Mushishi ep.5

November 20, 2005 | 12 Comments

It's not until this episode that I realised how apart from Ginko, who sports a grey/white hair due to a reason that has yet to be addressed, the other characters usually have black hair instead of those strange purple/pink hair colour that is prevalent in other anime series. The only exception to this so far is the girl found within this episode. But even then, the green hair colour used on the girl actually serves the storyline a purpose and not just a method to distinguish her from other characters. I really like this because it means the animators have to ensure that each character in Mushishi is drawn distinctly enough so that one can easily recognises a character from another even if they have similar hair colour. As a side note, Honey and Clover fans will be happy to know that Adashino-sensei is played by Ueda Yuuji (Morita Shinobu).

The episode itself begins in a quiet seaside village, where Ginko is seen trying to pimp out some of his Mushi-related collections to a collector. Among those that Ginko is trying to sell are the horns of the boy affected by the 'A' Mushi and the green Sakazuki drawn by the boy with the left hand of God. The collector doesn't believe that Ginko managed to obtain something from the boy with God's left hand because he was famous for not liking Mushishi. So he asks Ginko to come up with slightly better lies. LOL. Ginko, however, doesn't want to be defeated in trying to sell the item for a good price and tells the guy, whose name is Adashino, that he wouldn't sell this item to any other collector. I really like this scene because it shows that Ginko has to make a living and that he's quite good at pimping out his finding. Some of his facial expression while trying to sell the items are also quite amusing to look at.

Ginko is also interested to ask Adashino for a favour because he wants to capture a particular Mushi that he encountered on his way to this place. A dying form of liquid Mushi. Cut to a flashback where Ginko encountered an unusual swamp that disappeared as soon as Ginko passed by and looked behind him. Strangely enough, when he got to another mountain, the swamp appears once more. While Ginko wonders about this incident, he sees a girl climbing out of the swamp clutching a fish. Ginko tells her that he saw her came out of the previous swamp that he encountered so he wonders if the girl knows a way to get out of the mountains. As he talks to her, Ginko notices how the girl has an unusually green hair. At first it seems like the girl is not interested to talk to Ginko but then she points out a direction and tells Ginko that maybe what he's looking for is over there.

Ginko quickly asks the girl if she thinks this swamp is unusual. So the girl discloses to Ginko that the swamp actually travels around just like Ginko. Ginko is amused to hear this and wonders if she goes along with the swamp. When the girl doesn't seem to be interested to answer this particular question, Ginko simply tells her that as soon as the swamp reaches the sea, the swamp won't be a swamp any longer. He also adds that he'd like to check out some of the swamp water tomorrow morning. All of sudden, the girl quietly remarks that she didn't think Ginko believes in her story of travelling swamp. Ginko, however, tells her that he's seen many strange things in his line of work. So he explains how he's a Mushishi, a person that deals with situations caused by Mushi. For example there's this transparent Mushi known as 'Suiko' -「水蠱」.

This Mushi likes to live in old water such as ponds and wells and people often mistakenly drink them because they look like water. The side effect is that these people become unable to breathe when not touching water and their body also become transparent. If nothing is done, the person will liquify and the Mushi will disappear. Because Ginko has seen something like this, he thinks a swamp that moves on its own doesn't seem to be impossible. The girl suddenly said that she wasn't scared when she first saw it. In fact, she found it to be quite calming. She then explained how she first saw this mass of green thing rising up into the water when she was drowning inside a river. When the girl regained her consciousness, she found herself in the middle of a swamp. She eventually realised that the swamp is not really a swamp but rather the green thing she saw when she was drowning.

Eventually, the girl's hair changed its colour to green and she thought she had died back then. However, the swamp told her to live on and ever since then, she considers the swamp as her home. The scene then cut to a flashback of the incident that happened before the girl was drowning inside the river. Apparently the reason she was drowning to begin with was because her parents and the villagers used her as a sacrificial subject to please the water God. By doing so, they're hoping that the God won't flood their village. This ritual involved dressing the girl up in beautiful red kimono before pushing her off the cliff and down into a stormy river. The scene then returns to what possibly a couple of hours after Ginko and the girl had a chat. The girl is now seen picking a transparent leaf from the swamp water and mutters about how people who drink the water will become transparent.

When Ginko wakes up from his sleep, he realises that the place is sinking underground and that the girl is running away from him. Ginko tries to stop her but she simply thanks him for teaching her many things but she has now become a part of the swamp. Ginko then looks on in horror as the girl dives into the swamp water. The swamp water quickly disappears into the ground but Ginko manages to catch a transparent vegetation before everything completely disappears. He realises that the swamp is actually a dying form of a Suiko that is trying to move towards the sea. The scene eventually returns to the present time where Ginko is seen talking to Adashino-sensei. Adashino tells Ginko that he's heard from an old fisherman that there's a large green thing underneath a river but it seems the thing will die once it reaches the river.

Adashino believes that the green thing hasn't reached the sea yet so they should hurry up. He then produces a map which supposed to represent the underground water canals. Ginko recognises the map to be quite similar the path that the swamp took. He, however, also realises that there is a branching and he's not sure which path the swamp took. However, when Adashino tells him that he owns a map which shows how the path looked like thousands years ago, Ginko decides to put the two maps one of top of another. He believes that the swamp probably follows the path of the river. Ginko then asks Adashino to gather villagers to enclose the end of the river with fishing nets. Much to Ginko's surprise, Adashino manages to do this easily so he makes a sarcastic comment about how it must be nice to be a well-known doctor in the village.

Adashino, however, warns Ginko that there's a likelihood that they won't be able to save the girl. He also wonders why Ginko wants to save the girl even though she didn't ask to be saved to begin with. Adashino believes that people can be happy in different ways even if on a glance the situation may seem cruel. Because of this Ginko says that he didn't know whether he was doing the right or the wrong thing by turning the grandmother of the boy with the left-hand of God into a complete Mushi. He, however, knows that Mushi is different from human in that they are neither alive nor dead. Human, however, only experiences death once and he believes that the girl that he saw in the swamp seemed to treasure the kimono that she wears, suggesting her attachment to the living world. So he believes that it's crueler to leave her alone.

That night, just when the villagers think nothing will come, a large mass of green thing moves towards their direction. During the rather heavy struggle, Ginko asks the villagers not to kill the green thing because there is a person inside of it. Unfortunately despite their efforts, everyone notices the girl slipping through the net and all they managed to get is her red kimono. When the villagers go fishing the next morning, however, they managed to find not only a bunch of fish but also the girl. She, however, is now in a strange and fragile jelly-state. The swamp's leftover also seems to attract a lot of fish into the seawater, making the villagers happy. A few days later, the girl has recovered to her normal state again. The girl, whose name is Io, even regains her black hair although now she can't breathe in the water any longer. Meanwhile Ginko is now seen trekking through the forest again. He, however, is not amused when he notices 4 new swamps around the area.

Impression:

I think the creepiest part of this episode is the fact that the girl was used as a sacrificial subject by her parents and the villagers to satisfy the water God they were trying to please. I have actually seen this kind of storyline before from other series, the latest being this horror game called Fatal Frame/Project Zero. In this kind of story, young girls (or twin siblings, in the case of Fatal Frame) are always used as the sacrificial lamb. It reminds me of the olden days' sacrificial ritual described in the bible or other myths and folklores. I supposed back then it's quite the accepted norm for people to believe that they have to sacrifice a virgin, or a first-born boy, or a girl to save a village. In today's context, however, this kind of ritual is quite disturbing to see and I can see why horror writers like to mine this kind of folklores for their story.

When I first saw this episode, I first thought that the Mushi, which is known as 「水蠱」 - Suiko (more or less means Water Mushi), seems to be quite dangerous due to the effect that it has on the people who accidentally drink it. At the end of the day, however, I got the impression that the girl is still alive now partly because the Mushi was trying to get out of the river and encountered her sinking body along the way. Of course it helps that Ginko was around to remedy the side effects that affected the girl's body. If he wasn't around, the girl would probably have become fish bites along with the remains of the swamp itself. I also like the addition of Adashino-sensei in the storyline because it shows that Ginko has been collecting those weird memento for the purpose of funding his life/trip. Finally, I must once again reiterate how much I love Ginko's excellent selling method and the dubious facial expressions (1, 2, 3) he displays within this episode.

© memento 2003