Mushi-Shi

TheAuthor · Site Admin Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 698

Poetic, beautiful and relaxing.

This is the kind of anime that restores my love of anime. Imagine an anime you can watch while, say, getting a massage, listening to the wind or painting very slowly. It's mysterious and moves as slowly and wonderfully as T'ai Chi. Unearthly.

The plot of the series is that Ginko, the Mushi master, wanders his world studying Mushi which are, essentially, a cross between Japanese Shinto belief spirits and alien life forms. Basic, rudimentary, elemental THINGS. Sometimes they effect humans and Ginko is there to help them come to terms with and sometimes rescue the people from said Mushi.

The animation is very smooth and tasteful. No one is running around going "We have to destroy it!" and ridiculous "anime emotive enhancers" are replaced with ACTUAL REACTIONS. A couple shots of a funny face here or there, but one only sees it after a moment's thought.

I admit that sometimes the explanations, theories and story become so bent and faceted I had a hard time grasping what he was doing to solve the issue. However, I can forgive all of that because I was handed a wonderful story and the feeling that someone just gave me a platter of sushi to go with my full-body tantric/myofascial massage.

Rent it. Buy it. Watch it. Love it. You will.