Mushishi
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| Can people have different opinions without others looking down upon or dismissing them? Gosh dang, people. Not everyone is as knowledgeable about mental issues as some of you are, but that doesn't mean you should be condescending about it. Everyone has different viewpoints and knowledge, so if you're going to explain Shino's side of it and tell people not to vilify or hate her, don't turn around and post that you're disappointed that people didn't see the episode the way you saw it. |
| I feel that the reason why there are differing (and conflicting) opinions about this episode is because everyone is right. Humans, emotions, thoughts and motives are very complex. People are hardly what they are or do what they do for a single reason. For the mother, there are a few possible reasons behind her behaviour: 1. She never knew the concept of love so she didn't know how to love. She may have grown up under strict rules without parental love. Since it was an arranged marriage, her husband may have loved another and not her either. Her only chance to be loved was taken away from her. 2. She felt a sense of self-pity, bitterness, frustration and depression for the state that she was in. This prevented her from moving on in life. She was just stuck, and lost, and empty, and wanted to run away from everything. (My own opinion: I highly doubt that she tied Reki to the tree out of hatred (she looked too apathetic to be harbouring feelings of hatred). I doubt she wanted the lightning to strike him. I think she just wanted to get away from the nightmare that she was living (and causing Reki to live in) she wanted to shut her eyes and ears to everything. This boy who is crying, who I can't love, who I can't take care of, I just want everything to disappear. And like the neighbours said, rain comes suddenly in those areas. Before she knew it, there was lightning and like oh crap, what just happened?! ) 3. She felt a deep sense of guilt and regret towards Reki. This feeling of guilt snowballed until she lost all opportunities of ever relating to him as a mother. The guilt of trying to abort him before he was born. The guilt of not feeling any affections towards him when he was born. The guilt of tying him to a tree which caused him to be struck by lighting. The guilt that she knows she is a horrible mother, a terrible human but doesn't know what to do about it. I'm beyond all hope and redemption, I have no right to look him in the eye, I have no grounds to act as if I am his mother. There's no use trying. It's too late. Which of these three is the answer? I propose that all three played a part to make her who she is and many more reasons that I'm sure other viewers could analyse and think of. Yes, she is selfish, yes, what she is doing isn't justifiable, yes she deserves to be hated, and yes, she is also very pitiful. So maybe everyone is correct, we're just looking at an elephant from different points of view and merely describing what we see. But in truth, the elephant is more complex than what we see directly from our own perspectives. Needless to say, Reki's desperate cries for help and mercy from his mother broke my heart right at the start of the episode. Similarly for Reki, there are a few possible reasons for his behaviour: 1. No one loves me, I don't see the point in existing, I only cause misery for others, I might as well die. 2. The lightning pays attention to me, it seeks me out when no one else does. 3. Maybe Mom might change, maybe she might be even the slightest bit concerned if I put myself in the way of danger. 4. I need to protect everyone else from the lightning. I need to go far away so that it will not hurt anyone else. (A reason which I find admirable, similarly to his mom (as speculated), he did not grow up in an environment of love and yet he was able to show sacrificial love towards those who did not and could not love him back.) 5. I can't forgive Mom for what she did. Maybe if I continue to put myself in danger and get hurt, it will make her feel guilty and sorry for what she has done. 6. The mushi's influence of wanting to be near the lightning. Again, I think it could be a mixture of reasons that caused him to be who he is. Maybe some of those thoughts passed through his mind at some point of life, and then maybe he felt a different way at a different time. People are constantly changing. There is rarely one single answer to explain what happens in life. My largest takeaway from this episode, however, is not to take for granted the love that I receive. We tend to assume that receiving love is a given and forget to be thankful for it. Sometimes we tend to forget / neglect the ones who love us the most. We are perturbed when we do not see love 'as it rightfully should be given'. While it is true that love is the right thing to do, not everyone does the right thing. Therefore, it reminds me to be grateful for what I have and a reminder to give as I have been given. |
| “Do not allow yourself to be blinded by fear and anger. Everything is only as it is.” |
| The relationship between the mother and her son was very painful to watch. The mother looked "broken" throughout the whole episode. Maybe the only way for her to "heal" is by receiving love from her own mother. Maybe then, she can learn how to love her own son. |
| Just rewatched this episode. Still got goosebumps. Sometimes I forget how much I love Mushishi. The mother simply is a bitch. Seriously. I know she has depression and hates her marriage, but that by no means justifies what she did to her son. She effectively tried to murder him. I can't believe that a woman can be so devoid of maternal instincts. However I know such people exists. Reiki is such a good person. So noble despite what he has to go through. Just looking at his determined and brave face when running towards the lightning makes me shiver.  |
| Now I was actually quite shocked by this. The question in this regard arises whether that mother had some illness or did she just not love him out of selfishness and personal feelings that she'd cherish more than her own child. The execution of this episode on the other hand was really nice. It had some similarities to the previous episode when it comes to the atmosphere. |
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| Let's just hope Reki ends up having a good life from that point on, the kid deserves it. As much as I hated the mother at least they didn't give us a corny ending where she'd suddenly have a change of heart and start acting nice to the kid or something. |
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| Oh my god, this episode just gotten personal. For whatever the reason, depressed, broken, mentally ill, etc, it's never justifiable to bind your own child to a huge-ass tree in the middle of a storm. I fucking hate the mother and I'd pay to see her die excruciatingly and in as much pain as possible. |
| The mom loves her son at heart but she can't seem to move on from the past so she tortures both herself and him. Sad. Bittersweet episode. It ended somewhat okay but the events which led to that were painful. Mushishi knows how to deal with sensitive issues and present them. I couldn't help but think of Maretu's "Umitagari" throughout the episode. Esp. when Shino gave birth and we heard the baby's cry. |
TragicRomanceNov 16, 2016 3:11 PM
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| Its a miracle the boy cared about that lowlife bitch. The fucking scumbag whore deserves to rot in the depth of hell, stupid oxygen stealer |
Ryougi_Shiki_Nov 27, 2016 6:20 PM
| I hate his mom so much, she's such a piece of shit. I don't care if you didn't want to marry the man that child was carried by you for 9 months. How would she feel if her mom didn't give a damn about her. |
| That was so depressing...the scene where the mother contemplates a double suicide hit me hard. How could someone possibly not feel anything for that kid, even after knowing how considerate he is ;-; |
SugarDec 2, 2016 2:55 PM
| In the scene where Ginko wanted the mother to convince Reiki to come back, a small part of me wanted it to work. Yet, bigger part of me was hoping that it wouldn't because by the way the mother was acting throughout the whole episode I had doubted that she would genuinely want him to come back because when Ginko told her about how Reiki was trying to not let anyone else get hurt she didn't seem to change that much. I agree with Ginko it probably was best that Reiki went to live with another relative. |
| Let’s say I posed this question to you: “Can all human souls be bought with money or not?” Now remember, the keyword here is “all”. The answer is “There are times when you can buy them, and other times, not,” right? The human being… sometimes he’ll uphold his pride and conscience even if he’s offered ten billion yen, and other times he’ll murder someone over one yen. ~Izaya Ohira (Durarara) |
| That woman, reeeee. Poor kid, I hope he now lives a happier life with his relatives. |
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| I applaud that they didn't do the expected ending with her embracing her kid and them living happily ever after or some shit. |
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| i really feel sorry for the son :/ |
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| Probably one of the worst mom characters I’ve ever seen in my life. |
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| What a trash mother... |
| What a bad mother :/ Feel bad for Reki, but he'll be better off without her now. I'm glad they kept the ending realistic. She could never love him. How sad. |
| I can't believe there are people who really defend that bitch. Like yes, you can not your son, that's fine... BUT SHE TIED HIM TO A TREE HOPING FOR HIM TO GET HIT BY A LIGHTNING AND FUCKING DIE! Who the fuck can feel empathy for such a psycho? Also, the hug scene was totally selfish imo. Ginko wanted Reki to come back home, so it means there was a chance to save him before another lightning hit him (either the lightning didn't hit him inside his house or there was time to extract the mushi), but Shino instead preferred to kill him and herself. She didn't even said "I hope I can reborn as a good mother for you", she just cared about herself, and only saw Reki as some kind of gun to commit suicide. Really, one of the most despicable characters from Mushishi so far. I wish the lightning would've hit her, but I know Reki wouldn't have liked that. |
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| God this was such an outstanding episode, i loved everything about it. OST was amazing, art of the thunder and clouds especially the ending scene with the rose coloured clouds were fucking fantastic and last but not least this episodes story. You reap what you sow that mother decided to take her hate out on her child the only thing she could blame other then herself. She almost kill herself and the child not once but almost twice and showed nothing but negativity to him. But by the time she realised what she had done, and what he was doing it was to late. Damage had been done. Fucking hate selfish people like this, she couldn't even apologise to him up front and instead tried to kill herself along with the problem she caused. Honestly shes lucky her son still had a bit of humanity left to not get herself killed. If it were me i would of just let it happen. |
 "yabe." |
| One of my favorite episodes of the whole series. Its really sad how the kid had such a bad mother figure all this time, good thing he was sent somewhere else to live better life. |
| Beautiful and sad episode! Its sad that the mother got forced into the marriage but what is even more sad is that the child is hated by his mother because of it. Thats not fair. |
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| A kid that wasn't loved by his mother, huh? I think the feeling goes even further to the point of hatred, otherwise she wouldn't try to kill him. |
| So Reki hides his own umbilical cord all this time, yeah his mother doesn't deserve to keep his umbilical cord. Just as his mother hates him, seems he hates her too. |
| This is one of the most bitter episodes I've seen. The feeling really reached and felt by me. I hate it but also love it at the same time. Just like most people, I can't tolerate Reki's mother either. She may not love her husband because it was an arranged marriage, but how can she not love her son even when her son is like that? The first thing that hurt me was that she punished Reki by tying him to a tree. Also, when she said that Reki wouldn't listen to her, I was like "...huh? what?" No!! It's not Reki who doesn't listen to your words but it's you who don't try to stop him properly as a mother!! I hate this feeling, I feel like crying ಥ,_｣ಥ it hurts when you know your mother doesn't love you, doesn't want you. It's true we can't force ourselves to love someone/something.. but what she did to her own son was really like... And when the woman said 'die together' honestly I didn't know what to say. It's a bittersweet feeling. Oh but at least the Shouraishi looked beautiful. |
hanakocheeksJul 17, 2021 9:05 AM
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| Ok I'm wrecked again. I guess it's true that there are some mothers who actually don't love their kids when the kid isn't all bad (this one was actually a good kid). |
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| The first miss of this season. Reki's mom is a horrible person. Had it not been for the Mushi, she would have basically murdered her son. |
| OωO |
leslie7622 said: Ok what was that last scene about? Was that his umbilical cord that Reki was holding? Did he take it so that his mother couldn't find it? Did he not want to get rid of the mushi? The saved umbilical cord represents the (once literal) connection between mother and child, which is why the custom to preserve it exists. Before Ginko arrived Reki had already aken it; this is why he says he doesn't mind the mushi when Ginko says the infusion could remove it; he knows they won't find the cord if they look for it. He carried it with him because that connection was important to him even though his mother never loved him. Taylor_elle said: I also wondered why the child was tied to the tree. I thought he was being punished by his mom and that's why he got infected with the mushi. I'm not sure if they explained it though. She was trying to murder him. It's interesting that Ginko never learned the full story and was rather ineffectual at what he tried to do. Also that a moral sickness was the primary driver of the plot but it is not repaired or redeemed as it usually is. An interesting twist on the formula. Some neat poetry in this episode; in Japanese folklore thunder gods will steal an exposed bellybutton (here ironically the mushi adds something to the belly) and a child grows within its mother's belly (indeed when Shino's husband said she gave birth to Reki he uses the word hara; belly). An elegant blending of folklore with the episode's story. Shino pleading her mother to not force her to marry and Reki pleading to live when tied to the tree used the same phrase ("Mother! Please help me!" in the subs I watched). Ultimately Shino is a person who amplifies and spreads outward the pain she experiences in her life whereas her son is one who bears it bravely and checks it. This is the crux of the misunderstanding she had about thinking he was trying to punish her with the lightning, and also the climax where he saves her life. |
| "Neither Dad nor Mom will look me in the eye. But the lightning always comes right for me." Devastatingly sad. |
| Good episode, but what a terrible mother. It was funny to see such an apathetic and selfish mother in this episode, and such a caring and loving one in the previous episode |
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