Nov 3, 2024
TL;DR - A fundamentally good series muddled by an excessive amount of (anime original) filler. Also it's pretty.
Moribito is a show that truly stands out due to two main things. Firstly, it is gorgeous. It's animation is essentially impeccable - I don't think there is a single bad frame of animation. Every scene is fluidly animated, with an impressively uniform style outside of a scant few standout scenes. The artstyle is comparatively far more standard, but nonetheless consistent and beautiful.
Secondly, Moribito is a very different kind of fantasy story, at least in comparison to what we typically see in anime. The core story of a
...
warrior saving a child isn't especially unique or anything, but it has an unusually simple, genuine quality to it that makes it stand out from most anime. It is a fantasy world, but you could honestly be forgiven for forgetting that for most of the anime, as it is very light outside of the last few episodes.
The story certainly does stand out - but I would not call it good. In fact, I would say the story is the biggest issue with this series. Characters are largely okay (good enough to support a series but not to be a major draw) but unfortunately the plot they are taking part in is some real nonsense. Moribito has a strong start to the story, and an okay ending, but everything in the middle is a mess. There is a ton of nonsensical plot points that feel like they could be resolved with a small conversation and only serve to lengthen the plot, and there is a bunch of SoL stuff that, while nice, also doesn't really further the plot at all.
The reason why Moribito's plot both stands out so much and is so meandering and ridiculous is quite simple: The anime of Moribito covers volume 1 of a children's novel series (hence the simple, genuine story), and the original story of this volume only covers a fraction of the anime's story, just about 1/3rd of it. The rest is filler (which is why the plot is so messy).
It honestly baffles me that I did not see any review mentioning this fact, as it explains why so much of this show really doesn't make sense. The SoL stuff they added is nice, but all of the palace BS and other plot point they added (to attempt to justify the now much longer midsection of the story) are simply bad. They confuse the point of the story and ruin every character in the palace as they all run around like chickens with their heads cut off attempting to find Balsa and magically failing every time.
Despite all of this, I still think Moribito is good. Does all of the filler make the show boring? Yes, but I still like some of the slower moments in that midsection (especially insofar as they endear Chagum to Balsa), and the series is low-key carried by it's excellent production.
I would also recommend the manga adaptation of Seirei no Moribito, as that seems to be a far more faithful adaptation.
P.S. - The Moribito wiki claims the anime "greatly expands the midsection of the novel", which is REALLY putting it lightly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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