Mushishi Episode 8 Discussion

Phaetons_Folly said:
This is a very impressive episode and I will easily say that it is the best one so far.

I know this is what the show said and I have seen this sentiment a lot on these forums but I can’t help but to disagree with it. I think it is perfectly reasonable to call mushi good or bad depending on how they help or hurt humans. That is the same criterion that is used for animals, plants, and any natural phenomenon. Humans change the environment to suit their own comforts. We build houses to protect us from the world; we build parks that house what nature that is pleasant to us. While I intellectually understand the argument to protect nature in its entirety, good or bad, I know that I would be unable to fully live such an ideology; I will still swat mosquitoes.

Kylearan said:

I completely agree.

Anehim said:

I think the moral's of which is ''good'' or ''bad'' comes forth from being sentient and able to experience impulses that trigger pleasure or pain.
Those two impulses trigger us to survive with only needing minimum thoughts. That and compassion/reflection of your own perception upon other life form's.
But of course egoistic thinking is needed for one survival: First thinking for yourself/surviving yourself before others. Yet the world isn't black or white. Of course you can say something is ''bad'' for our own survival, but the concept of ''bad'' and ''good'' is just another illusion or creation of the human mind.

Osaka117 said:
Its so sad, but so beautiful at the same time. I felt quite bitter sweet by the end.

ntHai said:
In this episode more than half a year has passed. Ginko sure takes his time.

prosit said:
Does anyone know the name of the ending song?

katarin said:
Am I the only one who thought it was kind of messed up that Shiro was okay with the new girl trying on his dead wife's kimonos? :/ I know she didn't know, and he said it was fine, but that scene just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

a_new_challenger said:
So solemn and mysterious. Love it.

DalPuri said:
:'(
A few things really got to me in this episode, but the biggest is that Shiro is partially (or completely) responsible for his wife being trapped in the fog at sea. He told her that he didn't expect her to follow him to his hometown, and that she could return home if she wanted (because it didn't suit her to live in the boonies)... I think because of that she began doubting her place by Shiro's side, and was unable to see his hometown as her home too. With those doubts and no home to return to, Michihi was unable to see the land from inside the fog.

Shiro's words were simple and careless, but they cut deep. I'd like to say that the guilt of being unable to apologize to his wife contributed to him being unable to let go... but that doesn't seem quite right.

What I didn't notice the first time I watched this is that Shiro was really living on a razor's edge. As Ginko says, "... It seemed you might lose your desire to go on living the moment you found any of your wife's personal effects." Shiro assured Ginko that wasn't true anymore. He had found his place in the village and even started "something" with a village girl. (Even then, it seems he still longed for his wife. "You stare out at the sea sometimes... I worry you'll be washed out to sea.")
... That's the only reason Ginko let him go into the fog so easily... Yet the moment he met his wife again, he lost his ability to see the land.
This really was a story of Shiro being unable to let go of his wife and the past that he lost.

Ginko's role is rather interesting... It was necessary and rather cruel how Ginko told Shiro to leave his wife behind... But Michihi disintegrating in his arms was an even more cruel realization that she is not the same as before.

Free_Candy said:


she died...

Cynderella said:
A lot of the male characters he meets look the same.

Cynderella said:
A lot of the male characters he meets look the same.

Silva13iP said:
Okay, this episode was certainly not conclusive! He said they spent 2-3 hours in the fog, while a month passed on the shore. Say 2 hours equals 1 month, therefore 24 hours equals 12 months, or in other words: 1 day inside = 1 year outside.

When Shiro told his story to Ginko in the beginning, he said it took place 2 years 6 months ago. Ginko then came back after what seems to have been several months, so let's just assume that from the point Shiro went into the fog with Ginko, 3 years had passed since he lost his wife. Upon finding his wife, she conclusively states that "it has been 3 days", which makes perfect sense as 3 days withinin the fog equals 3 years outside the fog.

So according to the math, the time that actually passed inside the fog was 3 days, a relatively short amount of time that the woman could have easily survived. It's correct that she didn't want to return home to begin with, but she was still just there for an actual 3 days, not enough time for her to die or for her body to decompose. And certainly, the fog didn't consume her, because Shiro was in the fog two times, and nothing happened to him either. The only thing that happens to you if you don't want to return home is that you lose sight of the shore and get lost in the fog, which could in no way be a problem if you were saved (which she was!) a mere 3 days later.

I'm fine with sad endings, but suggesting that "time passes slower in the fog than outside" was stupid. If that really was the case, they should have been able to save the woman with ease. Thank you for reading.

TyphoonS said:


The problem wasn't that the woman was starving or something. The problem was the she didn't want to go to the shore. Thus..the Mushi took over her during that time. As Ginko said only those who want to go back , can go back. So..the woman was probably already taken over by the Mushi when they found her. Shiro wasn't affected because both the times he wanted to return back.