Mushishi ep.3

November 6, 2005 | 16 Comments

This episode is simply breathtaking. I was actually a bit concerned as to how the animators are going to portray the cold winter scenes in some of the chapters. As far as painting goes, I find that it's usually far easier to depict lush greeneries of spring and summer than the white snow of cold winter. In order to effectively use white to portray winter, other colors need to be mixed in with white so that the white will actually stand out instead of making the image looks flat. The blue/grey-ish tinted snow in this episode is a good example of how to draw the snow correctly. The colors perfectly capture the cold weather that surrounds the village to the point that I feel sorry for Ginko for having to walk so far into the village in such a heavy snow storm.

The episode itself begins with a shot of a volcanic mountain followed by a hand covering the ear of a boy. The scene is then cut into a shot of Ginko walking through a forest in winter. A boy is then heard saying how four horns appear on his forehead when he covered his ears with both of his hands. A few scenes later, Ginko is seen talking to an elderly woman who is the head of a village. Apparently she has asked Ginko to come to the village because she needs his help in curing some villagers who have partial hearing problems. When Ginko checks on one of the villagers, he realises that the cause of the problem is actually a Mushi called 'Un'. This mushi eats sound and usually live within the forest. However, due to winter covering any kind of sound, it has now come to the village seeking sounds.

As Ginko gives some explanation about the Mushi, he shows the villagers a group of snail-like creatures nesting on the wooden ceiling of the house. He tells them that human eardrum is shaped like a snail as well. So when this Mushi is hungry, it'll crawl inside human ears and devour any sound that comes into the ear. The solution to this problem is apparently as simple as pouring a warm salted water into the infected person's ear. Once this is completed, the Mushi will get out of the ear and dies immediately. After seeing Ginko's ability to cure the villagers, the old lady asks Ginko to take a look at another patient, this time it's her own grandson called Maho, who for some reason has four horns growing out of his forehead starting last winter. Because of this, she asks Ginko to keep this a secret.

Ever since then, Maho has been unable to pick up normal sounds using his ear. Instead, he hears a lot of strange noises, which apparently originate from the horns. Upon hearing this, Ginko tells Maho and his grandmother that the cause of the problem is a Mushi called 'A'. This Mushi basically eats the silence that is produced by 'Un' and usually draws a lot of noises for 'Un' to devour. Ginko mentions that there was only one similar case and unfortunately, the woman who suffered from the problem died after unable to withstand the flood of noises that came into her ears. Anyway, Ginko sets up a tent filled with some kind of smokes that allows Maho to hear less of the noise and more of Ginko's voice. Ginko explains to Maho that the sound that he hears is actually the sound of hundreds of Mushi.

Basically the Mushi known as 'A' has eaten the silence in Maho's ears, causing the horn to grow. Ginko, however, wonders when the horns came into existence to begin with. Because of this, Maho explains that this started when he covered his ears a year ago in memory of his deceased mother who used to do the same thing. Apparently she also suffered from the same problem that even covering her ears wouldn't get rid of the noises. Maho also believes that his mother said something when she covered his ears with her hands but he can't remember what she said back then. Later on Ginko finds out from the grandmother that prior to her death, Maho's mother said that she can no longer hear the deafening noises, this actually scared her because she's so accustomed to them.

The next day, Maho secretly sneaks out of the house to go for a walk. When he doesn't come back a while later, Ginko eventually finds him inside a cave. All of a sudden, however, Ginko is attacked by a group of 'Un' Mushi which makes him unable to hear anything. In order to stop the attack, Ginko pulls out an 'A' mushi. Once the 'A' Mushi enters his ears, Ginko asks Maho to cover his ears with the boy's own hands. Upon doing this, the Mushi in Ginko's ear melts onto Maho's hands. Because of this, Ginko asks Maho to cover both of his ears and listen to the one sound he hear the most. Maho begins to hear the sound of a volcano his mother used to tell him. As Maho does this, the Mushi melts and his horns fell off. The next day Ginko gives Maho two smaller horns before leaving the village with the other two.

Notes:

An 'Un' Mushi is basically a parasite that eats any sound that it comes in contact with. Once all sounds are eaten, of course what is left is silence. An 'Un' sometimes works in tandem with an 'A' Mushi. An 'A' will basically draws other sounds for an 'Un' to feast upon so in return, it can eat the silence produced by an 'Un'. The first guy treated by Ginko has an 'Un' inside his ear, thus he could barely hear a sound on one of his ears. Maho basically has an 'A' that draws all kind of sounds into his ear. Inside the cave, Ginko realises that he's been attacked by a bunch of 'Un'. In order to stop the invasion, he grabs an 'A' and allows the parasite to enter his ears, thereby cancelling out the complete deafness produced by the 'Un'. This however, causes Ginko to hear all kind of sounds just like Maho.

When Ginko covered his ears with his fingers, he realised that doing so doesn't actually cancels out other sounds but rather allows a person to hear one specific sound amongst many. This makes him realised that an A's weak point is actually the sound that is produced by another being's body. Because of this, an 'A' will usually try to get rid of these kind of sounds. However, since the sounds that an 'A' hates is produced by its host's body, the only way it can rid of these sounds is to get rid of the host. If the host is dead, then there will be no sound produced by the host's body. Maho's mother actually managed to get rid of the 'A' inside her ears. As mentioned by the grandma, prior to her death, Maho's mother claimed that she can no longer hear the sounds that used to plagued her ears.

However, by then the solution was too late for her because her body and immune system were already too weak after being attacked by the 'A' Mushi for more than a year. When Ginko covered his ears, he realised why Maho's mother was trying to cover her own ears, so he asks Maho to covers his own ear. Since the Mushi hasn't caused too much harm to Maho's health, he manages to get rid of the 'A' Mushi inside his ear by simply focusing on the sound that he claims he heard from his mother. An imaginary sound of what a volcano sounds like. However, since the sound was produced by Maho's own body (by his own thoughts), the 'A' Mushi can't stand it, causing the parasite to die immediately after getting out of Maho's ear. This in effect causes Maho's horns to fall off because the parasite is now dead.

Impression:

First of all, I think one of the illustrations of Maho's mother with the horns look a lot like a Japanese folklore demon called Hannya. I also think that the series once again succeeded in creating a mythical story out of a problem that some people may encounter on daily basis. At one point or another, some of us probably have experienced the unpleasant numbing sensation in our ears when a plane is about to land, or due to colds and allergies. Equally interesting is the fact that if you cover both ears with your hands, you can indeed hear a mild earthquake sounds. I don't know if that actually is the sound of my arms movement or something else. I do, however, agree that closing your ears with both of your hands do not actually make sounds disappear. The act of doing this simply allows a person to hear a sound much clearly over other sounds.

Another thing about the episode that I like is the contrast between hot and cold and between noise and silence. Note how at the start of the episode there is a shot of a volcanic mountain which is then cut into a shot of cold forest. The rest of the episode then regularly contrasting scenes showing the warmth of a house's interior to the cold winter outside the house. It is also interesting to see the episode suggesting that cold is usually associated with silence while hot is associated with sound and noise. This is why the setting of the village is perfect for this particular story. The village seems to be one of those remote types isolated by distance and cold weather. Thus, it is natural to think that this is a very quiet village. So the fact that Maho can hear many noises in his ears simply accentuate the extraordinary situation he experiences.

© memento 2003