Mushishi

"Mushi": the most basic forms of life in the world. They exist without any goals or purposes aside from simply "being." They are beyond the shackles of the words "good" and "evil." Mushi can exist in countless forms and are capable of mimicking things from the natural world such as plants, diseases, and even phenomena like rainbows.

This is, however, just a vague definition of these entities that inhabit the vibrant world of Mushishi, as to even call them a form of life would be an oversimplification. Detailed information on Mushi is scarce because the majority of humans are unaware of their existence.

So what are Mushi and why do they exist? This is the question that a "Mushishi," Ginko, ponders constantly. Mushishi are those who research Mushi in hopes of understanding their place in the world's hierarchy of life.

Ginko chases rumors of occurrences that could be tied to Mushi, all for the sake of finding an answer.

It could, after all, lead to the meaning of life itself.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ginko Main

Nakano, Yuto Japanese

Karibusa, Tanyuu Supporting

Tsuzurahara, Miyu Japanese

Nui Supporting

Doi, Mika Japanese

Adashino Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Doi, Mika Japanese

Maho Supporting

Honjou, Yuutaro Japanese

Sui Supporting

Oka, Akiko Japanese

Ioroi, Shinra Supporting

Sanpei, Yuuko Japanese

Koro Supporting

Maeda, Takeshi Japanese

Suzu Supporting

Kitou, Noriko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Suzuki, Atsushi Producer

Hieda, Susumu Producer

Nagahama, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Series Composition

Reviews

Sep 24, 2024

XOArama

Recommended

This feels like a culmination/perfection of the episodic style of anime series, where each episode is a new story with a main character that ties them each together. Each episode with its unique Mushi behind it always kept things fresh, and even where some parts were the same, the themes themselves that dwell behind the episodes were always different. Ginko as a main character is really perfect for this series, he's not too much that he overshadows the stories themselves but he also is present enough to not just blend into the background. The side characters themselves while there are a couple repeating ones, are ... mostly forgetful, but not in a bad way, they were never written to be memorable, its the stories that are told though them that are the main focus. The individual stories themselves were all really unique and while I'm not the best at reading into themes, I tried my best while watching this and there are a lot of unique themes that spoke out to me and were portrayed in really unique ways, its with that that Mushishi excels at. I'll be watching the next part soon as it got a second season years later which I imagine will be just as good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 21, 2023

lukyhud

Mixed Feelings

I would like to write a review on this one, because this is something I have never watched before.
It is an episodic anime with only one main character named Ginko. And this guy is studying creatures called Mushi and is travelling the world, for a specific reason that you will come to know when watching, interacting with them, and trying to help humans on the way. These creatures live in the same world as humans, but they are not like them nor like animals or trees. But with the interaction with humans, sometimes good or bad things will happen. And Ginko always try to contribute ... to the best-case scenario for both sides, but prioritizes humans as it is his own race, but with the understanding of the Mushi as well. The other characters are episodic, but always good written, with real life stories from this world with the interaction with Mushi to some degree. No cliché nor no elements that you may know from all these anime’s that are out there, like mainstream type of plots, humor, ecchi or anything like that. In fact, I personally thing there’s none of that. Just a story about ordinary or unordinary people at some degree interacting with Mushi consciously or unconsciously. And as it may appeared from the text, this isn’t show that you will want to watch for just some short time entertainment of the mainstream kind of storytelling. But it will definitely find people whose will like it for what it is.
The colorful animation, as well as voice acting and music with possible the best and most unique opening of the anime was simply beautiful.
I have always looked forward to the next episode and it has left impact on me, either ordinary good feeling about good watch or philosophical context to talk about with friends. And as an already said, there’s no other show like this one, so I gave it a masterpiece rating. Thanks to the author and people who worked on is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 4, 2020

OmriScooter

Not Recommended

(Note: English is not my main language, excuse me if i have grammar mistakes.)

This show is successful at making you think that it's good, but when you look into it, you see how badly written it is. I really wanted to like mushi-shi, but it looks like the writers went out of their way to ruin this show.

Things i liked about mushi-shi:

Art: Probably the best looking show i have ever seen, art, animation and direction is top tier. The art compliments the atmosphere and the atmosphere compliments the art.

Sound: Soundtrack is fitting and adding to the atmosphere, some songs are a little overused and voice ... acting is well done.

And that's about it.

So where do i start from? I guess the characters, or more specifically, Ginko.

Characters: The worst part about this show. Ginko is not a good character, far from it. The background episode makes us think that he has depth, but actually, it only explains his character design, and some random, boring moment from his childhood.
What can we learn about Ginko from those background episodes? Nothing. He is likeable, but he has no personality.
What's the reason he became a mushi-shi? What are his motives, ideology's, opinions?
You can say the reason he became a mushi-shi is because he attracts mushi, and he has to travel for his whole life, but that is not even a motive, he is forced to do it, that's lame.
Ginko doesn't display any emotion, opinions, NOTHING. People like him because they think character design and half-assed background story is enough for a good character.

Now lets get to the side characters. They are empty and shallow. Every side character is just a plot tool, the only thing we know about those characters is related to the plot (which ill cover in a minute). The characters don't feel real, they don't even have a single trait, thus we can't connect or relate to them in any way.

Character design: It's kinda minor compared to my other points in this review, but this show has probably the worst character design i have ever seen in anime. Everybody except Ginko looks the same. It happened to me multiple times when i saw a character and i thought to myself "Hey, it's that character from episode -", but it's turned out to be a completely new character.

The Mushi System: Lets talk about the Mushi system for a minute, to oversimplify it, mushi are ghosts that only small percentage of people can see, mushi bring most of the time illnesses to people/animals and strange powers. Even people who love this show can agree that they are an excuse for artland to flex their budget. It has no limits, It's just creating illnesses and shiny lights. It's an unexplained, ass pull-ish system. Same thing with Ginko's cigarette, what does it do? What are it's limits? The writers doesn't explain anything, with an excuse that "it doesn't matter, it's not the focus" or "its a tool to create conflict in the story" which both are acceptable, but if it's a tool to tell a story, why the story is so garbage?

Story: First id like to say that there are good mushi-shi stories. 4 to be exact (episodes 4,5,14,21). Most of the stories in Mushi-shi are very formulaic. Ginko finds someone with a problem that mushi caused, we see how the person deals with the problem (ill expand on it later),Ginko solves that problem with little to no effort, (often gives them a drink/ preforms a ritual) and the result is mostly a happy ending or just shiny lights.

What have the writers missed? A CONFLICT. The conflict in the stories of Mushi-shi are one-dimensional, or non existent. Ill elaborate: When there is conflict, the empty side character has to overcome a struggle that was caused by mushi. What are they doing most of the time? One of those 3 options:

1. Just accept it, live with the struggle

2. Waiting for Ginko to solve it

3. Just wait the problem solves itself.

WHAT HAPPENED HERE? There is such a small number of episodes who break that norm. (those 4 episodes i mentioned, except episode 4, there's no real conflict the concept is just carrying the episode).

Lets take episode 21 as an example:

Spoilers

A young couple is trying to have a kid, the wife gives birth to her first child, the child is infected by a mushi, what the mushi does is takes control of the child and basically wears the skin of their child, the child grows really fast and after 3 years or so (i don't remember exactly how long) he dies, and spreads spores that become more clones of that child. More and more babies came out of nowhere, (here you can actually overlook a detail like that). Ginko visits the couple when they have around 6 or them. The couple got connected to those "children", they care and take care of him like it's their own children. Now the couple are having an actual conflict. To kill their own "children", or letting them reproduce.

Spoilers end here

This is what Mushi-shi is supposed to be like. Using Mushi to create a conflict, that makes the young couple question their values and morals and make them think; what is the right thing to do here? It has actual emotional impact, you FEEL empathy for them.

The stories in Mushi-shi are unpolished concepts, they have a concept, AND THEY JUST DON'T DEVELOP IT. THIS IS A WASTED POTENTIAL.
Most of the episodes are just unpolished concepts with an atmosphere to distract you from the horrible writing. If the atmosphere doesn't get you hooked you will probably get bored.

Overall: Mushi-shi is badly written, covered behind beautiful art and atmosphere. Mushi-shi is overrated, even though i get why people like it, people like gimmicks, and that is what those episodes are, just gimmicks.

If you read this and you are a fan of Mushi-shi: Do you feel special? Do you think you are better than other people? Because you are not lol.

That's it for this review, thanks for reading.

Story: 1/10
Art: 10/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 1.5/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 3/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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