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Mushishi (TV) (w/ index).

But The big question I had still is unanswered(mostly due to my poor linguistic skills). When did the mushi ask her to look after him, when was the ceremony?? After a re-watch I think I have figured out what I missed. A bunch of evidence points to she was asked when the grandmother died. However, I believe it was when the grandmother was born, or at least very young , before the boy was even born. I point to time-frame 12:50 thru 13:30, and the ceremony itself.

That is some-what saddening. When I said goals I didn't mean that he is devious or anything, just that he has some underlying reason why he helps people, or something to that effect, it is to early to tell. Much in the way Cowboy Bebop did, where the story never really focusses on it, but you get more and more of a bigger picture as you move through the episodes. Oh well, the stories are interesting enough as is. But don't hate me if I hold out hope for explanations of the missing eye, or childhood experiences okay.

@Jedi General:

I still don't know what to make of the rumors going away. The simple explanation just doesn't make sense to me. I even went and read the manga, and that still didn't shed any new light on the matter. But like I said, that is part of why these stories turn out so good. Thanks for your thoughts.

Wow, I just saw the first two episodes curtesy of Gaia Online theaters, (dub only) and I was very happy with these episodes. Honestly after reading all this wonderful talk, I worried I would hate it, or expect too much. It stands as such a pretty, quiet and serene series from what I have seen and I would like to see more. It does in some ways beg to be compared to Kino's Journey as Jedi said, and I wasn't disappointed with the show so far. I hope it isn't too long until I get the disk.

(4/29/2014)

(EDIT: This is a quote from the old summary I had, which has since been deleted, as I felt it was over-bloated, but I will leave it here for the context of the post)

As the episode begins, we observe some peculiar drawings, an ink and brush set, and a young boy drawing his day away. Of special note (and not pictured) is that the boy is narrating a special circumstance he has within his left hand. Long ago, he discovered that he possessed the ability to bring images he drew with his left hand to life. His grandmother would come to call it "the hand of God," but out of fear for his inability to control such a power at that age, she had forbade him from using it, thus wrapping his hand in tape. Here, we have the boy, Shinra, explaining that he had gone against his late grandmother's wishes because of an injury to his right index finger, which then led to his use of the left hand.

The results varied from a tree, to a glowing object (maybe a sun, star, or flame?) to a character that transformed into a bird. As some may know, many of the older language systems involved characters and symbols, though also known formerly as pictographs. As one would expect the image representing an object to actually resemble its meaning, through the hand of Shinra, we see these symbols brought to life.

As the "bird" flies away, we then see that figure who was in the forest emerge from the greenery, catching the bird and realizing it's nothing more than ink. Alas, the man Shinra had sent for to aid him in figuring out this power is none other than Ginko, the Mushi-Shi (or mushi master)[/url]. As Shinra begins explaining his power, he mentions that ever since was little, no matter what he drew things just started coming to life all on their own. As he continues telling his story, day becomes dusk while the two begin.

Dragonxtc wrote:

But what ginko says at the end of this episode throws me through a loop as well. Something to the effect of "the rumors of the boy with the God-like left hand, were heard less and less. Untill finally, they simply faded away". Thing is the boy was always alone, at least to a normal persons eyes, and lived in the woods for the last 4 years. It really calls into question whether the boy was mushi as well, or does that simply mean he lost his powers, or does that mean he was transported away? Since really he was in seclusion anyway. It also calls into question the true intentions of Ginko himself, what was his goal? Maybe we arn't supposed to know yet, or I missed something really bad.

That's actually a really good question. But I would think Shinra himself was actually human. While he could see mushi himself, he was unable to see Renzu in the half-mushi form she was in at the time.

I'm not sure how to interpret the disappearance of the rumors about him, but the original role of his grandmother was just to watch over him, so maybe we can assume her powers included something like masking the estate from the public or whatever. Or maybe he did get spirited away. I mean, the series really leaves a lot to our own imagination, so anything is pretty much possible within "reason" of the series .

The "pictographs" are actually kanji, a writing system used in Japan which is based on Chinese characters (the Japanese had a spoken language before a written one and so they took the characters and their meaning and added their own readings to them.) These Chinese characters were in turn based on pictures. The kanji they show him writing are rather simple (the first two would actually be learned in first grade) and are "ki" meaning tree, "hi" meaning sun or day, and "tori" meaning bird.

Shinra actually didn't send for Ginko. Ginko is a rather curious person who likes to find out about strange phenomena which are often related to Mushi. He wrote Shinra a letter to see if he could come to investigate him. Because his grandmother had told him to not let anyone do so or to even use his powers, Shinra was going to refuse and that's actually the letter we see him writing in the beginning of the episode. Of course Ginko is both a rather nosy and a convincing person so he comes without receiving a reply from Shinra and talks to him in such a way that he would give out more information than he intended to.

I actually have a theory about this. The Kouki which Shinra drank is the same sake that turned Renzu herself into a mushi. Why wouldn't it do the same to Shinra? (This said, I do indeed think he was born as a human with slight mushi powers and only became a mushi after he drank the sake.) I think Ginko gave him the Kouki for this reason so that he would be able to stay with his grandmother. (Which by the way, was a much funnier meet up in Japanese as Ginko asks why they are blushing instead of telling them there is no need to be bashful. I guess they took that out for hints of incest though. ) You notice Ginko didn't drink any of the Kouki and it was probably for this reason. After all, it is supposed to taste pretty good. Wouldn't you want to drink it unless there was some sort of unpleasant after effect?

I actually have a theory about this. The Kouki which Shinra drank is the same sake that turned Renzu herself into a mushi. Why wouldn't it do the same to Shinra? (This said, I do indeed think he was born as a human with slight mushi powers and only became a mushi after he drank the sake.) I think Ginko gave him the Kouki for this reason so that he would be able to stay with his grandmother.

Also, I agree with the comparison of Mushishi to Kino no Tabi (Kino's Journey.) Kino no Tabi is my favorite anime ever. (I'm rather obsessed with it... ^-^;; ) However they are different in several ways. First of all, Kino explores the brutality of the human spirit and the way humans treat each other. Not only does it look at the evil that can often be found in human behavior, but it looks at the beauty. The beauty of people and this world which can be found in it's imperfections. Mushishi instead opts to look at life. By looking at mushi which are often parasitic creatures it begs the question, "What constitutes the value of one life over another?" Both of them are very interesting animes and really make you think.

I actually have a theory about this. The Kouki which Shinra drank is the same sake that turned Renzu herself into a mushi. Why wouldn't it do the same to Shinra? (This said, I do indeed think he was born as a human with slight mushi powers and only became a mushi after he drank the sake.) I think Ginko gave him the Kouki for this reason so that he would be able to stay with his grandmother. (Which by the way, was a much funnier meet up in Japanese as Ginko asks why they are blushing instead of telling them there is no need to be bashful. I guess they took that out for hints of incest though. ) You notice Ginko didn't drink any of the Kouki and it was probably for this reason. After all, it is supposed to taste pretty good. Wouldn't you want to drink it unless there was some sort of unpleasant after effect?

When is V.2 coming out again?

I was actually referring to the pictures he drew, but meant "pictographs" as just a general reference to the Chinese characters/symbols in case no one around here actually knew what kanji was. Then again, this is an anime forum, so I was probably mistaken in assuming very few people around here would know what those symbols were called in the first place.

I was trying to make it a more literal terminology to describe its meaning (like what you mentioned about the picture based "writing" system kanji is suppose to be), but at the same time I was trying to use some double entendre since the kanji/symbols/pictures (whatever you want to call them at this point) actually came to life as well, in addition to being the writing system used at the time.