Mushi-Shi: The Complete Collection

Mushi-Shi: The Complete Collection gathers all 26 episodes of the series into a single boxset – although each of its constituent six discs is also available separately (product codes: FUN72901-6).

Every disc features a choice between between the original Japanese version (with optional English subtitles) or the excellent English dub (directed by Mike McFarlane), as well as textless versions of the songs, and trailer reels of other FUNimation titles – while spread over all six discs is a variety of extensive, director-led interviews and studio tours that offer insights not only into the series itself, but also into the complex collaborative process required to create any anime.

Good-humoured series director Hiroshi Nagahama speaks on Disc One of the unique qualities that drew him to Yuki Urushibara's original manga ("It's not something that deals with good and evil – it's not something that portrays only happy endings"), and emphasises his intention to stay entirely true to this source, while capturing something of its atmosphere in his moving, full-colour images with sound. Then, in the Artlands Annex Offices (nicknamed Mushi-Kago or 'Mushi-Cage') where the animation was drawn, Nagahama conducts a series of lengthy (but aways entertainingly jovial) interviews with the series' key personnel: lead voice actor Yuuto Nakano (Disc One); character design/illustration director Yoshiko Umakoshi (Disc Two); art director Takeshi Waki (Disc Two); sound director Kazuya Tanaka (Disc Three); filming director Yuuki Hama, assistant filming director Yui Tan and technical advisor Yoshihisa Oyama (Disc Three); music director Toshio Masuda (Disc Four); photo artist and director of the opening credits Ichigo Sugawara (Disc Four); colour setters Rikia Nishio, Keiko Yamashita, To Yamazaki and Kuniharu Okano (Disc Five).

As if this were not enough, Disc Six also includes a 38-minute whirlwind tour of the different production sites and offices, offering a dizzying array of soundbites from the many other illustrators, engineers and editors who worked on the series. Sure, most of them have little more to say beyond how hard they worked and how fun it all was – but nonetheless this featurette presents an unusually democratic glimpse into the sheer amount of talent that contributes to a 23-minute animated TV episode.

There are two (minor) disappointments in all this. The first, given the thoroughness with which director Nagahama celebrates his collaborators major or minor, is the notable absence from these featurettes of the original manga writer Urushibara herself - although there is enough said about her to compensate for her Mushi-like invisibility.

Secondly, while the English dub's director/co-adaptor Mike McFarlane and lead voice actor Travis Willingham (who plays Ginko) are affable enough in their optional audio commentary on Episode 26, they do not in fact refer at any point to the final episode playing out on the screen, instead discussing the series as a whole in general terms. There is much that is striking about Episode 26. Its narrative spans several decades of Ginko's life, although Ginko's appearance is delayed for over half its duration. It manages, like the best pastoral idyll, to mark the passing of time while observing continuity as well as change. And where each preceding episode contained its own dominant colour theme, this crowning instalment combines all the colours of the series. Yet none of this gets so much as a mention from McFarlane or Willingham, so that it remains unclear why their conversation has been cast as an episode commentary at all.

Still, this is a fantastic collection of a series that viewers, whether young or old, will be happy to watch again and again.