[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Mushishi episode 13: One Night Bridge
Sometimes Mushishi takes the viewer to a very dark place indeed - this episode, One Night Bridge, is certainly one of them.
The situation portrayed here can only be described as tragic. Zen and Hana (above) are two people whose romance is about to be brought to an abrupt end by a marriage arranged by Hana’s family. Zen persuades her to join him in fleeing the valley across its precarious bridge to a life of freedom in the lands beyond. The tragedy comes in when Hana falls from the bridge as they make their nightime escape; somehow she survives the fall but is little more than an empty, emotionless shell of her former self from then on.
Numerous local legends speak of occurences similar to those that have afflicted Hana but these are of little concern to her family, who are anxious to find a cure and marry her off as planned. Ginko makes a nerve-wracking journey to the village (above) to see if he can cure Hana’s condition; there is yet more bad news in store when he figures out what is wrong with her.
As always there is some interesting scientific explanation involving mushis but rather unusually Ginko shows more emotion and humanity than some of those around him. The girl’s condition is terminal and, if his hypothesis is correct, the treatment will kill her: as empty as her existence is, he refuses to end her life outright. Zen also refuses to give up on her and forces himself to stay in the village, but for this reason he lives as an outcast with little or no prospects for the future.
The ending to this episode is possibly the most poetic and downbeat so far but is all the more compelling for it. Right from the start life had dealt Zen and Hana a bad hand and it soon becomes clear that it will not ‘turn out okay in the end’. Whether you see this as a symbolism-laden portrayal of loneliness and doomed love or just a particularly beautiful and downbeat episode I doubt anyone will fail to be moved by this one.
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