is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by

Yuki Urushibara is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for the series ''Mushishi'', for which she received an Excellence Prize for manga at the 2003 Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga. She is also known by t ...

. It was serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Afternoon Season Zōkan'' from 1999 to 2002, and in ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' from December 2002 to August 2008. The individual chapters were collected and released into ten ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes by Kodansha. Those volumes were localized to North America by Del Rey between January 2007 and August 2010. The series follows Ginko, a man who dedicates himself to keeping people protected from supernatural creatures called Mushi. ''Mushishi'' has been adapted into an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series by

Artland is a Japanese animation studio. It has produced numerous noted anime series, including the award-winning ''Mushishi'' and epic ''Legend of the Galactic Heroes''. It is also well known for producing the anime adaptation of '' Katekyō Hitman Re ...

which aired in

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

and BS Fuji between October 2005 and June 2006. It has been licensed by

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

to its release in North America, while

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatri ...

and

Revelation Films Revelation Films is a British film and television production and distribution company delivering visual entertainment via cinema, television and digital platforms. Tony Carne founded Revelation Films in 1992 as a video and television production ...

licensed it for Australia and the United Kingdom respectively. A second anime series aired between April and December 2014, which has been licensed in North America by

Aniplex of America Aniplex of America Inc. or Aniplex USA is the U.S. distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was established in March 2005 in Santa Monica, California, with the goal o ...

, with two television specials airing in 2014 and an anime film released in 2015. A live-action film, directed by

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

, was released in late 2006. It has also spawned a video game and many types of ''Mushishi''-related merchandise. The ''Mushishi'' manga has been well received both by the public and critics. In Japan, it has frequently ranked in the weekly top ten list of best-selling manga, and the entire series has sold over 3.8 million copies. Both the manga and the anime have received several awards such as the

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

and the

Tokyo Anime Award The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002, but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named 'Competition'. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013. In 2014, after the ...

, and numerous publications have praised them.

Plot

''Mushishi'' is set in an imaginary time between the Edo and

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

s, featuring some 19th-century technology but with Japan still as a "closed country". The story features ubiquitous creatures called that often display what appear as

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

powers. It is implied that there are many more primitive lifeforms than "normal" living things such as animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria, and Mushi is the most primitive of all. Due to their ethereal nature, most humans are incapable of perceiving Mushi and are oblivious to their existence, but there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with Mushi. One such person is , the main character of the series voiced by Yuto Nakano in the original version and by

Travis Willingham Travis Willingham is an American voice actor. His most notable roles include Roy Mustang in the ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' franchise, Portgas D. Ace in ''One Piece'', Ginko in ''Mushishi'', Knuckles the Echidna in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchi ...

in the English dub. He employs himself as a , traveling from place to place to research Mushi and aid people suffering from problems caused by them. The series is an episodic anthology with no overarching plotline in which the only common elements are Ginko and the Mushi. Ginko is a man with one green eye, who not only can see various types of mushi but also attracts them. Because of this ability, he is constantly wandering and smokes in order to keep the mushi away. He appears to have a generally laid back personality, however, he can be very serious and focused on his work when it comes to protecting people from mushi. He stresses that the mushi are not evil, but merely trying to survive like everyone else. A majority of the stories do not focus on Ginko but rely on him as a catalyst to move the story forward by diagnosing or curing mushi-related illnesses and phenomena.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara, ''Mushishi'' debuted as a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

's ''

'' on January 25, 1999. Later, it was serialized in Kodansha's ''Afternoon Season Zōkan'' from 1999 to 2002. It moved to ''Monthly Afternoon'' on December 25, 2002, and was serialized until August 25, 2008. Kodansha collected the chapters into ten ''

'' volumes published under the ''Afternoon KC'' line from November 20, 2000, to November 21, 2008. On November 21, 2013, Kodansha started to re-release the series in an '' aizōban'' format in their ''KC Deluxe'' line, concluding with the tenth on July 23, 2014. At the 2006

Comic-Con A comic book convention or comic-con is an event with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events ...

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing rela ...

announced that it had licensed ''Mushishi'' for an English-language translation in North America. Del Rey published the first volume on January 30, 2007, and the last volume, a combined edition covering volumes 8 to 10, was released on July 27, 2010.

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and mang ...

also released the manga in digital format between July 29 and August 12, 2014. The manga was also licensed in some countries such as in France by

Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...

, in Italy by

Star Comics Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys. The last comic published under the imprint f ...

, in South Korea by Daewon C.I., and in Spain by

Norma Editorial Norma Editorial is a Spanish comics publisher, with its headquarters in Barcelona.Home
Norma Editori ...

. In addition, two additional chapters were published in the magazine on November 25 and December 25, 2013, respectively. They were encapsulated into a single ''tankōbon'' titled and released on April 23, 2014. Another special short was published in ''Monthly Afternoon'' on March 25, 2021.

Volume list

Anime

The ''Mushishi'' anime adaptation was animated by

, directed by

Hiroshi Nagahama is a Japanese animator and director. He is best known for directing ''Mushishi''. Career Hiroshi Nagahama started his career at Madhouse Studio as a mechanical designer for ''The Cockpit'', and was also a part of the production staff for '' ...

, and produced by a group called "''Mushishi'' Production Committee", which consists of

Marvelous Entertainment (MMV) was a multinational corporation that produced animation, music, video games and television series. MMV is known for its involvement in the ''Story of Seasons'' series. They merged with AQ Interactive in 2011 and became Marvelous AQL; the ...

, Avex Entertainment and

SKY Perfect Well Think is a Japanese content production and development enterprise, owned by SKY Perfect Communications, established on July 29, 2004. It is involved in the production, development and distribution of several feature films, anime series, television progr ...

.Credits from The first 20 episodes of the series originally aired between October 23, 2005 and March 12, 2006 on

. A digest was broadcast on May 7, 2006 by BS Fuji, which aired the last six episodes from May 14 to June 18 of the same year. Note: Check "05/09/29" for the first airdate, and "06/03/12" for the digest information. Marvelous Entertainment and Avex released the series from January 25 to September 27, 2006 in five DVDs for sale, and at the same time in nine DVDs for rental. On March 28, 2008 a DVD box set containing all episodes was released; it was followed by a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

box set on March 27, 2009, and a Limited Edition Blu-ray box on December 20, 2013. The anime series' licensing was announced by

to North American release in January 2007. To promote the series' release, it hosted Nagahama at the

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

2007 between June 29 and July 2. In addition, Funimation exhibited the first four episodes in New York and Texas' locations such as

ImaginAsian ImaginAsian Entertainment, Inc was a multimedia company founded by Michael Hong and Augustine Hong and a group of investors that recognized the emerging importance of "all-things Asian." Based in New York City, its main attraction was a televis ...

Theater, Studio Movie Grill, and

Alamo Drafthouse The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

, on July 23 and 24 of that year. The series was released in six DVDs between July 31, 2007 to February 26, 2008 by Funimation, which also streamed series on its own channel,

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

Joost Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV (P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in la ...

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

Crackle Crackle or crackling may refer to: Foods * Cracklings, the tissue remaining after lard and tallow have been extracted from animal fats ** Pork rinds in American English, pork scratchings in British English when served in small pieces as a snac ...

, as well as distributed it to

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

cable service. Funimation also released four box sets with all episodes: on December 16, 2008, on October 6, 2009, on July 6, 2010, and November 8, 2011. In United Kingdom, the series was released between October 22, 2007 and November 17, 2008 by

in six DVD.

acquired the series' distribution rights at

AVCon Avcon is a company that manufactures charging interfaces for battery electric vehicles (EV). The lettering convention is Avcon for the company and AVCON (capitals) for the EV charging connector. History Avcon belonged to the Maréchal Electric ...

in 2007, releasing it in a six-discs box set on January 14, 2009 in

PAL region The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Europe and Africa, alongside parts of Asia, South America and Oceania. It is named PAL because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used in ...

. Based on the 2013 two-chapter side story, a special titled ''Mushishi Tokubetsu-hen: Hihamukage'' ("The Shadow That Devours the Sun") was broadcast on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

, Tochigi TV,

Gunma TV The Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations (JAITS) is a group of Japan's reception fee-free commercial terrestrial television stations which are not members of the major national television networks. The association was establish ...

, and BS11 on January 4, 2014, and streamed by Niconico.

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both ''Fullm ...

released the special on DVD and Blu-ray on April 23, 2014. A second anime television season titled started airing on April 5, 2014, on Tokyo MX and other channels. As with the special, the second season featured the same director, the same studio and main cast from the first season. After the broadcast of the tenth episode on June 21, the "first half" was finished. Another special, , aired on August 20 on BS11. The latter half of the second season started to air on October 19, and ended on December 21, 2014. ''Zoku-Shō'' first DVD compilation was released on July 23, 2014 in Japan, and the sixth—and last–was released on July 22, 2015. A sequel anime film titled , based on the manga's last arc, was announced in December 2014 and released on May 16, 2015 in Japan. ''Hihamukage'' was streamed by

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

for premium members on January 4, 2014, and made available for free user a week later. In March, the second season was licensed for streaming by

and Crunchyroll as ''Mushi-Shi -Next Passage-''. In November, Madman Entertainment acquired its home media release rights for Australia. Late in the same month, Madman also licensed the series for streaming and made it available on its site AnimeLab. Madman released a DVD box set containing all ''Next Passage'' episodes, ''Path of Thorns'' and ''Bell Droplets'' on December 7, 2016.

Other merchandise

Several books based on ''Mushishi'' have been released. A

guidebook A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

titled ''Mushishi Official Book'' was released by Kodansha on January 23, 2006. On June 30, and July 20, 2007, were released an

artbook Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

, and a book with staff commentaries on the anime series production, respectively. Two books have been released on April 23, and May 14, 2014; a and a respectively. On June 19, 2015, a "large format" art book was released by Kodansha. The music for both ''Mushishi'' anime adaptation was composed by Toshio Masuda. Two soundtrack albums were released by Marvelous Entertainment and

Geneon Entertainment (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. Th ...

for the first anime adaptation; the first on March 24, 2006 and the second on July 23, 2006. On June 25, 2015, the soundtrack for ''Next Passage'' was released by Aniplex. A live-action ''Mushishi'' feature film, released at the 2006 Venice International Film Festival, was directed by

and starred

Joe Odagiri , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor and musician. Personal life Joe Odagiri was born in Tsuyama, Okayama prefecture. Though he was accepted by Kochi University, he turned it down for an opportunity to study in the United States ...

. Also known as ''Bugmaster'' and ''Mushi-Shi: The Movie'' in English, it was released in Japanese theaters on March 24, 2007. ''Mushishi'' was also adapted into a video game; the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

game titled was developed by Tenky and published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan on January 31, 2008. From March 18 to 29, 2015, a " stage reading" event, which adapted six chapters from the manga into six separate performances, was held in Tokyo. It was directed by ''Mushishi'' anime director Hiroshi Nagahama and its original script was written by Kazuaki Nakamura, while the anime voice actors acted as their respective characters. The production used

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

on its visuals, which was designed to span a 270 degree field of view.

Reception

Awards and public response

The series has won numerous awards: in 2003, the manga was awarded an Excellence Prize for manga at the 7th

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

, while in 2006, the series won the

for general manga. At the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, both the anime and manga series were placed among the top 10 in their respective categories for best manga and anime. The anime series won grand prizes in the categories of television series and best art direction (for Takashi Waki) at the 5th

competition held at the

Tokyo International Anime Fair The Tokyo International Anime Fair also known as was one of the largest anime trade fairs in the world, held annually in Tokyo, Japan. The first event was held in 2002 as "Tokyo International Anime Fair 21". The event was held at Tokyo Big Sigh ...

in 2006, while Nagahama won the

Animation Kobe The was an event established by Kobe in 1996 to promote anime and other visual media. The were given annually until 2015 by Kobe and the Organising Committee to creators and creations. Event Animation Kobe has been held annually in Kobe since ...

Individual Award for his directing. It also ranked 13th in a "Top 20" poll conducted by Japanese anime magazine ''

Animage is a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine which Tokuma Shoten began publishing in July 1978. Hayao Miyazaki's internationally renowned manga, ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'', was serialized in ''Animage'' from 1982 through 1994. Oth ...

'' in 2006. In the following year, ''Mushishi'' was placed in 9th on Japan's

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

's list of best manga, as well as ranked in 6th place on its list of best anime.

Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

also listed the manga among 33 titles with "good quality literature and appealing reading for teens" in 2008. ''Mushishi'' was also well received by Japanese-language readers. The ten volumes have sold over 3.8 million copies. Individual volumes frequently appeared on the weekly lists of best-selling manga there. Furthermore, the eighth volume was the 9th best-selling manga of

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

in the first half of 2007. A similar feat was achieved by the last volume which was ranked 49th in the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

list of best-selling manga of the first half of 2009. In North America, ICv2 has listed the manga among the "Top 300 Graphic Novels" of the month twice. Readers of

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

voted it the best

seinen is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word ''seinen'' literally means "youth", but the term "''seinen'' manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like ''Weekly Ma ...

manga released in North America in 2007. The sixth volume of ''Mushishi'' was also among the best-selling manga in Malaysia in the week of March 1, 2009.

Critical reception

''Mushishi'' was chosen as the best manga of 2007 by Deb Aoki of

, elected the best anime series of 2007 by

's Carl Kimlinger, and was ranked seventh by Ramsey Isler in

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

's list of the Top Anime of 2007. Aoki called it "a rare breed of manga: a smartly-written, original story that's told with simple yet mesmerizing imagery." Similarly, Kimlinger declared that "Its hypnotic rhythm, humanism, and naturalist's eye for beauty give it a charm that far outstrips mere entertainment value." Reviewer Jason Thompson intoned that while it may be "too mellow" for certain readers, he found praiseworthy its "very original vision, with a sort of 'flowing life' of its own, a biologist's precision mixed with creepy fairytales and a surreal, dreamy feel." Its storytelling was highly praised; Isler deemed it as "near flawless", while Pop Culture Shock's Ken Haley labeled it "an enjoyable and intriguing read", and Shirl Sazynski of Sequential Tart lauded its "short, spooky and breathtaking stories." Manga Life's Joy Kim stated that its lack of a central story allows one to enter at any volume, and that "the quality of the storytelling" will make fans want to read it in entirety. The "quiet and subtle stories that evoke strong emotions with great story crafting and a fine tune to the essence of what moves people" is the main appeal of the series, according to Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime. Both Ed Sizemore and Avi Weinryb, writing for Comics Worth Reading and Comic Book Bin respectively, said ''Mushishi'' has something to tell to readers, with the former commenting "If you want a manga to make you stop and think, this is the manga for you." ''Mushi-Shi -Next Passage-'' was also well received by fans; almost all of its DVD and Blu-ray volumes made the Top 20 list of the

best-selling charts. Jacob Hope Chapman of Anime News Network praised the maintenance of the visual quality and the improvement upon the quality of the stories, declaring that "''Mushi-Shi'' is quickly evolving from an excellent series of fables about the natural world to a wholly unique masterpiece that a written review can't really do justice by." Chapman dubbed it "one of the all-time greatest animated anthology series." The Fandom Post's Kory Cerjak stated the series "is perhaps one of the most innovative shows out there in terms of storytelling." Ben Huber of

Japanator ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ' ...

praised its "soothing music and beautiful art", noting that "most anime struggle to create relatable and compelling characters in 12 or 24 episodes. ''Mushishi'' does it every week in one goddamn episode... and it does it with grace." Richard Eisenbeis of

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

said while it is worth watching simply for the quality of its imagery, it "is a series that is equal parts beautiful and haunting — often bringing more emotion in a 22-minute episode than most series can bring in their entire runs."

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Artland 1999 manga 2005 anime television series debuts 2006 Japanese television series endings 2014 anime television series debuts Adventure anime and manga Aniplex Artland (company) Del Rey Manga Fuji TV original programming Funimation Iyashikei anime and manga Kodansha manga Manga adapted into films Nintendo DS-only games Nintendo DS games Occult detective anime and manga Seinen manga Supernatural anime and manga Tokyo MX original programming Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General)