Comic Title: Mushishi (vol. 1 of 10)
Author: Text and artwork by Yuki Urushibara
Format: Manga paperback
Reviewed by: Elena
Winner of the prestigious Kodansha Manga Award, Mushishi is the story of Ginko, a wandering “mushi” expert (called a mushi-shi in Japanese). Mushi are ephemeral creatures that are far older – but, in some sense, far simpler – than what we conceive of as biological life. Although simple in nature, mushi are capable of causing all sorts of interference in the human world. Sometimes mushi are benign, sometimes neutral, and sometimes they can be downright malicious. As Ginko wanders throughout Japan’s mountain villages and forests, he encounters many people afflicted with all sorts of imaginative mushi infections. Using his clever wit and his own unique, borderline-paranormal abilities, Ginko tries to help as many of these people as he can. But sometimes even Ginko can be rendered helpless in the face of a truly horrifying mushi.
Impressions and Opinions:
An artist discovers that whatever he draws with his left hand can take on a life of its own. A broken sake bowl binds a lonely spirit to a half-life in limbo. A boy begins to hear the whispers of the spirits around him – and not even covering his ears can block out the noise. A man begins to fear that his prophetic dreams may not be predicting the future, as his family believes, but rather creating the disasters that his subconscious mind dreams up. A little girl’s eyes are eaten by darkness. A young woman falls in love with a most unusual paramour. These are the stories of the mushi told in the first volume of Yuki Urushibara’s wonderful manga Mushishi.
The five stand-alone stories in this volume run the emotional gamut from the sweetly touching (a ghostly grandmother watching over her grandson) to the utterly horrifying (such as a mold that takes seconds to eat a person alive, among other examples). In the center of all of these stories is the laid-back and mysterious Ginko, a wandering mushi expert. Although Ginko seems unusually at ease around mushi, even dangerous mushi, the truth is – as some stories in this volume demonstrate – he doesn’t always succeed in saving innocent humans from the ravages of the mushi. And sometimes, he even comes to doubt his own seemingly “happy” solutions for the humans involved. In short, Ginko makes mistakes – sometimes big ones. This means that Mushishi is an unusually (and delightfully) unpredictable manga, sometimes managing to pull off actual narrative suspense, since we readers don’t ever know for certain whether Ginko will be able to save the day or not. It’s never a given.
This is not to say that Mushishi isn’t formulaic at times. Every story really does follow the same basic formula: A mushi-inflicted human requests Ginko’s help, Ginko shows up, Ginko investigates the mushi, Ginko solves the mystery of how to deal with the mushi, Ginko does something clever and unexpected to win the day. Except for the times when the formula breaks, Ginko fails, and people die. Sometimes the formula breaks in another way as well: There is one particular story in this volume that I assumed, based on the first few pages, was heading toward an inevitably tragic conclusion. But Urushibara surprised me by giving that story an almost unbelievably beautiful, uplifting finale. So yes, just knowing that Ginko won’t always win – but also having the most seemingly tragic stories sometimes turn out happily – does a lot to alleviate the formulaic nature of Mushishi’s narrative. The mushi themselves help a lot in that regard, too. No two mushi are alike, and all of them are extremely imaginative, not just in terms of what they are and how they work, but also in terms of what Ginko must do to solve the problems that they cause.
One thing that I really enjoyed about the first volume is this manga is how I could actually feel the rhythm of the different seasons passing as the story progressed. Urushibara is a master at evoking a powerfully realistic sense of time and place, whether with his depiction of an eerily silent, snow-covered village, or a terrifying summer flood. There’s a lot of realism in the way that Urushibara depicts both rural Japanese life and the surrounding nature itself. And yet, this hyper-realism does nothing to detract from the haunting, eerie atmosphere evoked by the stories of the supernatural mushi. If anything, the contrast between Urushibara’s realistic settings and his otherworldly subject matter only serves to heighten the eerie, mysterious feeling of the series.
As this is the first volume of a series, the artwork is, not surprisingly, rather rough. It takes Urushibara several volumes to refine his style, not just in terms of character design and line work, but also in terms of his sense of panel layout and pacing. I think it’s worth mentioning that Mushishi won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2006, when the series was already seven years old, and the artwork had improved by leaps and bounds. Compared to the final volumes of the story, this first volume looks and feels much rougher. But things do improve as the series progresses. I promise.
Have you used this comic in your classroom, or in any sort of educational capacity?
No, but I don’t imagine that it would be difficult to do so. This series is perfect for teen readers, especially teen readers who love a good horror story. Mushishi is saturated with Japanese cultural details, whether depicting the everyday lives of the villagers that Ginko visits, or delving into the deep folklore roots that inspire all of Urushibara’s mushi creations. Any of a dozen things in this first volume alone would provide a great opportunity to teach about Japan’s history and culture.
Mushishi is also the type of manga that can be used to challenge students’ (or anybody’s, really) preconceptions about what “manga” really is. It’s not all big eyes, spikey hair, fighting, or sexy romance. I mean, I love all of those things. But there’s so much more to manga than just the Shounen Jump and Shoujo Beat stuff, and this series is a great way to demonstrate that fact. In terms of both artwork and writing, Mushishi is nothing like the common stereotypes of what manga looks, feels, and reads like. If your students seem to have a dim view of what “comics” are capable of artistically, or what “manga” is in general, then this is the book for them.
At the very least, Mushishi would make an excellent addition to any school library.
Is there anything else you feel that teachers should know about this comic?
Mushishi recently concluded its Japanese run in 2008. Seven of ten total volumes are already available in English from Del Rey Manga. The remaining three volumes are coming soon, and they are definitely worth looking forward to!
The Del Rey edition of Mushishi comes with helpful translation notes in both the front and back of the book. Yes, admittedly, this series is about as uber-Japanese as a manga can get, steeped in culture and folklore that some readers may not be familiar with at all. However, the brief explanatory materials, crammed into just a few pages in the front and back of the book, go a long way toward making Mushishi accessible to any reader, even those completely unfamiliar with Japanese culture, folklore, and history.
I’ve read the first volume of Mushishi in both Japanese and English, and I feel totally confident in stating that William Flanagan’s English translation is absolutely superb. But then again, that’s been true for pretty much every manga I’ve ever read that Flanagan has worked on.
Yes, I am a translation nerd and yes, I will comment on these things.
Anyway, Mushishi gets my highest recommendation, both as a teacher and as a manga lover. It’s a simply amazing series to read, and you will definitely learn a lot about Japan while enjoying it, too.