Mushishi: Hihamukage

The entire countryside comes to a halt midday to witness a rare solar eclipse that is rumored to allow the average person to see Mushi. Unable to avert their gaze, the air is full of awe and wonder—but those who know the Mushi are preparing for the eclipse's aftermath.

Based on a prediction from Tanyuu Karibusa, the cursed recorder, Mushishi Ginko finds himself in a very unlucky farming village. Immediately following the solar eclipse, a strange black cloud begins to gather in the sky and blocks the sun once more. Suspecting it to be the work of a Mushi known as Hihami, Ginko seeks to liberate the village from perpetual darkness. However, it seems that not all of the villagers are eager to return to the light.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ginko Main

Nakano, Yuto Japanese

Hiyori Main

Watanabe, Yuuna Japanese

Karibusa, Tanyuu Supporting

Kobayashi, Ai Japanese

Adashino Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Doi, Mika Japanese

Hinata Supporting

Sasaki, Rio Japanese

Tama Supporting

Abe, Ai Producer

Tsuchiya, Junichirou Producer

Odagiri, Narumi Assistant Producer

Nagahama, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Aug 13, 2024

Shruti_Srayan

Recommended

Season 1 of Mushishi was beyond fantastic and going by the release order
You will watch this next like I just did

This special just like season 1 delivers greatly in storytelling, music, animation and atmosphere
but The Shadow that Devours the Sun improves on the first season in terms of scale
and when compared to the first season this special improves not only on the animation but most importantly character design which was kind of lackluster in season 1

I can't talk about much else because it really is best to see for yourself
Mushishi:The Shadow that Devours the Sun is in my book a masterpiece

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 24, 2023

whiteflame55

Recommended

I'd break this one up, but honestly, my reviews of each season/OVA are pretty consistent.

It's the story of a mushi master named Ginko who goes around investigating and solving mushi-related incidents. Mushi are a class of life that is entirely distinct from others, only visible to a select few and yet capable of interacting with the world in various ways. I'd say "often to the detriment of humans," but that's really just what we see: the places and ways things go out of whack, often due to changes in how humans interact with their environment. But it's not an environmentalist message, either. Humans, like the ... mushi themselves, are just trying to survive and thrive. They often simply don't know about the mushi they're dealing with, or even if they do, they don't understand it well enough to deal with the problem.

As for the series, the episodes are largely independent of one another (that becomes less true as the series goes on, but it's still mostly accurate even for some episodes towards the end) and, much as there's some building of knowledge for the MC over the course of the series, there's no real order to the events. Every village he goes to is a unique experience with a unique mushi and distinct people. That limits the amount of depth they can give the characters he meets and the circumstances he faces, since they're all only 20+ minutes long. That being said, for a series that does this, it's truly incredible. The worldbuilding is fantastic, the transient nature of its protagonist lending itself to highly varied adventures that build it out, and while each mushi may only get a bit of explanation, you could accurately build out a volume of materials on the ones Ginko sees throughout the series.

There are few recurring characters, for whom we do get some more character building, but that's not really a problem, nor is the relatively weak character designs (they get better as the series progresses, but I wouldn't say that the character models have a lot of contrast from one another for the most part) that make everyone look pretty similar. It's not about them, at least not chiefly. It's about the mushi, how they interact with the world around them, and how the various mushi masters we meet along the way interact with them. Ginko is distinct in this regard, seeing them as natural forces that aren't running contrary to human desires, requiring substantial intervention or even killing, but rather entities to be respected and cherished in their own way. His ways to work with them are almost solely naturalistic, and its through his unique perspective that he can sometimes run circles around other mushi masters who seek to control the mushi through more human-derived interventions.

It's not a perfect series to be sure - doing this kind of episodic structure means that each episode stands largely on its own and is limited in its build and payoff - but it's a vibe in a way that other series I've seen just can't match. The whole direction of the series really matches its MC in a way that I've rarely seen from others. He's still enigmatic in many ways, but despite having only limited peeks into his background, Ginko's context clues give us a great understanding of who we follow throughout. And despite my issues with the pacing of some episodes, I think it's incredible how well the series manages to encapsulate whole arcs into roughly 22 minutes of screen time, often saving its more complex stories for the longer OVAs. That's impressive. I can think of few series that pull that off quite so well.

For me, this series evokes similar feelings to Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, and despite being very different, it gets a similar score.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 5, 2021

Resting_Bonfire

Mixed Feelings

Mushishi: Hihamukage

Contrary to my expectations, this season of Mushishi surprised me considerably.

Despite everything, the Ova possessed one of the more interesting approaches in this story. With equally one of the more interesting Mushi.

Honestly, this episode didn't feel like 40 minutes, it flew by relatively quickly. Whereas some normal episodes feel like half a day.


The plot about the eclipse and the two sisters had a certain charm, especially with the allegorical representation of the event. This was also narratively one of the smarter episodes, in terms of morality and depth as well.
...

Predominantly, however, nothing happened in this Ova, it was only character-driven and the Mushi was already almost trivial. Even if the plot had to do with his influence, this was mostly character drama.

Enjoyment 6

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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	Poll: Mushishi Special: Hihamukage Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jan 4, 2014	149 replies	by FarCritical »» Jun 3, 10:23 AM
	The returning characters from the first series. (besides Ginko) thecurrymaster - May 10, 2014	7 replies	by Yrza2022 »» May 31, 2024 11:57 PM
	Is this a must watch? Jundal - Aug 18, 2022	11 replies	by P3TE »» Jan 18, 2024 3:46 AM
	Actually watched this by accident CautiousShadow - Apr 14, 2022	3 replies	by AndreaNini »» Apr 14, 2022 10:13 PM
	Which chapters is this special adapted from? Shii4 - Apr 2, 2014	2 replies	by Shii4 »» Apr 3, 2014 1:48 PM