19. May 2008 by Ria.

Now everyone that followed me through this series should be mushi experts by now. From watching the first 5 episodes, we all know that mushi will chew your eyeballs out until you’re blind as a bat, and will cause you to go deaf so that the only thing you hear are mushi conversations. We also know that mushi will cause you to grow horns so that you’ll look weird, and no one will want to be your friend anymore.

We know that mushi swamps can allow you to breath under water, while it sneaks out to sea so that you can drown. And last but not least, we know that mushi can cause you to have premonitions, and just when you think you’ll be hitting the lotto when you wake up, you’ll find your family and all your neighbors dead. Now that we know all these things, who wouldn’t want some mushi in their life?

In this episode, Ginko lets this guy Nagi con him into going to this mysterious island to rescue this girl that people called the Living God, but her real name is Akoya. What happens is that people bring offerings, she turns into an old lady, then dies, but before that, a fragrance is released from her nose. Now in this scent, there is supposed to be some kind of healing power, but Nagi knows that the Living God is nothing but a poser.

You see, long ago, Nagi’s mom was very sick, so he took her along with offerings, to the Living God who was supposed to heal her, but the mom croaked anyway. The Living God’s dad was also overheard talking about how the power of suggestion will make people believe anything, and since then, Nagi knew this Living God stuff was a hoax.

Ginko sneaks up on the Akoya one night, examines her, and finds out that there is mushi living inside of her nasal cavity. He also finds small animals on the island infected with the mushi as well, so he starts experimenting to find a cure, which happens almost immediately. Ginko treats Akoya, and she’s healed, but she’s not really happy about it. After all, she had it made in the shade as The Living God. You just sit there on your throne in some zombie like state, and have people come to your house, and bring you food and gifts…… not a bad life.

Okay so you actually grow old and die at the end of the day, but is it really so bad, when you’re rejuvenated the next day? Yes, Akoya feels uneasy in her new life, she frightened that she doesn’t know what the future holds for her. When she was the Living God, she didn’t have to worry about anything, ’cause she was living in a trance all that time. What Akoya calls peace, I call zombified.

Ginko told her that the mushi synchronized their life span with hers, in other words, the mushi lived for approximately one day, then died, and that’s what happened to her. She lived for the day, grew old, died, and was resurrected the next morning as a young girl again. Now eventually the dad who caused this mess in the first place finds out, and is pissed off, and realizes that Nagi is on the island again.

With some snoopin’ around, Ginko finds out that a Morning Glory flower that the mushi live in is responsible for the Living God symptoms, but before he can do anything, he and Nagi are confronted by Akoya’s dad and his posse. “Uh oh Ginko, you better high tail your butt out of there! If you die now, there may not be any other mushi masters standing in line to continue the series, so run like hell!”

Ginko takes my advice, and he and Nagi go hide away somewhere, but luckily for them, some other men come to their rescue, but they beat the crap out of the Akoya’s dad first. Eventually, Akoya found these guys, and told them how they were conned by her father.

As you know they weren’t too happy to hear about this, now we have a dead dad on our hands. Akoya finds his body, and is absolutely devastated. Since there is no cocaine, or booze around so she can loose herself in her misery, she just sniffs a morning glory flower, and she’s back to being the Living God again, or in other words, a space cadet.

Ginko didn’t think he could treat Akoya again, so left her to roam around like a weirdo for the rest of her life. He also spent another month on the island trying to treat everyone who was struck with the Living God syndrome. But the most important thing is that Ginko is alive and well, so now we can look forward to the next adventure.

Posted in Mushishi Anime | Print | 2 Comments »

19. May 2008 by Ria.

Okay, this is one crazy ass show, I mean it’s funnier than hell, because you’re constantly caught off guard when random things happen in the scenes that you don’t expect. This is a anime series about a high-school girl who ends up living with three very cute guys who are cursed with the animal spirit of the zodiac (mouse, dog, and cat).

Now the guys walk around in human form, and two of them actually go to school, but they must take care not to hug anyone from the opposite sex (in other words, girls), because if they do, they will turn into animals. That’s what makes this series so hilarious, ’cause accidents do happen ya know. Let’s meet some of the characters, shall we?

Honda Tohru is a student who’s mom died in a automobile accident. You know, these anime/manga writers love making orphans the star of the show, are parents really that bad? Now I would describe Tohru as kind, gentle, and meek, but all that goodie-goodie-niceness-stuff will eventually make you extremely ill, so make sure you have a bottle of Pepto Bismo, and a pack of Rolaids handy.

After Mom Honda died, Tohru went to live with her grandfather, but she left to live in a tent temporarily while he renovated the place. Now Tohru built her tent on the cursed zodiac guy’s property. Tohru doesn’t know yet about the curse, but she will find out in the upcoming episodes.

Yuki is the mouse, and I would describe him as polite, personable, and intelligent. He’s got many admirers, and several girls at his school started the Prince Yuki fan club. Yeah, I guess he’s all right looking, but in certain shots, HE LOOKS LIKE A FRIGGIN’ GIRL! Yes, I know some anime guys look like women, BUT THIS IS WAY TOO OBVIOUS! And he’s wayyyyyy too skinny, DAMN, CAN SOMEBODY GIVE YUKI A CHEESBURGER PLEASE?

Now Yuki is bit of a loner at school, I guess he doesn’t want a girl to hug him so he can turn into a mouse, and have everyone trying to step on him or laying rat poison out all around the school. Yuki may have a scrawny body to go with his big head and eyes, but don’t be fooled, he can’t be the crap out of a guy, take Kyo for example, but I won’t talk about him until the next episode.

Shigure (the dog) is quite handsome if I may say so, and he’s a writer, so its nice to know that we have something in common. He’s a funny guy, BUT THAT LAME ASS YUKATA THAT HE WEARS ALL THE TIME HAS GOT TO GO! “Damn Shigure, why can’t you wear a decent pair of jeans and a casual top everyday? If you can’t afford it, go to the thrift store and pick something up for a couple of bucks for Pete’s sake!”

Anyway, Shigure, and Yuki stumble onto Tohru and her tent, and as a kind gesture, offer her a room in their home as their housekeeper (i.e. underpaid slave).  Well, the guys did want to pay her, but Tohru being the goodie-goodie that she is ruins it by saying that she won’t accept any money, a place to stay is good enough for her.

“Okay Tohru, we’ll see if you still feel that way, when you’re up all hours of the night scrubbin’ floors, and scraping crap out of pots and pans.” Kyo busts in at the end of the episode, and all hell breaks loose, and I’ll talk about him in my next review so make sure you stick around.

Posted in Fruits Basket Anime (Dropped) | Print | No Comments »