Don't forget, I'm charming

[sovay]

I have now seen seven episodes of Mushishi (2005—2006), which Viking Zen and I started watching off Netflix last week. mamishka, did you recommend this show to me? It's absolutely lovely—quiet, enigmatic, genuinely otherworldly; its stories feel like riddles or dreams, some of which may be nightmares, but beautiful all the same. They chime like folktales. I keep feeling one or more of cucumberseed's characters are going to wander through the landscape. My only complaint is that we can't stream it with subtitles, but that's what the DVDs are for. I cannot imagine I won't want to rewatch the entire thing.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

As it happens, this is already in my queue, which surprises me not at all. It sounds amazing, and I already enjoy the design of Ginko and the notion of how the Mushi work (I wonder if it's mushi as in caterpillar... hm...)

[sovay]

(I wonder if it's mushi as in caterpillar... hm...)

rushthatspeaks tells me it's an archaic word for "insect" with complex connotations, like Tezuka.

Mushishi does one of the best jobs I have ever seen with nonhumanity; the mushi do not behave by human rules or emotions, but neither are they non-sentient or purely instinctive. Very occasionally, their behavior is comprehensible in human terms. It's usually a coincidence. That's rare in science fiction and rarer in fantasy, or whatever on earth genre this series belongs to. (It might be alternate history. It might be anecdote. It might be neverwhere.) And they are so naturally and easily a part of the world, it is no more reasonable to be frightened of them than of leaves or rivers or wildfire or the snow, all of which might harm you or grace your life, none of which care about you either way.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Not archaic so much as more formal-- 'insect' instead of 'bug'.

I've never seen the dub. It's so Japanese a series I'm having difficulty imagining, but the professional translation was basically solid so I guess it probably works.

[sovay]

Not archaic so much as more formal-- 'insect' instead of 'bug'.

Whoever wrote the IMDb entry for the live-action film didn't know that, then.

(I cannot conceive of a live-action Mushishi unless it was directed by, I don't know, Julie Taymor, but whatever.)

It's so Japanese a series I'm having difficulty imagining, but the professional translation was basically solid so I guess it probably works.

I plan to watch the original-language version at the earliest possible opportunity.