Mushishi & Kino's Journey

I was recently lent the anime Kino's Journey, about a girl called Kino who travels from country to country, on a talking motorcycle, never staying in one place for more than three days. It is very episodic, with almost no overarching plot, and the focus is as much, or more, on the quirks of the countries than on the main character herself. These countries always prove distopian - there is, for example, the country where the people overthrew the king, set up a democracy and then went mad, reflexively voting to execute everyone who made proposals they disliked, until there is only one citizen left. Not one country she visits is without unpleasant undertones. It is rare that Kino 'fixes' the problem. Often her role is simply to witness the country with us (and get out alive).  Usually it is unclear whether there actually is a problem, whether it is possible to fix it, and whether it should be fixed. At any rate, why should fixing the world be Kino's job?

Kino & Hermes (the motorcycle) of Kino's Journey

The show has a lot in common with one of my very favourite anime, Mushishi, about a man called Ginko who travels from place to place investigating people troubled by spirits. Just like Kino's Journey, it is episodic and focussed on the 'problem' caused by each spirit. These tend to be a bit more esoteric than the issues in Kino's Journey, and much of the point of the show is working out what the problem actually is. There is, for example, the man who thinks he sees the future in his dreams. In fact, he is infected with a spirit which is causing his dreams to become reality. The two anime share a great deal in plot structure, pacing, and the motif of the traveller who must keep on moving which invites comparisons between them.

Ginko of Mushishi

But there are some major differences - Unlike Kino, Ginko takes an active role in trying to fix the issues he encounters - more often than not (though by no means always), he is successful. Mushishi, then, is much more optimistic than Kino's Journey. The solutions Ginko offers usually boil down to 'live more moderately in accordance with nature/the spirits' (though it is never put so generally or so baldly). Usually the discovery of the spirit responsible is a moment of true beauty. By contrast Kino's Journey employs the arc words "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is." Not once does Ginko solve a problem with violence. On the other hand, the only time Kino solves a problem, she does it by killing the country's ruler and inciting a bloodbath.

There is another difference. Mushishi's overall time period is vague, but it is clearly pre-nineteenth century - there is very limited technology, most of it human or animal-powered. The time period of Kino's Journey is even vaguer, but it is a world with exceptionally advanced technology (at least when the plot demands), including cyborgs, mind-altering neurosurgery, and the elimination of work. Most of the time this stuff exists as the plot demands it (One episode revolves around the fact that planes do not exist), but the overall effect is to shift the focus from the relationships of humans with nature found in Mushishi to consideration of the relationships between humans and their technology. Nature largely disappears from the equation. At one point Kino's Journey considers "What do people do when you get rid of work?" a question that Mushishi can never even pose - within its setting that is impossible. The answer that Kino's Journey offers is instructive on its overall philosophy, that if you get rid of work, people will make work - because people don't change; they will always be stressed, violent, mean, gullible, and ignorant.

Why should this be so? Kino ultimately pins the blame on egoism, the belief in a 'self' - a very Buddhist conclusion. The very core idea of Buddhism is that the root cause of suffering is the (allegedly) incorrect belief in a self. Mushishi does not show this sort of Buddhist influence. On the contrary, its focus on the relationships between humanity and a natural world full of spirits, and the solving of problems by changing behaviour is very reminiscent of Shintoism. This I think is the root of the differences between the two shows. Though both made in Japan, they draw on different religious traditions, with very different approaches to humanity and the world.