I’d like to depart from the big screen to talk again about the small one. I know many people tend to look down on anime, but I think those people might change their tune if they watched Mushi-shi.

I was turned on to Mushi-shi at a pretty rough time in my life as “a show that’ll make you feel better. Not, like, warm-and-fuzzy-and-happy better. Just sort of calm-and-zen better.” And that’s actually a spot-on description. In Mushi-shi, a mushi expert named Ginko travels around Japan investigating and solving problems caused by these creatures called mushi. The mushi aren’t malevolent; they’re just obeying the instinct to survive like any other living thing. It’s just that their instincts often cause grief for the humans that must coexist with them. As for what exactly mushi are, I’ll let the master explain.

I turned to this show again recently because I’ve felt a lack of balance in my personal life and I wanted a little push to let go of worry. Mushi-shi does that so well. Even the theme music has a calming melancholy. The singer tells of such atiring journey to find his love, but something in the music is still so cheerful.

I don’t know if it’s even possible to meditate while watching a television show, but I can’t help but feel like each episode does guide the audience through a 23-minute meditation. The pacing of each episode rises and falls like breath, like the waves, like the sun. It’s hard to say whether any given episode has a happy ending or a sad one. Rather, there are losses and gains alike, such that by the end the overall mood is virtually the same as it was in the beginning; it’s just that things have changed. It’s all very zen in that respect. I find that I can’t feel anything but relaxed after watching an episode.

The sound, too, is mixed in such a way that it rises and falls as well. Usually voice is the most prominent sound, as it should be in a film. But there are strategic moments where the music is mixed louder than the voice. It kind of takes you out of the episode for a moment, but not in a bad way. The music itself is also pretty zen, and so being forced to focus on it instead of the dialogue is this very relaxing phenomenon that’s difficult to explain.

The other great thing about Mushi-shi is that there is very little sustaining conflict. That is to say, there isn’t much that you can understand only if you watch the episodes in order. So, you can pick and choose your favorite episodes and just watch one or two when you need a pick-me-up. I’ve got a couple of favorites I go back to pretty frequently, and they never fail to cheer me up or relax me as necessary.

There are only a few downsides. First, only the first season of the show has been dubbed into English. So if you don’t like watching in Japanese and reading subtitles, your options for Mushi-shi are limited to 26 episodes. The remaining 20 episodes and 2 specials have been licensed, but I’m not sure about any plans to dub them. Second, the show takes place in Japan around the late 1860s. If period settings aren’t your thing, I guarantee that will be a turn-off for you. And finally, the show is undoubtedly a fantasy story. If you’re looking for strict realism, you won’t find it here. However, if those things wouldn’t bother you, or even if you’re on the fence, I strongly recommend you give Mushi-shi a try. You might be surprised. I certainly was.