In Japan, it has frequently ranked in the weekly top ten list of best-selling manga, and the entire series has sold over 3.8 million copies.
Mushishi is set in an imaginary time between the Edo and Meiji periods, featuring some 19th-century technology but with Japan still as a "closed country".
One such person is Ginko (ギンコ), the main character of the series voiced by Yuto Nakano in the original version and by Travis Willingham in the English dub.
Written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara, Mushishi was first published as a one-shot in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon on January 25, 1999.
[20] On November 21, 2013, Kodansha started to re-release the series in an aizōban format in their KC Deluxe line, concluding with the tenth on July 23, 2014.
[21][22] At the 2006 Comic-Con, Del Rey Manga announced that it had licensed Mushishi for an English-language translation in North America.
[26][27] The manga was also licensed in some countries such as in France by Kana,[28] in Italy by Star Comics,[29] in South Korea by Daewon C.I.,[30] and in Spain by Norma Editorial.
[32] They were encapsulated into a single tankōbon titled Mushishi Tokubetsu-hen: Hihamukage (蟲師 特別篇 日蝕む翳) and released on April 23, 2014.
[57] In addition, Funimation exhibited the first four episodes in New York and Texas' locations such as ImaginAsian Theater, Studio Movie Grill, and Alamo Drafthouse, on July 23 and 24 of that year.
[70][71] Madman Entertainment acquired the series' distribution rights at AVCon in 2007,[72] releasing it in a six-discs box set on January 14, 2009, in PAL region.
[75] A second anime television season titled Mushishi: Zoku-Shō (蟲師 続章) started airing on April 5, 2014,[b] on Tokyo MX and other channels.
[89][90] Madman released a DVD box set containing all Next Passage's episodes, Path of Thorns and Bell Droplets on December 7, 2016.
[113][114] Young Adult Library Services Association also listed the manga among 33 titles with "good quality literature and appealing reading for teens" in 2008.
[126] Aoki called it "a rare breed of manga: a smartly-written, original story that's told with simple yet mesmerizing imagery.
"[124] Similarly, Kimlinger declared that "Its hypnotic rhythm, humanism, and naturalist's eye for beauty give it a charm that far outstrips mere entertainment value.
"[125] Reviewer Jason Thompson intoned that while it may be "too mellow" for certain readers, he found praiseworthy its "very original vision, with a sort of 'flowing life' of its own, a biologist's precision mixed with creepy fairytales and a surreal, dreamy feel.
"[127] Its storytelling was highly praised; Isler deemed it as "near flawless",[126] while Pop Culture Shock's Ken Haley labeled it "an enjoyable and intriguing read",[128] and Shirl Sazynski of Sequential Tart lauded its "short, spooky and breathtaking stories.
"[129] Manga Life's Joy Kim stated that its lack of a central story allows one to enter at any volume, and that "the quality of the storytelling" will make fans want to read it in entirety.
"[131][132] Mushi-Shi -Next Passage- was also well received by fans; almost all of its DVD and Blu-ray volumes made the Top 20 list of the Oricon best-selling charts.
[d] Jacob Hope Chapman of Anime News Network praised the maintenance of the visual quality and the improvement upon the quality of the stories, declaring that "Mushi-Shi is quickly evolving from an excellent series of fables about the natural world to a wholly unique masterpiece that a written review can't really do justice by.
"[146] Ben Huber of Japanator praised its "soothing music and beautiful art", noting that "most anime struggle to create relatable and compelling characters in 12 or 24 episodes.