Delay Over

*Ok, here's the new column, concerning Katsuhiro Ōtomo's 2006 live-action movie adaptation of Yuki Urushibara's well-respected manga Mushishi (the movie, like the anime, spells it Mushi-Shi), newly available on R1 dvd.

In case you wanted more detail, the stories blended into the movie are: ch. 2 (from vol. 1, The Soft Horns, the one with the kid with the horn); ch. 7 (from vol. 2, The Sea of Brushstrokes, the one with the girl who writes down living stories); ch. 9 (from vol. 2, Rain Comes and a Rainbow is Born, the one with the guy chasing rainbows); and ch. 15 (from vol. 3, The Fish Gaze, the one with Ginko's origin) with bits of ch. 13 (from vol. 3, The Heavy Seed, the one with the rice fields and the secret tooth) blended in. Note that unlike the anime, the film switches things around, changes or omits plot points and slices 'n dices things to approximate a continuous narrative. I thought it worked ok.