アニメ： 蟲師 Mushishi

Difficulty Ranking: 2
Subs: episode 1 & episode 26 here 

i really enjoyed this series too!!!


When i was a child, i used to have asthma. For as long as i could remember, very occasionally i would lay in bed at night and not be able to breathe properly anymore. It was weird, but i never thought too much about it. One night when i was a little older, me and my sister were talking late at night... i asked her if she ever couldn't breathe properly late at night. She said "no, that's probably not normal..."
Following that came a barrage of questions; "if you shut your eyes tight and then open them again, can you see colours and lights dancing around in the darkness?" "you know when you cover your ears with your hands, can you hear that weird noise?" "when you're in the bath and water gets in your ears, do you ever hear that kind of loud banging sound that sounds like someone's coming to get you?" "do you ever hear your head sort of creaking slightly?" "when you press your eyes a little, can you see all those patterns?" and so on.

Well, this is the kind of thing that Mushishi draws you in with. I hadn't thought about this conversation with my sister in, well, perhaps more than a decade (closer to 2 decades?), but Mushishi reminded me of it. It reminded me of lots of childhood things like chasing after a rainbow or just watching the sunlight sparkle off a pond's surface in the morning. All of these things are connected with 蟲. (not actually an insect btw.)

Along with these ideas are tales of human attachment. Many of the stories end sadly, because of human stupidity or attachment to an idea, or the Mushi themselves. Others end sadly because the protagonist doesn't know how to cure the person whose entered contact with the Mushi. Overall, it's a simple, but thoughtful series full of ideas and stories that will enchant you and draw you in. Oh, and the scenery backdrops are beautiful watercolour-esque paintings.

i liked it :)