Seirei no Moribito – ep3

The fight animation was Godly. I never thought that I’d see a fight sequence as elaborate as this in an anime series. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get any good screen caps though. Very realistic too… you don’t see Balsa just overwhelming everybody. In fact, she barely copes, just managing her best against 4 experts. Well choreographed fight.

The fight breaks out, between Balsa and the 4 Assassins, who communicate by whistles. Initially, 3 broke away to chase after Chagum, but soon they realized they need all 4 to take down Balsa.

Really epic fight takes place. Balsa barely manages to hold her own, but her spear finally breaks off, leaving her capable of only knocking out the assassins without dealing them any mortal blows. In the end, she faced the leader one on one. She lunges into his knife knowing that she’ll get cut, but deals him a big knockout blow.

In the end however, she had to run into the forest. Unfortunately, they still manage to find Chagum, but not Balsa. They acknowledge her skillfulness, but believe that she won’t be back, since she’s just a body guard. One of them (Jin), takes Chagum, while the rest go another way with their leader.

Meanwhile Tohya and Saya decide that they should tell Tanda that Balsa might be in big trouble. Tohya comes up with some ridiculous idea about how to find him. But Saya decides that the best plan is to wait by the noticeboard where Tanda gets orders for his herbs.

At the same time, it would seem that Jin was treated well previously by Chagum, something that he’ll remember for life. He decides to take Chagum’s life on his own, rather than let him be killed by his father’s hands. Luckily for Chagum, Balsa suddenly appears, takes Jin down and saves Chagum.

 But Balsa obviously is suffering from the wound suffered from the Assassin’s leader. Unable to move anymore, she gives Chagum instructions on how to find Tanda’s home, and to get help

The way is not easy though, and involves a tall hill, slipper paths, wolves. Yet somehow Chagum gets through it all, showing lots of character.

Just as Chagum falls into a pool, he is saved by Tanda, who had returned home after having too good business.

At the same time, Balsa starts having hallucination of a fight between two men wielding short spears. A younger Balsa can be seen in the background, even as one of them is speared and lies dying.

Tanda arrives just in the nick of time.

Thoughts

Wakaranai has a good write up on how good the production this episode was.

Just to add on a little, other than just talking about how good the fight scene was.

I liked the suspense. I was all for thinking that Chagum’s wonderful effort was wasted. Since Saya and Tohya seemed to indicate that Tanda was still in town. I was totally waiting for the tear breaker when Chagum will find that Tanda was not home. Very well handled.

 Chagum as a character has totally surprised me thus far. At times he seems like a spoilt brat. Yet he somehow managed to make it through and find Tanda. Obviously there’s some substance in him. I’m glad.

 And of course, we all want to know who those 2 guys fighting with spears were. Lots of mysterious plots to be revealed. I can’t wait.