Review

Written by lovemesomeanime on May 24, 2014 at 8:51 AM

Let me start off by saying, a pleasurable treat which remains unmatched in my 10+ years of anime watching.

From the first episode, the scenery of the setting will grab your eye. The lush woods, the waving streams, the chirping of birds, the bristle of leaves, the falling of snow - as I said above, it radiates a calmness which is hard to let go. The environment changes each episode, but the sense of calmness never disappears. The animation style is excellent. The pallet and the technique they use complements these settings as well, making them even lovelier.

Mushi-shi is unlike any other anime you'll ever come across. It's episodic, it has only 1 main character, it's the definition of laid-back gentleness. Each episode has an unreachable depth to it, the characters only appear for 1 episode but they leave a big impression. You'll see yourself caring for them more than some of the main characters in other prominent animes.It has a sense of serene grace to it, which is hardly seen in most animes nowadays and they radiate a sense of sombre pleasure which gets you addicted to it. It's like being inside a beautiful painting or a book.

The show focuses on "Mushi", which are describe as creatures that are neither living nor dead, found in various shapes and sizes and queer in nature. They exists without a reason to "live". Most of these Mushi acts like parasitic beings, clinging to animals and humans, bringing about beneficial or detrimental effects on them. Mushi-shi (Mushi-master) are like the doctors who helps people affected by Mushis. Similar to Mushis, these people have an air of mysterious charm. There's only one main character - Ginko. Ginko is a Mushi-shi in other words a Mushi-master. He wanders the beautiful world of the series, helping people under duress because of these Mushis. Ginko's character is very ambiguous in nature, he wears different clothing from the other characters, has green eyes and silver hair. One quality of his character is his "benevolence", he claims the mushis are beings without the knowledge of 'right or wrong' and are just trying to "live" through their "hosts". He has a sense of morality mixed with common sense and logical reasoning. He has the ability to accept if there’s no hope, and does remain composed in situations like these as well. But he is not above breaking his or other people’s code if he thinks something is right, which becomes pretty evident in some episodes.

The episodic nature of the show doesn't take away the enjoyability from it. Every episode has its own set of characters, and a distinct storyline with Ginko being the only constant and because of this each episode is captivating on its own. The episodicness of the series also prevents the show from going into overarching, overextended plotlines with clichéd and hackneyed writing. Anyway, as I said the every episode has its own story, centered around a specific Mushi and its effect on people, with Ginko ending up helping them. The story procedure is pretty simplistic, but on the positive side, the story never ends predictably. It might have a tragic ending, thus makes the sombre nature of the show all the more depressing and fascinating. Though these does not take away the subtle light moments in some of the episodes.

Another high point of the series is its music. The OST is simple, folklike, relaxing, sometimes eerie, touching, gloomy and saddening which really fits atmosphere of the show. The OST has a minimalistic approach and does not fail to evoke emotions from the viewers. As an avid music fan, a good OST always brings up the anime for me. And the music in this one does not fail in doing this.

Verdict: Enthralling art which evokes serenity, working with a simple, emotion evoking music and a fascinating storyline each episode with equally impressive set of characters, Mushi-shi is the epitome of an excellent anime which will pleasure anyone who watches it. Trust me, it’ll not fail to touch you. Very high recommendations from me 9.8/10.