released 01 jul 09 / last mod 01 jul 09 / greg goebel / public domain
* At the beginning of MUSHI-SHI -- an anime video series consisting of 26 half-hour episodes on six DVDs -- we encounter a rural Japan in the days before industrialization, though Western technology is gradually appearing in the country. The story focuses in on a wanderer named Ginko, who has long white hair, one green eye, dresses in Western clothes, smokes what looks like a cigarette continuously, and carries a hefty wooden box on his back.
Ginko is a traveling "mushi-shi" or "mushi master". The Japanese term "mushi" just means "bugs" or "vermin" in general, but in the context of this series it stands for a separate form of life, not so different from, say, molds or worms or slugs in form, but partly mystical. Most people cannot see them; Ginko not only sees them but also attracts them, which is why he's a wanderer -- if he stays in one place too long, the mushi start accumulating and cause problems.
The mushi are not evil in themselves any more than are, say, microorganisms, but like microorganism they may be benign or malign. In each story -- they're pretty much independent episodes with little in the way of a story arc -- Ginko helps people who have been afflicted by mushi diseases that rob them of their memory or make them hypersensitive to light or place them in suspended animation for a season.
MUSHI-SHI is a very unusual anime series. The stories are like, as was said elsewhere, "new Japanese folk tales", rendered in a style that far more reflects classic Japanese cinema than anime, with excellent artwork, including landscapes that reflect on traditional Japanese art, backed up by a musical score that similarly reflects on classical Japan. The stories are subtle, slow-moving, involving character studies coupled to exercises in imagination.
MUSHI-SHI is extremely pretty, very well produced, and operates at a high level of imagination. It is not necessarily for everyone; younger viewers who prefer action stories may be bored senseless with it, and some of the episodes seem to fall a bit flat even for those who are more patient. However, MUSHI-SHI does provide a big payoff for those who are willing to exercise that patience. This one's a keeper. When it was over I wanted more, though I could only think that it might well be impossible to sustain maintain the level of quality in this effort.
