Guardian of the Spirit
| Seirei no Moribito | |
|---|---|
| Original title | 精 霊 の 守 り 人 |
| transcription | Seirei no Moribito |
 | |
| Logo of the series | |
| genre | Fantasy , adventure |
| novel | |
| country |
 Japan
|
| author | Nahoko Uehashi |
| First publication | 1996 |
| Manga | |
| country |
Japan
|
| author | Kamui Fujiwara |
| publishing company | Square Enix |
| magazine | Monthly Shōnen Gangan |
| First publication | March 2007 - July 2008 |
| expenditure | 3 |
| Anime television series | |
| title | Guardian of the Spirit |
| Original title | 精 霊 の 守 り 人 |
| transcription | Seirei no Moribito |
| Country of production |
Japan
|
| original language | Japanese |
| year | 2007 |
| length | 25 minutes |
| Episodes | 26th |
| Director | Kenji Kamiyama |
| production | Akio Matsuda, Hisako Matsumoto, Shinjiro Yokoyama, Tomoyasu Nishimura |
| music | Kenji Kawai |
| First broadcast | April 4, 2007 - September 29, 2007 on BS 2 ( NHK ) |
Guardian of the Spirit ( Jap. 精霊の守り人 , Seirei no Moribito , also translated as Guardian of the Sacred Spirit ) is the first volume of the fantasy - novel series Moribito (dt. Guardian ) of the Japanese author Nahoko Uehashi . Studio Production IG in 2007 produced a rating based on Anime - television series . The novel was also adapted as a radio play series and as a manga .
action
The action takes place in the fictional , Asian-influenced Yogo empire. The spear-bearer Balsa is appointed bodyguard by the mother of the young Prince Chagum . The emperor seeks his son's life because he is said to be the bearer of the egg of a water demon that will bring drought over the country. An honorable funeral is officially staged for the boy, and the emperor secretly lets assassins persecute him. Help for balsa and chagum comes from the herbalist Tanda and his teacher, the shaman Torogai . The bodyguard succeeds in protecting the child and faking her and Chagum's deaths to the persecutors.
Both then settle in a water mill. The 2nd Prince gets to know the life of ordinary people here. During this time, Torogai tries to uncover the secret of the water demon whose egg Chagum is carrying. She contacts Nayug , an invisible parallel world hidden behind the physical world. Torogai discovers that the founding legend of the Yogo Empire, according to which a destructive water demon had to be destroyed to prevent drought, is a lie.
At the same time, Chagum's former tutor and imperial star interpreter Shuga is investigating the sign that had announced drought to the empire and now - although the prince is allegedly dead - does not want to go away. He translates the old stone tablets from the founding time in order to learn more about the origin of the empire and the fight with the water demon. He learns that the birth of this being, contrary to what was previously believed, will not cause the drought, but prevent it. When he finally finds out that the prince is still alive, he lets him look.
When the watermill is set on fire, Balsa and Chagum have to flee again. They retreat to the village of the Thommi, the Torogais people. There you will find out their version of the legend about the water demon or spirit. According to her, the keeper of the egg dies through a being called La Lunga at the time the spirit is born. Prince Chagum, who would suffer this fate, is appalled. He tries to return to the arms of the empire because he believes they can protect him there. He gets into an argument with Balsa, who tries to prevent him and finally prevails.
Balsa, Chagum, Torogai and Tanda hibernate in the hunter's cave hidden in the mountains. The prince hears the life story of his guardian for the first time. Like Chagum, she owes her life to a bodyguard who protected her against the assassins of a ruler. Because Balsa wants to save the prince at all costs, she does not let him return to his imperial tutor Shuga for the time being.
With the beginning of spring, the egg begins to affect Chagum's constitution. He goes alone to the place where it is supposed to hatch. The remaining group around Balsa and an imperial elite unit around Shuga meet, decide to cooperate and follow the boy. La Lungas, beings of the otherworldly Nayugo, appear to destroy the bearer of the egg. Nayugo and the physical world flow together as Balsa and her companions battle a horde of La Lungas. At sunrise the egg is saved. Tanda succeeds in releasing this from Chagum's body, and the water spirit can be born.
Finally, Balsa leads the prince back to the imperial family. Balsa offers to flee with her, but Chagum refuses because of his imperial family. The story ends with Balsa returning to her homeland called Kambal.
Publications
The novel Serei no moribito , published in 1996, is the first part of Uehashi's 10-volume fantasy novel series Moribito . Arthur A. Levine Books , a label of the US publisher Scholastic , published the first volume in June 2008 and the second volume in English in May 2009. The first volume was also published in Italian by Adriano Salani Editore in 2009 and in French by Éditions Milan in 2011 .
Adaptations
Radio play series
The Japanese radio station NHK-FM broadcast a series of radio plays on the novel. The Guardian of the Spirit, with ten quarter-hour episodes, aired August 7-13, 2006.
Manga
The Japanese comic magazine Monthly Shōnen Gangan published by Square Enix published a manga on the novel from March 2007 (issue 4/2007) to July 2008 (issue 8/2008) by the illustrator Kamui Fujiwara . The individual chapters have also been published in three edited volumes and as a complete volume.
Anime
In 2007, the studio produced Production IG a 26-part anime - television series based on the novel. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama , the character design created Gatō Asō and artistic director was Yusuke Takeda . The series was first broadcast from April 4, 2007 to September 29, 2007 by NHK on BS2 .
In English, the anime was broadcast in 2008 by Cartoon Network in the United States. The German dubbed version of the series was released on six DVDs from March 17 to December 1, 2008 on Universum Anime . A new edition as a box set followed on June 11, 2010. Between August 19, 2012 and September 23, 2012, the television broadcaster Super RTL broadcast the series on Sundays from 8:15 p.m. as six two to two and a half hour films. On the following Saturday, the broadcasts were always repeated around 9:50 p.m.
synchronization
| role | Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) | German speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Balsa | Mabuki Andō | Diana Borgwardt |
| Chagum | Naoto Adachi | Leo Vornberger |
| Tanda | Kōji Tsujitani | Michael Baral |
| Torogai | Ako Mayama | Marianne Lutz |
| Mikado / Emperor | Atsushi Ono | Reinhard Kuhnert |
| Shuga | Hirofumi Nojima | Tobias Nath |
| Tōya | Mayumi Asano | Tino Hillebrand |
| Jiguro | Rintaro Nishi | Michael Iwannek |
| Saya | Ryō Hirohashi | Libell Barthel |
| Sagum | Ryōya Kobayashi | Ozan Unal |
music
The music for the series was composed by Kenji Kawai . The opening credits Shine comes from the J-Rock formation L'Arc-en-Ciel . The closing song is Itoshii Hito e ( 愛 し い 人 へ ) by the singer Sachi Tainaka .
Awards
The anime series received a jury recommendation at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival 2007.
Web links
- Seirei no Moribito in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official NHK website for the series (Japanese)
- Official website for the novel series (Japanese)
- Detailed information about the film on the homepage of the production company Produktion IG (English)
- Anime News Network about the anime (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Guardian of the Spirit. Animexx.de, accessed December 8, 2013 .
- ↑ Super RTL shows Guardian of the Spirit from mid-August. Retrieved July 3, 2012 .
- ↑ Japan Media Arts Festival - Art Division - Jury Recommended Works ( Memento from March 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)