Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Mushi-shi

First, I'd like to say Netflix is being stupid because all anime on Netflix Watch Instantly is now in Japanese so anyone wanting to watch anime goodness on Netflix Watch Instantly has to read subtitles.Also, Sgt. Frog is no longer streamable for some reason beyond my own.But all is not lost, there's plenty of sites where you can stream all anime ever made for free.



This post is going to be about the best anime show ever; Mushi-shi!As always, I will try and refrain from giving too much story and detail away about the anime show, only giving a synopsis.Mushi-shi is a very ambiguous show in short.The main character's name is Ginko, no last name, and he is what is called a mushi master.To describe a mushi master, I must first describe mushi.Mushi in Japanese means insect and in Mushi-shi these beings, in their nature and existence, as a whole are not articulated in great depth, though the individual "species", if you will, are described in depth.The best characteristic I have found to describe all mushi are spirit animals.They dwell in an alternate world that coexists with ours, and their behavior is more instinctual than sentient.Mushi come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, some fly, some crawl, some swim, some are parasitic, some are symbiotic, and some are just there.There are very few mushi that can actually talk, in fact I can only think of one.Now as for mushi masters, they are the equivalent of pest control, exclusively for mushi.They go around exterminating mushi that are infesting or bothering other citizens.Ginko on the other hand has a different approach.His angle on mushi is that if possible, there are better alternatives to killing mushi, however that is not always the case.


Mushi-shi is a very unique show in that it breaks most themes almost always associated with anime such as it does not have martial arts action (even in anime shows that are not categorized as "action anime" there will most often be a few fight scenes), the story is not based around a life of a highschooler, there's no D-cups, it does not contain perverted humor, there is only one main character, and the main character is actually not the focus of the story.Mushi-shi is primarily all story, each episode having its own disconnected plot; that being said it is very slow paced.Another thing that is outstanding about Mushi-shi is its soundtrack produced by Toshio Masuda, a musical genius in my opinion.There are only two, very minor, things that I have to pick on the show.One is that the art style does not show much facial differences between characters or gender.The other is that sometimes there is too much narration and that the episode would've been better if instead of saying all of what happened, it actually showed what happened.But that's really all I can say is faulty about Mushi-shi.

One last thing worth mentioning about the show is that it can be very dark and disturbing.The best example I can find of this is the episode the Cotton Changeling.The episode describes a mushi that infects the fetus of a pregnant women and turns it into a green mass, which when birthed slithers away, finds a safe place to nest, and then creates extensions which are like probes.

They survey the area and update the main body of its living environment.This is the one mushi that can talk, for the extensions take the form of what would've been the human mother's children.They imitate to their best ability a human child but the mushi can learn at an accelerated rate compared to the normal human child, so premature speech, fine motor, and gross motor skills take place.

As with most awesome anime shows, I have yet to read any of the manga, knowing that the manga books will be double awesome compared to the show.There's also a Mushi-shi movie, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, the same man who directed Akira.A very interesting change in style compared to the other movies he's directed.I own the Mushi-shi movie and it's very good but at some points the story is a little too slow with no development in the plot.

Mushi-shi has stood out in my mind as the greatest anime show of all time, I highly recommend it to anyone who is an anime fan.
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