Mushishi: The Next Chapter

Episode 16

The characters of Mushi-Shi, even its worldly wise protagonist Ginko, aren't the most poetic or introspective of souls. Usually, the show endeavors to capture their feelings and thoughts through the world around them in lieu of any impassioned dialogue. Still, if the little girl at the center of this story were to sum up her feelings on her adventure at the end of the episode, she might say something like this:

"If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with!"

I'd like to say there's more to it than that, but there really isn't, and that's perfectly okay. This Wizard of Oz/Through the Looking Glass tale works very well in Mushi-Shi's world and results in a simple, touching, and visually captivating vignette overall. It turns out that the River of Light can act just like a real-world river sometimes. Veins of this stream at the heart of all existence bubble up into the wells of the material world now and again, appearing as a "Sea of Otherworldly Stars" to go by the episode's title. Of course, it's only visible to those few souls attuned to the spiritual world. One such soul, the youngest sister in a family of four, is transfixed and tempted by its promising glow. When she finally falls down the rabbit hole, er, the well, she finds herself alone in her family home, with everything all to herself under a perpetual night sky marked only with one round circle of blue sky. She'll never have to share anything with her older sister again...but is that really what she wants? Time for Ginko to save the day once again! Well, not just Ginko. He'll need the help of the girl's family as well.

This episode bypasses the series' temporary focus on spirit ether and returns to more traditional Mushi-Shi imagery, but it does retain the show's increased reliance on the ideas of other people apart from Ginko to solve the problem. It's not so much that the lost girl is bored by the world around her like Alice, but more like Dorothy, she feels unappreciated and ignored by the family she loves, and her "escape" is remarkably similar to the reality she left behind. This episode goes the extra mile with the formula by relying on the love of that family to not only bring her back from the fantasy, but make her want to stay. It's the very last minute of the episode that really makes it special and brings home its simple message through a drifting smoke of fireflies that the girl is content to watch from a distance.

It's a cozy resting place for the series this week after some emotionally tense preceding stories. It's nice to be reminded that sometimes Mushi-Shi is just beautiful and comforting, without the added bonus of being frightening, creepy, or pensive. It's a sweet episode with a lovely ending, and just memorable enough to maybe merit a revisit when sampling episodes on a quiet evening in the future.

Rating: B+

Mushishi: The Next Chapter is currently streaming Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.