Mushi-Shi: The Complete Series, Viridian Collection

Ginko is a traveling Mushi master, who tries his best to help people who have been afflicted by these creatures, invisible to most humans. Going from village to village, he not only makes new friends, but encounters some rare Mushi.

Highlights

"Look at your hand, say the four longest fingers are animals, and the thumb is plant life.  Your middle finger is man, the furthest away from the heart, at the tip of the middle finger. The lower you are on the hand, the more primitive you become. If you trace the veins, they all converge around the wrist. Bacteria and microbes are here. At this point it's hard to distinguish between plants and animals.  But, there are things even lower than that, up the arm, past the shoulder, and here, right net to the heart, are the Mushi…They are close to being merely essences of life, and because they are, their shapes and existences are vague, some people can see them, some people can't."

A child and his mother are traveling through the woods when a horrific mud slide kills the mother.  The lone child was picked up by an unusual Mushi master with long white hair, despite her young age.  The child learns about the mysterious creatures he's been able to see for his whole life, as well as the Mushi master's dark secret about her appearance.  The same events that happened to the Mushi master, ended up happening to the boy.  Unfortunately, all his memories were lost, and the boy could only think of Ginko as his name, though it wasn't his original name.  

Ginko becomes a traveling Mushi master, thanks to his talent of attracting Mushi.  Each episode is pretty much stand alone, and Ginko and several Mushi are seen in other episodes.  

Overall

Mushi-shi is one of the quietest series ever.  It takes a lot of concentration just to hear what is being said over the soundtrack, which was pretty good as a soundtrack.  For being a quiet series, it was really well done, especially when it comes to character development and explaining situations.  As mentioned, this series is episodic, and there is no expanded story arc. Despite this, character development was slick and perfectly done.  I usually expect that episodic series will either develop the characters blatantly, or not very much at all.  Here however, you really felt like 30 minutes was an hour, everything unfolded at exactly the right moment and was presented in the most perfect way.  Yes, there were some things you didn't get about some of the characters, but in the end, I didn't feel like I needed to know everything anyway.

I have to mention the artistry. It was, in general, very detailed and quite beautiful.  There wasn't the sense of CG, and it all looked natural and done by hand.  One episode specifically captured the essence of this beauty.  It was about a boy who went to be an apprentice of a painter.  While at the painter's house, the boy never got a chance to paint, just wash dishes, clean the floors, and mix paint.  Finally, one day, the boy was asked to clean some of the masters paint dishes.  The boy (now much older and fed up with not getting to paint) took a green paint dish, still with a considerably good amount of paint left, and he began to paint on the inside of his most prized pice of clothing, a coat made from materials found around his home.  He painted a beautiful mountain scene based on the mountain that he used to live on.  Well, eventually the master found the painting, and let the man paint in the studio.  The whole episode is about this new found painters art, and how even Mushi can affect it.   But, this episode was also about looking at the scenery, and how much work goes into it, and it made me appreciate it more then ever.

A live-action movie was made of Mush-shi, which I reviewed before the anime series.  I still agree with everything I said about the Live-action movie, but I need to warn you that in the movie, there is a definite plot line and there are story arcs.  (SPOILER WARNING) In the movie, Ginko dies, but, in the anime, he does not, and all of the major character of the movie, only get one episode and are never mentioned again in the anime.  Now that I've watched the end of the series, I am more disappointed in the movie compared to the anime, and I say the anime is better.

In the end, I would recommend this series to anyone.  It was done really well and kept my attention with every episode.  Not very repetitive, and there is still more room to add more.  The series was very calm, with almost a zen, earthy feel to it.  If you like Air, Gankutsuou:The Count of Monte Cristo, xxxHolic, Last Exile, Samurai Champloo, and Gungrave, then you need to watch this series, if you haven't already, I'm sure you'll add it to your list.  I give two thumbs for releasing Mushi-shi as a Viridian Collection, because this series shouldn't be forgotten. 

ComicsOnline gives Mushi-Shi: The Complete Series, Viridian Collection 5 out of 5 Rare Mushi Items.