Mushi-Shi (TV) - Review

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest otaku nowadays, at least in the anime sense. I used to be an avid anime fanatic for a good amount of my life but grew out of it around my sophomore year of high school, Full Metal Alchemist being the last great series I had loved before going on a three year hiatus. Today I don’t exactly consider myself an anime fan anymore, so I won’t pretend that I am. It was just one of those things that got away from me. However, I have just finished a particular series that I believe deserves discussion. Mushi-Shi is the award-winning series adaptation of the manga of the same name written by Yuki Urashibara. Both the manga and anime depict the supernatural occurrences surrounding creatures called Mushi, ethereal, ubiquitous life forms in touch with the essence of life in its purest form, unseen by most. Ginko (Travis Willingham), a Mushi Master and main character of the series, travels about the world, studying and collecting all forms of Mushi, as well as helping to resolve situations with people who may have come into contact with them.

The series is episodic, each episode dealing with a fresh storyline and the overall span of the show retaining only one recurring character other than Ginko himself. Each episode is separate from the other, and is treated almost as a short film rather than the fraction of a larger narrative, which I can appreciate considering I’ve grown tired of monotonous story arcs and pointless melodrama that the culture is often stereotyped for. What struck me initially about Mushi-Shi was its atmospheric backdrops and relaxed nature and tone throughout most of the episodes, no sexual objectification of female characters, no angst-ridden, homoerotic rivalries, and thankfully no poorly drawn, lazily executed and pandering filler stories.

Some of the stronger episodes include “The Light of the Eyelid” in which a young girl’s contact with Mushi causes her to feel extreme pain when her eyes are exposed to light but in turn grants her otherworldly sight of the Mushi’s river of life when her eyes are closed in the midst of unspoiled dusk, and “One-Eyed Fish”, which reveals how Ginko received his strange white hair and single, functioning green eye. Each new story brings its own characters and conflict for a spectacular short story that can either end in happiness and tragedy, strength of the series as a whole lies within its unpredictability, as every conclusion can end differently. One story can end with a bittersweet close while another can evoke a smile.

Thanks to some of the best animation I’ve seen in recent years (particularly for backdrops and setting), Mushi-Shi is able to use the medium to its full advantage from a storytelling perspective, utilizing designs and spectacle involving the Mushi and particular tale in question which tend to work better than they would for a live-action TV series or feature film. Could a girl being lifted up into the sky by a string hanging from the clouds seem plausible outside this medium? Could Ginko’s peculiar modern clothes blend with Edo/Meiji period wardrobes worn by the other characters add more to the mystery of his character or just seem clashing were it a live-action take? Or, does it only work because of the rich Japanese culture backing it up? Considering that Ginko seems to wear modern clothes in the Japanese live-action film, it could be the lather, or I could be overthinking it altogether.

Bottom line, Mushi-Shi is an always thrilling, always entertaining, and completely immersive piece of fiction. It’s aesthetically brilliant, and comes highly recommended from me, especially for someone like myself who has grown tired of the abundant tropes often associated to this kind of animation. I wouldn’t say this has brought me back into the culture, but I have come out of this 26 episode masterpiece with a new sense of optimism towards it. Who knows, maybe things will change down the road. I don't generally give ratings outside of movies and video games simply because it's just my own preference, but I'm sure I've illustrated my point well enough.