Seirei no Moribito [Guardian of the Sacred Spirit]

Seirei no Moribito is another newly released anime series, that would probably be among the best in the this year’s Spring lineup. It tells of a story of a wandering bodyguard who in a suddent turn of events, was forced to protect the son of the second wife of the emperor from assassins. The assassins however works for the emperor, thus it is the emperor who wishes the boy dead. For whatever reasons within, it is very vague at the moment.

Seirei no Moribito originates not from manga, but from the “guardian” novels penned by Nahoko Uehashi. 10 volumes have already been written. I wonder how much of the material will be in the anime series. It is quite likely that the series will just focus on one of the “guardian” novels.

Opening of the series:

Only a few episodes have been released, but by judging from the first 3 episodes, im quite amazed by the quality of the artwork, as well as the animation itself. There are many detailed scenes and fluid animation throughout the episodes. For one scene, in the first episode, the camera pans across showing what looks like a part of a city, offering many food shops lines along the streets with loads of people enjoying thier meals. What you would usually expect is just the normal pan and scan of the camera, across the entire scene, with no animation at all. However thats not the case. I was quite stunned when they acutally made the effort to animate movements of the background “extras”, walking and chatting, and eating while the camera pans across. This is very evident in other scenes as well, such as the bull on a rampage on a bridge scene.

The anime also incorporates 3d animation to the landscape, such as the mountains, the grasses, and the paddy fields, adding to the overall depth and epic feeling to it. I originally though this to be another average anime, but it turns out to be quite a surprise. Im really interested to know how this story unravels itself.

“I want to shine on you, and always like the dazzling sun…”

When i first heard this line, i instantly knew that it is L’Arc~en~Ciel

Its an amazing opening to the series, and i really liked it after listening to it a couple of times. you can listen to the 1.30 sec version by clicking on the first line of the song above. After knowing that L’Arc~en~Ciel provided the opening song to Seirei no Moribito, it just strengthens by hunch that this is going to be something big. Ill definitely be following this anime series closely. As for the single release, the date hasnt been set yet as of writing, but ill be keeping my eyes on them for a while. Im quite a fan of thier works, expecially the “Awake” album. Most of the songs in there are really great, and its quite rare for me to generally enjoy the album as a whole, without any particular dislikes to any of the songs.

One of my more favourite titles include JOJOUSHI and LOST HEAVEN.