Mushishi Zoku Shou – 06

Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 06 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 28 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 29

I’ll never o-hanami the same way again.

One of the dirty little secrets about Mushishi is that most of the time, it’s not really about Mushi but about people.  Each story is like a self-contained parable about the vagaries of human nature – our hopes and dreams, our capacity for love and compassion, for possessiveness and greed.  The Mushi are primarily there as catalysts to reveal the true nature of the human characters in the stories.  In fact, over time I’ve come to view each of them as almost symbolic of some archetypal element of human nature.

Looked at that way, it’s hardly a surprise that Mushishi continues to be riveting chapter after chapter, because there’s really no end to the diversity of the human animal and the human condition.  After a gentle start Zoku Shou has veered sharply to the dark side of late – stories of tragedy, suicidal depression and sheer psychopathy (that would be this one).  The many faces of Mushishi are the faces of ourselves, and Ginko the constant who guides us on our strange journey through the collective unconscious like some kind of chain-smoking Carl Jung.

“Floral Delusion” is a dark journey indeed, though it starts out with scenes of tranquil beauty.  The Sakura, so beloved and revered by the Japanese – indeed, there is something almost hypnotic about the way the entire nation falls under their sway every spring.  Ginko meets a young woman while admiring the local cherry blossoms, and asks her about a famous local Sakura, and she tells him it’s next to the house of a local doctor she’s on her way to visit for medicine for her ill mother.  But when they arrive, the tree – gnarled, huge and ancient (Ginko estimates 600-700 years old) is bare of so much as a single blossom or leaf.

I can say truthfully that from the beginning, I felt something off about the “doctor”, Masaki (Miyamoto Mitsuru).  There have been a few episodes where Ginko has been assaulted without warning by his human acquaintances, and there was something in the air here that made me want to shout a warning at the screen almost from the first moment.  But things start out relatively innocently – Masaki tells Ginko he’s no doctor, just the latest in a family of “humble gardeners”.  And he’s quite tender and kind with the strange, chillingly beautiful girl who sits under the tree, Saho (Toshimi Muto).  Saho is quite helpless – “almost entirely” blind and deaf, and seemingly quite unable to fend for herself.  Ginko soon links her condition with the strange foam inside the tree, actually a Mushi called Kodama (the Japanese term for a tree spirit, as Hoozuki fans will know), which greatly extends the life of any tree it inhabits, but takes away one of the five senses from any animal that consumes it.  Masaki has been selling it as a medicine, and Ginko asserts his authority as a Mushishi (which is surely only moral, not legal) in telling the man in no uncertain terms that this has to stop.  He also tells Masaki that he would be able to drive the Kodama from Saho and restore her senses, but he can’t say whether there would be any life left in her if he did.

I think it’s fair to say that the broad nature of what’s happening here is pretty apparent from the beginning.  Saho’s spirit and health are directly linked to that of the tree, and Masaki is keeping some of the truth from Ginko.  Superficially the chapter seems to be building towards a sad and sentimental conclusion, but that nagging sense of deeper wrongness grows stronger and stronger – and indeed, the full breadth of the darkness in “Floral Delusion” is far greater than meets the eye (or Ginko’s eye).  As Ginko slowly puts the pieces together based on the odd nature of the family records Masaki allows him to investigate, Masaki reveals his true stripes – he’s the latest in the line of psychopaths in his family that have been killing young women, stealing their bodies and grafting Saho’s head onto them whenever her own body starts to decay (as it is at this very moment), just as they graft branches of the tree onto other trees to make them bloom gloriously.

There are so many fascinating elements to the resolution of the episode, starting with the bold and dangerous choice Ginko makes to save the life of the girl who’s come for medicine and found herself on Masaki’s chopping block.  He kicks over a lamp (put yourself in the place of someone living in a time and place where all buildings are wood, with thatched roofs, and all light comes from flame) and burns Masaki’s house down while he flees with the girl.  We’re left to wonder about the nature of what we’ve witnessed – was it simple human possessiveness that prompted Masaki’s family to so zealously defend the life of the “tree spirit” they saw Saho as, or was the Kodama itself exerting a hypnotic hold over them?  As Saho lies expiring she exhorts Mansaku (Masaki’s ancestor, who first discovered the crying infant in the hollow of the tree) “No…  Don’t!”.  It seems very likely to me that whatever part of the human girl that still exists was trying to keep her life from being extended in this gruesome fashion.

Finally, we’re left to ponder (Mushishi always leaves us to ponder) the ending itself.  As the house burns the ancient tree blooms breathtakingly, and Saho “blooms” as well – than expires in a most chilling fashion in Masaki’s arms.  What became of the man, who Ginko tells us was never seen again?  And what part of Saho still exists in the tree which one day blooms again next to the burnt shell of the house, as two travellers unsuspectingly rest beneath its beautiful blossoms?  As is life itself, Mushishi is more questions than answers – but I like it that way.  This was a beautiful episode, suspenseful, sad and gripping from start to finish.  It was also another display of just how crucial Masuda Toshio’s incomparable soundtrack is to the alchemy of the series.

Next week, by the way, brings us an anime-original story, the first of the season.

Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 08 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 09 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 10
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 11 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 12 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 13
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 14 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 15 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 16
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 17 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 18 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 19
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 20 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 21 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 22
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 23 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 24 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 25
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 26 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 27 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 30
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 31 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 32 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 33
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 34 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 35 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 36
Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 37 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large 38 Mushishi Zoku Shou - 06 - Large End Card 01
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

15 comments

  1. s

    I canr get enough of this series. Im loving how these series is getting darker with each ep, easing us into the horror that can be the human nature and what is revealed by the human psyche when nature (in this case the mushi) and humans interact. Truly, this is the series i anticipate every week. On a side note i love listening to the OP every week and there's something about the title preview that always feels ominous. An anime original ep huh? i cant wait to see what surprises await us

  2. G

    The OP is awesome. Can't wait for it to be released as an MP3.

    This series is not afraid to kill off people either.

  3. I must confess, it isn't wearing nearly as well as "Sore Feet Song" did for me. I'm FF-ing through it now.

  4. Z

    I confess to not liking either of them. Sitting round the campfire music just isn't my style. I'll go make a cup of tea or something and come back when it's finished.

  5. K

    I love both of them but Sore Feet Song was just perfect for Mushishi and as a song I just like it better than Shiver. I walked ten thousand miles, ten thousand miles to see you . . .

  6. n

    I like Shiver as a song, independent of Mushishi. You should watch the PV; sentimentality is guaranteed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o84y-5-cO0

  7. K

    I'm kinda worried about next week now. I knew it was something special but I didn't know for certain if that means it wasn't connected to the manga. Hopefully it's good.

    This episode, was as always, great. I think this episode replaces Cotton Changeling as the creepiest episode of the series for me (though it's been awhile since I saw CC). & it amazes me that even with this probably being the most disturbing/creepy episode for me, it still retains that unmistakably beauty that only Mushishi really possess.

  8. H

    Huh, next week is anime original? I thought I had heard there was enough material for two cours of the story so I wonder what this means (and I thought it was all but confirmed that they will be adapting all the rest of the manga).

  9. I thought so too, unless I miscounted. Maybe they plan to include one chapter as a concluding OVA?

  10. R

    I can't remember, were there any anime original stores in the first season?

  11. There was at least one that I know – #13, "The One Night Bridge", which I thought was excellent.

  12. K

    No One Night Bridge is in the manga

  13. Is it? My bad.In that case I don't think there was a single chapter in the first series that was anime-original.

  14. K

    Damn, my worry dissipated when I read that One Night Bridge was anime exclusive then I read Kim's response and it returned in an instance. Hopefully it turns out alright.

  15. Z

    These are the sort of episodes I like better from Mushishi. Especially compared to last weeks episode, which was the weakest of the lot.

Leave a Comment