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#Post#: 2--------------------------------------------------
Guardian of the Spirit Discussion
DIR By: Ainikki
Date: June 23, 2021, 6:51 am
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Use this topic to talk Moribito!
#Post#: 3--------------------------------------------------
Re: Guardian of the Spirit Discussion
DIR By: WaterDarkE
Date: June 23, 2021, 7:44 am
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Hi! I'm Water and I have been commenting sporadically on the
Guardian of the Spirit novels following Guardian of the Void. I
have been introduced to the Moribito series from a very young
age, picking up the first English translation of the first novel
in a book fair from elementary school and having watched the
anime as I had the first ten episodes available to me in DvD.
It's a series that is an intergral part of my childhood and
because of that, I am very glad to be able eventually finish
more of the series as the translations progress. I'm also a fan
of the Beast Tamer series and am reading some of the
translations of the Deer King. GKids recently licensed the Deer
King movie after it was screened at the Annency International
Film Festival and a Otaquest review of the movie, saying it was
amazing, piqued my interest and I hope to read the novel and
watch the movie once it's more available.
#Post#: 4--------------------------------------------------
Re: Guardian of the Spirit Discussion
DIR By: TheSacredSpirit
Date: June 23, 2021, 11:34 am
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Hello, I am GreatSeishin from the comments on Ainikki's blog.
I hope one day Moribito becomes popular in the West. That way
more people can see this underrated gem of a franchise.
#Post#: 6--------------------------------------------------
Re: Guardian of the Spirit Discussion
DIR By: WaterDarkE
Date: June 23, 2021, 2:44 pm
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Sadly, I don't think it's very likely that Moribito would be
more popular. Even when the anime initially came out, its sales
in Japan were very low, so it cannot be called a commerical
success. And Scholastic stopped the English translations of the
Moribito novels with Guardian of Darkness also from low sales
and general obscurity. More kids were interested in like Percy
Jackson when Guardian of the Spirit's novel was on sale. It's
success as an anime came more afterwards through word of mouth
and just trying the anime overall. Even so, I'm glad that Beast
Player is getting translated more recently, and hopefully at
least a Deer King novel with the release of the anime film, but
I doubt that it's too likely. Moribito is truly an underrated
gem that many modern anime fans don't really appreciate.
#Post#: 7--------------------------------------------------
Re: Guardian of the Spirit Discussion
DIR By: TheSacredSpirit
Date: June 23, 2021, 5:48 pm
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I guess maybe we could all try to investigate why Moribito
failed to really take off.
My personal belief is the series might have benefitted from some
cutesy animal-like mascots. Perhaps some spirits from Nayug
could be pets for people in Sagu?
There was that ... thing ... which Torogai has (I don't remember
if it even existed in the books) but it didn't do that much, did
it? Maybe they should have given Chagum or Balsa an animal
companion. Given how much Chagum was shown to love small animals
this could have easily been done.
I also suspect having the magic system be more strongly fleshed
out might had done the series some good. The later books
improved on this but the magic system felt very underutilized in
the first book. The anime did a slightly better job, but they
could have at least let us get a glimpse of the adult water
spirit which was a bit of a missed opportunity. In the book,
Chagum dreams of having become the Water Spirit and its
apparently a palace-sized clam but nothing else of its
appearance is described.
I also think the first book's plot might have been a little too
out there for Western fans. I mean, the plot can be summarized
as "some boy who just so happens to be one of the most important
people on the planet becomes sort of pregnant but with the egg
of a god-like being that controls the weather".
#Post#: 8--------------------------------------------------
Re: Guardian of the Spirit Discussion
DIR By: WaterDarkE
Date: June 26, 2021, 7:21 am
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I can understand your perspective on mascots, but I don't think
the series would have benefited from something like that. It's
more on just how foreign the magic system or even the thoughts
on spirits and dual worlds is more common in the East than the
West, even if I don't know much about Church related things.
Nahoko Uehashi has a doctorate in studying the Yamatiji, a group
of aboriginal people of Australia, so I think more of her
inspirations come from that educational background, and
respectively, making her works more unique instead of being too
heavily Japanese focused. But also because of that, the first
book which is aimed at children, just isn't as approachable. I
feel that adults appreciate the depth of her works rather than
children.
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