Mushishi Zoku Shou: Odoro no Michi

Mysterious, unknowable creatures alien to the laws of nature—known only to some and feared by others—"Mushi" lie behind many of life's strange phenomena.

Long ago, a Mushi of terrifying power threatened to extinguish all life. The Minai clan of Mushishi were born from those who stopped this malevolent force, their members bound by duty to serve as retainers to the Karibusa family, within whom the Mushi remains sealed. The Mushishi Ginko is given a job request from Tanyuu Karibusa: oversee the work of the head of the Minai clan, Kumado Minai, in investigating an abandoned village where dead wood and even houses spring back to life as flourishing plants.

Though the Minai clan are oddly ruthless among Mushishi, even more peculiar is their widespread dull character, with little appreciation for beauty or sentiment. Tanyuu believes there is more to this trend than meets the eye. Ginko aims to answer her curiosity as he follows Kumado into a "Path of Thorns," a place where Mushi flow from their own strange sources into the world of the living. Rare and deadly varieties of Mushi lurk in these depths, along with the secret nature of the Minai clan's resolve to their ancient task.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ginko Main

Nakano, Yuto Japanese

Minai, Kumado Main

Mikami, Satoshi Japanese

Karibusa, Tanyuu Supporting

Kobayashi, Ai Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Doi, Mika Japanese

Tama Supporting

Kyouda, Hisako Japanese

Odagiri, Narumi Assistant Producer

Nagahama, Hiroshi Episode Director, Storyboard, Series Composition

Soutome, Kouichirou Episode Director

Rose, Lucy Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Sep 21, 2025

AntonyAV

Recommended

More of what makes the series great.

The way nature is drawn and the sound design make the whole experience feel both beautiful and uncaring, and the stillness carries more weight than action ever could.

Ginko’s calm, non-judgmental tending becomes a moral lens: is every cure truly good, or can it also erase something vital? The writing in mushi-shi is amazing, and characters too.

This anime is a true work of art. There's no going wrong here, you will enjoy this series if you have the patience and attention, it is for more mature audiences but I enjoyed it when I was an adolescent too.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 15, 2019

BabyGirl06301

Recommended

I feel like this film did something for me that the previous episodes of Mushishi haven't done yet, and I liked it a lot.

The writing for this series is always something special, but for this film, we get to see a side of the Mushishi profession that we haven't really gotten to see before. You get to see the extent to which this world can flourish at the farthest reaches of mushi. I also liked that this film seemed to give us the first sense of continuity that we've seen from the series to date, which is exciting.

I always find it difficult to review ... this series because it always boils down to me saying that the writing is crafted extremely well. In particular, for this film, I'm glad the story decided to sway into an unknown area because it is quite possible for Mushishi to feel a bit repetitive after a while. All in all, I'm ready to see how this film affects the future, if it does at all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 2, 2021

Resting_Bonfire

Mixed Feelings

Mushishi
- Mushishi Path of Thorns

This is a special episode of Mushishi, bringing closer the story of the "Forbidden Mushi", which moved into the world many years before the beginning of the story.
- For me, this is the most interesting topic. I just want to know more about this Mushi and how it was born in the first place. Unfortunately, the episode raises a lot of tension but ends without new knowledge.

Unlike the normal episodes of Mushishi, this one is a double episode lasting over 40 minutes. Which again drags things out, but is also larger in content than a normal episode.

Among other ... things, this allowed for some tension to build up, so I can say that this was one of the more exciting episodes in the series. Regardless of whether it is relevant or not. Unfortunately, should you skip this episode, nothing is lost in the process.

Apart from the forbidden Mushi, Ginko was once again as charming as ever in this episode. You also saw more of his character traits in this episode.



Conclusion

There is nothing more to say about this. An above-average episode with mediocre content and a short normal background. As a fan of the Mushishi series, you should have seen this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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