by Tainaka Sachi. Please help yourself to the songs, let me know if you like them. :D

And so ends my backlog of posts! Finally! By the way, I apologise for bombarding my blog with so many new posts over the week! I'll try to space it out better next time, hehe. Anyway, till later, people! xxx