That’s right two in a row you BETTA BRACE YASELF. This time? It’s Guardian of the Sacred Spirit, also known as “Seirei No Moribito”. I have to say, it’s fairly ironic that after I finish a marathon session of Guardian and go to sleep, I’m woken up twice by a huge fucking storm and shit-tons of rain. Ironic as there hadn’t been any rain for several weeks before, and the main point of Guardian is that there’s a water spirit who brings rainfall. Anyway, as usual, I’ll start with ANN’s summary:
Balsa the spearwoman is a wandering warrior, who takes on the task of saving lives, in atonement for a past sin. On her journey, she happens to save a prince, and is tasked with becoming his bodyguard. And he is going to need one, for his own father, the emperor, wants him dead.Balsa, the spear wielder and bodyguard, is visiting the New Yogo Empire. She is hired to protect the Second Prince, Chagum, who is endangered because he is possessed by a being despised by his father, the Emperor, who ordered his assassination. The two go on a perilous adventure for the survival of the prince. Throughout the story, Balsa’s past will come to light and they will uncover mysteries about Chagum’s condition while developing a family-like relationship with each other and others.
Now, I had known of Guardian (as I shall refer to it) for quite some time, I’m not really sure why I never watched it up until now, but I suppose it was partly because from what little I had seen, it looked like it was set in feudal Japan, when I actually watched it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Guardian isn’t actually set on Earth, it’s a fantasy setting. I suppose it’s only natural for Asian writers to create a vaguely Asian themed fantasy setting, to me, Guardian’s setting seemed like a mix of Japanese and Chinese cultures, with some Indian (shamans and hut Indians) stuff thrown in for good measure, certainly, an interesting setting. Initially, the plot isn’t anything amazing, it’s your standard “feudal-era” assassination thriller stuff, but the fantasy elements are brought in slowly, and by the end of the series there’s monsters and other realms and all sorts of crazy shit. I think perhaps one reason I enjoyed it so much is that it’s very similar to the sort of setting I use/plan out in FI. I’ll give the story a B+ for good pacing amongst other things, but it did fall into several cliched traps that are, in all fairness, hard to avoid.
Naturally, being me, I was far more interested in the characters than the actual story, who knows why. Guardian did not disappoint, the cast was medium sized, and most of the characters were interesting (although the Eight Warriors were hardly developed at all, a minor point) but of course, the story is about Balsa and Chagum. I was relatively impressed by Balsa as a main character. Why? Well, this is anime (even if it’s an adaptation of a novel) it’s not often you have a female main character in her thirties who isn’t some generic MOE MOE 17 year old who transforms into a fairy or something. By all means, Balsa was an interesting character, they give several small hints to her past throughout the series, and then expand upon it greatly before the climax. Chagum is the prince character, and his development is handled well, I am told that the anime version greatly expands the mid-section of the novel, which is mostly dealing with Chagum’s character development, that was a wise move. Whilst not entirely seamless, his transition from a prince is done well, if a little jumpy at the start. Of course there’s other characters who evolve and develop, of note was Sagum(?), Chagum’s elder brother, who (spoilers!)dies mid-way into the series. (spoilers!) I’ll rate the characters, their development and design: A-
As for presentation (music, voice acting, animation, etc) Guardian was impressive in all these aspects. Don’t get me wrong, Guardian ISN’T an action show and I didn’t go into it expecting action..but Production I.G did not disappoint!
Not only was the animation impressive, and the art pleasant to look upon, the music (as you can partially here some in these videos) also had some good feeling to it, and a nice wide variation to the tracks. Ah, not forgetting the voice acting, which was pretty solid (I watched the Japanese dub so I can’t comment on the English dub) but of note, were, again, Balsa and Chagum. I had never heard Balsa’s VA before and upon inspection, she didn’t seem to have been in many series, as for Chagum, I was surprised to notice it was actually like a young boy who voiced him. Balsa’s VA did a great job I thought, although at times her shouting was so loud that it almost hurt my ears, whoever it was really seemed to get into the role which was nice. As for Chagum, a relatively impressive job for a young boy I thought, kinda proves you don’t need to spend 5 years earning a degree to voice a character, eh? So for the presentation, I give it an A+ for great voice work, great visuals and great music.
Overall, I give Guardian an A. It’s also the fifth show that I have rated 9/10 on MAL. (To give you a rough idea, I have completed 75 series to date, not counting things like long running shows such as Bleach which are on-going) So..yeah, I suggest watching it if you like anime and haven’t seen it. Heck, even if you don’t like anime, if you like fantasy shows, check it out. Although I must stress again that it isn’t an action filled show. It’s not Naruto.
