Mushi-shi: Volume 5

Introduction

Spooks and spectres figure strongly in Japanese folklore, there is a strong sense of spirituality and communion with nature that resonates all the way to modern entertainment, and it's no surprise that Hollywood is now aping many Eastern horror films in order to breathe life into the putrid corpse of their entertainment industry. Naturally this fascination with the supernatural is a strong source of inspiration for manga and anime, and scarcely a year goes by that there aren't ten or so such spooky series debuting in the UK market alone. You would think that with the abundance of vampires, ghosts, demons and spirits that there would come a point when the average anime fan would have seen it all, and would have nothing left to gain from yet another such series. But then Mushi-shi turns up for review, unlike anything I have seen before, and offering a new perspective on the supernatural.

Mushi are the most primitive of life forms. Elusive and ethereal, and existing since time immemorial, they have come to be the cause of many superstitions and supernatural legends. Ginko is a Mushi-shi, a Mushi Master. He travels the country investigating these odd creatures, and helping those people who, for good or ill wind up interacting with them. Four more episodes are presented in this eagerly awaited fifth volume, released by Revelation.



19. String From The Sky
A young woman named Fuki works for an astronomer named Seijiro, babysitting his baby sister while he stargazes. Fuki is a bit of an oddball, prone to seeing strange things that no one else can see, and the village folk tend to look down on her. Seijiro is smitten though, and humours her fantasies. One day she sees a string hanging down from the sky. She grabs it, and vanishes in front of Seijiro's eyes, pulled up into the heavens. Seijiro has a hard enough time convincing his neighbours to help search for Fuki, but the hunt is fruitless. It's Ginko, who is passing through the area who finds her, almost faded from this world, and missing her memories. He helps heal her, restores her memories, and accompanies her back to the village. Seijiro is thankful, but Ginko warns him that if he can't anchor Fuki to the real world and complete the cure, she'll vanish again, and this time for good.

20. A Sea Of Writings
Long ago, there was an aberrant form of mushi that sought to destroy life, rather than co-exist with it. It was sealed by a member of the Karibusa family, but it exacted a heavy toll. Not only did it prove fatal to the person who took it within her, it also cursed her family. Now every 4 generations a child is born with a crippling birthmark, a remnant of the forbidden mushi. The current bearer of the curse is Tanyu, a girl who was born with a black leg. The only way she can survive the taint, and eventually lift the curse is to do the same as all those who were cursed before her, become a scribe. Her destiny as long as the curse lasts, is to hear the stories of the mushi-shi, and write them down on scrolls, converting the black taint of the mushi in her leg, to script that has to be kept buried away where it cannot escape the paper to which it is confined. But the wondrous world of the mushi is denied her, as all the mushi-shi tell her are tales of killing and defeating mushi that plague humans. Then one day a mushi-shi named Ginko visits…



21. Cotton Changeling
A green stain on the dress of a bride on the way to her wedding proves to be a curse. Although the marriage is a happy one, when the couple's first child is born, what emerges isn't even human. The strange creature escapes the building, leaving the couple shocked and bereft. Yet a year later, they find a baby under the house. Accepting it as a gift, they raise the boy as their own, and indeed the child takes after his mother. But the child grows rapidly, and then six months later, they find another baby under the house in the same place. The same thing happens every six months thereafter, and soon they are raising a large brood of identical brothers, each aging rapidly. Then three years later, the eldest boy falls ill, and develops strange green markings. Thinking back to the green stain that had affected his wife, the father calls on a mushi-shi for help, but when Ginko examines the boy, his diagnosis is damning. The child has to die before the sickness deepens and eventually, his brothers will face the same fate.

22. Shrine In The Sea
There is a seaside village where the dead are reborn. The dead and dying are taken to a point offshore by a rock formation, where the sea glows at night, and they are left in the ocean to be pulled under. Then at the next full moon, a red seed appears floating in the sea, which when ingested by a women will make her pregnant, and the child born will be the reincarnation of the deceased. Mio was one such person who lost her mother to illness, and at the insistence of her grief stricken father bore her again as a daughter. Naturally the people of the village are wary of a curious mushi-shi who may end their way of life, but Ginko finds that like all beneficial mushi, these resurrections are a double-edged sword.

Picture

Mushi-shi gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer that aside from the odd artefact in the re-edited title sequence is free of any significant blemish. The transfer is as clear and sharp as NTSC-PAL gets, and the colours are lush and striking. This is an anime that takes the breath away in terms of the design and the animation. Mushi are a phenomenon strongly associated with nature, and Ginko's travels take him to rural idylls and isolated communities in forests full of lavish natural colours. The character designs are simple but effective, but the thought gone into the animation takes it to theatrical quality. The limited palette of colours makes for an atmospheric piece, and the realisation of the ethereal mushi is stunningly accomplished. This is perhaps the most beautiful animation that I have seen this year.

Sound

You get sound in DD 2.0 stereo in English and Japanese flavours, along with translated subtitles and signs. The audio options are robust and surprisingly effective stereo tracks, with subtle sound design coming through the speakers. The effects reflect the gentle tone of the stories, and the music is atmospheric yet understated. This is a story where the sound of a footstep in snow, or the whisper of a breeze makes more impact than anything strident and obvious. It's certainly one of the better stereo discs, but I wonder how much more effective a 5.1 soundtrack would have been.

I did notice a couple of typos in the subtitles, 'exits' instead of 'exists' sort of thing, but not enough to affect my enjoyment.

Extras

The usual suspects here include a jacket picture, trailers for Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-ohki and School Rumble, and the textless songs, although only one of the end themes is here (Mushi-shi's episodes all get different end themes that suit their particular stories).

There is only one director's interview with this volume, but it doesn't matter as it is twice the usual running time at 27 minutes. Director Interview #8 sees Hiroshi Nagahama speak to colourists Rika Nishio, Keiko Yamashita, To Yamazaki and Kunihara Okano about colour setting episodes of Mushi-shi. I've already mentioned how beautiful this anime is, and much of it comes down to the thoughtfulness and delicacy of the imagery. It differs from 'normal' anime in that each story is themed around its own colour, and the colour setting develops around that theme. It's like starting anew with each episode, and this featurette is a sneak peak at the process.

Conclusion

I've said it all. I've raved, gushed and enthused about Mushi-shi 4 times already, and I'm all fanboyed out. It's a shame really, as Volume 5 is the best collection of stories yet, and really deserves more than the desultory 'best anime ever' plaudit that I barely have the creativity left to type, something detailed, involving and reflecting my genuine admiration for this imaginative, moving and jaw-droppingly beautiful animation. I could mention how despite it being the fifth volume, traditionally the point where series pick up pace and start building towards a conclusion, Mushi-shi continues on its measured way of telling self-contained, emotionally involving, gentle paced, ethereal supernatural stories.

Then again I could mention that there does seem to be a narrative thread of sorts emerging, that of realising that Ginko is far from the typical mushi-shi, that his responses and reactions to the events and wonders that he sees are unexpected, and we learn here that his compassion is unique among his peers. It may point to something of a series conclusion, but I'm really just guessing, and quite frankly I'd be glowing with satisfaction at four more episodes of the calibre of the four here.



I could tell you more about the episodes on this disc, which I found to balance the tragic collection of stories in volume 4, with a quartet of more uplifting and hopeful tales. String From The Sky is about acceptance and understanding, with Fuki an outsider in a village who happens to fall for her employer. The mushi in this case is just a deus ex machina, which whisks her away and makes her disappear. Seijiro has to learn the lesson that it isn't the village and his father that has to accept Fuki; it's him despite his love for her. A Sea Of Writings shows another side of mushi folklore. Obviously mushi-shi don't just instinctively know how to deal with mushi, they have to learn their trade, and here we find an archive of material that all mushi-shi can refer to and learn from. Of course this isn't just a local library, and there is a tale behind it. What's interesting here is that Ginko, who has a rule of not settling down and getting attached to those he helps, actually has an attachment here with Tanyu, the stricken scribe. It's also the strongest indication yet that Ginko is an atypical mushi-shi. This seems to be shown as a lie in The Cotton Changeling, which is an absolutely tragic tale of a family cursed by mushi. A couple's child is replaced by what is essentially a growth of mushi, and Ginko's advice to them is harsh indeed. But the story has an unexpected twist in the tail. The final episode turns out to be bittersweet indeed. The mushi local to a fishing village have the ability to apparently restore the dead to life, by taking the deceased and returning them as newborns. It's an agonising thing for Mio, who loses her mother and then gives birth to her again. She's already lost her husband, and accepts her father's wish that his wife should live again, but she's torn between love for her daughter Isana, and the memory of her mother Mana, and as Isana grows to look more and more like Mana, the more wary Mio becomes. It's a question of nature versus nurture, and it's easily my favourite episode on the disc, if not of the series as a whole.



I could mention all this, but I won't. All you need to know is that it's an exquisite animation that deserves a place on every shelf, and volume 5 is the best yet. The good thing about an episodic animation like this is that you can dive right in at any point; it doesn't matter where. So if you haven't availed yourself of Mushi-shi's wonders yet, try volume 5, you'll be ordering the rest of the series before the disc has even stopped spinning in the player. As for me, I'm actually dreading the final volume now. It's a series that I just don't want to end.