Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit

I have just started watching some anime. I will admit that when I was younger, I never saw the appeal, preferring more westernized cartoons to the eastern style of animation. Recently, I have started to change my mind and have grown to appreciate the style.

To that end, I’ve been trying out new things on Netflix, which now has flooded by channel with lots of suggestions and recommendations. Not everything has appealed to my interest (some has just been too superficial when it comes to the characters and stories). However, other things have caught my interest, such as Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. I will say that so far (only 4 episodes in) I am finding this story and characters to have some real depth.

The main character is Balsa, a spear-wielding warrior who is cunning and dedicated to her charges. (You might already understand why I find this series interesting.) She is hired to protect Chagum, a young boy who is the second prince of the Imperial Family and is inhabited by water spirit.

Based on Wikipedia, the anime was based on the first book in a series of Japanese fantasy novels by Nahoko Uehashi. The novel also appears to have been translated into English back in 2008.

It is still early in my watching to know for sure, but if the series continues on as it has, I think I will really like it. I’ll give a more detailed review once I am done watching the series. And if I do like it, I will have to see if I can hunt up a copy of the book.