Title: Mushishi (蟲師)
Scrumptious Meter: 4.5 (next best thing to slice bread~with a little extra sugar and spice on top)
Length: 26 episodes

Mushi (蟲) are primitive organisms. They are neither plant nor animal. They are far more basic, close to being merely essences of life. Because of this, their shapes and existence are vague, only a few can discern them. When mushi are present, they sometimes cause mysterious phenomena to manifest. In time, some have come to fear mushi. But mushi aren’t inherently harmful. They are simply existing.

Ginko is a mushishi, an expert on mushi. He travels around investigating cases involving mushi. He has another reason for wandering — he can’t stay in the same place for too long, otherwise he will attract a dangerous number of mushi. In his journey, Ginko has gained more insights not only regarding mushi but also on human nature.

Mushishi is set in an earlier period in Japan although Ginko’s clothes are anachronistic to that period. The episodes occur in quiet towns and villages in rural and coastal areas. Each episode features a different story. There are no recurring characters except for Ginko, Adashino, his doctor friend who appears in a few episodes, and Nui, who only appeared in a single episode but provides the narration for each episode.

Some of the stories are sad with tragic endings such as “The Alley Through the Pillow”, where a man’s dreams become reality, eventually causing his wife and child to die in a natural disaster, and “The One Night Bridge”, where a girl survived a fall from a bridge that appears only for a single night but is not quite herself anymore. One story is particularly creepy, “Cotton Spores”, where a couple realizes that their children are the fruits of a plant-like mushi. Some stories, thankfully, although sad have happy endings.

My favorite stories would be “Dawn Snake”, where a mother became afflicted with chronic forgetfulness, “Picking Empty Cocoons”, where a girl who manages cocoons used for sending messages to mushishis searches for her lost sister, and “A String in the Sky”, where a woman disappears after touching a string from the sky.

One thing that makes Mushishi shine is it’s characters. Although the series features mushi, it is basically about the human situation. The characters reactions to the tragedies that befell upon them are quite human. Some fall into despair, some come into acceptance of their circumstance, while some try to fight. As for Ginko, he wants to help others but he can only help them as far as they want to be helped. Ginko, however, is not a miracle worker. He too has his limitations, or rather, there are situations that are beyond anyone’s control.

Mushishi’s pacing is slow though it fits the series well. Those looking for action might find themselves bored. Well, I did find a few episodes boring and the last episode wasn’t as strong as the previous ones.

Overall, Mushishi is an excellent series. It did win awards in the 2003 Japan Media Arts Festival, the 2006 Tokyo Anime Award and the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award. If you’re looking for an anime different from the usual, with good story-telling, Mushishi is definitely a must-watch.

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