Feeling tired, jaded, stressed-out by the noise and pressures of modern life? Then try watching ‘Mushi-shi’. Just a single episode will spirit you away into a very different world. Here, the pace of life is different, and you’ll soon relax into the natural rhythms of the Japanese countryside as the seasons change. But don’t let yourself relax too much - for beneath this seeming calm, strange forces are at work, the disturbing life forms known as ‘mushi’.

In the depths of winter, Ginko the mushi master seeks shelter from a blizzard. He is taken in by a young woman, Suzu, whose younger brother Miharu can – like Ginko – see mushi. Miharu also has a tendency to wander off in the depths of winter, causing his sister considerable anxiety. The last time he reappeared clutching special greens that only grow in spring, only to fall into a deep sleep from which he doesn’t wake till spring.

Usobuki are mushi that mimic spring blossom in winter and attract living creatures, living off their life energy. Is this the strange force that has been at work here? Ginko attempts to teach Miharu about mushi, but the young boy is not the most attentive of students. He has a secret which he is unwilling to share with the mushi master.

Because of his tendency to attract mushi, Ginko has never been able to stay long in one place. And yet is there more than a hint of a wish for a normal life, the chance to settle down? “At least stay until spring,” says Suzu. But then Miharu wanders off again and Ginko finds him in a deep sleep out in the snows. Inside his coat is a little bag…from which emerges a butterfly.

When Ginko passes by Suzu’s hut a whole year later, he discovers that Miharu is still asleep. Determined to discover the source of the boy’s problem, he is astonished to smell spring blossom. How can spring flowers be blooming and butterflies flitting around when the land is deep in snow? This unseasonable marvel draws him deeper into the snows – and into real danger from the same mushi that have entrapped Miharu.

 “The mushi aren’t really our friends at all – more like unusual neighbours,” Ginko observes. “You can never really trust them. But you’re perfectly free to like them.” 

The next episode, ‘Sunrise Serpent’ finds Ginko on a boat being steered by young Kaji.  Kaji is worried about his mother, a weaver, who is losing her memory. When she can’t even recognize her own sister, Kaji asks Ginko tries to uncover the reasons. The kagedama, a mushi that devours memories, seems to be the cause. But Ginko suspects that it has crept into the woman’s brain, eating her memories and stopping her sleeping. Maybe if Kaji can help his mother track down his wandering peddler father, there’s a chance she can be saved… but if it’s a slim chance. This episode is a subtle and thoughtful exploration of the inextricably intertwined nature of memory and identity. 
 
Uro: a special mushi postal system to mushi masters, using silk cocoons? In #17 ‘Pickers of Empty Cocoons’, Ginko returns to visit some old friends in a silk-producing village in the mountains. Once Aya had a twin sister called Ito; at ten, both girls were sent to be apprenticed to the old uro master. But there are dangers in learning how to use the uro – and Ito disappears. Aya has been heartbroken ever since, blaming herself for being careless – and now she persuades Ginko to help her try to get her sister back, even if it means searching in the mushi-infested tunnels deep beneath the mountains.

Perhaps the most poignant of these four episodes, ‘Clothes that Embrace the Mountain’ tells the tale of a gifted young artist who is forced to leave his village to follow his dream. Kai’s sister makes him a coat with dyes and silk from the mountain they live on to remind him of home as he leaves home to train to become a painter. Homesick, he paints a view of his mountain on the inside lining of the coat. Trying to make his way as a painter, he’s forced to sell his coat to buy paint. Suddenly his luck changes and the commissions begin to pour in. But then he hears of a disastrous landslide and his artistic inspiration begins to dry up. Suffering from fatigue and unable to paint, he decides to go home. But what will he find waiting for him at the end of his journey? 

The coat is offered to Ginko who declares that it smells of mushi – but buys it, nonetheless, and, intrigued, sets out to find what became of the gifted artist who painted it.

One of the pleasures in watching ‘Mushi-shi’ is that it’s possible to return to the episodes again and again – and each time discover something new. Given the consistently high standard of the adaptations, the atmospheric sound score, and the exquisite water colour landscapes, this series has not lost anything of its unique flavour.

In the extras, there’s a fascinating talk between the composer Toshio Masuda and the director Hiroshi Nagahama – and another with the Opening Director, photographer Ichigo Sugawara.

In Summary
More of the same? Yes, but in the case of ‘Mushi-shi’, this is cause for celebration. Distinctive, unusual, like sipping a rare sake, each episode is to be savoured for its own unique flavour.