I love Mushishi and didn’t realise that Urushibara-sensei had a new series that had actually been translated to English. So when this popped up in my GooglePlay Books on sale, I bought it straight away 😝
It was very hard not to compare this to Mushishi. It is definitely like a less, depressing (?) Mushishi (although that’s what I liked about Mushishi, that feeling of being helpless in the face of mushi and/or human nature). But after reading the first volume’s author’s notes about the series being about urban landscapes, I tried to pay more attention to the backgrounds.
The stories themselves were pleasant, but often a bit obvious (once you realise that it’s not going to end the way Mushishi would). Also a lot of the stories were time rewind based which made it a bit same-y. Maybe that was on purpose because of Chiyo’s situation. But in the end they never really delved into the Flow that caused Chiyo to become younger so… *shrugs*
So it was a relaxing read but I didn’t really fully appreciate this series until the final two chapters. And it was like “damn Urushibara-sensei, you got me!” I wasn’t expecting parallel worlds and for Hirota’s original world to essentially be ‘our’ world. The mirror story, where the mirror worlds were Flow and not real, definitely put me on the wrong track. After the reveal about Hirota suddenly, small things from the main series were brought into focus for what they really were and it was so cool. I’m thinking mostly about how Hirota was always so worried about Shacho disappearing and Chiyo (and I) assumed it was because he was using him for business purposes but it was actually because it was his only way ‘home’. The super happy ending where the Hirota’s switched places was very convenient but also satisfying 🤣 It also made me feel like the previous ‘reveals’ about Hirota being into older women was maybe a bit of a hint to ‘our’ world Chiyo and Hirota B perhaps becoming a couple (after becoming business partners). Which is much better than the series matching up Flow world Chiyo and Hirota A, that would have felt a bit weird (not just the age thing, but also it never really felt like their relationship had the potential to become romantic).
Other little things I liked about the series was the role of the Shrine, I felt it made sense given Flow was an ongoing aspect of the world, that it could be seen as a supernatural thing. Actually, it’s very interesting that over time it was studied and treated as a scientific thing even though it’s not like Hirota uses any gadgets or technology to solve Flow issues. And the other thing was the animosity between Shacho and Kokuomaru 🤣 This wasn’t a series about cats but in a way it still was 😁
Categories: Series Review
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