Mushishi
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Sadi-st_Tanmoy said: Episode 06 = Trivializing drug addiction. & Akouya = Ikigami = The drug addict. Reason: Akouya (the drug/mushi addict) doesn't feel like living unless she lets the mushi to live in her body and so she does this by inhaling the flower (= drug) after being cured instead of going through rehabilitation. And when she does this, the characters don't get mad or sad, rather they "accept" it. This is the same as overlooking drug addicts in our societies and their taking of drugs. Just like Akouya, they lead a half-dead life of delusion and hallucination and say they are having so much fun.... rubbish. ^ This And how the fuck can this be any good if you turn into a mummy every night ? |
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| This show never ceases to amaze me. |
| A truly breathtaking episode when the message fully sinks in. Akoya became so accustomed to the lifespan of the mushi that she couldn't cope with having a human perception of time anymore. It really resonates because the thought of eternity often unsettles me in a similar way. |
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Sadi-st_Tanmoy said: Episode 06 = Trivializing drug addiction. & Akouya = Ikigami = The drug addict. Reason: Akouya (the drug/mushi addict) doesn't feel like living unless she lets the mushi to live in her body and so she does this by inhaling the flower (= drug) after being cured instead of going through rehabilitation. And when she does this, the characters don't get mad or sad, rather they "accept" it. This is the same as overlooking drug addicts in our societies and their taking of drugs. Just like Akouya, they lead a half-dead life of delusion and hallucination and say they are having so much fun.... rubbish. You make a valid point, although, the episode can be interpreted in other ways as well. For example, I have often wondered about and had pity for animals that live so short, for a day, or couple of days (I have heard many times that butterflies live for a day, although it seems to be incorrect, but they still don't live long), and this episode showed a positive side of that, how their every experience is precious. After all, the point of the episode was different views on passage of time, and how each has it's own positive sides and Ginko says in the end "You have endless time ahead of you." I found it a very encouraging episode, definitely a very deep one either way. |
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| Another beautiful episode, which also offers a pearl of wisdom. Narration in line with the rest of the episodes seen so far, quite melancholic, but not so extreme with the previous ones, one is still fascinated by this anime series. |
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| Akoya as an Ikigami only had to wait for time to surreally pass by to have a fresh beginning the morning after as if she had been reborn every single day. She was thrown back to reality so suddenly with the revelation that her father's been using her as a means to abuse Mushi and how he ended up dying right after so I don't really blame her for wanting to escape from the real world after that. Life sucks and some people can't deal with that. If they have a way of finding their own happiness, it'll be hard to take that away from them even if you can try to replace it. |
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| anoter just wonderfull setup. Just love this anime LOVE <3 |
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| Another very melancholy episode, but also with a strong symbolic value, for the message it conveys: we must take our destiny with two hands and not let ourselves be carried away by the river of events. Excellent soundtrack. |
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"The sun rises today and sets again. A flower bloomed in the morning, falls from its stem. The sun sets today and rises again. Flowers bloom to fill the land, but not the flowers of yesterday."  |
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| The ending was really deep and well made. The episode itself is beautiful and theres nothing I can complain about it |
| Heartbreaking... tragically beautiful |
| damn that was a pretty sad tale. Cult shit freaks me out honestly, humans are probably the scariest being to touch this planet i swear. ahhhh it pained me having to watch the poor girl go back to the Mushi. In a way, the Mushi this time around is like a form of addictive drug. I guess the more your on it, the more used to the Mushi's heartbeat you feel in the day where everything would fee faster and better like a fat dopamine rush but for like 12 hours, but after when that Mushi's lifespan dies and gets reborn your body piratically resets and the cycle contiunes. I guess the addictive part would be when people were cured of it, they would feel anxious as there body breaks the weird cycle and returns to reality. Would make sense why people weren't happy about being cured and would go back. |
 "yabe." |
| What a sad and existential episode:( At least it ended on a happy note |
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| That man definitely deserved death. Piece of crap human. Poor girl. |
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| I think Ginko should offer Akoya his smoke |
| I feel like, when Akoya becomes Ikigami she is like being reborn after waking up from her sleep, and that's what scares her when the Mushi inside her is taken away by Ginko. Plus the fact that her own father used her all along. When the Mushi was still perched inside her, she was not aware of the real time of human, her heart felt full because according to her everything felt fast and like it was okay. When she returns to being a normal human, everything becomes scary for her because human time feels so long.. she became worried about many things, her heart didn't feel full anymore. Nagi said that "we are not all that different" we are referring to Nagi, Akoya, and the people there. Not knowing what to do, long periods of time are scary and worry us. But as Ginko said, just live a normal life, live as usual. Normal life is not easy but we have unlimited time ahead of us. I agree with the opinion that this episode is about people who are addicted to drugs and also about the time of human life, the time we live everyday. This episode was beautiful and sad.. I myself once felt like Akoya, when time flies without worrying about something my heart feels full, but when it returns to "normal" it becomes quite scary. But life must go on. Great episode. |
hanakocheeksJul 6, 2021 11:43 PM
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| I'm scared, not that I know how drug addiction works, but this looks like how people who is addicted to drugs acts. Watched this episode for the second time and this is really a good episode, I love it. |
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| Humans return to drugs on their own volition after all is said and done. Sometimes, one simply does now want to be healed. |
| Have a healthy, happy, day of hilarity! [font="\"Helvetica Neue\", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"]I'm level  on MAL-Badges. View my badges.[/font] |
| It's pretty funny how I share the same exact experience as someone in this thread who posted like 10 years ago. I first watched Mushishi in 2020 and I never found this episode particularly memorable, but now that I'm rewatching I find the content really powerful. I don't see it as a 1:1 analogy for drug addiction as well, though I can see why people would come to that conclusion, especially with the theme of escapism present in this episode. The ending was very bittersweet. The main idea I took away from this episode was that despite all anxieties about the future, the best thing to do is to appreciate the life you were given and keep living it. My favorite episode on this rewatch, a smidge above Pillow Pathway because it left me thinking for a while longer. |
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| Strangely enough, 9 years after watching this the first time, I don't feel like this reminded me of drug use at all. I think I kind of get the situation the girl was in, being emotionally dependent and attached to her father and her family. She found the prospect of living without those ties too much, the idea of the vast uncertainty of living a long life on her own, it scared her. She had not become her own person, and maybe was scared to be independent. Maybe in the end, her way out of the trauma of seeing her father killed (therefore the severance of her emotional and life anchor) was to live in that oblivion of living and dying every single day. It wasn't for the pleasure of the mushi, or even the forgetting of her real life exactly though. It was the thought of going on that scared her. Another aspect to the episode is that of the concept of time - we think our lives are short, too short. But everything is relative. Compared to the lives of animals that only live a day or two, our lives are vast, entirely different kind of existence. What we do with it, is up to us. Our choice. Sadi-st_Tanmoy said: Episode 06 = Trivializing drug addiction. & Akouya = Ikigami = The drug addict. Reason: Akouya (the drug/mushi addict) doesn't feel like living unless she lets the mushi to live in her body and so she does this by inhaling the flower (= drug) after being cured instead of going through rehabilitation. And when she does this, the characters don't get mad or sad, rather they "accept" it. This is the same as overlooking drug addicts in our societies and their taking of drugs. Just like Akouya, they lead a half-dead life of delusion and hallucination and say they are having so much fun.... rubbish. Which leads me to this comment I completely disagree with. Even assuming this takes place within the theme of drug addiction and society (which it isnt cuz Akouya was literally used by her father/elders for a purpose to live a specific life without her choice or say in it - a point that weirdly enough no one has talked about in this thread), even assuming this theme is exactly about drug addiction, addicts cannot be forced to rehabilitate. At a certain point, people with addictions, traumas, mental health issues need to want to get better - a support system is crucial (the boy), yes, but not enough on its own. KayY_Y said: The ending was very bittersweet. The main idea I took away from this episode was that despite all anxieties about the future, the best thing to do is to appreciate the life you were given and keep living it. My favorite episode on this rewatch, a smidge above Pillow Pathway because it left me thinking for a while longer. I think this is it. The crux of the episode. |
eyerokNov 26, 2022 8:18 PM
| "...our faces marked by toil, by deceptions, by success, by love; our weary eyes looking still, looking always, looking anxiously for something out of life, that while it is expected is already gone – has passed unseen, in a sigh, in a flash – together with the youth, with the strength, with the romance of illusions.” - Joseph Conrad ('Youth') |
| really hard rewatch after introducing my ex to this show who ended up dying from addiction |
| They're putting chemicals in the water to make the friggin swamps move! Really like Ginko as an MC, dude's so sly |
| One of the more bittersweet endings so far. That dad is such a scumbag, tho I wonder if whoever "manages" the next living god is just as big of a scumbag. |
| Brilliant episode. Living the lifespan of the mushi each day. I found it sad she smelled the flower again but it's understandable. |
| I don't like the similarity with drugs, but this episode talks about the two ways of living: to live every day as the only one, and to live your whole life. And that's beautiful. |
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