The beloved fantasy manga returns in a hardcover omnibus edition featuring a completely original translation and new cover designs.
Before life as we know it, there existed entities that don’t obey the laws of our reality—primordial beings known as mushi. In Japan, a man named Ginko wanders the land, investigating incursions by mushi into the human world—and by us into theirs. He is a mushi master…a mushi-shi.
Includes Japanese volumes 9-10 and never-before-published story, “The Shadow That Swallows the Sun.”
Mushi do not feel, but humans do. And when a mushi appears in a human’s life, sometimes it reveals inner desires and challenges common to most at some point in their lifetime. A boy who wants his sick mother to be there for him, but she will not return until he is better. A father who experiences many lifetimes but is stuck at home. A grandfather with a dull, quiet life with his family, but has the funny sense of deja vu every once in a while. Ginko is a mushishi who helps guide those to understand the intricate ways mushi slip into our lives, but will the guided follow an enlightened path or choose their own?
Upon its release in the 2000s, Mushishi earned global acclaim for its poetic episodic storytelling and delicate, beautiful artwork, winning the Japan Media Arts Prize, selection as a Best Manga by the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs, and recommendation as a top read for teens by the American Library Association. The series inspired two TV anime adaptations in 2005 and 2014 and a live-action film directed by the legendary Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of AKIRA. Unfortunately, after being out of print for 15 years, English copies of Mushishi became as elusive as the strange creatures that populate its pages—until now.
Kodansha’s new edition of Mushishi features an all-new translation and lettering, and beautiful color pages and cover illustrations never seen in the U.S. before.