Eric’s Anime Pick — Mushi-Shi

Eric says that Mushi-Shi is a relatively obscure title. Indeed, it took a week for a copy to arrive in Massachusetts from a Netflix distribution center in California.

Like Kino’s Journey, Mushi-Shi is about a wanderer, with a series of mostly self-contained stories. But unlike Kino, the character Ginko isn’t exploring for its own sake, but rather he’s a healer-for-hire who exorcises parasitic creatures called Mushi.

Caution: This video depicts what is known to comic book fans as an “injury to eye motif,” and it’s yucky and gunky!
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No Buddy From Netflix

On a whim I checked the free Video On Demand offerings on FiOS TV, and spotted a movie with the description “Norwegian comedy” so, what the heck, I pressed OK. The movie is a serio-comic romance from 2003, called Buddy. Carol and I really enjoyed it.

Netflix has both the DVD and the option to play Buddy online, but sitting together in front of the computer isn’t an option, and getting video from the computer to the TV is an annoying and unreliable process. Fortunately, getting TV to the computer is much easier, so here’s a 3-minute scene from Buddy, as played on FiOS TV V-O-D.

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