(no subject)

[skygiants]

I've known for ages that I wanted to either read or watch the anime version of (or both) Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. I mean, I didn't know anything about it other than that it starred an awesome thirtysomething lady professional bodyguard, but sometimes I am an extremely easy sell. By virtue of being both available from the library and readable on the subway, the book won out first!

The book follows Balsa, aforementioned awesome thirtysomething lady professional bodyguard, who saves an adolescent prince from drowning one afternoon while she's just kind of hanging out being awesome. Then she basically gets strongarmed by his mom into sneaking him out of the palace and promising to protect him when it turns out that a.) he has accidentally become the host of a spirit egg that sooner or later is going to hatch into some kind of mysterious spirit and b.) therefore various people in the palace want him assassinated. Since this job will probably end with both of them being killed, Balsa does not think this is a great reward for being awesome! But she agrees anyway, and the rest of the book follows her attempts to both keep the prince alive, and figure out what's going on with the spirit egg, which may be super-important to save the country if anybody could actually figure out what the relevant information was from the last time this happened two hundred years ago.

There are a lot of excellent things about this book! First of all, Balsa herself is pretty fabulous, and if stoic middle-aged warrior ladies with quiet backstory angst are relevant to your interests, NOT THAT I AM LOOKING AT ANYONE ON MY FLIST OR ANYTHING, this may be a story for you. Gender-reversal-wise, I also enormously enjoy the fact that Balsa has an awesome cranky ladymentor and a gentle healer semihemidemiboyfriend who pines after her while she jaunts around adventuring . . . and also that the poor preteen boy gets stuck with what is basically an alien pregnancy plot. (I am sorry, but after Cordelia's five million demonic/evil/alien pregnancies on Angel, I feel a little glow of retaliatory smugness every time that plotline goes to a guy.) The author is also an anthropologist, and there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on with the two cultures represented in the kingdom - one of which colonized the other - and official and unofficial versions of history and legends that get passed down. The translation is kind of clunky, but no worse than others I've read; I would have liked some more depth into the characters in some places, but overall I enjoyed it enormously and will totally be reading the sequels (and also probably seeing the anime at some point.)

Okay, here is something I am confused by, not in the book specifically, but in the reactions I've seen. Almost everything I've read has talked about Balsa's vow to save eight people, and how she and Tanda can't be together until that's resolved and so forth, but the impression I got from when Balsa talked about it is that the vow is basically a moot point; by this point she's pretty much admitted that there's no real way to come out ahead in Saving People Maths. Which is a point I love, by the way. I mean, I love that Hotheaded Teenaged Balsa came up with the vow, but I also love how the older Balsa explicitly deconstructs it, because redemption doesn't work that way and nothing is that simple.

Comments

[rushin-doll.livejournal.com]

Irony, thy name is Moribito. I don't think I had any idea that this was on your radar, but I was reminded of it this weekend and totally had plans to recommend we slot it into our watching schedule sometime soon. Since, well, it's your sort of thing.

Also, we decided on Wednesday night swing, yes?

You beat me to it!
Ana

[skygiants]

Ahahahaha. You know me well! (Also, see above re: easy sell when it comes to certain things.)

We did! Which starts next week, yes?

[rushin-doll.livejournal.com]

Yep! We have one week off! Which does not preclude watching things. Let me know if you want to do so!

Mmm... week off,
Ana

[skygiants]

I'm in favor! I don't know yet whether Tuesday or Wednesday would work better for me - do you have a preference?

[rushin-doll.livejournal.com]

No preference from me!

Easy, as you know,
Ana

[skygiants]

OK - I'll shoot you an email after I've figured out my plans with my cousin this week.

[rushin-doll.livejournal.com]

Works!

Off to the airport,
Ana

[wakeupnew]

omg omg omg I love this book SO MUCH, for basically every reason you've mentioned; I read it last summer after a former Milliwayser recommended it.

The anime is ... slow. I've been trying to watch it since, well. Last summer. I got a little ways in and it was very slow and I was super distracted by how Balsa looked nothing like I had imagined her, so I still haven't finished.

[skygiants]

Oh yay! You know the sequel is out in English, right? I just put it on my library reserve list and I am excited!

I was wondering about that - I mean, the book does not lack for plot, but it doesn't quite seem like enough to fill thirteen episodes of television without slowing down the pace quite a bit.

[wakeupnew]

WHAT. NO!!! Awesome! I will have to find it somewhere.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

The author is also an anthropologist

This explains SO MUCH.

I haven't read the book (I keep meaning to track it down), but I watched the anime when it first came out, and I thought it was fantastic. I suppose it is a bit slowly paced, but I didn't particularly mind at the time, as everything about it is beautifully executed, and it's a joy just to look at.

[skygiants]

I know, right? I had this total aha! moment when I read that.

I will forgive a lot in terms of pacing for beautiful animation, I totally admit. And I am really curious to see how they are going to animate Balsa's fight sequences!

[gaisce.livejournal.com]

The second book actually deals with the issues of Balsa's vow, because after saving the prince and talking with Tanda she tries another tactic to "redeem" herself. I like that one much more than the first because it hits tons of my narrative enjoyment pings, but I'm trying not to spoil. Needless to say, Balsa remains a BAMF and the world building gets more interesting.

Even if the translation is pretty dry, I'm eager to see how it further plays out but the third one isn't out yet in English! I pine for it!

[skygiants]

I am so excited for more worldbuilding - Uehashi is clearly really really good at thinking through really three-dimensional cultural stuff. And also ALWAYS excited for more Balsa being a BAMF!

There's nine or ten books out already in Japan, aren't there?

[gaisce.livejournal.com]

I think it's capped off as a ten volume series. What little I've gleaned means all those different groups mentioned in passing will likely come back again, including poor Chagum, who might end up a badass ruler of his kingdom, but will never escape the stigma of being "that dude who gave birth to a water spirit" in the narrative.

[skygiants]

Oh, excellent! I was hoping for lots of continuity and had resigned myself to the series being more episodic.

And hahaha yeah, being That Guy The Spirit Laid An Egg In, Gross is really not something a teenaged boy can ever live down. Even if you are also That Guy Who Saved The World, And Also, Is King.

[hafl.livejournal.com]

First of all, can I friend you? Your booklogging post are really interesting.

Second, I saw the anime first and was a little underwhelmed with the book, since it seemed to me that it left out a lot of details. It's probably that the anime incorporated some details that were only revealed in later books in the series, but the book seemed sparse at times.

[skygiants]

Please feel free! I always welcome more people around here to babble about books with. :D

That's definitely possible - I was thinking that the anime would almost have to have added more details, since, while I liked the book a lot, it didn't seem dense enough to fill out a whole series by itself. I'm actually kind of glad either way that I read the book first; I suspect I'll enjoy both the book and the series more, that way.

[deutscheami.livejournal.com]

The anime is also very good! It's a little slow-- they fill in the whole section of time that the book skips, if I'm remembering right-- but the slowness is worth it! You get to see lots more of Tanda, Chagum, and especially Chagum and Balsa's relationship--and Chagum learns (adorably!) how to be an actual kid.

Unfortunately the last time I went Googling around for publication information about the rest of the books in English, the books hadn't sold as well as the publishing company wanted, and so the rest probably won't be translated and published. :(

[skygiants]

Oh cool, I am excited to see more Chagum-Balsa-and-Tanda forming their pseudofamily! I actually did kind of want more of that section in the book, so that should work excellently for me. :D

- but your other news fills me with SORROW. :( That is the kind of thing that makes me want to run out and buy five copies of each. Because that will clearly change their minds!

[genarti]

*discreetly and cheerfully memories post*

[skygiants]

Note how I very politely did not name names. *serene*

[genarti]

I did note your discretion, yes. Very polite indeed.

(Mind you, I also know what a percentage of your flist could have an icon-off with me here...)

[skygiants]

(Although not yet me, actually! Which is actually one of those things I should remedy sometime soon. :O)

[genarti]

(:O It really is. For shame!)

[ningicoco.livejournal.com]

SORRY RANDOM LURKER HERE.

But yes, Moribito is AMAZING. I haven't read the books yet- though I've been meaning to- but I recently watched the anime and it is SO GOOD. I watched 26 episodes in two days. The animation is gorgeous and helps bring to life many of the more mundane scenes and the contrast between the different landscapes and cultures of each area. I guess I can see why people thought it was a little slow, but to me the pacing fits the story and allows the characters to develop more. ALSO THE FIGHT SCENES ARE AMAZING. It's some of the best, if not the damn best, fight scenes I've ever seen animated.

Basically, I really recommend the anime.

[skygiants]

HELLO RANDOM LURKER I never mind drive-by book/anime commentary. :D

Slow or not, I am totally going to be watching the anime - I am not usually all about the fight scenes, but I'm not gonna lie, I am SO EXCITED for Balsa's fight scenes. And for everything else!

[redbeardjim.livejournal.com]

I'm currently watching the anime, and enjoying it a great deal. It does seem kind of slow-paced, but not in a boring way -- it just seems like the world it's set in moves at a slower rhythm than today's world, and it all fits together.

[skygiants]

I just saw the first episode last night! The animation is gorgeous, although I am having kind of a weird time matching up anime!Balsa with my mental image from the books.

[redbeardjim.livejournal.com]

The scenery!

*foams*

Necropost a-go

[hebethen]

I recently read the two translated books but have not seen the anime; perhaps it's the anime that takes the vow seriously? Also, do you remember what translation/edition you read? I felt that the ones I got were pretty decent -- although of course after reading Battle Royale it's possible that my standards fell into the chthonic abyss of bottomless jade.

Re: Necropost a-go

[skygiants]

Yeah, I think it's the anime that has the vow thing, which I haven't seen either. Someday!

I think there is only the one published edition in English? Although I could be wrong! Anyway, it's certainly not a terrible translation by any means. Not the most elegant thing in the world, but what is?