Mushishi by Urushibara Yuki

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:04 am

HuhWhat wrote:

Agh...!!

At least put up a WARNING before ruining the entire chapter for those of us who haven't read it. T.T

Whoops, sorry....I figured that the bold title would clue people in that spoilers would follow. I'll edit the post.

-Chris

Street Musician Joined: 13 Oct 2002 Posts: 419

Eh? I wasn't really being serious. I'm sorry for sounding too realistic. >.<

Thoughts on Chapter 3....

I liked this chapter. It also made sense. The ending was sad...

What the... 4-word sentences. oO

Fan Boy Joined: 18 Apr 2004 Posts: 31 Location: here

i too like this chapter a lot. while i liked the art in the previous two better, this chapter's strong point was its story. even though the dark plot contrasted sharply with that of the previous chapters, i still got this feeling of beautiful stillness from it. in a way, the tragic parts of this story were beautiful. it's an effect i dont see pulled off very often.

i look forward to more, but i am really intrested in Ginko a lot more than i was. i'd like to know why he reacts to things the way he does. where does he get his understanding?

Street Musician Joined: 13 Oct 2002 Posts: 419

1010011 wrote:

where does he get his understanding?

That's exactly what I want to know as well. He's not like many other main characters. Something about him is.. different.

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:18 pm

Well, Mushishi is like some other stand-alone stories of this type where little bits of his background and personality are sprinkled throughout the series. So just wait for future chapters and you'll find out more. Smile

-Chris

Fan Boy Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 4

kern wrote:

HuhWhat wrote:

Thoughts: Well, I don't understand how the body pulse kills the Ah...

The Ah were killed by the salt. It's the Un that were killed by the body pulse. This part I think I understand -- the Un do not like the sound of other living beings. So why do they infect humans then? I think that's the fault of the Ah. As Ginko said, normally the Ah live out in the forest and eat the sounds out there (and the Un eat their silence). But when it snows and the sound goes away, the Ah have to go to the village to get sound (and the Un follow). Sometimes the Ah end up infecting a person, and then if there's an Un there, it has to infect the person too (unwillingly, I guess), and that's where the trouble starts.

Quote:

As for the mom, she was too far into the sickness for it to be of effect.. or something. She was telling her son how to get rid of the Ah, I'm guessing on her deathbed.. like she knew he was going to get it too.

Maybe that's it. But then why did covering his ears make the horns grow out? Was that the Ah? And I thought he covered his ears other times before Ginko came, but suddenly when Ginko comes it kills the Un...

It could just be that this is a poorly written story. Smile

-Chris

Actually Chris, it's the Un that gets killed by the salt. But that's not really important Wink

I read your translation for chapter 2 a few times and couldn't figure out the story completely so I went and got the Chinese version. Although it's quite difficult, I can make it out somewhat. The Chinese translation had minor differences from your translation; I don't know how acurate the Chinese translation is. Like on the first page, you say "When I covered my ears with my hand, my forehead swelled up and four horns grew out." The Chinese version had something like "Even though I cover my ears, sound comes through the horns on my forehead." Please excuse my poor translation Embarassed

So regarding the question of why the Ahs infect humans, it's not the fault of the Uhs... Since they don't like the sound of other living beings, they don't usually infect humans; but it's not impossible... like it says in the chapter, it's a rare occurence.

The horns didn't grow out suddenly when Maho covered his ears. I think he had a habit of covering his ears after his mother died, and an Ah infected him one day, not necessarily due to Maho covering his ears.

According to the Chinese version, the Ah doesn't like the sound of living beings, so it eventually dies... but by that time, the host will be weakened too much and dies as well.

When the mom was on her deathbed, she was only trying to tell Maho not to forget this wonderful sound... not how to kill the Ah... I think...

And the reason why the Ah died from covering the ears was b/c Ginko figured out that you must focus on an individual sound (your body sound), or the Ah will not die...

Well, that's what I got out of it when I read along with your translation! Maybe the Chinese translator was just making stuff up to make it understandable Surprised

Thank you for translating this wonderful manga! I would read it in Chinese, but I'm not exactly fluent... Sad

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 2:37 pm

mangafreac wrote:

Like on the first page, you say "When I covered my ears with my hand, my forehead swelled up and four horns grew out." The Chinese version had something like "Even though I cover my ears, sound comes through the horns on my forehead."

My translation of that Japanese line was accurate, I think. There's nothing about sound there. Are you sure you're not thinking of a later line, when he does say something like that?

Quote:

According to the Chinese version, the Ah doesn't like the sound of living beings, so it eventually dies... but by that time, the host will be weakened too much and dies as well.

Yes, that's correct. Ginko explains that late in the chapter.

-Chris

Fan Boy Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 4

kern wrote:

My translation of that Japanese line was accurate, I think. There's nothing about sound there. Are you sure you're not thinking of a later line, when he does say something like that?

Yes, it indeed does say sound... I was just pointing out one of the bigger differences I noticed when I was going through it. Although it didn't really change the feel of the story, why would they make a change like that? Confused

kern wrote:

Yes, that's correct. Ginko explains that late in the chapter.

I'm just thinking out loud here and trying to answer some questions people had... correct me if you think any of these conclusions are wrong. Wink

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 12:30 am

Sorry for the long delay on this release; hopefully we won't have that again.

The Light of the Eyelids

This chapter won some sort of Afternoon prize. I don't think it's all that great myself -- I mean, it's a decent story, but it's not as good as some of the other ones in volume 1.

I think the "river of light" in this chapter has the same "koumyaku" (the pulse-of-light mushi) from chapter 1, although it's not certain (the koumyaku do return specifically in a few future chapters).

So we find out that Ginko has only one eye. Perhaps a future story will cover how he lost that eye in the first place. Wink

Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 1:43 am

No more responses? Everyone give up on this?

Anyway:

The Travelling Swamp

An interesting chapter; this is the first time we see another Mushishi besides Ginko, and also the first chapter that references earlier chapters. Ginko brings up the matter from The Green Seat again, and throws the happy ending into somewhat more uncertain territory as we learn that the boy's grandmother will have a painful existence.

On to volume 2, and the first appearance of color pages in the manga.

Roadie Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 45 Location: Located

I agree that chapter 4 seemed to lack some of the dynamicism of the earlier ones, but I could see some awards committee swooning over the river of light. It is interesting that he gives up his fake eye so easily... and if he had to insert the mushi into it, does that mean he couldn't see from it earlier? That seems kind of odd, though perhaps after being trapped in the glass for long enough the mushi fade and need to be replaced.

I really liked the idea of travelling marshes popping up in mountain valleys. Ginko's character is interesting... in some ways he is like a doctor, but one that at times seems more concerned about the outcome of his treatments rather than actually saving someone. He prety much states mushi just do what their natures dictate and are not bad, yet he tries to save humans from their influence (most noticably in c5).

I think it illustrates that with consciousness comes the changing of natural order based on good/bad which are somewhat arbitrary distinctions. It is only from a human perspective that mushi don't belong or cause 'bad' things... they are a part of the chain of life in this story's world. I suppose it stands out more because we aren't used to seeing them as a natural part of an ecosystem, but rather haunting a normal one from our perspective.

edit - I'm not the monocle guy is a mushishi (forgot exact def. of one), he seems more like a merchant that deals in rarities (and hence knows a bit about mushi).

Roadie Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 45 Location: Located

What's the status on this??

I'd love to see more of it...

Amateur Musician Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 197

Well, the next chapter is almost all edited up, all I'm waiting on is the translation.

Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:23 am

Chapter 6 is good so I hope I do it soon. Sad

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:41 am

I have been working on the ch 6 translation; hopefully I can finish it relatively soon.