There’s a lot to feel down about with the latest developments in Seirei no Moribito.  Things are starting to get seriously heavy and dark, and the idyll of the series’ second act is already starting to feel like a distant memory.  But for whatever reason, I find the burning of the water mill to be incredibly sad.  There’s something powerfully symbolic about it and it’s always hit me hard seeing it destroyed – that’s no doubt why it plays a prominent role in my Moribito follow-up novel.  And I don’t think it’s just me – it’s pretty prominent in the heartbreaking ED sequence as well.

All in all, this episode is more than anything a masterpiece of direction and cinematography.  It’s quite literally a nail-biter for me, the tension taut as a bowstring from start to finish.  Seirei no Moribito is great at setting up situations where despite superficial calm chaos is threatening to explode at any moment.  It all starts with Shuga happening on Chagum in Kosenkyo.  It’s a difficult reunion for both of them.  Chagum is torn between his desire to flee with Balsa and his affection for Shuga.  Shuga is so stunned that he hardly knows how to react.

These sorts of encounters are quite revealing in a series like Moribito.  Shuga is a prisoner of his status and upbringing – despite his brilliance and courage, he’s imperious and arrogant to a fault.  His approach to win Chagum over could hardly be worse, and he remains quite dismissive of Balsa and the notion that the boy could feel any loyalty to her.  When Balsa arrives she quite rightly denounces Shuga’s demand that Chagum return in honor to the palace as self-serving.  But Balsa also betrays weakness here – while she’s more or less in the right, her feelings for Chagum color her reactions in a significant way.

As it happens, Mon has just rebuked Jin for being too “passionate” where the prince is concerned, and ordered him to hunt for Shuga while the others head to the water mill.  Love for a child will inspire strong passions in adults, without question, and Chagum is an exceptional boy above and beyond his exceptional birth.  Balsa doesn’t kill Shuga of course – she wouldn’t have anyway but she senses Chagum’s affection for him.  She slows him down substantially but Shuga, intentionally or not, lands a crucial blow before the spearwielder and the prince flee – he tells Chagum that Sagum has passed away.

That will prove to be a crucial turn, as Chagum becomes consumed with self-doubt and grief.  Meanwhile Touya has discovered that he’s unwittingly led the Hunters to Balsa’s hideout, and he berates himself mercilessly for it.  Touya manages to slip inside and hide there, but with the place staked out he knows he has to find some way to warn Balsa that the jig is up.  He’s found the map to Toumi Village so has a pretty good idea what’s afoot, and decides to burn the water mill down as a warning to Balsa – at great risk to himself.

Poor Touya.  This is his fault in that he was taken in by The Chief, but once the Hunters started keeping watch on him this was inevitable (if Balsa wanted to be really careful, she should have starting using a different errand runner).  Luckily for Touya Zen obviously feels a certain affection for him, and manages to talk Mon into not dragging the boy back to the palace to interrogate him.  But Touya will have to live with the shame he heaps upon himself, unfairly or not.  But his plan has worked – Balsa manages to avoid being captured, and races back to the crossroad to begin the journey to Toumi with Chagum and Tanda.

There’s such elegance in the way Kamiyama plays these events out – almost balletic.  It’s great filmmaking, and it takes the story to the cusp of its next major phase.  Balsa has been keeping secrets from Chagum – justifiably, it can be argued, but the time for secrets has passed.  This is a lot for Chagum to endure – the loss of a brother he loved, the weight of New Yogo on his shoulders, and the hard and bitter truth that Balsa is about to reveal to him about his own future.  It’s enough to shake Chagum’s confidence in Balsa – and that’s the rock that he’s been able to anchor to through the bewildering and frightening weeks since he fled the palace.