Mushishi: The Next Chapter Episode #16 Anime Review

Mushishi: The Next Chapter Episode 16

Loss and loneliness compounded on grief.

What They Say:
“Sea of Otherworldly Stars”

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:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This was a very emotional episode. The Mushi, not named until near the end of the episode, hardly play a role in anything but the reason for these events transpiring at all. It’s an episode that deals with loss and loneliness in a way that’s very true to human nature. It’s an episode that perhaps deserved just a few more precious minutes of shots and scenes of the family, yet is perfect as it is. After 24 minutes, I don’t wonder where the rest of the episode is, I wonder where my time went. It’s so melancholy and subtle that you could watch it over and over again without feeling the time pass.

Izumi, lost in a world between the human and Mushi’s, wanders in an empty house. Unexplained food appears for her to eat and the doll she always stole from her sister appears for her to play with. She wanders, aimlessly, from room to room in a huge house that, to Ginko, seems almost maze-like. She hides from any intruder instead of grasping for help. When you’re alone for this long, you wonder if it wasn’t always like this. You lose sense of yourself and in a few short minutes, Mushishi showed that in Izumi.

The father in particular seems distraught with pain at the loss of his daughter. Despite insistences that Mizuho saw Izumi fall into the well, he blames a nonexistent kidnapper—putting a physical embodiment to the thing that stole his daughter. He even initially puts the blame onto Mizuho, for fighting with her sister yet again. In grief, it is so easy to push blame onto someone else.

The mother deals with it differently, asking a variety of who are likely Mushi Masters, witch doctors, shamans, monks, and other people to try and figure out what’s happened to Izumi. She’s grasping for an explanation when the father insists that there already is one. When their daughter is taken, there is no explanation that is satisfactory to the family at loss. Anything she can grasp onto, fictional or not, is but a brief reprieve until Ginko comes into the picture.

He solves the case, as always, with frightening calm, his voice never wavering even in the most tense of moments. When he sees Izumi on the other side—likely a stage just further of The Green Seat’s Renzu—confirming she is, indeed, alive. At last, for the family that has suffered through this grief for however many weeks or months get one little reprieve. The mother and daughter, willing to grasp onto this, help Ginko in any way to get Izumi back. The father, seemingly disillusioned, is likely unaware that Ginko is doing anything.

The moment of truth, when Izumi is brought back from the other side, the whole family embraces each other. All they truly wanted was to be back together. The ending shows the consistencies of human nature, though. The father buries the well under rock. He’s putting a physical being to that without form, the Isei (Well Star) that enticed Izumi to look into the well at all.

In Summary:
I was worried about Mushishi or about my enthusiasm toward it. The last few reviews have been hard to write. The words didn’t seem to hit the page as easily as they once did, but it may speak to the quality of the episodes the last few weeks. They were good, certainly, but they weren’t ones that I will go back and visit if I ever want to visit the world of Mushi for 24 minutes. “Sea of Otherworldly Stars” is one of those episodes and I’m happy for one that I can enjoy again. With Mushishi, the episodes will always be personal preference. Episodes like “A Sea of Writings” or “The Sound of Rust” will always be among my favorite episodes and now episodes like “The Shadow that Devours the Sun,” “The Warbling Sea Shell,” and yes “Sea of Otherworldly Stars” will stand among my favorites. With Mushishi, there’s an episode for everyone. Just pick one and enjoy.

Grade: A

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar