Mushishi is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara.
It was serialized in Afternoon Seasons Zōkan from 1999 to 2002, and in Monthly Afternoon
from December 2002 to August 2008.
The individual chapters were collected and released into ten tankōbon volumes by Kodansha.
Those volumes were localized to North America by Del Rey between January 2007 and August
2010.
The series follows Ginko, a man who dedicates himself to keep people protected from supernatural
creatures called Mushi.
Mushishi has been adapted into an anime television series by Artland which aired in Fuji Television
between October 2005 and June 2006.
It has been licensed by Funimation to its release in North America, while Madman Entertainment
and Revelation Films licensed it for Australia and the United Kingdom respectively.
A live-action feature film adaptation, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, was released in late 2006.
A special was released in January 2014, and a second anime series airs since April 2014.
It has also spawned a video game and many types of Mushishi-related merchandise.
The Mushishi manga has been well received both by the public and critics.
In Japan, it has frequently ranked in the weekly Top Ten list of best-selling manga,
and the entire series has sold over 3.8 million copies.
Both the manga and the anime have received several awards such as the Kodansha Manga
Award and the Tokyo Anime Award, and numerous publications have praised them.
Plot The story features ubiquitous creatures called
Mushi that often display what appear as supernatural powers.
It is implied that there are many more lifeforms more primitive than "normal" living things
such as animals, plants, fungi and bacteria, and Mushi is the most primitive of all.
Due to their ethereal nature most humans are incapable of perceiving Mushi and are oblivious
to their existence, but there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with
Mushi.
One such person is Ginko, the main character of the series.
He employs himself as a Mushi master, traveling from place to place to research Mushi and
aid people suffering from problems caused by them.
The series is an episodic anthology in which the only common elements among episodes are
Ginko and the various types of Mushi.
There is no overarching plotline.
Characters and setting Urushibara stated that Mushishi is set in
an imaginary time between the Edo and Meiji periods, with technology of the 19th century
but with Japan as still a country closed to foreign exchange.
Due to the episodic nature of the series, there are very few recurring characters.
The most frequently seen character is an otherworldy-looking man named Ginko, who is voiced by Yuto Nakano
in the original version and by Travis Willingham in the English dub.
Ginko is a rare person who attracts mushi, which inspires a lifestyle of constant wandering.
He also smokes constantly in order to keep mushi away.
In terms of personality, Ginko is rather laid back.
However, he can be very serious when it comes to protecting people from mushi.
He also often stresses that the mushi are not evil, but merely trying to survive like
everyone else.
A majority of the stories do not focus on Ginko, but rely on him as a catalyst to move
the story forward by diagnosing or curing mushi-related illnesses and phenomena.
Other recurring appearances are limited to a collector named Adashino, who appears in
episodes 5, 10, and briefly in 18 of season 1, as well as in the first special, and episode
8 of season 2; Tanyū and her caretaker Tama, who appear in episode 20 of season 1, and
in both special chapters; and Isaza, from the nomad group in episode 26 of the first
season, who later shows up in episode 1 of the second season.
Nui, a Mushi master who appears only in episode 12, can be heard narrating some of the opening
and closing lines characteristic of each episode.
Respectively, Yūji Ueda and Mika Doi voice Adashino and Nui in the original version,
while Chuck Huber and Jennifer Seman provide their voices in the English dub.
Media Manga
Written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara, it debuted as an one-shot in Monthly Afternoon
on January 25, 1999.
Later, it was serialized in the Kodansha seinen manga magazine Afternoon Seasons Zōkan from
1999 to 2002.
It moved to Monthly Afternoon on December 25, 2002 and was serialized until August 25,
2008.
Kodansha collected the chapters into ten tankōbon, and published them under the Afternoon KC
line from November 22, 2001, to November 21, 2008.
On November 21, 2013, Kodansha started to re-release it under the aizōban format in
their KC Deluxe line, and as of July 23, 2014 ten volumes have been published.
In March 2014, Kodansha USA announced it will publish the in digital format late in the
year.
At the 2006 Comic-Con, Del Rey Manga announced that it had licensed Mushishi for an English-language
translation in North America.
Del Rey published the first volume on January 30, 2007, and the last volume, a combined
edition covering volumes 8 to 10, was released on August 15, 2010.
The manga was also licensed in some countries such in South Korea by Daewon C.I., in Italy
by Star Comics, in Spain by Norma Editorial, and in France by Kana.
In addition, two additional chapters were published in the magazine on November 25,
2012 and December 25, 2013, respectively.
They were encapsulated into a single tankōbon titled Mushishi Tokubetsu-hen: Hihamukage
and released on April 23, 2014.
Anime
The Mushishi anime adaptation was animated by Artland, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama,
and produced by a group called "Mushishi Production Committee", which consists of Marvelous Entertainment,
Avex Entertainment and SKY Perfect Well Think.
The first 20 episodes of the series originally aired between October 22, 2005 and March 11,
2006 on Fuji Television.
A digest was broadcast on May 7, 2006 by BS Fuji, which aired the last six episodes from
May 14 to June 18 of the same year.
Marvelous Entertainment and Avex released the series from January 25 to September 27,
2006 in five DVDs for sell, and at the same time in nine DVDs for rental.
On March 28, 2008 a DVD box set containing all episodes was released; it was followed
by a Blu-ray box set on March 27, 2009, and a Limited Edition Blu-Ray box on December
20, 2013.
The series features an opening theme song, "The Sore Feet Song" by Ally Kerr, and each
episode features a different ending composed by Toshio Masuda.
The anime series' licensing was announced by Funimation to North American release in
January 2007.
To promote the series' release, it hosted Nagahama at the Anime Expo 2007 between June
29 and July 2.
In addition, Funimation exhibited the first four episodes in New York and Texas' locations
such as ImaginAsian Theater, Studio Movie Grill, and Alamo Drafthouse, on July 23 and
24 of that year.
The series was released in six DVDs between July 31, 2007 to February 26, 2008 by Funimation,
which also streamed series on its own channel, Hulu, Joost, Anime News Network, Crackel,
as well as distributed it to Comcast cable service.
Funimation also released four box sets with all episodes: on December 16, 2008, on October
6, 2009, on July 6, 2010, and November 8, 2011.
In United Kingdom, the series was released between October 22, 2007 and November 17,
2008 by Revelation Films in six DVD.
Madman Entertainment acquired the series' distribution rights at AVCon in 2007, releasing
it in a six-discs box set on January 14, 2009 in PAL region.
A special titled Mushishi Tokubetsu-hen: Hihamukage was broadcast on Tokyo MX, Tochigi TV, Gunma
TV, and BS11 on January 4, 2014, and streamed by Niconico.
It was streamed by Crunchyroll's for premium members on the same date and available for
free user a week later.
Aniplex released the special on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 23, 2014.
A second anime television season titled Mushishi: Zoku-Shō airs since April 4, 2014, on Tokyo
MX and other channels.
The second season has been licensed for streaming by Aniplex of America and Crunchyroll as Mushishi:
The Next Chapter.
The Next Chapter first DVD compilation was released on July 23, 2014.
After the tenth episode of The Next Chapter on June 20, the "first half" was finished.
Another special, Mushishi Tokubetsu-hen: Odoro no Michi, is set to air on August 24 on BS11,
while the latter half of the second season is scheduled to air in the fall of 2014.
The opening song for the second season is "Shiver" by Lucy Rose.
Other merchandise
A live-action Mushishi feature film, released at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival,
was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo.
A guidebook titled Mushishi Official Book was released by Kodansha on January 23, 2006.
Two soundtrack albums were released by Marvelous Entertainment and Geneon Entertainment for
the anime adaptation; the first on March 24, 2006 and the second on July 23, 2006.
In the following year, a light novel by Naoki Tsujii was published on February 23.
On June 30, and July 20, 2007, were released an artbook, and a book with staff commentaries
on the anime series production, respectively.
Mushishi was also adapted to a video game; the Nintendo DS game titled Mushishi: Amefuru
Sato was developed by Tenky and published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan on January
31, 2008.
Two Anime Hōsōjun Selection books have been released on April 23, and May 14, 2014; a
Utage-hen and a Toge-hen respectively.
On June 25, the soundtrack for The Next Chapter was released by Aniplex.
Reception The series has won numerous awards; in 2003,
the manga was awarded an Excellence Prize for manga at the 7th Japan Media Arts Festival,
while in 2006, the series won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.
At the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, both the anime and manga series were placed among
the top 10 in their respective categories for best manga and anime.
The anime series won grand prizes in the categories of television series and best art direction
at the 5th Tokyo Anime Award competition held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2006.
Mushishi was placed in 9th on Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs's list of best manga,
as well as ranked in 6th place on its list of best anime.
Young Adult Library Services Association also listed the manga among 33 titles with "good
quality literature and appealing reading for teens" in 2008.
Mushishi was also well received by Japanese-language readers.
The ten volumes have sold over 3.8 million copies as of July 2007.
Individual volumes frequently appeared on the weekly lists of best-selling manga there.
Further, the eighth volume was the ninth best-selling manga of Amazon.com in the first half of 2007.
A similar feat was achieved by the last volume which was ranked 49th in the Oricon list of
best-selling manga of the first half of 2009.
In North America, ICv2 has listed the manga among the "Top 300 Graphic Novels" of the
month twice.
Readers of About.com voted it the best seinen manga released in North America in 2007.
Mushishi was chosen as the best manga of 2007 by Deb Aoki of About.com, while it was elected
the best anime series of 2007 by Anime News Network's Carl Kimlinger, and was ranked seventh
on IGN's Ramsey Isler top anime of 2007.
Aoki called it "a rare breed of manga: a smartly-written, original story that's told with simple yet
mesmerizing imagery."
Similarly, Kimlinger declared that "Its hypnotic rhythm, humanism, and naturalist's eye for
beauty give it a charm that far outstrips mere entertainment value."
Jason Thompson's said it may be "too mellow" for some readers, although he praised it for
having a "very original vision, with a sort of 'flowing life' of its own, a biologist's
precision mixed with creepy fairytales and a surreal, dreamy feel."
Its storytelling was highly praised; Isler deemed it as "near flawless", while Pop Culture
Shock's Ken Haley labeled it "an enjoyable and intriguing read", and it was praised for
its "short, spooky and breathtaking stories" by Shirl Sazynski of Sequential Tart.
Writing for Manga Life, Joy Kim stated that despite not having a central story, which
allows to start reading Mushishi at any volume, "the quality of the storytelling" will make
fans want to read it completely.
The "quiet and subtle stories that evoke strong emotions with great story crafting and a fine
tune to the essence of what moves people" is the main appeal of the series, according
to Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime.
Both Ed Sizemore and Avi Weinryb, writing for Comics Worth Reading and Comic Book Bin
respectively, said Mushishi has something to tell to readers, with the former commenting
"If you want a manga to make you stop and think, this is the manga for you."
See also References
External links Official anime website
(Japanese) Official Mushishi Nintendo DS Game Website
Mushishi at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia