Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Mushishi – episode 3

November 8, 2005 on 10:14 pm | In Mushishi | Comments Off

“Tender horns”

I’m surprised how effectively SD faces can work for this series. Another great episode, which disappointingly focuses on yet another child after dealing with a whole village; maybe I should expect Ginko to deal with children and be done with it.

In this episode Ginko travels out to a remote village, through the snow, to analyse an outbreak of deafness. He solves the problem easy enough, but it leads to a more difficult case involving Maho, a boy infected by a much stronger mushi.ï¿¼

This episode transferred the natural green of the previous two to the stark white of winter. The mushi are generally forest types, but when those who operate on the noise of a forest are muffled by snow, they have to move to the action … therefore nature still plays a part, even when it’s sleeping. The scenery manages to look beautiful while draped in winter’s embrace, and the naturalistic splendour on offer is probably why I keep watching.

The CG that was used made the story that much more interesting, showing the roaring world of the Ah through the eyes of Maho and seeing the sound waves that there were not making their way through provided a deeper connection than would otherwise have been afforded. The sound engineering was likewise inspirational, with a successful attempt to create a supernatural cacophony, and perfect mixing for the scenes in which Ginko tries to solve everything.

The production’s ability to make one feel for the situation is something that should truly be savoured; Ginko says that if you listen to everything you can not hear individual sounds, but if you take Mushishi apart piece by piece it is easy to realise just how well done it all is. Even with realising the beauty of Maho’s lesson about his mother, there’s so much else here.

Mushishi is truly impressive storytelling: beautiful, profound and inclusive. I look forward to it every week; it can be relied upon every week.