Score: 8
Mushishi does not march toward some sort of conclusion or final purpose. Much like it's main character, Ginko, the anime merely drifts around, dispensing bits of wisdom and wonder. It is an almost zen-like meditation on the mystical unseen natural world and holds many parallels to our own lives, as it deals mainly in the unanswered and mysterious questions that we all find ourselves asking in life. It excels at acute observations on the state of humanity and revels in our lack of understanding. Most importantly, it romanticizes the things that we do not understand and creates a new language to describe it's nature. This language is the Mushi, an unseen force which holds great mystical power. This series plays out like a sort of collection of folk tales concerning the Mushi, centered around a sort of sage who helps people with their problems as he wanders the Japanese countryside. It is quite slow and is probably not for everyone, but if you have patience and a sense of wonder about the natural world, you will almost certainly gain something from this.
This anime is beautifully drawn. Taking place mainly in the forest and small villages, the show contains an unfathomable amount of painstakingly painted backgrounds. You don't really notice how beautiful it is after a few episodes, but the fact that there is never a significant dip in quality to call your attention to it is impressive in itself. Characters are a bit more generic looking. Because this anime is meant to have an aesthetic quality similar to that of a restrained traditional japanese painting, there is no overt craziness in the character's designs. They all have dark hair, wear traditional Japanese garb, and life in modest homes. What distant visual flare there is comes from the atmospheric and believable settings that the show dwells in. The caves of a tunneling Mushi, a foggy sea, a field set ablaze, and an inescapable bamboo forest are all brilliantly infused with personality and a sense of realness that is uncommon in animation. The Mushi themselves are also highly creative at times.
The series score is done by Toshio Masuda, also the composer for Naruto. The music here is restrained and has an almost improvisational feel to it. Each episode has it's own piece of accompanying music, which is nice, however many of them sound the same. Repetition also sinks in when the few other pieces, like the one used when Ginko is describing a Mushi, are used EVERY episode. I will say though, the opening theme, "Sore Feet Song" is absolutely amazing. It conveys the feel of the show perfectly and for all 26 episodes, I never skipped through it. It prepares you perfectly for the quiet and contemplative experience you are about to have.
Mushishi, as I said earlier, dipenses bits of wisdom about the age-old relationship between mankind and nature. The story, if you wish to call it that, is all about different people and their experiences with the unknown and the unexplainable. The show never really makes any assertions on good vs evil, right vs wrong, etc. Instead, it makes simple observations about the things that exist in nature and twists them into bizarre phenomena. For example, it details the experience of closing your eyelids vs truly not seeing or actually finding the end of a rainbow. Although there is peril in many of these stories, they are usually resolved through natural and logical means. If there is one overarching message, it is that things simply are. Trying to control what simply is is a futile exercise. In this way, the series draws similarities to the Zen Buddhist outlook on life and existence. This show is, in-fact, as close to a meditation as any piece of popular entertainment I have seen.
So what is wrong with the show then? As I just said, this show succeeds brilliantly as a meditation. However, It fares less well in terms of entertainment. Despite the show being beautifully done, If you know what the conflict and resolution is going to be going into each episode, you kind of lose interest. In each episode, you know after a certain point that there will be a problem which at first seems unexplainable, it will be explained as being the work of Mushi, there will be some way to fix it, and everyone will go home. Although there are deviations from this outline, they are somewhat rare. The real reason to keep watching is not to see what happens so much as it is to see what there will be. The scenarios and settings are sufficiently interesting and beautiful to keep you wanting to return to this world. However, you may become fatigued, as I did, and take a break for some more straight-forward entertainment.
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