Mushishi ep.4

November 13, 2005 | 13 Comments

Well, this is actually not as gory as I had hoped it to be. However, it is indeed slightly more graphic than usual. I hope people will still watch the episode though, because I think the storyline is the most creative out of the episodes that have been aired thus far. I am also glad to see the series still maintain its high-quality style from previous episodes. This is a relief to me because the quality of an anime series usually goes down around either the third or fourth episode. As a side note, according to Amazon Japan, the first DVD of Mushishi will go on sale in January. The first pressed edition will include 2 episodes, a bonus disc with interviews, making of footage, 20 page booklet, six postcards, and a deluxe case. I think my credit card just went into a cardiac arrest because it knows that I'm going to get this DVD for sure.

Anyway, this episode begins with Ginko visiting a guy who's been having prophetic dreams. He tells the guy that the real cause of his prophetic dream is actually a Mushi that can become problematic. Because of this, he gives the guy some medicines to take in case his dream escalates to four or five times in ten days. Ginko, however, also warns the guy that the medicine could be poisonous if he takes it before the dream escalates so he asks the guy to use it moderately. Ginko then promises to come back to give some more medicine before leaving the village. Cut to a voice over that says that one can't converse with a person who talks during his/her sleep because those words belong to a different reality. Fast-forward to one year later, Ginko returns to the village to find it looking deserted. The only living human left is the guy who received Ginko's medicine.

Because of this, the guy, who is now known as Jin, tells Ginko what happened after Ginko left the village. Apparently Jin had been getting more frequent dreams, starting with him finding a water source that could be used to irrigate the farmers' fields. Because of this dream, the villagers thanked Jin by giving him some of their fresh produce. Jin was not comfortable by the kindness but realised that he can use the present since he was not exactly making money out of sharpening blades. Jin's wife, however, realised that her husband's dream was getting more frequent so she asked Jin to take the medicine that Ginko gave him. Jin agreed with his wife and promised to take the medicine. Not long after this, however, Jin saw another prophetic dream involving a landslide. Because of this, he managed to save some villagers from death and was properly thanked for it.

This incident, however, made Jin feels uneasy because it seems as if he's the one who created the dreams. Jin's fear of the dreams eventually got a hold of him so he decided to continue taking the medicine. As a result, one day there was a Tsunami that he couldn't foresee in his dream and a lot of people including his own daughter died in the incident. Guilt eventually caused Jin to stop taking the medicine altogether and he began to experience the dreams in droves. However, one day he woke up and found his wife's body rotting due to mold and realised that the incident looks like the one he saw in his dreams. Slowly everyone in the village died from the disease, leaving Jin as the only survivor in the village. This made Jin realised that back then Ginko was lying to him. The truth is, the Mushi didn't show him prophetic dreams. It actually turns his dream into a reality.

Ginko admits that he lied back then because he knew it was impossible to separate this particular Mushi from its host. Once this happens, the only thing that a person can do is to preserve a balance of the dreams. The Mushi, which is known as 「夢野間」 - Imenonoawai, technically lives within the host's dream. However, sometimes this Mushi escapes to reality. When that happens, the Mushi causes the dream of its host to become a reality. In addition to this, the more often the host dreams, the likelihood of the dream becoming reality also increases. Ginko also mentions that this Mushi is actually kind of weak and disappears when exposed to light, so he doesn't know why it manages to invade Jin's dream. He believes that there is a road that connects the dream world and the reality. He also adds that this Mushi usually goes to sleep when its host awakes.

One night while Ginko researching some info about Imenonoawai, however, Jin drinks all of the medicine, causing him to convulse and falls unconscious. While this happens, Jin starts to talk during his unconscious state. Ginko, who tries to converse with Jin, is surprised when he finds out that Jin can hear his words. All of a sudden, Ginko realises that the screen seperator near Jin's pillow begins to project his dream. It seems that Jin has found himself in a field full of Imenonoawai Mushi. Inside the field, he finds a house that is occupied by his wife and daughter who tell him not to blame himself. While inside the dream, Jin also sees himself sleeping within a room. He, however, notices that the screen separator is burning with fire and that his pillow also does the same thing.

Jin and Ginko quickly realise that the pillow is what brings the dream to reality. Meanwhile, the fire that Jin sees in his dream has now spread into the real world so Ginko decides to take Jin out of the house. Jin, however, wakes up, runs back to the room, and slices his pillow with his Katana because he feels that the Mushi in the pillow is responsible for his misery. All of a sudden blood gushes from the pillow while at the same time, Jin's own chest bursts open as blood spurts wildly out of it. Jin then falls unconscious due to losing blood but is saved by Ginko. Ginko tells Jin that a pillow is often referred to as the storehouse for soul and it's a place that the Imenonoawai uses as its nest. If a person cuts it, it means they are the one who's going to lose something. After the incident, Ginko heard that Jin eventually took his own life even though he can't see the dream anymore.

Impression:

I think several scenes from this episode has the potential to turn some viewers off because they are quite graphic. From all of those scenes, however, it wasn't the blood that came out of Jin's chest that actually disturbed me. This is probably because I've been de-sensitised by many horror and slasher films that I've watched. The thing that creeped me out the most was actually the fungus/mold that enveloped Jin's wife and the villagers. When I went to Japan, I found out how easy it is for things to be enveloped in mold due to the humidity of the weather. So seeing Jin's wife rotting off like that brought back some unpleasant memories of finding a spoon in the sink covered by green mold. The fact that it's easy to relate to real life incident is what scared me the most about that particular scene. On the other hand, the chances you'll bleed after slashing your pillow is slim to none....I think.

In general, however, I am glad that the episode is creepier than usual. I am also glad to see the episode dealing with dreams, a subject matter that I find to be quite interesting. In this episode, a man is capable of making his dream a reality due to the influence of the Mushi that lives inside his dream. Of course such thing is impossible to happen in reality. However, it is well known that some people are capable of experiencing a phenomenon known as Lucid Dreaming. When a person experiences this kind of phenomenon, he or she is actually capable of recognising the dream as dream. In other words, if a person is having a nightmare, halfway through the dream, the person is capable of realising that the event they experiencing is actually a dream and not a reality. That means, the person can in some way influence the way the dream proceeds.

A little less believable phenomenon related to dreams is the one known as Déjà vu. Researchers generally discredited this as being a simple false recognition. But some of them have found that there are cases where dreams can enter a person's long term memory. In this respect, a Déjà vu is the result of finding one's reality to be similar to an event one sees within a dream. This is why some people can't recall where the original event of Déjà vu happened even though they are sure that the event occurred. Whether or not this is true, I think I feel sorry for anyone who can see his/her future. While this means that the person can avoid bad things in his/her life, it also means that the person will live with the burden of that knowledge. There are things in life that humans are better off not knowing.

Having said that, I think the moral of this story is that humans need to do things in moderation. While people should not rely only on 'good fate' to make their life better, it is also not a good idea to be afraid of such opportunities. I think Jin was too afraid of his power that he ended up overtaking the medicine at one point. And then when bad thing happened, he immediately back-pedalling on his action and goes toward a different direction instead of simply moderating what he's been doing. Along the way, he creates a belief that his dream is a bad thing and probably explains why his dream gets progressively worse, content-wise. I also wonder if Ginko did the right thing by not telling the true nature of the Mushi. In the end, because of Ginko's decision, this is one person that he fails to save. Of course it doesn't help that this Mushi is dangerous to begin with.

© memento 2003