Mushi-shi

[Asmadai]

Found this anime up on Hulu the other day. Started watching it. It's what I would call a 'hippie' anime.

I like the art, the style, the music, and everything, it's just from what I've read, nothing really happens in the anime. There's no overarcing plotline whatsoever; no action, no suspense really. Each episode is just the same sort of thing, with hardly any re-occurring characters save the main one.

Thing is though, I can't stop watching it. It's very laid back, and some of you artsy fartsy people might enjoy it, as well as some others. Give it an episode or two if you're up for it.

[Alcestis]

Mushishi isn't the slam dunk "you're going to adore it" suggestion like when I tell my friends to watch Nodame Cantabile or something else along that line. But I love it. Incredibly underrated. I find that people who like it are generally awesome. =)

I enjoy that each episode is a story in itself. No real need for pretense, overarching plot, or recurring characters. The stories stick with you and can actually bring up interesting, intelligent debate: episodes 6, 13, 21, and 22 truly fucked with me in the best way possible, and I find them occasionally popping into my head even years later. Was a great mash-up of fantasy and reality without being over the top.




{edit}: I am a bit scared to see what they did with the live-action. Maybe someone can clue me in.

[eVasiege]

I watched this earlier last year and from what I can remember, I generally liked it. It was top 10 on Anime News Network so I figured how could I go wrong and I wasn't disappointed. Though I would agree the pacing is slow and I found I had to be more in the mood to watch it.

If you like this I would also suggest you check out Kino's Journey. Its about a kid who travels on his talking motorcycle to different towns and is faced with a moral dilemma in each one. Similar in its storytelling, pacing, and takes an episodic approach where most of the characters are always new.

[Bloodget]

Mushishi is awesome.
It is calm, cool, relaxing. Watch one, go to sleep.
Must be my favorite anime.

[Dokomo]

The art and the music just work so well together, very subtly. We began watching this in my university anime club years ago, but half the people hated it. The half that loved it were the art students.

[Zaniel]

It has a similar feel to Kino's Journey which was one of my all time favourites(though obviously utterly different subject matter).

[Szlia]

Originally Posted by Alcestis

I am a bit scared to see what they did with the live-action. Maybe someone can clue me in.

Otomo took the first tome of the manga and the... three? short stories that are in it and added an overarching plot line about the origin of the character. There are some nice moments in the film, but the additional plot line is pretty poorly written as in it is impossible to understand. Since you just don't get the problematic at hand, the whole final quarter of the movie totally lacks dramatic tension.


That said I only have read a couple volumes of the Mushishi manga, but was not that much into it because it felt like a more formated version of another manga called Hanashipanashi. It's the same themes, also in a short story format, but without any recurring character and set in present time.