Yes. Exactly. They are people, and to make matters worse, they are japanese people.There’s a very fitting quote for those moments, by a contemporary russian sci-fi author Oleg Divov. I can’t conceive a good literary translation, but it goes like this: “Superior entities? Gimme a break! Every time I see an idiotic situation continuously preserved out of fear of it turning into even worse situation, I immediately see that our good old people, ordinary humans, are in charge.”

And the awesomeness of Mushishi is partly because it goes beyond usual philosophical truisms (we all just want to survive etc), which, while obviously correct, wouldn’t EVER make such an atmospheric mono no aware piece. Mushishi shows many dreadful and beautiful things about us without even putting them into words, what makes it so recognizeably bittersweet.