After the disappointment of episode 19, episode 20 totally makes up for it. The theme is kindof heavy this time. Normally, mushi aren’t really evil. This episode deals with a mushi who is. Ages ago, it had been sealed, after attempting to kill all humans and animals. However, the sealing just set the mushi to sleep, it didn’t kill it. There’s also the fact that the mushi was sealed in a human body. When that body dies, the descendants of that body will carry this seal over. In contrast with Naruto, the bearer of the seal doesn’t gain any superpowers, but a part of their body turns pure black and unmovable, making them unable to use it. In this case, the black part was just the right leg. But the first bearer had it all over her body.

Anyway, in order to kill the mushi, the bearer has to write down stories of mushi dying. That’s the weak point of this mushi. It just takes one heck of an amount of stories in order to do this. Even three generations haven’t been able to. The girl in this case will most likely also have a nice way to spend her time for the rest of her life. The introduction of this episode was just so sad. After all, living up, firstly not being able to play with other children because of a certain black leg, and secondly having to hear all kinds of stories about death. I’m not sure, but that doesn’t seem the best way to grow up. But then again, if she doesn’t do it, the mushi will consume her. In other words, she’ll die herself.

We also get to know that there are also Mushishi who don’t value the life of the mushi. Ginko’s stories about mushi not dying during his adventures were a first case for this girl. I didn’t expect a thing like this. From all the Mushishi I’ve seen in this series, they all seem like a bunch of pacifists, who value the life of every creature.

It was also very nice that we got to see an image of Ginko that we’ve never seen before. After seeing the two of them talking at the end of the episode, they seemed like a nice couple. Speaking of that, we had a rather unique ending this time. While it was just as great as the other Mushishi-endings, it lacked a climax. The fact that the girl has been doing this for probably more than thirteen years shows how she came to accept her tasks, and how she learend to live with it. Because of this, and ending like that is possible.

A guy from an relatively rich family falls in love with the nanny of his little brother (at least, I assume it’s his little brother. It’s at least a baby-member of the rich family). This nanny gets to play the victim this time. She’s a person who can see certain types of mushi, she sees a mushi in the form of a thread hanging from the sky, grabs it and flies off into the air. Then she falls down to earth again, trees break her fall, but she becomes a pseudo-mushi. Eventually, she’s partially saved by Ginko who runs into her. In order to totally save her, the guy needs to make her give the will to remain human. Well, let’s just say he fails. After a little rant from Ginko’s side, we get to see a very enjoyable ending.

Even though this was an enjoyable Mushishi episode, it just remained enjoyable. Nothing more nothing less. It wasn’t anything special like the previous episodes. I did like the ending, however. It seems like Mushishi has the handicap of always delivering a great (or even better) ending for each episode.

Aah, I knew it. Ballow had to have some kind of background. When he was a child, he accidentally shot his mother with Kurogane, mistaking her for a burglar. Ever since, she lost her awareness of this world, and only is able to lay awake in bed, without any motion (there has to be some kind of term for this, but it can’t come to my mind). His mother was a good painter, so Ballow thought that he could reach his mother’s heart by making very good pictures. Well, he tried that for about eight years, with still no success. After he chases away a couple of burglars with Kurogane, his mother suddenly reacts again by seeing this oversized pea shooter, she apparently remembers the past incident, and she becomes extremely scared. Well, after all this, it was a piece of cake for Margaret to convert him. Overall, I like this story. It’s so much better than the last episode, and it does give a bit of extra dimension to the fight.

Ballow’s background may have been very pleasantly to see, but what really made my day was what happens afterwards: we finally get to see Kami-sama’s background. We finally get to see a serious side of his, explaining why he organized this tournament in the first place. It seems that the position of Kami-sama changes very rapidly (at least, in terms of heavenly-beings), as it has only been 25 years ago that Kami-sama was appointed to his task. Apparently he had some good connections, as he was just ‘chosen’ by the previous Kami-sama. Anyway, he didn’t really like the huge amount of paperwork, so he takes off. I loved the way his assistant misunderstood Kami-sama’s comments on the Hellions.

Kami-sama apparenly was a human before he got promoted, as he goes back to the human world. There he meets up with a very weird girl. I really like her. I couldn’t believe that the creators would’ve been able to put another unique character in, but apparently, they can. This girl tries to get out of a couple of guys harrassing her, all in Ueki-style of course, fails, and then relies on Kami-sama to protect her, resulting in some very hilarious scenes. Then the girl introduces her and we get another horrible cliffhanger.

After this episode, there are just seven episodes left. I’m expecting the next episode will be reserved for preparations and the rest of Kami-sama’s background, so that means that the grande finale will consist of six episodes. In those six episodes, Rihou gets his lessons, the Ballow team still have some kind of role, Margaret will reveal his plans, Kami-sama fights Margaret, and Anon will be featured in his showdown. In other words: it will be one heck of a final. I am so hoping that the girl introduced in this episode will play a huge role, I’m already fan of her.