There’s something rather surreal in going from the rampant mediocrity of the current anime season directly to one of the greatest anime episodes of all-time.  And I feel almost guilty in turning to Seirei no Moribito for solace – as if packing 1990 Dom Perignon on ice to slake your thirst after wandering through the desert, when one should be thrilled with tepid water.  This series is so great that the reflection on anime in its current form is that much more painful.  But I’m so close to the end now – I can’t stop.

It says something about how powerful Episode 19 was that Shindo Naomi (Balsa) wrote of how she was so devastated after recording these scenes with 13 year-old Adachi Naoto (Chagum) that she had to retreat to her home to drink and cry till she passed out.  This is not an easy episode to watch, and it’s pretty unsparing in how it reflects on the characters.  It reminds me of the best episodes of the “Chimera Ant” arc from Hunter X Hunter (the only ones in anime that can really aspire to the same category) in that sense.

What Nimka has set in motion here is unstoppable, and as horrified as she is by that, it’s probably better in the end that it happened.  Chagum is stronger than he appears to be, and Balsa weaker – and both those things are reflected in how they react in this episode.  Balsa has no answers as a warrior – as Tanda says, not even she can do battle with invisible monsters whose giant claws emerge from the ground to rip the Nyunga ro Chaga in half.  And she has no answers as a parent either (though in her defense, she’s never been and barely had one), as her behavior shows.  But both she and Chagum are trying to do the best they can in an awful situation.

Chagum’s determination to return to the palace and face his responsibilities is perfectly understandable under the circumstances – unwise yes, but understandable just the same.  As is Nimka deciding to help him by showing him a shortcut only the villages know about (a crucial development, as it happens).  She has no answers either, and is painfully aware of it.  She can tell Chagum how he’s going to die, but not offer any help in preventing his death.  Allowing him to face his demise as he wishes surely seems for Nimka like the right thing to do.

There are a lot of really wonderful moments in this episode.  Chagum stopping to take one last look back at the village is very powerful – his love for Balsa is deep and profound, and even if what she’s done feels like a betrayal, those feelings are unaffected.  All his life Chagum has lived as a symbol, important for what he is instead of who he is.  For him being the Nyunga ro Chaga is just another extension of that.  And what’s worse, just when he thought he’d found someone who loved him for himself, the belief that he was less important to Balsa than the water spirit inside him is the ultimate rejection.

As I’ve noted many times, Balsa is a pretty bad parent.  She handles almost everything with Chagum the wrong way though sometimes, somehow, it turns out to be right.  I’ve never defended her approach here – scolding Chagum harshly, demanding that he run her through with her spear, then violently turning on him when he vents his despair and frustration in a halfhearted lunge.  Is this what Jiguro would have done?  I have no idea – we don’t know him well enough – but it’s the only way she seems to know.  What we see in the aftermath is as close to vulnerability and apology as you’ll get from Balsa, but because Chagum is who he is that’s enough.  It’s a terrible, brutal sequence – as raw and emotionally real as anything you’ll see in anime.

When the Hunters finally do arrive, they – and Shuga – waste no time in showing their true colors.  Sure, if the village hands over the Prince they’ll leave peacefully – but Mon thinks nothing of threatening to “wipe this village off the map” if they don’t, and Shuga says nothing to contradict him.  They’re instruments of the Mikado, with a colonialist mindset – their task is the only thing that really matters to them.  Some among them – Shuga and Jin certainly – may have a personal affection for Chagum, but that’s not a mitigating factor in their defense.

The short-term plan, hatched before the chasers arrived, is to head to the heretofore unmentioned Hunter’s Cave to ride out the winter and try and hatch a plan for the fateful spring.  But no one, not even Torogai, has any plan for how to preserve Chagum’s life or even see that the egg fulfils its purpose.  The truth of that, as it turns out, was in the Nahji song – a verse long-forgotten by most after the Yogoese decided it was distasteful.  But the nahji have suffered as a result of Yogo industrialization, and are now rare – which means even a noble sacrifice by Chagum (which no one wants) would end up being in vain.