What They Say:
“The Warbling Sea Shell”
They are creatures only known as ‘Mushi,’ whose abilities range well into the supernatural. While their existence and appearances are unknown to the humans around them, there are a few like Ginko who is a ‘Mushi-shi’ that travels around to investigate and find out more about the ‘Mushi.’ During the course of his discovery and understanding, he helps those who are troubled by the Mushi themselves…
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Mushi are known by many names. This particular Mushi appears to be a small bird, but they mostly live in and around water. They come to shore and hide in sea shells, singing their beautiful song so their friends can hear and be warned of the coming danger. They are known as the Yadokaridori (Hermit Crab Bird) or the Saezurigai (Warbling Shell) and they sing the Seashell’s Song that Mushi Masters know spells danger.
We begin the episode with Ginko finding one of these Saezurigai in a shell near the beach on which he’s roaming. He knows something bad is going to happen and it’s been his job for the past 28 episodes to try and prevent that. He tells the village and they heed his warning. These Mushi Master are very much enigmas that people are inclined to trust, whether by instinct or experience is anyone’s guess.
This episode is about a lot of things, as Mushishi episodes often are. Foremost, I think this episode is about loss and dealing with that loss, but it’s also about acceptance—both accepting the loss and accepting the responsibility for life.
The fisherman who lives on the cliff lost his wife in an accident ten years ago. He’s a man who’s known for seeing the danger coming, much like the Saezurigai. His ankle was injured in some way, so his wife fell off the boat and fell victim to a shark haunting the boat she and other fisherman were on. The Elder’s wife also fell into the sea, but the Elder pulled her up first. He’s never forgiven himself since then. It’s a hard thing to feel responsible for even a single human life and I can’t imagine feeling the weight of that on my shoulders, nor do I ever wish to feel that burden in that way.
The fisherman on the cliff has cut himself off from the rest of the village, choosing instead to live in relative peace with his daughter, now about 10 or 11 years old. He’s forbidden her to go near the sea, afraid that she’ll fall victim to one of the many dangers that lurk within. It’s by the sea that she hears the Seashell’s Song and loses her voice; it’s a consequence of hearing the Mushi’s song.
The fisherman’s attitude is part of the responsibility for life, beyond the Elder’s. This is responsibility for life in a much different way, though and one that most would happily welcome into their own. He fears for his daughter’s life; he’s overprotective of her and shelters her in a way that need not be enacted. This is best represented by the Seashell’s Song. She’ll regain her voice if she hears other’s voices, but all she hears is her father’s. Ginko says that it’s best if she hears other voices. Much like the Saezurigai after the danger has passed, the father has to let the daughter out of the shell. At 10 or 11, this is also very much a representation of her first steps into relative adulthood (though she’s still a few years away from our standards, who knows where adulthood lies in the world of Mushishi).
But the strands of responsibility fall further than that. As I said, the Elder feels responsible for the death of the fisherman’s wife. It’s something that he’s been trying to reconcile for ten years by building the fish farm. The fish farm allows them to eat fish without having to venture into the dangerous waters. The truth is that he’s not reconciling for anything. He’s trying to make himself feel better for the wrong he’s happened into from the death of the wife. It’s something that we as flawed humans often try to do. We try to do one big act to make up for our mistake, which is not always the case.
In this case, the responsibility to reconcile fell on the fisherman, again by happenstance. His daughter found a pearl while fishing and that will allow the village to survive while they have no means of getting fish. The fisherman swallows his pride and, for the sake of his daughter—which goes back to the idea of responsibility; it isn’t just him and his daughter that might die from the lack of food, it’s the villagers too—he’s willing to give up that which will give them security later for a guarantee now.
This is something that’s so pervasive in stories in general. We so often want to (and rightfully so!) protect our next of kin it overrides any other feelings we have. Through these Mushi, and the scarlet sea filled with dead fish, the village has secured its future. Without it, the fisherman would have no reason to swallow his pride. He could continue his life as a relative recluse and live with his daughter, who may never find happiness as a result of his actions. But the Mushi, by pure coincidence, brought everyone together.
In Summary:
I write just over 800 words and barely mention Ginko. I said this before, but Ginko is very much the impetus that keeps this story moving. He is the Sage character in the story, yet he is the main character. This works because, most often, the story is focused center stage on these one-off characters. Last episode, the first episode of this second season, Ginko didn’t appear until eight minutes in and that says more than any action in the show ever would.
With these one-off characters front and center, we’re able to focus on them and give them exactly enough characterization to be completely satisfied with the arc they go through. Mushishi is largely a show that isn’t about the main character, but what he affects around him and that is immensely intriguing both from a storytelling standpoint and because they’re just telling damn good stories.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24” Dell UltraSharp U2410 set at 1920 x 1200, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
