Mushi-shi: The Complete Series (6 Discs)

Mushi is, according to a good source, Japanese for 'bug'.  In this series, these 'bugs' are not of any ordinary variety but are supernatural beings "..in touch with the essence of life".  This slightly poetic description serves the series well as it is, quite frankly, like no other anime experienced by this humble reviewer.

Based on a (surprisingly) popular manga series, written by Yuki Urushibara and published over ten years (1998-2008), it was adapted for this sublime anime in 2005.

It is, as fellow reviewer and anime aficionado Jitendar Canth coined it in a recent email to me, a ... "very special series".  According to Neo, any self-respecting anime fan's choice of mag, it's "...the most engaging series you'll see all year" and SFX magazine said "It's genuinely beautiful and genuinely unlike anything else you can name". And that's a lot of 'genuine's' for a single sentence!



The bottom-line is, this series really does re-define the genre. Whereas most action anime is so fast-paced that it's often difficult to keep up ('Afro Samurai', 'Naruto' etc) this series is almost wilfully slow. There are often long periods of contemplation where nothing happens, with the exception of a clock ticking or some distant bird-song. Key characters barely whisper their words, and gentle wind chimes are used in place of music whenever the mushi (or supernatural bugs) are in evidence.

Based around central character, Ginko, a 'Mushi Master', each of the 26 episodes contains a single self-contained story with no story arc or continuity beyond Ginko's arrival in a new place.



Mushi-Master Ginko is a chain-smoking, laid back dude on the move, with a voice (on the US dub at least) not unlike Clint Eastwood's, and as a Musihi-shi is able to see Mushi, unexplainable forces which have altered the course of mankind since the dawn of life itself. Ginko wonders the lands investigating unusual occurrences and inevitably helping those caught up in the supernatural phenomena that surround them.

Against all the odds, this series has been a huge success, winning numerous awards,  and in 2007 a live-action feature film (using some CGI) was created, and a Nintendo DS game was released in Japan last year.

For a really thorough overview of the series I refer you to Jitendar's reviews on this site of the six individual discs that make up this set. 



From my own point of view, I think once I was able to suspend all disbelief (some of the stories here are way weird) I really enjoyed the whole experience of watching this series. I watched an episode a day (well, I cheated some days and watched two) and found it to be completely engaging.  It wasn't a series (like 'Naruto' ) that I could watch with one eye, with another on the computer. I tried that and for Mushi-shi, it just doesn't work. It's a series that demands you  sit down, turn the lights low and fully concentrate for 25 minutes to get the most out of it.

Some episodes were better than others (inevitably) and favourites of mine included a girl who takes hold of a string from the sky and disappears, as well as a really strange episode where a man's wife becomes one with the trees of a mysterious forest. Actually, now I think about it, without going into a lot more detail, the stories are not easy to get across. But many are truly fantastic; probably steeped in a Japanese tradition of tales of the supernatural. Despite this, there's nothing scary about Mushi-shi.   Whilst weird, strange and awful things happen during the series, it's always seen as a part of the circle of life, and no effort is made to ever make the Mushi scary.



For those with an interest in the aesthetics, Mushi-shi is a fantastic looking anime. Muted autumnal tones and washes of mist and fog mean that, whilst this is not an assault on the senses, it really is a standout anime.

There are some interesting extras too including interviews with the Director who is about as humble as Ginko about what he has achieved, carefully giving all credit to the original manga which he claims to have tried to stay as faithful as possible to.

Overall, this is a stand-out anime. Jitendar has it just right when he says it is 'very special' and he's a man who has seen more anime that anyone I know. This set is the perfect way to acquire the series. So if you have an interest in manga that goes beyond gratuitous violence and blatant fan-service (both laudible in their own right of course) then this will interest you greatly. I don't think that I've seen an anime that has made me feel so enthusiastic since 'Serial Experiments Lain' - and that was a while ago.