Mushishi OST Review

Last night I finished one of the best anime I've seen recently. It's called Mushishi, a very mystical, fantastic anime about these things called Mushi. In a way you can call them spirits, or tiny little angels and demons. Some of them are good and some of them are bad, and sometimes they affect humans. Some humans can even see the Mushi, and a Mushi-shi is one who hunts Mushi. The story revolves around a Mushi-shi called Ginko, a man with white hair and a single green eye who is always smoking a strange cigarrette. The anime itself is not actually a single story, but 26 different stories about Ginko and Mushi, all of which I enjoyed. A pleasant surprise was the music, which sets itself apart from most soundtracks by not sucking.

Here is a small sampling of the music.

The moods it creates are about half of what makes Mushishi so good - the other half would be the art. They did a pretty good job showing all these different unique kinds of Mushi and this nature that surrounds Ginko, and the music completes the feeling of mysticism and intrigue. The wonderfully relaxing OP theme is "The Sore Feet Song" by Ally Kerr, a Scottish singer-songwriter. His website can be found here. However, the rest of the music is by a Masuda Toshio, not to be confused with Masuda Toshio the director. Masuda also composed music for another anime you may have heard of, Naruto. Or Mahoromatic. Or Digi Charat. Or Ai Yori Aoshi. Maybe Excel Saga. Though those anime, maybe not Naruto, but definitely Excel Saga, have an almost entirely different sound. The kind I mostly do not like to hear

What I do like to hear, though, is music like this. It's a relaxed and doesn't get too active, just like most anime music I enjoy, but like the series, much of the music is serious rather than playful. I find the music very pretty but it can get pretty ominous!

Speaking of anime with soundtracks I love, check out what I discovered on YouTube:

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou with Ally Kerr's song over it. Works pretty well!

Ally Kerr's song is fantastic, and Masuda's work fits the show like a glove. I fell asleep listening to OST 1 last night! I recommend it for standalone listening as well. Also, everyone should watch Mushishi someday it is a neat experience.