Location Taken: Arcadia, Michigan
Time Taken: January 2011
Have you ever seen or heard or watched anything that just filled you with peace?
I’ve been watching an anime called Mushi-Shi lately. It’s… how to describe it… tales of Mushi, strange creatures that exist at the edge of reality, and of Ginko, who studies them.
It’s in many ways a show that could only be made by a culture like Japan. Each episode deals with a different place where Mushi and humans happen to come together, for good or bad. Ginko helps where he can, or just experiences. Sometimes there’s action, but more often it’s just an exploration of the situation. There’s no over-arching story, no grand finale, just little tales of existence touched by something that doesn’t exist in the viewer’s reality.
It’s also set in a pre-industrial Japanese setting, with traditional houses and ways of living. Especially the traditional ways of accepting that the world isn’t always understandable, that things exist that will affect your lives in many ways, and sometimes it’s better to learn to live with them rather than fight against them.
It’s this particular attitude that suffuses the entire show, a feeling that this is just how things are, and while we may and can smooth our way, there is peace in accepting that things out there have their own patterns of life.
Bah, I’m really not sure if I’m describing it at all well. It’s such a peculiar show, one that seeps into your soul, whether you believe you possess one or not.
The first season came out in 2006, which is around when I first encountered it. I literally finished watching the last episode for the first time about an hour ago. I can’t take more than a handful of episodes at a time. It fills up my brain and soul and starts spilling over, and I must give myself time to absorb it.
If you want to watch it, you can find it here, on the distributor’s site, available for free but with ads. There’s also a second season that started airing fairly recently, on the much better Crunchyroll platform.
I do recommend checking it out. Especially when things are overwhelming, and you need a balm for your soul.
