Mushishi ep.15

March 12, 2006 | 12 Comments

I love this series!! I remember this chapter quite clearly from the manga due to its highly striking Winter vs. Spring contrast of the snow and the live vegetation. Back then, however, I never thought the anime could replicate the watercolour look of the manga. Suffice to say, I was wrong because when I saw the first few frame from this episode, I can't help but thinking how the background painting reminds me a lot of Ukiyo-e. The background painting for this series is probably one of the most beautiful I've seen in anime series. I also like the fact that just like Honey and Clover, this series has some of the best super deformed faces for its characters. Miharu's facial expression when he said "I don't remember" is a good example for this. I just love the fact that he looks like he's just awake from a sleep and is grumpy because of it. The same thing can be said for Ginko and his angry reaction.

The episode begins with a narration saying that during the time when others are in their shelter, there exists an imitation of spring. However, if people linger too long in it, their flesh will soon be frozen. The camera then cuts to a shot of a boy trekking a snowy area when he notices several flowers growing on a tree despite the cold weather of its surrounding. After a few minutes walk, he begins to see more signs of life in the middle of the snowy area and eventually arrives at a place that looks like a springtime garden in the middle of winter. The scene then shifts to a nighttime shot, showing Ginko walking towards a house. Once he arrives in front of the house, he asks the owner if he can stay for the night. After a little hesitation, the girl inside the house eventually allows Ginko into the house. The next morning the girl, whose name is Suzu, awakes and realises that her little brother, Miharu has gone out on his own.

Because of this she decides to check on Ginko, but as it turns out, he has also left the house. At the same time, Ginko sees Miharu on top of a tree branch trying to grab a snake-like Mushi. Ginko, who understands the danger of touching Mushi warns the kid not to touch it. Suzu eventually manages to catch up with the two, giving Ginko the chance to tell her that she should tell her brother not to touch weird things. Suzu becomes annoyed upon hearing this and tells Miharu that she already warned him not to do such things. She also realises that Ginko is capable of seeing the same thing that Miharu sees so she asks him give her an explanation about the creatures. Ginko tells the girl, whose name is Suzu, that the creatures are called "Mushi". There are people who fear them and there are those who actually like them. It appears that Miharu is more of the latter. Suzu explains that Miharu has always liked animals and often bring them home.

When Miharu started seeing Mushi 3 years ago, he started to behave in strange ways. During winter, he went missing in the mountain for days. The search party had lost all hope but when spring arrived, Miharu returns home as if nothing had happened. Ever since then Miharu has been going after the creatures. On top of this, when they were about to run out of food during Winter, he would disappeared for days before found in an unconscious state on the outskirt of the village. Miharu doesn't awake until spring but he usually brings a bag full of vegetables and fruits which normally don't grow in winter. When Sezu asks his brother where he found the vegetables, he claimed that he can't remember. He also asked Sezu not to open the bag outside the house so that others don't know about it. Upon hearing this, Ginko believes that this is probably a phenomenon known as Harumagai, one that is caused by a flower-shaped Mushi known as Usobuki.

This Mushi has the tendency of releasing a stimulating scent, which animate animals and vegetation that are in hibernation. Once this happens, the Mushi will consume the energy of the animal and vegetation that are attracted to its scent, causing them to sleep until spring arrives. Ginko then tells Suzu that Mushi usually are harmless as long as one doesn't get in their way. Because of this, he agrees to give Miharu a few lessons about Mushi so he knows which one to avoid. Unfortunately, Miharu proves to have a rather short attention span during his lesson. He also refuses to let Ginko know of the location of the vegetables that he obtains every Winter. Because of this Ginko tells the boy that at the very least he should tell his sister about the location so that she's not worried about him. Ginko understands that Miharu simply wants to help his sister but he is being a bit selfish if he doesn't think about his sister's feelings.

Later on Suzu asks Ginko if he can stay longer to teach Miharu. Ginko doesn't mind since he currently has nothing else to do. Having said that, everything depends on the area and explains the fact that he is a Mushi magnet. Having said that, this area doesn't contain that much Mushi so he thinks he should be okay for now. Suzu seems rather keen on having Ginko staying with them to the point of suggesting that he stays with them until spring. Ginko agrees to the request but again reminds her that everything depends on the situation. That night, however, Ginko notices a cocoon located on the ceiling but the said cocoon disappears in the morning. When he checks the nearby area, Ginko realises that several Mushi has arrived at the area. Ginko is quite concerned about this but he is distracted by Suzu, who asks him to take care of Miharu while she is away. Unfortunately for Ginko, Miharu has gone out of the house without his knowledge.

Ginko tries his best to find Miharu in the middle of heavy snow and eventually find the kid unconscious somewhere in the forest. When Ginko checks on Miharu's pocket bag, he finds a bunch of vegetables along with a butterfly trapped in it. As the butterfly flies away from the bag, Ginko wonders if that is a Harumagai. Ginko takes Miharu back to the now sad Suzu and tries to cheer her up by saying that Miharu will most likely wake up once Spring arrives. Having said that, unfortunately he can't stay that long because he needs to leave the area as soon as possible. Suzu becomes even sadder to hear this and tries to make Ginko stay by claiming that Miharu will be sad if he doesn't see Ginko when he wakes up. Unfortunately there is not much Ginko can do at the moment so he ends up leaving the next day after promising Suzu that he will return to visit her again one day. Fast-forward one year later, Ginko returns to Suzu's house during Winter.

Ginko, however, is shocked when Suzu immediately cries upon seeing him. He soon finds out that Miharu has been sleeping for a year now. Ginko believes that he needs to find the place that Miharu went to every Winter. Suzu is afraid about this because she is not sure what she will do if Ginko also ends up like Miharu. Ginko, however, points out that the reason Miharu can't wake up is because he doesn't have something that usually wakes him up. The only way to find out about this is if he visits Miharu's secret place. Because of this, Ginko treks the snowy mountain until he notices the presence of a butterfly. The butterfly ends up leading Ginko to the spring area of the mountain. Despite this, Ginko realises that he needs to find the solution to Miharu's problem as soon as possible because the area is full of flowers which look similar to Usobaki. Ginko gets the answer that he needs when a bunch of animals falling from the trees.

It doesn't take long before the same thing happens to Ginko. While this happens, however, he notices a group of butterfly swarming around him. He quickly grabs one before his entire body falls into a deep sleep. A few days later, Suzu finds Ginko in a frozen state. She manages to save him but is depressed about the fact that she doesn't have anyone to rely on. While crying, Suzu accidentally finds a wooden tube is inside Ginko's jacket. When she opens the tube, a butterfly comes out of the tube. Spring eventually arrives and Ginko suddenly wakes up when he senses a strong scent coming through his nose. Suzu is happy to see Ginko regaining his consciousness and even more so when Miharu also does the same. Miharu explains that if Ginko didn't let the butterfly out of his bag back then, the butterfly would have turned into flower and woke Miharu up one year ago. The episode then ends with Ginko leaving Miharu and Suzu to continue his journey.

Impression:

From what I've seen and understand, the Mushi in question, Usobuki, turns into butterfly during winter. They then use a particular scent to temporarily stimulate animal and plants that normally hibernate during season. This is the reason why part of the mountain looks like it's in Spring even though its surrounding is in Winter. However, once the Usobuki gather enough animal and plats, it will use the energy of the animals and the plants as its own energy source. When this happens, the animals and plants will fall asleep until Spring. The Usobuki will remain in its butterfly form until Spring arrives. Once the season change from Winter to Spring, the Usobuki then metamorphoses from a butterfly to a flower for a brief period of time. During this time, it emits another scent, which awakens the animals and plants whose energy was used by the Mushi beforehand. After a few days, Usobuki will then shrivel up and becomes a coocon-like creature until Winter comes again.

I think part of the reason why this confuses me is because the Mushi uses the smell to achieve many things. First, it uses the smell to awaken animals and plants that are in hibernation during its Butterfly state then it also emits another smell during Spring to awaken its 'victims'. And judging from what Ginko said while he was in the temporary Spring garden, it seems they also produce another kind of smell, which weakens his body and puts him to sleep. In general, however, it seems this Mushi is awake as a Butterfly during Winter, a time when other plants and animals usually hibernate. And when everything else is awake during Spring, the Mushi actually shrivels up and forms a coocon-like state until Winter arrives again. This seems to be the opposite of other creatures' living habit and in a way is a bit of a blessing in disguise. This, however, doesn't mean that the creature is harmless for other species that come into contact with them.

While Usobuki doesn't directly harm their 'victims', it does take the energy of its 'victims' and then left the 'victims' to their own device. While the act simply puts the person/animals to sleep, in the long run if they are being left like that in the middle of cold winter, I doubt any human/animal can actually survive. This is why I like the fact that Ginko told Miharu that these creatures are not his friends. In fact, based on what the series has shown thus far, most Mushi are simply concerned with their own survival and don't really offer any kind of symbiosis relationship to other creatures they come into contact with. Anyway, moving on to other topic, it was nice to see Ginko playing the role of a father to Miharu and pseudo-husband to his sister. It's obvious that in the end, both siblings got too attached to Ginko and try to make him stay using the other sibling as an excuse. I think if he can do this, Ginko would not mind staying with them.

© memento 2003