Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit: anime review

Title: Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit (Seirei no Moribito)
Genre: action, fantasy, drama
Released date: April 7, 2007 – September 29, 2007
Episode: 26
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Animated by: Production I.G.
Comment: Seirei no Moribito follows Balsa the spear woman who is entrusted with the duty to protect Prince Chagum from being assassinated by the emperor without knowing that the prince carries the magical egg that will blessed the land with water. Their journey involves many battles, hardship and the magic which exists only in myth. The sound and animation of the anime is very good, colorful and energetic.

Moribito also has strong environmentalism implicated in the story. The Water Spirit will lay an egg every hundred years and dies bringing drought to the land until the egg hatches in spring with the help of La Lunga the monster then the egg is carried to the sea by Nahji bird. This cycle remained intact until the Yogo, the current rulers, conquered the land and with them came technology; iron and steel. The cycle is interrupted. People’s ancient wisdom and respect to the Mother Nature is erased. The history is rewritten to stabilize and justify the new empire. This is exactly what’s happening nowadays, is it not? I also like the reverse of male and female’s role between the two protagonists. In most stories, men are always the one who fight the enemies and women always wait at home and heal the wounds but in Moribito, Balsa is the warrior who wanders around and fights the foes while Tanda, who has no combat skill, is always waiting and gives Balsa support when she is in trouble.

My complaint about this anime is its uneven mood and pace. As the series progresses, Seirei no Moribito gradually transforms itself from a fast-paced, action-packed anime into a slow, drama anime in the middle and finally ends as folklore inspired, fantasy anime. It is really fun and exciting at first when Balsa and Chagum tries to escape from their pursuers, there are great spear and sword fight scenes to behold but around episode 7 through 12 the anime literally comes to a halt. These unnecessary episodes are about trivial things which are not related to the main theme such as the episodes about gambling or the farmers’ festival. And when the viewers reach the final part of the series, the anime turns into a folklore fantasy involving parallel worlds, supernatural creatures and a lot of magic. When considered separately, the first part is a good action anime and the second part is a good fantasy anime. But considering the whole series, it isn’t as satisfying as it should be. Imagine yourself having a really beautiful shirt and really nice pants but when you put them on, instead of looking good, you look strange. I think this is the situation here. Nevertheless, these flaws are only minor and I’m sure many people will not see this as a flaw at all. Conclusion: Seirei no Moribito is without any doubt a good anime but it doesn’t excel because it cannot not decide whether it wants to be an action, drama or fantasy anime.
Rating: B

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Cowboy Bebop: anime review

Title: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: Space western, crime drama, action, comedy, sci-fi
Released date: April 3, 1998 – April 23, 1999
Episode: 26
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Animated by: Studio Sunrise
Comment: In the near future which men spread throughout the solar system, a group of bounty hunters aboard the ship ‘Bebop’ roams the space and cities. The crew consists of five members; Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein. Spike is a former member of a crime syndicate. He is an excellent martial artist, pilot, spy or even thief but he fails when it comes to life and love. He is constantly haunted by the memory of Julia, the woman he loves and he has problems expressing his feelings and tend to react opposite to his feelings or avoid them entirely except when Julia is involved. In which case, he usually loose control. He is pretty lazy and often sarcastic. Jet is former police who also suffers from lost love. He is the oldest of the team and the most rational. Faye has just woken from 54 years of cryogenic sleep to find herself deceived and lonely, although she hides her pain well beneath those smiles. Ed is a genius computer hacker and an orphanage. Each episode of Cowboy Bebop mostly depicts different bounty hunting. They have unique style and tone ranging from comedy, crime drama, hard science fiction, horror and combination of these genres. Believe it or not, despite the difference in genre, every episode is exceptionally great and at the same time, subtly reveals new details of the past, personalities and development of the characters. Some episodes are dedicated to Spike, some to Jet, Faye and Ed and the rest are stand alone stories. This quality of Cowboy Bebop puts most of the TV series to shame.

The animation is not as flashy as today’s standard but it is definitely done with great efforts. The movement is fluid and the background is alive. The spaceships and vehicles design, surprisingly, doesn’t look out of date. The original soundtrack, composed by Yoko Kanno, is mostly jazz and blue music which fits perfectly to the anime and is beautiful when listened separately. The ending of the series generates significant amount of controversy. For me, it is heart-breaking but undeniably perfect and unforgettable.

Although Cowboy Bebop has no deep or thought provoking main theme but there are always hidden messages in each episode and the anime excellently explores the nature and complexity of human through the lives of the characters. The biggest achievement of Cowboy Bebop is in its direction, screenplay, characterization, action, animation, music and the miraculous ability to combine all those things in one anime series. Despite its age, I can hardly name any newer anime that is able to best Cowboy Bebop. It is a milestone in the world of anime. It is not only flawless but it impresses me immensely. Conclusion: Cowboy Bebop drives me crazy! It’s the kind of anime I’ve always dreamed of but never think it really exists.
Rating: A+

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