[Anime] Seirei no Moribito - Guardian of the Sacred Spirit

On a complete lark, I decided to look up some anime recently to see if I was missing out. Turns out I was. This anime, as well as Ergo Proxy and Twelve Kingdoms are on my list. I won't be watching the others until I finish this one, though.

I've watched up to episode 7, and have been really impressed with this anime, top to bottom. I love the characters and the interplay so far, as well as the understated way everything plays out. Balsa is one of my new favorite anime characters.

I don't want to gush, but really, this is why I watch anime. A show like this would never air in the U.S. unless it had Terminators in it. Can anyone recommend any more character oriented animes like this one? It would be nice if it has some action, but as long as it doesn't play the comic relief card, I'd be forever happy.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I completed the series tonight, and can't find enough good things to say about it. It's really made for me, I think, because I've seen some comments elsewhere like "dull" or "disappointing." Personally, the pacing never bothered me for a second, and where some people didn't like going from the fight scenes in eps 1-3 to the rest of the series, I actually had problems going the other way. From the methodical character study back to ackshun-packed climacks!!, I really found that I enjoyed the series more when it wasn't trying too hard to make grist for the action mill.

Here's hoping the rest of the novels see an anime translation as well. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the anime will be picked up by Adult Swim to air this fall. Hopefully that will give the show the exposure it deserves.

(By the way, I did look up Kure-nai, but could only manage to find one episode so far. I must not be looking in the right places.)

There's nowhere I can't reach.