 | "Mushishi" by Konstantin
(2006-01-31) |
Looks like C1 has finally gotten another ep of
Mushishi out the door, so all's right with the world. I'm very happy to see that the show has remained consistently good throughout its run so far and hasn't fallen prey to formula like
Jigoku Shoujo. I'm even happier to have recently discovered that the anime is slated run for a full 26 episode season.
I definitely recommend that anyone who hasn't already seen it check it out, especially since the show's opening looks and sounds pretty boring and may well have triggered many a viewer's autoplonk reflexes. The show itself, though, is very interesting indeed. It consists of a series of completely episodic short stories that posit the existence of non-sentient supernatural beings called mushi (literally "insects") and explore people's interaction with them through the eyes of Ginko, a wandering Mushishi, whose job description lies somewhere between supernatural doctor and entomologist.
What keeps the show interesting is the fact that each mushi is fundamentally different, as are the circumstances of the people encountering them. For some the mushi are a disease, for others a natural disaster, a moral dilemma, or the opportunity of a lifetime. Ginko himself seems to be primarily interested in observing, studying, and collecting the parts from the mushi, briefly entering the lives of the affected people as a detached, though sympathizing, outsider. This sense of remoteness and isolation seems to be emphasized by his vaguely modern state of dress, while the surrounding countryside appears stuck in a permanent pre-industrial Edo period.
This show reminds me a lot of Kino's Journey, since both tend to be somewhat philosophical examinations of the human condition through the eyes of travelers. While Kino's Journeys tends to go for literary allegory, though, Mushishi generally tends to have more of the feel of a good campfire ghost story.
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