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Mushishi (蟲師, Mushishi?) is a historical fantasy manga series authored by Yuki Urushibara, which was later adapted into an anime television series and a live-action feature film. The manga has been serialized in Afternoon magazine since 1999 and is ongoing; eight tankōbon consisting of the first 40 chapters have been released in Japan.

The anime series, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama and animated by Artland, spanned 26 episodes and completed its television run with the airing of its twentieth episode in March 2006. The final six episodes were released on DVD between May to June 2006.

The series won numerous awards; in 2003, the manga was awarded the Excellence Prize at the 7th Japan Media Arts Festival, while in 2006, the series won the best manga prize at the Kodansha Manga Awards. At the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, both the anime and manga series were placed among the top 10 in their respective categories for best manga and anime. The anime series won grand prizes in the categories of television series and best art direction (for Takashi Waki) at the 5th Tokyo Anime Award competition held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2006.

Characters

Due to the episodic nature of the series, there are very few recurring characters, and the number of seiyū is fairly lengthy. Ginko is voiced by Yūto Nakano.

Ginko's unusual white hair and green eye color is the result of an incident involving a mushi that occurred when he was a child. No explanation is given as to why his rather modern clothes do not seem to match the time period reflected by all other characters. Ginko is a rare person that attracts mushi, and thus the reason he wanders constantly. Staying in one place too long will gather a potentially dangerous amount of mushi. He also smokes constantly in order to keep mushi away. In terms of personality, Ginko is rather laid back, but can be very serious when it comes to protecting people from mushi. He also often stresses that the mushi are not evil, but merely trying to survive like everyone else.

The only two other characters who have repeat appearances are Adashino, who appears in episodes 5, 10, and briefly in 18, and Nui, who appears only in episode 12, but whose voice can be heard narrating some of the opening and closing lines characteristic of each episode. Veteran seiyū Yuuji Ueda and Mika Doi voice those characters, respectively.

Episodes

This is a list of episodes for the Mushishi anime series. It premiered on October 22, 2005 in Japan, but after 20 episodes, the series went on hiatus, and resumed screening the six remaining ones in May 14, 2006. Each episode tells a self-contained story and is not dependent on prior episodes for background. This made it possible for the producers of the anime to change the relative order of the stories. However, aside from a slight abridgment of the dialogue, this is the only major difference between the manga and the anime.

01 "Green Seat"
"Midori no za" (緑の座) Vol 1 Chap 01 2005-10-22
Ginko investigates the case of a boy rumored to give life to his drawings.

02 "Eyelids' Light"
"Mabuta no hikari" (瞼の光) Vol 1 Chap 04 2005-10-29
Ginko gives aid to a little girl who spends her days locked in a cellar because she can't bear sunlight.

03 "Tender Horns"
"Yawarakai Tsuno" (柔らかい角) Vol 1 Chap 02 2005-11-05
A boy who somehow has horns growing on his head is fated to die like his mother, who suffered of the same problem, unless Ginko is able to figure out a cure.

04 "Pillow Lane"
"Makura no kouji" (枕小路) Vol 1 Chap 03 2005-11-12
A farmer whose dreams become reality seeks Ginko's help.

05 "The Traveling Swamp"
"Tabi wo suru numa" (旅をする沼) Vol 1 Chap 05 2005-11-19
Ginko investigates the case of a mysterious girl who is seen in a swamp which moves by itself.

06 "The Crowd that Inhales Dew"
"Tsuyu wo suu mure" (露を吸う群れ) Vol 2 Chap 08 2005-11-26
Ginko's services are requested by a boy who lives in a distant island to investigate the case of a girl revered by the people there as a God.

07 "The Rain Comes, A Rainbow Forms"
"Ame ga kuru niji ga tatsu" (雨がくる虹がたつ) Vol 2 Chap 09 2005-12-03
Ginko encounters a man who has a strange habit of pursuing rainbows when they appear.

08 "From the Sea Border"
"Unasaka yori" (海境より) Vol 3 Chap 12 2005-12-10
While traveling along a beach, Ginko meets a man who hopes to reencounter his wife who disappeared there two years before.

09 "Heavy Fruit"
"Omoi mi" (重い実) Vol 3 Chap 13 2005-12-18
Ginko arrives at a village where there are unusual harvests, always occurring after natural disasters, and always involving the death of one of its inhabitants.

10 "White In The Ink Slab"
"Suzuri ni sumushiro" (硯に棲む白) Vol 3 Chap 14 2006-01-07
A group of kids get themselves in trouble when they mess with one of the mushi-related items from Adashino's collection.

11 "The Mountain Sleeps"
"Yamanemuru" (やまねむる) Vol 2 Chap 06 2006-01-07
During his travels, Ginko meets an old Mushishi who tells him the story of how he became the guardian of the mountain where he lives, and why he can't leave there for the rest of his days.

12 "One-Eyed Fish"
"Sugame no uo" (眇の魚) Vol 3 Chap 15 2006-01-14
An orphan is adopted by Nui, a white-haired Mushishi. Ginko's origin is finally revealed.

13 "One Night Bridge"
"Hitoyo bashi" (一夜橋) Vol 4 Chap 17 2006-01-21
Ginko arrives in a village where lives a girl who fell from a bridge three years before. Though she apparently survived the fall, she is not the person she used to be anymore, to the despair of the young man who loves her.

14 "In the Cradle"
"Kago no naka" (籠のなか) Vol 4 Chap 19 2006-01-28
While traveling through a bamboo forest, Ginko encounters a man who somehow can't leave the forest, no matter how he tries. Curiously, his wife and child also share the same issue.

15 "Pretense of Spring"
"Haru to usobuku" (春と嘯く) Vol 4 Chap 18 2006-02-04
Ginko gets shelter in a cabin during the winter. The boy who lives there claims there is a place where spring blooms early and every time he goes there he ends up sleeping for days.

16 "Daybreak's Snake"
"Akatsuki no hebi" (暁の蛇) Vol 5 Chap 25 2006-02-11
Ginko helps a boy who is worried about his mother because she is little by little forgetting her memories.

17 "Picking the Vacant Cocoon"
"Uromayu tori" (虚繭取り) Vol 3 Chap 11 2006-02-18
Ginko is worried about the girl who handles the cocoons used as mailboxes by the mushishis, as she is still searching for her sister who disappeared in one of them.

18 "Clothes to Embrace the Mountain"
"Yama idaku koromo" (山抱く衣) Vol 5 Chap 23 2006-02-25
Ginko gets his hands on a coat apparently possessed by a mushi. Hoping to figure out the truth, he starts looking for the coat's first owner.

19 "String of Heaven"
"Tenpen no ito" (天辺の糸) Vol 6 Chap 26 2006-03-04
Ginko helps a girl who was taken by a white string from the sky and disappeared for a while. After she returns home, strange things start to happen to her.

20 "A Sea of Ink"
"Fude no umi" (筆の海) Vol 2 Chap 07 2006-03-11
Ginko comes to a house which is a kind of library with mushi-related scrolls. There he meets the girl who writes the scrolls and hears the story of the curse that afflicts her family since generations ago.

21 "Cotton Spore"
"Wataboushi" (綿胞子) Vol 2 Chap 10 2006-05-14
Ginko is called to see a child who was developing a green rash through his body. He quickly figures that the child and his four brothers are not human.

22 "Underwater Shrine"
"Oki tsu miya" (沖つ宮) Vol 5 Chap 21 2006-05-21
Ginko investigates a village with a shrine rumored to give people a second life.

23 "Twitter of Rusts"
"Sabi no naku koe" (錆の鳴く聲) Vol 4 Chap 16 2006-05-28
A girl is ostracized by the village where she lives because apparently she is the cause of a strange rust that afflicts the houses and people there. Now it's up to Ginko to figure out the truth.

24 "Bound for Bonfire Field"
"Kagarino kou" (篝野行) Vol 5 Chap 24 2006-06-04
Trying to dispose an unknown type of mushi which threatens her village, the local mushishi decides to burn down the whole mountain where it lives. But Ginko does not agree with the idea.

25 "Fortune of Eye, Calamity of Eye"
"Ganpuku ganka" (眼福眼禍) Vol 5 Chap 22 2006-06-11
Ginko enconters a woman who was blind until a mushi entered her eyes and she started to see again. But her sight was improving day by day, until the point she was seeing more than she wished for.

26 "Sound of Stepping Grass"
"Kusa wo fumu oto" (草を踏む音) Vol 4 Chap 20 2006-06-18
When Ginko was a child, he lived for a while with a group of nomads that every year visited a mysterious mountain.