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.

Mononoke Review

A while back, I reviewed Ayakashi: Classic Japanese Horror Tales. I mentioned that my favorite tale out of the three in the series was Bake Neko which featured a Medicine Seller as the main character. Well guess who ended up with their own series after that?



Mononoke is a 12 episode Mystery/Horror series based on it's predecessor Bake Neko from Ayakashi in 2006. Kenji Nakamura and Toei Animation return to helm this series and it aired during the Summer of 2007. A manga spin off was also released that same summer and was published by Square Enix. Sadly, as of this review, Mononoke has yet to be licensed and is not available for legal streaming.

When the Otaku in You Grows Up: Part 1

I spent much of early puberty soaking it up watching anime and playing video games, a reality my parents had to give into when they uprooted their only child from our old home in the suburbs where we had the security of a village and neighbors with kids. I actually had a childhood that I spent running around outdoors, learning to ride a bike, had grand (mis)adventures. But when we had to move to the city, the child who would be impossible to stay indoors was suddenly forced to stay put with no where to go, and no one to play with.



Guilt easily set in with my parents (mwehehehehehe) and I was suddenly granted my first gaming console, and exposure to cartoons from Japan (thanks to the local networks and Laserdisk rentals). Though I've watched some anime in the '80s, nothing really stuck to me in the way YuYuHakusho, Sailormoon, Slayers, Ranma 1/2 and a host of other titles did. I became an Otaku, a term that didn't exist back in the '90s here in the Philippines but best described me then.