From the production company that brought us Blood+ and from the director of Ghost in the Shell SAC comes an anime series worthy of its heritage. The series is Seirei no Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. The visuals of this anime are stunning. The characters are well developed, even the minor ones, but more on that later. And the musical soundtrack is appropriate although it is not on the same level as the Hans Zimmer inspired Blood+ soundtrack .
But regardless of how beautiful and musically 
appealing this series is, it doesn’t go anywhere if not for its very strong female lead. The character Balsa Yonsa, the spear woman, is a strong, independently minded woman capable of protecting herself and those she deems important. She is not like the teenage Saya of Blood+, who reluctantly accepts her fate while endlessly whining about it. Balsa seemingly shares a lot of traits with one of my favorite characters, Paladin of Have Gun – Will Travel fame. She is an intelligent, principled bodyguard whose weapon of choice is a spear in a world where the weapon of her opponent is often a sword. She tries not to kill in combat, because she is trying to atone for the eight lives that were lost trying to protect her when she was a child. But trying not to kill is not the same as not killing. As her mentor tells her early on, saving a life is much harder than taking one. People have died at Balsa’s hand which only adds to her perceived debt and makes her personal struggle more difficult for her and for us.
The series writing is compelling and excellently expands upon the source material. There are no bad or evil people in this series, but that doesn’t mean that there is no conflict. Everyone is doing what they believe is best, but in doing so, everyone is put at cross-purposes. 
Balsa is singularly focused on whatever her mission is at that moment. And today, her mission is to protect the life of a young prince. She constantly makes hard choices and accepts the consequences of those decisions. When she is forced to accept the assignment of protecting the life of the young prince against his father (the Mikado) or be put to death, she doesn’t constantly rail against the injustice of this. She accepts her fate and does what it takes in order to survive and to ensure the survival of her charge.
The fighting styles in the series are very realistic and are somewhat reminiscent of those that were in the Avatar series (The Legend of Korra and The Last Airbender). There’s also something visually appealing about Balsa. She is not a gorgeous woman in anime terms. That is not to say that she is unattractive. She is an average looking (by anime standards) 30 year old woman and this visual maturity makes her character a keeper. You get the feeling that there is very little she hasn’t seen or experienced in her life giving her wisdom and serenity real credence.
This is a series that should be on everyone’s short list in terms of what good anime is about. It’s available on Amazon and on Netflix and should be on your short list. A trailer is below.