Summary: >

Balsa makes her living as a bodyguard, but unlike anyone else in her profession, she swore an oath to never kill again. She's also intent on saving 8 lives to atone for 8 deaths she feels responsible for. Thus far she's saved 7 and only has one left to protect. This leads to her taking an unusual but very dangerous job that she may never finish. The prince of a kingdom harbors the egg of a water demon within him,. leading to him being sentenced to death, although discreetly. His mother fearing for his life asks Balsa to take him from the palace and look after him.

While Balsa didn't think much of it at the time, this meant she basically became his mother. Escaping the palace wasn't even the hard part, instead she's been persistently pursued by soldiers of the palace and no matter how clever she is at shaking them off her trail, they always come back. Worse still, no one seems to know what will happen if this water demon hatches, or if the prince will survive if it does. All the stories suggest that if Balsa does protect this boy, that the kingdom will wither and many people will starve, but are the stories true?

Thoughts: >

I'm not sure why I started on this series since it didn't strike me as anything interesting. Watching the first few episodes I wasn't taken in by the story either, and for that matter it was moving really slow for an action title. But after 3 or 4 episodes it dawned on me that this wasn't an action title at all. That's right, an anime featuring the lead heroine as a bodyguard wielding a spear is a drama. After I lightened my expectations of action, I found the story of Moribito to be better told than I would have expected. Unlike most anime created these days, Moribito is based off of a novel, not a manga or original concept and I think the detail in the story shows this pretty well. A common complaint for Moribito is that it's slow. If you want to watch action, and don't want to watch a story driven drama, do not watch this anime. It has action, and it's quite impressive but that's not the focus and you'll be disappointed with the pace. I'm not making excuses for this title either however, and it is obvious that it's drawn out to fill the 26 episode length, but it's a bit non obvious in how it does it. There are many filler segments like walking around, and reading that don't seem like much, but add up in time when you get to the end. If you're like me, one of the things you've become accustomed to in anime is how it can do a lot in a small amount of time. Many 30 minute OVA titles can accomplish more than a traditional Hollywood movie with a better told story. Moribito however moves at a far slower pace and it's something you need to keep in mind if you want to enjoy it. It does detract from the title, but not enough that I'd pass it over for this reason.

The biggest strength of Moribito lies in its characters. Many of them are just fantastic. Due to Balsa's oath to stop killing, I first got this impression that she'd have this idiotic idealism about her, but she continuously proved her sense of wisdom and practicality. Over time I found Balsa to be a great character, in particular due to her growth in acting as a mother - although possibly the most ass kicking mom on the planet. I can't name a title that captured the nature of the relationship between mother and child as well as portrayed between Balsa and Chagum. I'd say that's the stand out feature of the show. Chagum also defies being bland as expected and is a surprisingly likable character who develops more than most any character I could name. Rounding this out is Balsa's friend Tanda who has been harboring feelings for Balsa for such a long time and has a love so pent up, I get the feeling that when these two finally hook up that Balsa won't be able to walk for a week. At first I was frustrated by the lack of resolution concerning the feelings between Tanda and Balsa, but by the end it seemed oddly natural for the title. Tonda's mentor Lady Torogai is the feisty old lady who adds a bit of zest, but isn't over the top in a way that detracts from her character. The Imperial palace has an array of characters, for which the 8 warriors eventually got to the point where I was alright with them. I didn't much like most of the other characters, in particular Chagum's former tutor Shuga really annoyed me for some reason, but he's the only character I didn't like that got any amount of air time. Well there's that buck-toothed kid too I guess, but all in all, this title has a very strong base in its characters.

The production value of this anime is quite high, and consistently good all the way though. Certainly better than average for a TV series. The setting is like that of ancient China, and adds an interesting flavor to the story. The levels of detail in the dress, customs, and especially the music make for a terrific environment. The music also lended itself well to this title, although I admit I didn't really like the beginning or ending credits.

What you get out of Moribito depends a lot on your expectations, and the sort of pacing you can tolerate. It is most certainly NOT an action title, and you need to have a high tolerance for a slow moving story. As far as that goes it's a bit predictable too. A water spirit that causes drought? You can put the pieces together way before the end. If you aren't bothered by these things, you'll find Moribito to be a great story and character driven anime. As for the story I'm not talking about it much on purpose, because while there is this bigger plot, I thought that the way the story progresses at each segment was well told (if not a bit drawn out) but not the kind of thing I'd want to give away either. It's not going to blow you away, but I'd say it's better than average. I didn't have high expectations for this one, and after 4 episodes I didn't think it was going to go far, but by the end I was certainly impressed by the nature of the characters and their relationships that isn't touched on much in anime, or at least not as well as it's done here.