About a year ago I tried out Mushi-shi and found it to my liking, in a wierd, abstract kind of way. I didn’t really say much about the series then but now that Steven has started watching it, I feel like I should record some of my impressions. Spoilers possible, so follow below the fold.
Overall the series reminds me thematically of Kino’s Journey – an enigmatic character explores a world that is at the intersection of reality and myth. The journey is more explicit in Kino but I think Ginko is on no less of a journey. One of the most interesting ideas of the series is the “river of light” that are the mushi, existing beneath our perception. The mushi-shi are strongly hinted to be the source of life itself. This isn’t a cerebral series, but rather one meant to reach into that primal part of our spiritual identity and tweak things around. It’s like a non-horror version of Lovecraft’s works, where instead of nameless evil you have formless neutrality.
Interestingly, you can watch Mushi-shi (dubbed) for free online at hulu.com‘s anime channel. They also have english-subs of Death Note, which I have fallen into quite seriously now.