This is a list of episodes for the Mushishi anime series. It premiered on October 22, 2005 in Japan, but after 20 episodes, the series went on hiatus, and resumed screening the six remaining ones on May 14, 2006. Each episode tells a self-contained story and is not dependent on prior episodes for background. This made it possible for the producers of the anime to change the relative order of the stories. However, aside from a slight abridgment of the dialogue, this is the only major difference between the manga and the anime.
| # | Title | Manga Order | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | "The Green Seat" "Midori no Za" (緑の座) |
Vol 1 Chap 01 | 2005-10-22 | |
| Ginko investigates the case of a boy whose drawings come to life. | ||||
| 02 | "The Light of the Eyelid" "Mabuta no Hikari" (瞼の光) |
Vol 1 Chap 04 | 2005-10-29 | |
| Ginko gives aid to a little girl who spends her days locked in a cellar because she can't bear sunlight. | ||||
| 03 | "Tender Horns" "Yawarakai Tsuno" (柔らかい角) |
Vol 1 Chap 02 | 2005-11-05 | |
| A boy who somehow has horns growing on his head is fated to die like his mother, who suffered of the same problem, unless Ginko is able to figure out a cure. | ||||
| 04 | "The Pillow Pathway" "Makura Kōji" (枕小路) |
Vol 1 Chap 03 | 2005-11-12 | |
| A farmer whose dreams become reality seeks Ginko's help. | ||||
| 05 | "The Traveling Swamp" "Tabi o Suru Numa" (旅をする沼) |
Vol 1 Chap 05 | 2005-11-19 | |
| Ginko investigates the case of a mysterious girl who is seen in a swamp which moves by itself. | ||||
| 06 | "Those Who Inhale the Dew" "Tsuyu wo Suu Mure" (露を吸う群れ) |
Vol 2 Chap 08 | 2005-11-26 | |
| Ginko's services are requested by a boy who lives in a distant island to investigate the case of a girl revered by the people there as a god. | ||||
| 07 | "Raindrops and Rainbows" "Ame ga Kuru Niji ga Tatsu" (雨がくる虹がたつ) |
Vol 2 Chap 09 | 2005-12-03 | |
| Ginko encounters a man who has a strange habit of pursuing rainbows. | ||||
| 08 | "Where Sea Meets Man" "Unasaka Yori" (海境より) |
Vol 3 Chap 12 | 2005-12-10 | |
| While traveling along a beach, Ginko meets a man who hopes to find his long lost wife. | ||||
| 09 | "The Heavy Seed" "Omoi Mi" (重い実) |
Vol 3 Chap 13 | 2005-12-18 | |
| Ginko arrives at a village where there are unusual harvests, always occurring after natural disasters, and always involving the death of one of its inhabitants. | ||||
| 10 | "The White Which Lives Within the Ink Stone" "Suzuri ni Sumu Shiro" (硯に棲む白) |
Vol 3 Chap 14 | 2006-01-07 | |
| A group of kids get themselves in trouble when they mess with one of the mushi-related items from Adashino's collection. | ||||
| 11 | "The Sleeping Mountain" "Yama Nemuru" (やまねむる) |
Vol 2 Chap 06 | 2006-01-07 | |
| During his travels, Ginko meets an old Mushishi who tells him the story of how he became the guardian of the mountain where he lives, and why he can't leave there for the rest of his days. | ||||
| 12 | "One-Eyed Fish" "Sugame no Uo" (眇の魚) |
Vol 3 Chap 15 | 2006-01-14 | |
| An orphan is adopted by Nui, a white-haired Mushishi. Ginko's origin is revealed. | ||||
| 13 | "One-Night Bridge" "Hitoyobashi" (一夜橋) |
Vol 4 Chap 17 | 2006-01-21 | |
| Ginko arrives in a village where lives a girl who fell from a bridge three years before. Though she apparently survived the fall, she is not the person she used to be anymore, to the despair of the young man who loves her. | ||||
| 14 | "Inside the Cage" "Kago no Naka" (籠のなか) |
Vol 4 Chap 19 | 2006-01-28 | |
| While traveling through a bamboo forest, Ginko encounters a man who somehow can't leave the forest, no matter how he tries. Curiously, his wife and child also share the same issue. | ||||
| 15 | "Pretense of Spring" "Haru to Usobuku" (春と嘯く) |
Vol 4 Chap 18 | 2006-02-04 | |
| Ginko gets shelter in a cabin during the winter. The boy who lives there claims there is a place where spring blooms early and every time he goes there he ends up sleeping for days. | ||||
| 16 | "Sunrise Serpent" "Akatsuki no Hebi" (暁の蛇) |
Vol 5 Chap 25 | 2006-02-11 | |
| Ginko helps a boy who is worried about his mother because she is little by little forgetting her memories. | ||||
| 17 | "Pickers of Empty Cocoons" "Uromayutori" (虚繭取り) |
Vol 4 Chap 16 | 2006-02-18 | |
| Ginko is worried about the girl who handles the cocoons used as mailboxes by the Mushishi, as she is still searching for her sister who disappeared in one of them. | ||||
| 18 | "Clothes that Embrace the Mountain" "Yama Daku Koromo" (山抱く衣) |
Vol 5 Chap 23 | 2006-02-25 | |
| Ginko gets his hands on a coat apparently possessed by a mushi. Hoping to figure out the truth, he starts looking for the coat's first owner. | ||||
| 19 | "String from the Sky" "Tenpen no Ito" (天辺の糸) |
Vol 6 Chap 26 | 2006-03-04 | |
| Ginko helps a girl who was taken by a white string from the sky and disappeared for a while. After she returns home, strange things start to happen to her. | ||||
| 20 | "A Sea of Writings" "Fude no Umi" (筆の海) |
Vol 2 Chap 07 | 2006-03-11 | |
| Ginko comes to a house which is a kind of library with mushi-related scrolls. There he meets the girl who writes the scrolls and hears the story of the curse that afflicts her family since generations ago. | ||||
| 21 | "Cotton Changeling" "Watabōshi" (綿胞子) |
Vol 2 Chap 10 | 2006-05-14 | |
| Ginko is called to see a child who was developing a green rash through his body. He quickly figures that the child and his four brothers are not human. | ||||
| 22 | "Shrine in the Sea" "Okitsu Miya" (沖つ宮) |
Vol 5 Chap 21 | 2006-05-21 | |
| Ginko investigates a village with a shrine rumored to give people another life. | ||||
| 23 | "The Sound of Rust" "Sabi no Naku Koe" (錆の鳴く聲) |
Vol 3 Chap 11 | 2006-05-28 | |
| A girl is ostracized by the village where she lives because apparently she is the cause of a strange rust that afflicts the houses and people there. Now it's up to Ginko to figure out the truth. | ||||
| 24 | "The Journey to the Field of Fire" "Kagarinokō" (篝野行) |
Vol 5 Chap 24 | 2006-06-04 | |
| Trying to dispose an unknown type of mushi which threatens her village, the local Mushishi decides to burn down the whole mountain where it lives. But Ginko does not agree with the idea. | ||||
| 25 | "Eye of Fortune, Eye of Misfortune" "Ganpuku Ganka" (眼福眼禍) |
Vol 5 Chap 22 | 2006-06-11 | |
| Ginko encounters a woman who was blind until a mushi entered her eyes and she started to see again. But her sight was improving day by day, until the point she was seeing more than she wished for. | ||||
| 26 | "The Sound of Footsteps on the Grass" "Kusa o Fumu Oto" (草を踏む音) |
Vol 4 Chap 20 | 2006-06-18 | |
| When Ginko was a child, he lived for a while with a group of nomads that every year visited a mysterious mountain. | ||||