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Mushishi – episode 17

March 23, 2006 on 9:31 pm | In Mushishi | Comments Off on Mushishi – episode 17

“The Hollow Cocoon Picker”

Did you ever wonder how, given that he has no fixed address, Ginko receives all of these letters asking for help? The answer is provided in this episode, a triumph over adversity.

Ginko notices that the cocoon he uses to send and receive mail has been deteriorating, so he goes off to see Aya, the woman in charge of the mushishi mail service. She relates to him exactly how she lost her twin sister to the holes created by the mail mushi, uro-san, five years ago.

This episode has very, very little to do with Ginko. He comes, he listens to a story, he walks in a hole, he’s gone. This is one of those instances where Ginko’s presence is simply an excuse to get the story on screen. That is not, of course, a bad thing.

The idea of the mushishi mail system is novel but also practical: the “post master” has to decide which mushi he or she should send a job to, and has to be fair and balaced about it. They are, essentially, delegators who lead a lonely existence punctuated only by the kindly visits of mushishi hoping to replace their old cocoon for a new one.

“The Hollow Cocoon Picker” is a simple episode of Mushishi with a nice ending and good insight into the smaller details of the world of the mushishi. Good stuff, not exactly excellent, and the female narrator covers details that Ginko would not have been able to impart.