I had stumbled across the name “Mushi-Shi” before when making a Naruto RPG character. The character had a beetle-looking set of puppet armor, if that makes sense, and I wanted to give it a name. Mushi-Shi basically means “bug master,” but the mushi in the series are very different from your ordinary bug.

So, I’m on Veoh, and they have these new little flip ads. Mushi-Shi popped up, and I recognized the name from the name grab from before. It seemed FUNimation had its own Veoh account, which as I said, seemed like a good thing to check out since my previous attempts at using their anime players was terrible. Seriously, I had to wait a half hour or more for the vid to load.

I was tired, and I don’t watch dubs very often, but due to my tiredness and FUNimation having a good record with dubs, I thought I’d give it a shot. I can tell you that I’m glad I did. Very glad.

However, a friendly note: Although FUNimation has fixed whatever was up with their videos on their own site before, the quality is lacking compared to what Veoh gives. So if Veoh has it, use them instead!

Now, on with the review!

What’s it about?
Mushi are a very complicated subject. They are ghost-like living creatures, said to be “life in its purest form.” With humans being the furthest from this, only very few can actually see them.

Ginko is a Mushi-Shi, or Mushi Master. He stands out from the rest of the crowd by wearing more modern clothes compared to the traditional Japanese of the other people in this tale. Not to mention he has snow white hair and bright green eyes. As a Mushi Master, Ginko travels the lands basically acting as a mushi exterminator/exorcist, since mushi tend to cause trouble when they get too close or interact with humans.

Spoilerless Review
You’re not going to get what mushi are until you actually get into this series, I can tell you that now. And even after you’ve seen a few, their powers and abilities vary greatly, so you won’t know what to expect.

Ginko is laid back, but can get pretty serious when it comes to being a Mushi Master and protecting people from the dangers mushi can cause. His dry humor is sure to give a chuckle though. He has a vast knowledge on mushi, which allows him to clearly explain what these crazy creatures are up to.

Although there is a certain order to the episodes, they don’t exactly align, and they are each their own piece. It’s episodic. You can just pop in any episode and be good. The connections between episodes, if any, are very tiny, with maybe three or four of the 26 episode series having Ginko pulling out an object or mentioning a story from a past episode.

The stories have that sort of fairytale/folklore style to them, so it feels pretty mythical and magical. And a good thing to know is that, no matter the issue, it’s going to be wrapped up by the end of the episode. It can be very sad at times, while there are a few endings that leave you smiling. And although they only last an episode, each story is well-paced and doesn’t rush to a finish. The only unsatisfaction you’ll feel at the end is that the next episode couldn’t be up on your screen fast enough to watch some more!

The animation is as stunning as it gets, with not one sense of choppiness. It’s obvious that the framerate is higher than your average anime. The environment is highly detailed and is an artistic masterpiece. There’s a scene where wind is blowing across a field and the grass/rice/can’t-remember had that ripple-like wave movement to it. And each mushi, no matter how weird or exotic, is done with care. This makes them all the more believable if the story didn’t somehow do it enough.

Background music fits perfectly in every use. Mostly, it’s just a calm tune that matches the mood, but that’s what makes it so great. The opening is very catchy, especially since they picked an English song. The soothing sound of it fits well with the series, so listening to it can give you an idea of what feel to expect.

At the end of an episode, you get this feeling that ties you in with the world, as Mushi-Shi is all about humans and their environment. It could bring out the inner hippie in anyone.

Not sure what else to say. Mushi-Shi gets 5 out of 5 shuriken from this shinobi. Anime News Network didn’t call it the top anime of 2007 for nothing. If you haven’t watched it yet, you’re missing out!

Anyway, I’ll get into that later. I decided to look for a dub on the FUNimation website to watch to give me something to do. As much as I prefer subs, it’s nice to find an anime that you can hear in plain English so you don’t have to focus as much. When you’re sick, you just want to relax. Finding a good dub isn’t always easy, but FUNimation usually does a good job of it. Much better than Viz >.>

So, I’m looking through their titles, and one catches my eye. Jyu-Oh-Sei. First, it was the cool box picture, second because of the title spelling. -_- However, I remind myself that they don’t want people mispronouncing it. It keeps new watchers from shying away. From my characters in the Bleach RPG on TN, I know that people not knowledgeable in Japanese sounds dislike the “complex spelling,” and it confuses the heck of them on how to say it. And I can see “Juuousei” falling into that confused category.

The point I’m trying to get to is that I watched this anime, and I thought I could give my thoughts on it. Maybe I could do this with all the anime I watch, or games I play. Hey, it’d give me something to do. xD

What’s it about?
It’s the future, and humankind has made colonies on planets in another solar system. Twin brothers, Thor and Rai, live on one of these colonies. One day, they come home to find their parents dead, then themselves being knocked out soon after. When they come to, they’re on a new planet. Named Chimera, it is where the worst of prisoners are whisked away to. Known by its inhabitants as “The Planet of the Beast King” (Juuousei), only the one who is top ranked in this world can leave it. In this world where plants rule, that person is known as the Beast King.

Spoilerless Review
I guess it can’t really be totally spoilerless, but I can say enough without giving what actually happens away. Right? That’s what I’ll do.

This anime is a short one, spanning only eleven episodes (which is ironic, since the twins come to Chimera at the age of eleven). The first episode quickly establishes the setting of the anime. Actually, it’s safe to say that this anime plain moves fast. For the first six episodes, it works out good. But after a time skip and an ending is trying to be shoved into the last five, I found myself frustrated. The events and words thrown at you don’t have the time to grow and sink in, to digest. They’re thrown at you, the characters take it, and they move on. So much happens in the last episode that the ending doesn’t even feel real.

Simply put: Pre-timeskip, I loved it. After, not so much.

As for the setup, it’s a science fiction anime. Although they throw some words around, it’s not over technical, even with the high tech stuff that shows itself every now and again. Everything gets explained, and even if they weren’t, they’re pretty self explanatory after seeing them in action. But I’ll admit, every time they talked about terraforming, I thought of Spore. xD The social setup in the world though can make people complain. Skin color gets played as a deciding factor on Chimera. The other thing that really strikes you odd is the role of women in a society that is supposed to be made up of criminals. So there’s a bit of a racist and sexist thing going, but it’s not so much a discriminating thing than a division in a way of life. I guess you have to see it for yourself if you don’t want to get too spoiled.

The animation is HQ. It was done by Bones, so you probably know it’s good, but then you throw in that the series is so short. So good money was spent on each episode. The characters are well-made, and the backgrounds are stunning, especially the space ones. Much detail is put into the plants that are everywhere and that are trying to devour everyone. Even when the plants are very animal-seeming, you still classify them as plants in your mind because of how they are drawn.

The music is great when you actually notice it. If you remember the movie Apollo 13, you’ll find the similarities. It reminds you of being out of Earth, out in space. Maybe it’s just because it reminds you of Apollo 13, but hey, it works. Outside of those spacey moments, it’s pretty unnoticeable. The opening and ending are vastly out of that though, being more J-Pop. They are catchy, upbeat, and use some English here and there. As with much of the music we hear from Japan, there are many different sounds blended to make the final piece. The visuals accompanying them are nice, and more spoilering than you’ll realize as the series goes on. It seems a lot of anime like to do that now.

One final mention is that there is a character who I totally hated, who’s shallow existence throws many things out of wack and is highly responsible for the second half being poor next to the first . In avoidance of spoilers, I will let you figure that one out yourself.

I guess if I had to rate it…how should I rate? Letter grades? How about I do stars? No! Shuriken! Yeah.

Out of 5 shuriken, I give Jyu-Oh-Sei a 3 1/2. If I could split it between the first and second parts, it would get 4 1/2 and 3 respectively. And that was from the dub, which seemed very well done in my books.