MMF: Mushishi

Bust out your fork and knife — it’s time for another Manga Moveable Feast (MMF)! On this month’s menu: Mushishi, an episodic series about a peripatetic healer who cures people of supernatural ailments. The host is Ed Sizemore of Comics Worth Reading, who kicks off the festivities with a brief description of the MMF concept and an overview of the series. Though I participated in the first two MMFs (the first was on Sexy Voice and Robo, the second on Emma), I’ve decided to sit this one out. I enjoyed volumes one and two of Mushishi, but gradually lost interest in the series, finding the storytelling too stiff to really engage my head or my heart.

Here’s what I had to say about volume one:

Reading the back cover of Mushishi, I confess that I anticipated something along the lines of The X-Files:

Some live in the deep darkness behind your eyelids. Some eat silence. Some thoughtlessly kill. Some simply drive men mad. Shortly after life emerged from the primordial ooze, these deadly creatures, mushi, came into terrifying being. And they still exist and wreak havoc in the world today. Ginko, a young man with a sardonic smile, has the knowledge and skill to save those plagued by mushi . . . perhaps.

The copy seemed to promise icky parasites, equally icky bodily afflictions, and a sarcastic protagonist in the proud tradition of Fox Mulder (if no bold, government-backed conspiracy to deny the mushi’s existence). What Yuki Urushibara’s series actually offers is a lovely, eerie—and yes, occasionally icky—meditation on man’s relationship to the natural world.

Mushishi chronicles the travels of Ginko, a rumpled, chain-smoking young man who aids people afflicted by mushi. As the copy suggests, mushi are ancient creatures that occupy a special niche in the ecosystem between the animal and plant kingdoms. When mushi come into contact with humans, the relationship frequently turns parasitic, with the mushi feeding off their human hosts and producing painful, even life-threatening symptoms. Ginko is part herbalist, part exorcist, helping the afflicted purge themselves of the mushi and their harmful effects while at the same time teaching the unwitting hosts to respect the power and beauty of these ancient creatures.

Volume one unfolds as a series of self-contained episodes. Though we learn a great deal about Ginko’s clients, experiencing the isolation, shame, and fear caused by their conditions, we learn little about Ginko himself—who he is, how he became a mushishi (or mushi master), why he travels through remote areas in search of the afflicted. I didn’t particularly mind the lack of character development, though Mushishi’s freak-of-the-week formula may grow tiresome if replicated in future volumes. I did like the artwork, however. Urushibara’s character designs favor the kind of clean naturalism of Kei Toume’s work, and her evocative use of light and shadow cast a suitably spooky spell.

And here’s what I had to say about volume two:

Volume two follows the same episodic structure as volume one, as Ginko uncovers a nest of mushi in an ancient library, debunks a cult centered on an afflicted woman, and combats a resilient organism with shape-shifting abilities. Most of these stories tap the same spooky vibe as a good installment of The X-Files, with a visceral jolt or two and a little extemporizing about such perennial themes as man vs. nature and faith vs. science. The notable exception is the first chapter. Though beautifully illustrated, the story is a perplexing mess, marred by stiff, unnatural dialogue and several logical gaps in the narrative. (It’s hard to tell if the problem resides with the translation or is an artifact of the original Japanese.) My suggestion: skip it and let the other four tales work their eerie, graceful magic on you.

By the end of volume four, I’d lost patience with Mushishi, less for problems with the artwork (an issue Ed mentions in his introduction to this month’s Manga Moveable Feast) than for the clumsy script and the aimless narrative. Were I to pick up Mushishi now, I’m not sure I’d have given it the same glowing assessment as I did back in 2007, when I was still learning the manga reviewing ropes. I’m hoping that one of this week’s MMF contributors can persuade me to give the series another try. (Or maybe one of my readers; if you really dig it, tell me why.)

Be sure to visit Comics Worth Reading for information about how to participate in the discussion, links to the latest MMF posts, and the skinny on May’s book.