Final Thoughts - Seirei no Moribito
Seirei no Moribito is an extremely well crafted anime. Each episode boasts a finely crafted script, gorgeous background art, strong characters, beautiful music, and nuanced animation.
Why is it that I still don’t think it’s a truly great show?
Normally with anime you have to take the view that the journey is more important than the destination - for some reason most shows go a bit tits up, fail to resolve some important points or put in needless cliffhangers and piss most of us right off. Seirei no Moribito, refreshingly, has an excellent conclusion - the final episode caps things off perfectly as an epilogue and brings proper closure to the story. with that said, the journey somehow failed to really enthrall me like I hoped it would - and I’m not completely sure why.
I’m going to continue this as an extended entry because I’m going to discuss the story overall, but to summarise, I think the main reason is that I believe Seirei no Moribito lacks proper narrative tension. Hopefully, I can explain what I mean, but I think there are some issues with SnM that keep it from being truly great in my opinion, despite the fact that I rank shows which are undoubtedly more flawed in many respects as being better.
Those of you who are proper writers or just know more about literary criticism than I do will probably be better able to explain this than I can, but what I mean by narrative tension is the idea that we should feel tension alongside the characters in the story. In this show, the tension comes from Chagum’s pursuit by the assassins and eventually the final confrontation with the hordes of La Lunga as the Nyunga Ro Chaga prepares to hatch - Balsa and co are frequently on the run and don’t know whether they can survive or how things will turn out; as the viewing audience, we should feel caught up in this tension to keep us watching to see what will happen.
However, for whatever reason I found this tension to be lacking in Seirei no Moribito. This is presumably partly intentional - much is made of the original author’s anthropological interests and how those are brought to bear upon the story, but I am not convinced myself (more on which later). This doesn’t alter the fact that I never got caught up in the story enough to wonder what was going to happen next. I never felt that Chagum, Balsa, Tanda… in fact, anyone in the story, was ever in any danger of anything particularly bad happening to them at all, and the progression of the story is actually quite predictable.
The predictability of SnM is probably more to do with me than anything else. If you put together the “official blurb” for the series (which reveals that creatures from Nayugu are after the Nyunga Ro Chaga long before this information is revealed in the series), and the fact that there are several novels all starring Balsa, then you remove pretty much all suspense from the series. Much of what progresses the plot is simply information that, while very important to the characters, is fairly meaningless to the audience - where Chagum has to go, La Lunga’s weaknesses and so forth don’t have any impact on our viewing experience, they just tell us stuff about the worlds. World-building is very important, obviously, and Seirei no Moribito does it magnificently, but I do feel that it could have shown a bit more than it told.
Taking time for Balsa and Chagum to hide out in the water mill and get involved in various town activities was excellent for developing Chagum’s character and giving us an interesting change of focus - indeed, the episode where Chagum beats the crooked gambler is probably my favourite in the whole series. However, it throws the pace of the show completely off, as all urgency is thrown aside (despite the fact that we in the audience know the egg is growing and important due to the frequent flashes to Shuga reading the true Founding History). The same thing happens to a far lesser extent when Balsa and co camp for the winter and we get the flashbacks to Balsa’s past; by this point, the narrative tension is non-existent as there is no real doubt that the egg will hatch and Chagum will survive, so it doesn’t matter that the show digresses. The fact that the show builds up all this culture surrounding it is obviously laudable, but too often it becomes redundant.
So why did I keep watching, if not to see what would happen? I think it was probably more to see how it would happen. With the skill behind the show even seeing a vaguely pedestrian story was worthwhile, and I really can’t fault the technical precision of every aspect of Seirei no Moribito. However, it leaves me with the problem that although SnM is a very interesting anime, I’d be hard-pressed to say it’s left me with any emotional response at all.
Possibly this is because I don’t actually have much emotional investment in the characters, as well written and portrayed as they are. Only one character goes through any kind of growth or development, and that’s Chagum - to me, Balsa and Tanda don’t seem to have changed at all since the moment they walked onto the screen. Perhaps I’d notice more if I rewatched the beginning of the series and could recall Balsa’s attitude to Chagum then, but my initial impressions of them are the same ones that have stayed with me to the end of the show and, as such, I only think of them cerebrally. It doesn’t help that some other prominent characters are essentially ciphers constructed for the plot (Shuga, for instance, has next to no personality and merely serves to create mild conflict, although I really do approve of the way the show treats “the bad guys”).
This doesn’t have to be a bad thing - I’m not saying that every series in the world has to be filled with ridiculous love polygons and unconvincing emotional trauma. I even think it would have been detrimental to pull something like that in Seirei no Moribito. It does mean, however, that I have a kind of cold, clinical detachment to the show. Compared to Toward the Terra, which I finished a couple of days ago (and will be writing an entry on shortly), which is objectively a poorer show, its impact on me is considerably less.
I know this sounds very negative, but it’s merely a way of me trying to rationalise why I haven’t fallen drooling at Seirei no Moribito’s feet. I love giant fantasy stories like this and it’s a really top-notch production, but somehow I will always think of SnM as being more interesting than entertaining, which is a shame.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Oh wow I just finished the show today too lol. I kind of understand where you’re going with this…but It didn’t feel like that to me because I connected with the characters right away (I think it was the fabulous episode 3) making me love every second, moment and beauty of the show. I found the production values very high especially for a TV show..I mean I haven’t seen such quality in a LONG time and IG usually does suffer from inconsistencies but they really redeemed any kind of faults they had in their track record, a job well done. Oh speaking about tension, I was surprised you didn’t *SPOILER* mention around episode 23 or 24 when Tanda ran after the egg eater alone with the flower in his mouth. I thought that seen provided enough tension to last the whole show lol…really I had my hands on my head worrying he’d hit the floor. *SPOILER END*
Anyways great writeup I’m looking forward to your other posts.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:04 am
Scene* gah
October 19th, 2007 at 4:44 am
Very good analysis. You’re right to point out there was zero character growth for Balsa and Tanda.
I think part of the problem was we were never really given a plan of action to follow for Balsa and Chagum. The elderly shaman woman and the astrologer Shuga were doing all the work of figuring out what was going on. Balsa and Chagum spent most of the series just hanging out. If they’d had some sort of goal there could have been suspense over whether they’d achieve it. Instead they gave each other blank looks because nobody had any idea what the Egg was or what to do. Whenever they had a goal — protect the prince from assassins, take the Prince to the village to get more info — the series picked up.
The episodes that tipped me over the edge were the ones in which Balsa & Co. were fleeing from Shuga’s soldiers. This was seemingly intended to be suspenseful, but why would I care if Balsa and Chagum are caught by them? All Shuga wants to do is protect the Prince. There is no negative consequence. The series spent 16 episodes establishing how reasonable and discerning Shuga is, and yet we’re expected to believe he and Balsa wouldn’t be able to figure things out if they chatted for a few minutes.
I ended up watching a few episodes on fast forward. At 2x normal speed the show still felt a little slow. At least the chipmunk dialogue was amusing.
October 19th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Great writeup. I think I was more attached to the characters than you but I agree that it felt a little cold in the end. Perhaps like a stiff but very detailed and beautiful classical painting… except that it doesn’t really keep staying in your mind and coming back to you every now and then (that’s what I feel anyway).
I think the show might have actually been much better for me if it developed more on the anthropological side, giving a look at the various cultures and the occasional individual within them, and the main character(s) travel around… just like Mushishi, perhaps. Rather than throw in an adventure-which-is-not-really-one (and while some say it’s the viewers who are confused, I think the show gave out mixed messages too) Especially since it all seems a tad pointless when you realise everyone’s on the same side and if they just talked before fighting something might have happened.
The last few episodes did feel a bit more like a chore than anything else, storywise. That might just be me though.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:41 am
The problem that I had with Seirei was that there really was no “journey” to it, which translates into a lack of narrative tension to me. It’s got beautiful graphics, a nice soundtrack, a really amazing world, a potentially kickass female lead (there really aren’t enough of those out there) with a cute kid to protect–but they didn’t GO anywhere. Literally: they stuck around the same two areas for most of the show. I’ve never read the novel, but a show like Seirei is just too ambitious to fit into a 26-episode anime if they intend to spend a lot of time building up the world. It probably works better as a book. Personally, I would’ve liked to see Balsa fight more; they proved that they had the skills necessary to do a really well-choreographed and -animated fight sequence, but there was not enough with Balsa. I also was confused by the whole “tiger” episode Balsa had, which I think could’ve lent to developing her character, but really did absolutely nothing. Also, the romantic tension between Balsa and Tanda was really frustrating, to the point where I was starting to wonder if Jin would go for her to get things moving between them. But I did like that they did a little gender role reversal between Balsa and Tanda while still keeping them essentially constrained by their default social roles.
I guess the main issue I have is that Chagum did all of the adventuring in this series–not that I didn’t like him as a character, but come on! Balsa is just too awesome a character to pass up like that!
October 20th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
[…] was well planned out, almost every week Seirei no Moribito was gripping me with suspense. While others felt that the pacing was a little off since Balsa suddenly neglect the growing egg and all other […]
October 21st, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Well, the plot does just seem to wander after they discover that Chagum isn’t possessed by an evil spirit. But we did establish early on that this wasn’t an action anime. It’s really a slow drama.
Of course, this was based on books, so there’s more story we haven’t seen yet.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Is it comparable to Twelve Kingdoms? I did a bit of a research (Wikipedia and ANN) and it strikes as having a similar tone. From the looks of it it’s also based on a novel.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Well, it’s sort-of comparable to Twelve Kingdoms, and it IS also based on a novel. It has a similar tone in that it’s a serious fantasy story.
However, Twelve Kingdoms is much more “conventional” in that it’s not only a fish-out-of-water story in virtually every arc but that it’s much more of a character piece. Despite the name (literally, “The Chronicles of the Twelve Kingdoms”), 12K is far more about Youko/Taiki/Shuurei/Shouko/whatever than it is about the Kingdoms themselves, despite the great amount of political intrigue and world-building - each arc is about them growing and changing as people.
Seirei no Moribito isn’t really about the titular Guardian, though - although Balsa is the central character, she takes a back seat to the cultures she passes through with Chagum and co.
If you’ve not watched SnM and you liked Twelve Kingdoms I certainly think there’s a lot of similarities in tone that should make the show appeal to you, but it really does depend on what you liked most about 12K (which I consider to be the superior series) as to whether the same will apply to SnM.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:03 am
wow… that was disappointing… ~sigh~ im surprised so many of y’all liked chagum. somewhere along the line i stopped caring about everything, but tanda and balsa’s relationship. i hate being crushed with disappointment. if anything seirei no moribito has numbed my thirst for great anime. how everything led up to them fighting gigantic squids… omg… saddest thing is that they show had so much potential, and moments of greatness. what happened to the philosophical themes about murder?? that did not even play into anything… i was hoping chagum would commit patricide, and contemplate on what it means to take a life. and for fucks sake i hate balsa for not even seeming to pay attention to the one person that has been there for her for 20 yrs. yet she knew chagum for what a year? yet tanda gets no love? ugh… this reminds me of how upset i was after bakumatsu.
moribito: 7/10
if u want to watch fantasy done well, fantasy as a masterpiece watch 12 kingdoms, 12 kingdoms puts moribito to shame. funny thing is that i wouldnt have been so mad if the first 3 eps werent so good. la lunga turns out to be gigantic squids… the highlight of the show?
“if you cant see me as the cure, then there is not point waiting” every guy that has ever been in love knows exactly what tanda felt at that moment.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I agree with your assessment. I hoped they would delve more into the political intrigue concerning the emperor, etc. during the middle of the show, but it let me down. I thought the story, overall, just didn’t get deep enough into anything to keep you captivated. It should have been 52 episodes, and they should have went deeper into characters and built the ending suspense up quite a bit.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
As I understand it, the anime only covers the first volume out of a very long series of books (10?), and so it would probably be impossible to advance the characters much more. Character growth is not essential for every single participant in the story, and I think Chagum was really the focus of this series. Before I knew there were other volumes, I was still satisfied with the growth that Chagum showed, and did not feel that there was any reason for Balsa or Tanda to change based on the events in the anime.
Also, I don’t believe it is fair to say that all suspense was taken away because you knew that there were additional volumes. Essentially that is complaining that because you were spoiled slightly, the suspense was lessened. Besides, main characters rarely die in anime series anyway, so I can’t really accept this as a valid criticism (I doubt anyone really thought that Balsa would die in episode 3 or 4).
December 7th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
i have also just finished watching it today. and i can honestly say this was the best anime series of this season. kept me glued to the screen throughout and i enjoyed every second of it. my favourite part of the series was Balsa’s retrospective during the winter in the cave bit. 10/10. period.
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
I think Balsa changes over the course of the story. It’s not really a big change, and it probably won’t affect the way she lives her life, but you know, she takes care of this little kid and grows to love him. And I think that affects her in some way, though it’s done pretty subtly.
It wasn’t a very tense show, and I don’t think the best of it was in the action sequences or the dramatic tension. Feels like a fable. In terms of arching storyline, it was probably pretty weak, but I thought Tanda, Balsa, and Chagum were all real and deep, and I think you can say the same about Torogai (though definitely to a lesser extent), and the show was excellent in every little moment that those four had with each other.
Balsa, Tanda, and Torogai don’t grow very much, but since they’re interesting enough to start off with, and the show makes us learn about them fairly slowly, I grew attached to them. I think there’s more we don’t know about Balsa, Tanda, and Torogai that this story doesn’t show, which makes them real. Guess that’s a benefit of taking one novel while knowing what happens in the next nine. Also thought it was a lot, lot better than 12 Kingdoms, because the characters stay interesting until the end, whereas 12 Kingdoms (for me) was boring after each main character had their watershed moments.