History Anime / SeireiNoMoribito

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Moribito_4761.jpg]]

''Seirei no Moribito'' (roughly translatable as 'Guardian of the Spirit' or 'Guardian of the Sacred Spirit') is the animation of the first book in the 'Moribito' series of Japanese fantasy novels, written by Nahoko Uehashi. It was animated by Creator/ProductionIG in 2007.

''Seirei no Moribito'' is set in a LowFantasy setting and a FantasyCounterpartCulture to Heian era Japan called the Yogo Empire, and is centered around the latest employment of Balsa, a wandering bodyguard, spearwielder and martial artist. When Chagum, the second son of the current emperor, suddenly becomes possessed by what the imperial sages call a 'water demon', the emperor finds little choice but to have the demon destroyed by killing Chagum. To protect the young prince, the empress secretly hires Balsa to 'kidnap' the prince and thus keep him safe from the reprisals of the court.

With the support of her childhood friend Tanda and crusty shaman Torogai, Balsa must keep the prince safe while living anonymously in the Yogo empire. Meanwhile at the palace, where Chagum has been quite popular, not everyone is happy with the emperor's decision. The star diviner Shuga, the older Prince Sagum, even the tutors, servants and warriors who serve the royal family are caught between orders and convictions. Before the winter ends, the characters will have to face several hard truths and decisions as they figure out just what they're supposed to do with the spirit.

The show began airing in North America as part of Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim block in September 2008, under the official English title of ''Moribito Guardian Of The Spirit''. It is now also available (with limited commercials) at [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/moribito Crunchyroll]] and [[http://www.hulu.com/moribito-guardian-of-the-spirit Hulu]], depending on your preference for subs or dubs. Creator/VizMedia recently acquired the series for a DVD and Blu-Ray rerelease, as well as for airing on Creator/NeonAlley.

You might be interested to also watch ''KemonoNoSoujaErin'' (''Beast Player Erin''), based on a novel by the same author.

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!!This anime provides examples of:

* ActionGirl: Balsa.
* AdaptationExpansion: The anime is based on a novel less than 300 pages long which doesn't have a tenth of all the details, characters, and events depicted in the series.
* AlienSky: The planet has two moons, one of which is [[SpiritWorld Nayug's]] sun.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Inverted with Balsa and Tanda.
* AnimalStereotypes: Torogai derisively calls their pursuers "hounds". Just like a pack of hunting dogs, they're fierce, tireless and loyal, and Torogai seems angry at their readiness to follow questionable orders.
* AntiVillain: The emperor and his sages, to begin with. In fact, it's probably safe to say that there ''are'' no flat-out evil characters in the series. Even Ra Runga could be considered more of a force of nature.
* AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost: Saya ends up this way after drinking wine with a sig salua flower in it.
* TheAtoner: Balsa wants to save eight lives, in exchange for eight lives that were taken in her defense, when she was a child. She also realized that doing this would only be meaningful if she [[ThouShaltNotKill didn't kill anyone while doing so.]]
* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: [[spoiler:Prince Chagum]], hidden among the crowd of commoners.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Chagum, after having a form of gambling explained to him for the first time, not only ''very'' quickly works out the odds involved, but also how the con-men running the game are rigging it. He ends up driving them out of business by winning everybody's money back, using the con artists' own tricks against them.
* {{Badass}}: Balsa takes on four elite royal guards near the beginning with a weapon that falls apart. She slashes one clear across the face, knees another firmly in the groin, and steps into an attack by their leader--taking a sword to the gut--to knock him out cold. She finishes her rounds shortly after by charging the fourth knocking him out with a rock.
** Her mentor, [[spoiler:Jiguro]], perhaps [[UptoEleven took this further]] by [[spoiler:killing ALL of the other King's Spears, the first two in one on one duels, and the last six at the same time!]] He even threw a rock when disarmed. Like teacher, like student...
* BadassAndChildDuo: Balsa and Chagum are a rare [[GenderInvertedTrope gender-inverted]] version. Also, Balsa and Jiguro as seen in flashbacks.
* BadassCrew: The aforementioned elite royal guards. It's no fault of their own that Balsa is simply more badass than they are.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Balsa leads an active and dangerous life, and apparently has picked up a number of scars. Are any of these scars visible normally? No.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Jin's very personal investment in Chagum's fate turns out to be because Chagum showed him sympathy after he'd been badly beaten for some unexplained transgression.
* {{Bishonen}}: A good sprinkling. Shuga in particular.
* BitterSweetEnding: [[spoiler:The egg is taken out of Chagum and the land is saved...but Chagum has to go back to the restrictive life of being a crown prince, as well as taking the credit for the triumph in order to benefit the throne, and he's separated from his friends. This particularly hurts when it comes to Balsa, who Chagum has come to love just as much as his mother, and vice versa. It's very unlikely they'll be allowed to see each other again.]]
* BladeOnAStick: Balsa's WeaponOfChoice.
* BoobsOfSteel: Not terribly obvious when she's in a kimono and using a {{Sarashi}}, but Balsa is ''racked and stacked.''
** This is obvious when she's wearing her normal clothes.
* CaptainErsatz: An in-universe example. An obsessed rival bodyguard discovered Balsa in hiding, and challenged her to a duel. He forced her into an exact copy of the guerrilla tactics Balsa used against him when she was trying to stop the slave traders he was guarding. Not only that, but he also abandoned his sword in favor of a spear in order to be more like her. This becomes particularly creepy when you realize that even his clothing appears to be a GenderFlipped copy of her style.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: The mikado must stay aloof and distant from everyone, including family, in order to rule effectively. Or at least that's the attitude of the court. Several characters question this at times.
* ChekhovsGun: Surely you didn't think that scene where Chagum and Sagum tossed up stones for the bird to eat, and then took care of it as it recovered was just to show Chagum's innocence and kindness, right?
** Not to mention "Flower Wine for Tanda," which initially seems to have almost no relevance to the storyline of the series, but [[spoiler:sets up the sig salua flower and its ability to create a link between the two worlds, which]] pays off in a major way in the last few episodes.
** Earlier, as the court's elite guard are searching about, they encounter Torogai, but not before she uses some mud to make a mystical clone of herself to fight and be a distraction to disable both guards. [[spoiler: She uses the same trick to create a fake Balsa and Chagum, letting be seen and "killed" in the presence of a group of elite guards while the real Balsa and Chagum take another route to safety. The ruse worked for months.]]
* ChristmasCake: In the first episode, it is revealed that Balsa has just turned 30 years old. In feudal-Japan-years, this practically makes her an OldMaid. Her evolving relationship with Prince Chagum is at least partially driven by the ticking of her biological clock echoing in her ears.
* ConMan: A couple of guys running a rigged gambling game in Episode 10. Unfortunately for them, Chagum turns out to have an uncanny aptitude for spotting shenanigans. [[spoiler:He goes up to the table, times his bets just right, and predicts the result of every single toss. Over and over. After he does it enough times, they're pretty much forced to give everyone their money back.]]
* ConflictKiller: [[spoiler:The Water Demon]].
* CoolBigSis: Balsa in a figurative way to Chagum.
* CoolOldLady: Torogai.
* CommonEyeColours
* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Tanda and Balsa, to each other, simultaneously, in episode eleven.
* DramaticDrop
* DroolHello: Torogai runs into a cave in Nayug, seeking an escape route. Something splashes onto the floor beside her, and she realizes she's run into a trap. [[spoiler: She gets out anyway... through the worm creature's digestive tract. Ick.]]
* ElementalEyeColours: Prince Chagum, who [[spoiler:carries the egg of a benevolent water spirit]]. He also has a noble, innocent personality typical of blue eyes.
* EyesAlwaysShut: Zen, one of the Hunters, constantly has his eyes closed. It doesn't in the least impede his ability to fight, naturally.
* FakingTheDead: Balsa sets fire to the Second Empress' palace as she leaves to give the impression Chagum died in the fire. Nobody is fooled for a second.
** Later, Torogai uses a gigantic wolf to [[spoiler:throw a fake Chagum and Balsa down a cliff into a valley filled with poison gas. The wolf brings up a cut part of the prince's real hair as "evidence" to throw off the guards. The real Balsa and Chagum have headed off another way.]] It works better, since the poison gas prevents them from going down and finding (or rather, failing to find) a body until much later.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Yogo is a counterpart of Heian-era Japan, complete with the immigrant Yogo people and the indigenous people who resemble the Ainu. Balsa's homeland of Kanbal resembles Mongolia or Tibet.
** There's also ''very'' heavy influence of Goryeo Korea on the setting, not that they were that different at the time. Overall the author wanted to evoke a general FarEast flavor rather than a specific counterpart culture.
* FishOutOfWater: Chagum, although he adapts ''very'' well.
* FishPeople: The Water Folk.
* FoodPorn: Every dish looks just so delicious and tasty that you start drooling. Look no further than the luxurious lavish meal Balsa gets served in Episode 1. In Japan, the novel series even includes a cookbook.
* FriendToAllChildren: Balsa kickstarts the entire story by becoming the bodyguard of Chagum, a young boy. She swiftly becomes a major MamaBear to him, as well as a ParentalSubstitute. Additionally, she met [[HeartwarmingOrphan Toya and Saya]] when she saved them from a group of thugs. Toya seems to regard her as an elder sister, and states that he would willingly "go through fire and water for her."
* GeniusBruiser: Balsa is highly intelligent as well as a capable warrior.
* GhibliHills
* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:The bear cub eaten by a Ra Runga]] in episode 25.
* HeadPet: Torogai has a cute little something-or-other that rides around on her headband. A flashback shows her carrying a whole litter of them.
* HotBlooded: Jin acts impulsively, loses his temper, and sometimes refuses to back off a tense situation, even under orders. Mon even takes him off of a mission because of it, saying that Jin has been known to get too invested in situations where Chagum is involved.
* IdiotBall - Around episodes 17 and 18. When Shuga [[spoiler: encountered Balsa and Chagum in the capital]], he might have dissolved the whole conflict if he hadn't been so high-handed. For Balsa's part, refusing to tell Chagum about the Rarunga even when he demanded that she explain the actions her knowledge was driving -- then taking him along to find out more about the thing, unprepared for the informant to mention the most notable fact about it [[spoiler: (that it wanted to kill and eat him)]] -- was uncharacteristically dumb.
* [[IllGirl Ill Guy]]: Crown Prince Sagum.
* ImportantHaircut: Chagum gets one to make him look less like a prince.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Balsa is not above decking someone with a rock to [[MamaBear save Chagum.]]
* IWillWaitForYou: Tanda has been waiting for Balsa to finish saving eight people so he can settle down and marry her...then he has to end up waiting a little longer! He indicates his impatience in a typically reserved, Tanda-like manner, but he can't bring himself to marry another, even though there seem to be eligible women who would be happy to settle down with him.
* KillItWithFire: The Ra Runga's weakness.
* LadyOfWar: Despite being quite the tomboy, Balsa is very graceful, elegant, and honorable in combat. However, she will drop all of that and start fighting dirty if that's what it takes to defend her charge.
* LongDeadBadass: [[spoiler: Jigaro.]] He defeats a dozen of fellow spear-wielders over the years, several at once, and trains young Balsa. The only thing that kills him is an illness, a few years prior to the main story.
* MamaBear: Balsa, who will do anything but kill someone in order to protect Chagum.
* MartialPacifist: Balsa will throw down and kick ass just as well as--actually, ''better than''--the rest of them, but she refuses to take a life.
* MarriedToTheJob: Why Balsa can't fully commit to Tanda.
* MiniatureSeniorCitizens: Torogai is either the shortest or second shortest amongst all the characters.
* MixAndMatchCritters: The wildlife in the anime ranges from normal-looking donkeys and dragonflies and mildly-tweaked frogs and wolves all the way to the very-alien Ra Runga--with some recognizable mix-and-matches thrown in. Torogai's HeadPet is a kind of bunny-mouse, and at one point in Nayug we see a four-winged skate-whale.
* NiceGuy: Tanda.
* NonActionGuy: Tanda, mostly.
* OldMaster: Torogai, and Jiguro.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The Water Folk.
* ParentalSubstitute: Balsa borders on this and CoolBigSis. Later in the series [[spoiler: she even gives a knife to Chagum, a symbolic tradition of coming of age from her home country]]. Earlier in the series Tanda points out that her vow to protect Chagum until he's safe means that for all intents and purposes she has become the boy's mother. Balsa is given the same treatment [[spoiler:in her youth, as she was protected by a friend of the family, the best spear-wielder in the realm.]]
* PosthumousCharacter: Jiguro
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Just about everybody.
* {{Reincarnation}}: When it's all over, the emperor declares Chagum to be the founding emperor Torugaru reborn.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Torogai's little black-and-white HeadPet ... thing.
* RousseauWasRight: Nearly everyone in this show is working either towards Chagum's safety, or for what they believe to be the good of the country.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething
* SadlyMythtaken: An InUniverse example: the official history of the empire states the founding emperor slew a water demon of the same kind that Chagum carries to end a drought; this is, to out it mildy, ''way'' off base...
** This theme, by the way, continues in the second novel. The legend goes that the Mountain King periodically gifts the people of Kanbal with the gemstones on which their economy depends; based on this, the villain plots to attack him and steal all his gems. However, the myth is only a pale metaphor, and to anyone who's seen the reality, this plan is utter nonsense.
* SceneryPorn: This anime has the lush GhibliHills of their "real world" and the strange, spectacular SpiritWorld, both shown in eventless, lingering shots and accompanied by the proper soundtrack. Moribito's Scenery Porn might as well be X-rated. It's that damn good!
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Torogai does not have time for your ignorance of the SpiritWorld, your UndyingLoyalty to a some emperor or any of that other crap! Young people...
* SecondaryCharacterTitle: The Guardian of the Spirits on the title is Prince Chagum, while the protagonist is Balsa, his bodyguard - or the guardian of the Guardian of the Spirits.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] like you wouldn't freaking believe. The characters are intent on making sure that the prophecy is played out to the letter (excluding that nasty part about the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit dying in the process), but coincidence seems intent on making sure that it doesn't: for example, a species of bird that plays a role in the prophecy being nearly extinct is something that the protagonists are ''very'' concerned about.
* ShelteredAristocrat: Chagum at first. The Queen knows that he's never experienced the outside world before and knows that she's asking a lot of Balsa, but he takes pretty quickly to learning how the real world works.
* ShipperOnDeck: Pretty much everyone who knows them seems to want Balsa and Tanda to get married already.
* SomeoneHasToDie: It eventually comes out that the hatching of the water spirit's egg involves the death of the carrier. Chagum is understandably rattled when he finds out.
* SpeakingSimlish: The Water Folk, although they let slip a few understandable terms like "Ra Runga", "Tamago" (egg) and "Nyunga Ro Chaga" (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit).
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Barsa/Balsa, La Lunga/Ra Runga, Naji/Naaji/Nahji
* SpiritWorld: Nayug.
* StandardRoyalCourt
* [[StarfishAlien Starfish Spirit]]: Ra Runga. It looks somewhat like a mix of an anemone and an irate, beaked squid. Or a [[StarWars sarlacc]].
* StayInTheKitchen: Jiguro initially refused to train Balsa because he thought women hadn't the muscles to fight. However, he changed his mind after seeing Balsa re-enact one of his battles for an audience.
* TheStoic: Balsa, most of the time.
* SwordSparks: Seen in most fight scenes. Particularly obvious in the ones taking place at night, like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdKiPOkh0K8 this one.]]
* ThemeNaming: Chagum and Sagum.
** The aliases used by the Mikado's agents are Yogoan numbers: Mon (mentioned by Shuga as the alias of the commander), Jin, and Zen are One, Two, and Three. The other five (Taga, Sun, Yun, Rei, and Hyoku) are of indeterminate order, but are Four through Eight.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Balsa, being TheAtoner.
* TitleDrop: In episode 5, applied to Chagum.
* {{Tomboy}}: Balsa.
* TongueTied: The servants of the Star Readers are frequently ordered to cover their faces with cloths bearing an arcane seal and ignore everything that is said in the room, while their masters are discussing highly secret and dangerous informations. [[spoiler:It's however purely symbolic and based entirely on trust in their loyalty, with no magical compulsion behind it. As things are getting worse, a group of them eventually conspires to get information to Shuga, which the master explicitly forbade him to access.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Tanda [[spoiler:vs. Ra Runga]].
* TooLongDidntDub: The official translation leaves the word 'Mikado' (an alternative title of the Emperor of Japan, ''Tennō'') intact in all instances without explanation.
* TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty: A stark contrast to LadyOfWar mentioned above. In times of desperation, Balsa will start brawling and fight dirty and does '''whatever it takes''' to ensure Chagum's survival. She's fine if she has her spear with her, but if she loses that, you better prepare to have your eye socket [[ImprovisedWeapon crushed in by a rock.]]
* TryNotToDie
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend / VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Tanda counts as both.
* WeaponTombstone: [[spoiler: Jiguro uses the [[BladeOnAStick eponymous weapons]] of the last six King's Spears to mark their graves after he kills them]].
* WhatTheHellHero: Tanda served one of these to Balsa in the backstory, calling her out over how many people she was killing and asking if saving eight lives could have any meaning if she killed so many more in the process. Balsa, as we see, took it [[ThouShaltNotKill very much to heart]].
* WhiteAndGrayMorality: Almost everyone who plays any significant role in the series is trying to prevent as much human suffering as they possibly can. The conflict that drives the plot comes solely from their different understandings of what the situation is and what needs to be done to resolve it; the mikado doesn't ''want'' to have Chagum killed, but he and the star readers believe it's the only way to prevent a devastating drought. By the end of the series, learning the truth about Ra Runga and the egg Chagum carries ultimately puts them all on the same side.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: One (plus another half-episode) that explain Balsa's childhood and how she became a bodyguard.
* TheWisePrince: Sagum and later on Chagum too.
* WorthyOpponent: The "hounds" are deeply impressed with Balsa from their very first encounter with her, thanks to her skills, the determination with which she protects Chagum, and the fact that she does all of this without killing a single one of them. In episode 6 they see through the misdirection that draws off most of the manhunt because they believe that she's too savvy to be so obvious, and are sincerely regretful when they believe that she has been killed thanks to Torogai's ruse. In episode 8, after hearing the master swordsmith describe the ultimate sword as one that is used not to kill but to cut the bonds of karma, Mon describes Balsa to him as someone he thinks would be worthy of the swordsmith's ultimate blade; this is what convinces the swordsmith not to hand her over to the authorities, and to forge a new spear for her.
* WouldHitAGirl: Jiguro to Balsa, when she showed her early skills with the blade.
* {{Wuxia}}: It's a fantasy/adventure epic about a wandering spearwoman [[TheAtoner seeking to atone for the 8 lives she took, by saving 8 lives in return]] - who eventually finds herself acting as both [[ParentalsubStitute guardian]] and bodyguard to a banished prince, in order to save a kingdom. It's easily on par with the likes of ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' and ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''.
* YouAreTheTranslatedForeignWord: 'Moribito' means 'guardian' in Japanese, and the English release titled it Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. This is likely to give it a more distinctive title tan the straight translation while reminding audiences of what it means.

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* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: 'Moribito' means 'guardian' in Japanese. This has actually become something of a trend among anime/manga's English release; the title becomes a case of YouAreTheTranslatedForeignWord to remind people only familiar with the untranslated title what it is while still making it clear what the title ''means''.

* {{Wuxia}}: ''Seirei no Moribito'' is one of the finest examples in anime. It's a fantasy/adventure epic about a wandering spearwoman [[TheAtoner seeking to atone for the 8 lives she took, by saving 8 lives in return]] - who eventually finds herself acting as both [[ParentalsubStitute guardian]] and bodyguard to a banished prince, in order to save a kingdom. It's easily on par with the likes of ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' and ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''.

''Seirei no Moribito'' (roughly translatable as 'Guardian of the Spirit' or 'Guardian of the Sacred Spirit') is the animation of the first book in the 'Moribito' series of Japanese fantasy novels, written by Nahoko Uehashi. It was animated by ProductionIG in 2007.

* WhiteAndGrayMorality: A definite hero protecting a young boy from [[AntiVillain Anti-Villains]] ... who eventually rethink the way they looked at the situation and even join up with Balsa.

* WorthyOpponent: The master weaponsmith agrees to forge a weapon for Balsa, after he hears her hunters speak of how she defeated four of them at the same time without causing serious injuries and suffering near fatal wounds because she refused to kill them.

* SceneryPorn