Shelf Life

Do You Believe in Magica

All eight discs are stacked on a core in a flimsy inelegant box. The minute I opened it, the DVD case cracked, ripping the cover. Even though I often take a devil-may-care attitude about packaging, I'll probably invest in a new plastic case for this one. Alert readers have already come up with a solution.

Moribito is really good. This show is worth your time. (Bamboo told you to watch it, too.) I'd caught some random episodes on Adult Swim, but Moribito lends itself well to marathoning. The episodes just don't hold up out of order.

In fantasy ancient Japan, 30-year-old Balsa is a talented spear-wielding bodyguard from the North country. She's vowed never to take another life when she's suddenly given the job of guarding young Prince Chagum while his parents fake his death. Pursued by the king's men, Balsa fights non-lethally to protect Chagum, who becomes like a son to her.

Moribito has a lot of great action but suffers from a slight lull from episodes seven to twelve. After their daring escape, Chagum and Balsa start leading an ordinary life in a witness-protection-program kind of way that isn't nearly as fun to watch as the first third of the show. Fortunately, the action starts to pick up again soon enough.

In a pleasant gender-reversal, Balsa's would-be lover and childhood friend Tanda the herbalist acts as a feminine caretaker to counter her brute strength. He patches up Balsa after every battle but feels underappreciated.

The bishonen Shuga, a young talented Star Reader, is engaged in a bureaucratic adventure in the palace, Saiounkoku-style. His research scenes in the tablet library are not the most action-packed, but they are vital to the plot in the end.

Chagum has a small problem. A creature from the spirit world has laid a water spirit egg inside of him. It might mean a horrible drought for the entire kingdom. And what will happen to poor Chagum's body when the crazy thing hatches? Mid-way through the show, Chagum starts to feel a little like Frodo.

In the one hundred years since the last egg hatched, kingdoms have been built, oral traditions have changed, and vital bird species may have gone extinct. In this respect, Moribito is favorably like Nickelodeon's Avatar: the Last Air Bender.

This is a beautiful show. Production I.G has drawn a fantasy kingdom in a way that one-ups Twelve Kingdoms (which is also worth watching) and falls just short of Princess Mononoke. The backgrounds are rich and gorgeous. Life in the palace and in the Yakoo tribes is illustrated down to an almost anthropological level of detail. When there is CG in the show it is done quite well for a television budget. All the characters are beautifully realistic looking (except Touya, the ugly one).

The ending is spectacular. In the final desperate fight, Balsa seems like Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (also from Production I.G) as she fights alongside an elite warrior team who start to seem a little like Section Nine, except they're fighting monsters from the spirit world.

Chagum grows and changes over time, like all well-written characters should. There are a lot of themes about parenthood, which isn't something you usually see in anime. The tear-jerker moments never go over the edge into melodrama.

The dub leaves something to be desired. Balsa often sounds stiff, like Cindy Robinson is playing Major Kusanagi - which was appropriate for a cyborg but seems odd here. Chagum sounds oddly like Orel in Morel Orel. Barbara Goodson as the old lady shaman Torogai occasionally gets in some nice ad lib lines when she doesn't have lip flap on screen.

Moribito is almost perfect. It could've used a better villain and more time in the spirit world, but those are my only complaints.

I will absolutely read the first Moribito novel now.[TOP]