The Series:
With volume six of Mushi-Shi the tale of traveling Mushi Master
Ginko comes to a close. This soft-spoken and thoughtful show is not
only a nice change of pace from battling robots, but it's also a well crafted
and immensely enjoyable show.
Series background:
Mushi are the most pure creatures that exist. Not base and vulgar
like humans or animals, Mushi are beings that are in touch with the essence
of life. Invisible to normal people, these creatures are all around
us, though humans rarely interact with them. One person who is able
to see these creatures is Ginko, a Mushi-Shi or Mushi Master. He
travels the countryside carrying only a mysterious wooden box on his back
and collects Mushi artifacts (items that are created in our world through
interactions with Mushi) and helps people who have been infected with malicious
or unwanted Mushi. Though his travels he encounters many odd and
bizarre situations things that only a Mushi-Shi would be able to understand.
This volume:
This disc has another four calm but pleasant episodes. Another
year has passed and it's winter again. While traveling through the
mountains Ginko comes across a village that seems to be rusting.
There's rust not only on the metal objects, but on the trees, the buildings,
and even the people. It's a type of Mushi, but what caused it to
infest this town, and why do all the people suspect a girl who doesn't
talk of causing their troubles?
In the next story, Ginko meets another Mushi-Shi, Yahagi, one who is
young but famous for her work cataloging and studying Mushi. There's
a problem with her village though. While tilling a field to get ready
for planting, the villagers unearthed a large volcanic rock. Moving
it to a corner of the field, they were surprised to see a strange weed
growing on it the next morning. After a heavy rain, the weeds totally
took over the field and much of the mountain-side and were starting to
encroach on the village itself. Yahagi is afraid that the weed, obviously
growing due to a type of Mushi, will eat the village and orders the people
to burn the whole mountain side. Ginko wants to study the plant first,
afraid that the rash reaction will only make things worse, but no one will
listen to him.
Continuing his travels, Ginko is walking through a town when he hears
a street musician sing a song about a Mushi. Intrigued, he talks
to the girl, the daughter of a Mushi-Shi. She was born blind, but
her father traveled far and wide searching for a cure and finally discovered
a very rare Mushi, the Ganpuku. When her eyes were exposed to the
Ganpuku, the young girl could see again, but she soon started seeing more
than she wanted.
The final episode in the series is told from a young man's point of
view. He's always seen colors in the mists around the mountain where
he lives while no one else has. Every spring a group of people
journey up the mountain, and though the boy is the son of the master of
the mountain, he's strangely attracted to these wanderers, including a
young boy named Ginko.
As I mentioned in my reviews of the earlier volumes, this show is very
different from most of the anime out there. If I had to pick one
word to describe it, that word would be serene. It is a quite and
gentle show. It's like a walk in the forest on a cool day; enjoyable,
refreshing, and oddly tranquil. That's not to say that there's no
action or that the series plods along, because that's not the case.
Every episode has a mystery that Ginko has to unravel, but the mysteries
themselves are often just as fascinating as the solutions.
One of the aspects that make this show such a breath of fresh air is
that it isn't about Ginko hunting Mushi. He doesn't try to kill or
destroy the Mushi since, even when they are hurting a person or village,
they aren't malicious. The Mushi are just following their nature,
like a cat that chases a mouse. Ginko is just trying to arrange things
so that two sets of beings (Mushi and Humans) can live together in a non-confrontational
or hurtful manner. This is quiet different from most anime where
non-human entities are routinely killed on sight.
The DVD:
This disc comes in a clear keepcase with a reversible cover and a nicely
illustrated slip cover.
Audio:
Viewers have the choice of watching the show with either the original
Japanese soundtrack or an English dub, both in stereo. As I often
do, I alternated tracks and found them both to be very satisfactory.
Neither track shows any trace of distortion or background noise.
The English actors do a very good job of matching both the lip movements
and the feeling of the scenes in the dub track too. A nice sounding
set of episodes.
Video:
The 1.78:1 anamorphically enhanced video looks pretty good with only
minor problems. The show takes place mainly outdoors and there are
a lot of greens and blues in the color palate that they use. These
colors are reproduced wonderfully. They are vibrant and strong and
really make the show a joy to watch. The blacks are solid and the
lines are tight. On the digital side there is a touch of aliasing
here and there, but it is a small amount especially when compared to most
anime. There are a couple of scenes where banding is a slight problem,
but again this isn't major. The only other defect that's worth noting
is some mosquito noise in a few of the dark scenes. Overall this
disc looks really nice.
Extras:
The series continues to have some nice bonus material. There's
a commentary track to one episode, a studio tour, and a clean opening and
closing.
Included with the disc itself are a beautifully illustrated postcard
and a nice 8-page booklet that has character sketches as well as quotes
from the people in the show. It's a very nice booklet and I'm glad
they included it.
Final Thoughts:
This show, while being low keyed and sedate, is actually one of the
more interesting shows to be released of late. It paints an interesting
world that is very much like ours, but with an added sense of mystery and
wonder. It's a story driven show, but the tight story telling and
unique plots make it a joy to watch. Highly Recommended.
Buy: