Is the Mushishi manga or anime boring?

DEAD_ID69 said:
It's not boring, but you won't enjoying too many episodes at once. To really enjoy it you should just watch like 1 episode a day.
You won't enjoy it if you're typical battle shounen fan.

Kuma said:


hey, i am battle shounen fad, but mushishi also LIT AF...

Kuma said:


hey, i am battle shounen fad, but mushishi also LIT AF...

jayss said:
Ginko the only MC who is high 24/7 lol

iscum said:
how about watch some episodes and see what you think about it?

RnDNEET021 said:
Honestly.. Iyashikei types of genre are meant to be "Boring" btw

Akoram said:

Now when looking at the characters they lack motivation and personality and felt like walking robots. When looking at the protagonist he's terrible he seriously has zero personality and gets pretty much zero developement or backstory. Therefore a reader or watcher is unable to connect to or relate to him, he just exists.

For the anime I will say it gets much better in its second season as its not necessarily boring like the first with much more interesting stories the deviate from it formulaic approach.

When compared to the manga the manga is much better as the pacing is a lot faster. Compare reading a 3-4 min chapter to watching a 20min episode of the exact same thing.

For some comparison here are some other anime I have found really boring
- Aria
- Monogatari series
- Cowbow Bebop
- Kino no Tabi
- Haikyuu
- Oregairu
- Elfen Lied
- Ghost in the Shell
- Kara no Kyoukai
- Toradora

I don't believe anyone who says they actually like Mushishi and I beleive it gets it high rating from the sake of its high rating and reputation. To explain people see the high rating and feel obliged to rate it highly because they don't want to be a part of the minority or they hear about its reputation to be highly philosophical and rate it highly cause they want to be seen as smart. This is the exact reason why Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu has such a high score on this site, yes as a show it deserves its high score but seriously Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu has a very strict audience and people are purey giving it a 10/10 because they want to look smart and sophisticated with great taste in anime. For this reason as a show Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu is highly overrated.

TheFatOtaku said:
Mushishi looks extremely beautiful and is something that interests me. I was going to watch the anime but some say that it is boring. I have a short attention span, so I'm extremely worried that I'll waste my time if I watch it. If Mushishi is exciting, or at least not boring, then should I watch the anime or read the manga? THXXXXXXX no spoilerssss

RnDNEET021 said:
Honestly.. Iyashikei types of genre are meant to be "Boring" btw

Akoram said:
Yes, it's extremely boring and repetiitive once you've seen the first episode you've seen the entire show. Every episode is just a "doctor" goes to town and helps a sick person.

Read this persons review completely accurate
https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=209340

Now as a show Mushishi is terrible and extremely flawed when compared with Mars of Destruction and Pupa I will say Mushishi has more flaws. The author quite literally created her entire manga while putting zero thought into the actual concept. If Mushi did exist the world would not operate like it does in Mushishi.

Now when looking at the characters they lack motivation and personality and felt like walking robots. When looking at the protagonist he's terrible he seriously has zero personality and gets pretty much zero developement or backstory. Therefore a reader or watcher is unable to connect to or relate to him, he just exists.

For the anime I will say it gets much better in its second season as its not necessarily boring like the first with much more interesting stories the deviate from it formulaic approach.

When compared to the manga the manga is much better as the pacing is a lot faster. Compare reading a 3-4 min chapter to watching a 20min episode of the exact same thing.

For some comparison here are some other anime I have found really boring
- Aria
- Monogatari series
- Cowbow Bebop
- Kino no Tabi
- Haikyuu
- Oregairu
- Elfen Lied
- Ghost in the Shell
- Kara no Kyoukai
- Toradora

I don't believe anyone who says they actually like Mushishi and I beleive it gets it high rating from the sake of its high rating and reputation. To explain people see the high rating and feel obliged to rate it highly because they don't want to be a part of the minority or they hear about its reputation to be highly philosophical and rate it highly cause they want to be seen as smart. This is the exact reason why Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu has such a high score on this site, yes as a show it deserves its high score but seriously Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu has a very strict audience and people are purey giving it a 10/10 because they want to look smart and sophisticated with great taste in anime. For this reason as a show Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu is highly overrated.

TragicRomance said:
It's... not. Every episode has a life lesson to teach. I have no idea how you managed to write something so ignorant. I don't even know where to begin. I just hope you are a troll... I guess.

Akoram said:

Unfortunately I'm not a troll I generally hate Mushishi with a passion.

To tell you of my experience with Mushishi, as of now it is listed as my number one most disappointing show of all time. I was extremely hyped up about watching Mushishi when I first heard about it, like seriouslyI don't think I've ever been so hyped about a show in my entire life, after reading somethings about it I thought it would be immensely interesting, the very concept of supernatural creature call Mushi seemed like a really interesting idea. I was certain this would rank in my top 3 shows with a 10/10. So, by the time I got around to watching it I was practically jumping on seat with anticipation, as i though it was about to set my eyes on something, methodical, philosophical, logical, mesmerising, something that would blow me away, baffle me with this unique atmosphere. But after watching episode one I practically died inside, I just couldn't believe it, I was in complete denial, but I just passed it off as a bad first episode that would get better. So I watched episode 2 and no nothing different, at this point I was secluded into extreme disappointment at how shallow the series was. Just image if you hyped yourself up so much for a show and then when you got around to watching it finding out its terrible. Just imagine that utter disappointment, it felt like my heart was ripped from my body and this is how my journey of Mushishi started.

Onward, from there the entire show fell into a repetitive loop of the same thing each episode with a few changes and as I began looking more into Mushishi I realised how dull and robotic the characters felt like and how conceptual wrong the show was. I became flooded with questions asking those hows, whys and whats. How does Ginko know so much about Mushishi? Who is Ginko and where does he come from? Why did Ginko even become a Mushishi? Why doesn't Ginko announce himself as an elite doctor that can help with supernatural irregularities? Why are Mushishi attracted to Ginko? Why are the character so retarded that when they seen a Mushi they go to touch it instead of thinking that touching a strange creature could be dangerous I shouldn't do this? Why isn't their a school or book about Mushi? Why isn't Ginko trying to spread the word about the existence of Mushi? Why don't people know that much about Mushi? Shouldn't their be folklore about Mushi? And seriously what even are Mushi in the first place? Why do they exist? why do they do the things they do? Why are they attracted to life? The anime provided no answers to these questions and this really annoyed me.

Now, if we look at Mushishi for what it is, all I see is the author writing/drawing an episodic manga series with a formulaic approach to each chapter, without any use of character or story. This takes zero skill to do, compare this to a series like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Count of Monte Cristo or Monster, series where the authors put loads of time into their writing to bring them alive. Therefore, as a series I have zero appreciation for Mushishi as quite literally it toke no skill to create.

Okay right now let me think of a manga series that uses the "Mushishi" approach - how about a cartographer/traveller/author who whats to map the world and write a book about the differences in each part of the world. This world can consist of thousands of islands, and each island can be unique. Okay now lets add something mystical, maybe fantasy creature like serpents, fairies, dragons, etc. So the basic story the protagonist arrived at a island and he met's the people and learns their culture, and ways of life. But they have this one problem that is caused by their island specific fantasy creature, so the protagonist uses his wit and knowledge from his travels to help the people. Now all I need to do is think up 50 different chapters and I have a full series. And since my manga is about culture I can rack this the philosophical points by symbolising cultural meanings. See to write something like Mushishi takes no skill I just thought of something on the spot that took me 3min to think up and write.

Overall for me the entire experience of Mushishi felt empty and senseless like nothing was there. If I were to describe Mushishi it would be - a boring repetitive manga with no story, encased with major inconsistencies, zero character and senseless events.

I hope this gave you some insight into why I hate Mushishi. However, recently I watched eps 2 and 3 of Zoku Shou 2nd Season and to tell you they were actually fairly interesting and their seems to be bit more there. Overall, Zoku Shou is a great improvement over the first season of Mushishi.

Lunafleurette said:
So because it disappointed your very, very high expectations, you decided to hate on it.

Akoram said:

I wouldn't call my expectations high at all. Just look at Mushishi's reputation as a series - it's named as one of the very best animanga's ever created. With someone as highly praised as Mushishi you would think it has to be masterful.

And anyway I never started to hate Mushishi until I was like 15-17 episodes into it. Before this I just saw it as a really boring and dull series, which was disappointing to what I expected. I didn't really care about it until I began to think about it.

Also, my hate of Mushishi doesn't at all effect my judgement to call Mushishi a boring show as this topic asks. If we look at one of my favourite TV series "Daredevil" I would call that a boring show and if this topic were to ask if Daredevil is a boring show I would tell the one asking that it is.

TheFatOtaku said:
Did I misunderstand or did you call yourself highly praised and masterful?

TheFatOtaku said:
And did I also misunderstand or did you call one of your favorite tv series boring?

haysikecemboles said:
Don't feed the troll.