Since I'm bored of just lurking around (don't feel like posting in existing topics for some reason), I'll be doing a bunch of reviews of enjoyable anime and music for the next few weeks. Today, I'll start with quite possibly the most underrated Spring '07 anime, Seirei no Moribito.

Seirei no Moribito is the first of the Guardian Series of Japanese Fantasy novels written by Nahoko Uehashi. The entire series spans ten books and Seirei no Moribito is based on the first book in the series. Here's the summary as provided by animenewsnetwork.com:

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.

Plot~
Since this anime was based off a book, it's story is fairly intricate. The plot is fairly straightforward for the first few episodes as the summary states it, but later unravels deeper and deeper into why the emperor was pursuing the prince. As the plot thickens, the anime nicely transitions from action to plot. I kind of like this pace though. A 1-2 episodes develop the plot and builds up to a climax (Usually a fight or something that turns the plot around) I can't really dwell too deep without giving away spoiler so I'll stop around there. All in all, despite the interesting, decent and well-written plot, it's still not the strong point of the anime. =]

Characters~
Balsa~ A calm and rational woman, it's rare to see this type of main character. Her fighting prowress is exceptional and she seems to have a lot of combat experience. She seems to have a deep past and probably will the subject of much exploration if there is a second season for this anime. Currently, she has sworn to save as many people she has killed to atone for the lives she has taken. Using this reasoning, she has taken the task of helping Chagum, the prince of the Yoko country.

Chagum~ The Prince of the Yoko Country, the Emperor attempts to kill him. A water spirit that has thought to bring great calamity (Probably drought) has laid an egg within the Prince. So the Queen, fearing for his son's life, hires Balsa to take care of him as a Bodyguard. At the beginning, his royal stature makes him somewhat stuck-up, but later on, he turns out to be a person with determination and courage.

[Probably will update it later. Still on episode 16]

Animation~
Production I.G. produced the animation to this anime. Enough said. I have never seen such fluidly choreographed fights in any anime I've seen. The fights are fairly realistic as well. (Episode 3 is a prime example; I think I saw one of the greatest fight scenes I've laid eyes on. ) Other than the fights themselves, the background is animated gracefully. From the water reflections to the clouds, everything seems to be animated in meticulous detail. Episode after episode, the quality remains fairly consistent, I must say, it quite possibly matches or even exceeds the best animated animes I've seen (Last Exile, Haibane Renmei)

Music~
The background track to Seirei no Moribito compliments the animation quite nicely. The music accentuates the emotions of the scenes quite nicely. The opening and ending songs are nice, but isn't my favorite.

Overall~
I would highly recommend this if you're into action. The plot would just be a nice add-on for those type of folks. I can't praise the animation enough. The plot itself is intriguing and gives me something to watch other than Bleach and Naruto. In fact this is one of the two animes that have replaced my enthusiasm of anticipating to watch Naruto and Bleach. Each week instead, I anticipate to watch this and Claymore (which I will review shortly) For those into plot heavy animes, I would recommend this to you too.

I might make changes and additions as time progresses, I'm still up to episode 16.

Rating~ 8.5/10