Mushishi Zoku Shou – 09
“ECHOOO!!”
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This is a huge improvement over the horrific episode that filled every inch of my screen with snakes. I can’t say it’s free from any goosebump factor though. I actually think milk is really gross and feel sick watching people drink it, but this is still better! I really need to keep my irrational fears and idiosyncrasies in check… |
Oddly enough, the episode begins with Ginko being saved. That’s a very unfamiliar position for us to see the experienced mushishi in. Part of me wishes we got to see what dangers Ginko faces as he travels from place to place. Not helping other people, but just trying to survive on his own. In a world where just looking at your reflection in a lake or catching a mirage can screw you up for life, that’s easier said than done. Maybe Ginko just fell and hurt his leg but maybe he injured it while outrunning a mushi. It would be so interesting to see what this lone traveler thinks about before he even reaches his destination. But alas, we only get bits and pieces of Ginko’s life. Better drink in what we can.
This story involves an entire family instead of just one unlucky individual. The mushi issue Ginko tries to solve goes back an entire generation, making it a very complex problem to solve. You have two layers: what happened to Houichi’s dad and what Houichi is doing currently. The two combine to give rise to the current situation – a prosperous valley kept verdant through the superhuman efforts of a man possessed by a mushi. If he continues, he might push himself to exhaustion and die. If he doesn’t, then he will no longer be able to keep up his usual working pace and the plants will not bloom as vividly. That killer mushi is actually what’s keeping Winter from hiking up the mountain and slaughtering all the crops with frost and heavy snow.
I’m not so keen on these hereditary mushi because the children they’re passed onto really do nothing to deserve it. This isn’t something to teach them a lesson for being wrong. They just end up with some sort of weird mushi wriggling inside their body and messing up their life right from the beginning. I instantly liked Houichi when I saw him, and I felt really depressed when Ginko noted that he was possessed. What on earth could he have done to deserve this? All he did was work a lot to help his family! His wife showed no sign of disdain for being neglected and things seemed to be going pretty well. I was bracing myself for something horrible to happen to him. Thankfully, it wasn’t a severe problem. Houichi wasn’t punished for such a dumb reason as simply inheriting a weird mushi. So many bad things happen to people in this show for even the slightest of mistakes. It’s nice to see someone slip out of that pattern and get away with being decent and not being punished.
I could get so much work done if this mushi possessed me…
But it’s still a little weird that Houichi and his family get saddled with this horrible “curse” or sorts. It’s kind of a weak message that the moral of the story is “don’t drink random milk you find in the woods.” I mean…what? It makes for a neat story, but it doesn’t hit any emotional notes. It’s unrelatable. As a result, I felt like this week’s episode was interesting but lacking passion. It’s like reading a list of science facts. It’s cool, but not exactly something you’re going to feel moved by emotionally. The closest we came to tugging at heartstrings was when the mother died. But even then, the milk tears kind of grossed me out and I didn’t really care since it was a moment from a long time ago.
The more I talk about it, the less fond I become of this episode. It’s weird. I’m starting to realize how little substance it had. But then again, it may be more relatable to those living in Japan or wary of Japanese culture since working to death is so common in Japan. Houichi treats his affliction as a gift and refuses to take the medicine. The ability to work hard and be productive is extremely valuable. However, I believe he does take the medicine at the very end since the valley is hit hard by Winter once again. The only other time we see it get that cold up there is when he’s unconscious from falling while working. But the bottomline is that Houichi really takes pride in his work, but also thinks his family is very important. He finds the perfect balance in the end – mushi or not.
Also, Japanese speakers may appreciate the wordplay of blood, breast milk and earth all sounding very similar. I didn’t notice that until the narrator brought it all together in the end, making the connection in my mind appear way too late for it to bear any significance on how I viewed the story.
Moral of the story: DON’T DRINK MILK
So although I enjoyed the episode at the time, my views on it are starting to go a little south. Not that it was bad or anything since this is Mushishi, after all! However, I really hope the final episodes give us more emotional issues that I can relate to. I would say we but…well…Mushishi tends to get pretty personal. Depending on what’s important to you, different issues will stand out more or less. It speaks a lot to the range this show is capable of displaying. What will we get next? I haven’t the foggiest. But I’ll be waiting just the same.
A bonfire is nice and all but maybe you should just go inside at this point
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Amusing. I like milk a lot and drink it whenever I can once it’s in reach. Though watching this has me shaking a bit. You’re lactose intolerant, aren’t you?
Not as dark but in honesty, I haven’t found myself this disturbed since that episode of that crazed physician dismembering young wandering girls to keep that immortal girl appeased. Note to self: Steer clear of puddles of any kind in the Mushi world for they prove not conducive for one’s health or sanity. It’s bad enough to have a person’s body sapped to cause rain but to have all the bodily fluids, tears and even blood replaced by milk. The thought itself makes my skin crawl.
Not quite a pleasant ending for those involved but they’re doing better than most. So the mushi is playing as a double edge sword: Both asset and ailment. Because of that scenario, Houichi is blessed and cursed with his inhuman stamina and resistance. He apologizes for sullying his mother’s memory by carrying on knowing full well of his disposition but I’m sure she’d accept it since it’s being put to good use providing for his family. All she wanted was to make sure he’d grow up happy.
The next entry’s titled “Depths of Winter”. I wonder how that’s going to play out.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
My body can digest milk just fine (ice cream!!!), I just hate it o_o
Having all your blood replaced with milk is really creepy. At least Teru still had her bodily fluids, they just weren’t under her control. Definitely not cool. I swear puddles have ruined 3 lives so far. What is it with puddles?!
I’m excited for every single episode of Mushishi. I really liked the last one that took place in the snow too.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
But how we accept and work with or around this unwanted inheritance is interesting, a very much worth a good story. I have to disagree with you, even thou I agree with some of your gross out factor. It really wasn’t about the random drinking of milk. It was about the start of the thread, and how it was un-spun to her son, and to his family.
There are tons of things we are inheriting that we have had little to no choice in. It’s not just genetics, but it’s our society.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I find the family stuff interesting, but the inheritance thing just didn’t catch my eye. Genetically inherited traits just aren’t as exciting – be it crazy mushi traits or actual diseases we see in real life. They kind of just…happen. And without any story leading up to that other than “genes did it”, I lose interest. Guess that’s why I avoided working in any molecular biology labs.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I can very much see your perspective.
Oh, btw, I do have a friend that is a Molecular Biologist. And one time he was talking to us about a day in his job. He basically said, “Hey, you know all that stuff in cautionary sci-fi about tampering with genetics, right? Well, it’s not that far fetched?” Really we say. “Yeah,but I’ve signed NDAs, so that’s all I can say…”
Mind just a bit blown.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
The issue is with *ethics* and *morality*. I for one would like legal lolis and shotas that are 18+ but look younger.
That aside, genetic engineering would improve the world except that the majority of people are afraid of the unknown. Imagine… kemonomimi… (okay, that is going overboard), curing of hereditary diseases like thalassaemia, haemophilia…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
One of my ex-girlfriend is a Legal LOLi. And she’s pushing 36 these days. I tried so hard to get her into Taiga cosplay. And you wonder why she’s and ex?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I don’t know how but your title has gained more credit for that story. 😉
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
*patpats skylion* Life sometimes isn’t fair…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, sometimes it is very fair. 🙂
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 20 comments
Oh, wow…I totally missed the homophones thing in relation to the pronunciations. And yeah, certain kanji readings for blood and earth are the same (I’ve not got as far as learning the readings for breast milk!), which is kinda cool. I wonder how many other bits of wordplay slipped past me in this show so far.
The whole scientific angle with the genetics and heredity has struck me on a number of occasions during this series, actually. If I ever get to blog about this show, that’s the angle I’d take. As fantastical and ‘supernatural’ as it is, there are some themes running through it that are very SF. I probably wouldn’t get away with calling Mushishi a SF story, but still. Definitely in an environmental kind of way – in the same way that Miyazaki movies go a little scientific eco-fable at times – but in other ways too. I’ll have to get back to you on that one! *walks away, scratching his head*