An Introduction to Manga

An Introduction to Manga

Mushishi

I absolutely loved Mushishi, it was like no story I’ve ever experienced before. It’s so hard for me to explain the creatures, the Mushi. Some people have said that the Mushi are similar to the western myth of demons. There are all kind of demons water demons, mountain demons, and sound demons, etc. And there are many types of Mushi but the Mushi are inherently neither good nor evil. They are also natural, not wicked, they are older than most organisms. There really is no western equivalent to the mushi. The composition of panels really added to the story telling. I reminded me of shots from a film. I think my favorite moment was in the Mushishi’s first encounter when we learned about the how the grandmother lost half of herself. That shot when she’s just standing, then she walks away but her mushi half stays in place watching her other half walk off was beautiful! Another strong moment for me was the man who thought his dreams were visions of the future. In reality his dreams were merely dreams but the mushi made his dreams become reality. I didn’t see that twist.

            This manga had me at the edge of my seat with my nose between the pages. It wasn’t and action manga, there were no fights but it was just so interesting and I was completely wrapped in the mystery of the mushi.

Millennium Actress

I watched this movie without looking at a review or a trailer so it was something entirely new and I didn’t know what to expect. When the film genre first changed and the time period jumped between the 1940s back 800 years I was genuinely surprised.

It is a beautiful movie and a strong homage to film. I really love that the director and the cameraman were Physically drawn into Chiyoko’s story. The shots and editing was fantastic. The montage where she’s running through all the films to the painting of the moon shows just how good the editing was. One other thing I love was the repetition of the actors (such as her older co-star.) The policeman was very interesting to me. The moment when he returned to apologize to Chiyoko as an old man was very strong. We learn that he killed the painter with torture. Chiyoko didn’t hear this though, she’s been chasing after a dead man for most of her life. And she’s cursed to chase after him for 1000 years. At the end of the film when Chiyoko was dying/leaving in a spaceship I couldn’t help but hope we’d see a scene of her finally reunited with the painter in the afterlife. But the movie just ended instead and it made me cry.