In this episode, Atomic and Tavarita discuss the sleeper hit manga and anime series Mushishi and its mastery of the art of short storytelling. They dive into Mushishi's haunting naturalism, the possibility of a shadow biosphere, and the entropy of our universe. This one is a thinker!

**Content Warnings: Existentialism, Talk of Animal Death**

• [0:00 ] Episode Introduction


• [0:29 ] Episode Title, John Muir


• [1:40 ] Housekeeping!


• [6:15 ] The Career of Yuki Urushibara


• [13:39 ] The Mushishi Manga


• [19:47 ] Manga Publishing Issues & FOMO


• [23:56 ] World of Mushishi


• [1:03:33 ] The Shadow Biosphere


• [1:14:04 ] The Mushi & Entropy


• [1:39:54 ] Why Fish Don't Exist


• [1:45:40 ] Outro - Alexa Guesses That Anime

[Show Notes]

• Conover, E. (2015). “Shadow biosphere” might be hiding strange life right under our noses. Science. Published. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa7865


• Davies, P. C., Benner, S. A., Cleland, C. E., Lineweaver, C. H., McKay, C. P., & Wolfe-Simon, F. (2009). Signatures of a Shadow Biosphere. Astrobiology, 9(2), 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2008.0251


• Miller, L. (2021). Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life (First Printing ed.). Simon & Schuster.


• Ohara, T. (2007, February 3). Mushishi Live-Action Movie Interview. ComiPress. https://www.comipress.com/article/2007/02/03/1449.html


• Oxford Essential Quotations, & Ratcliffe, S. (2020). John Muir. Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00012574


• Universe Today [Fraser Cain]. (2020, January 28). Is There A Shadow Biosphere? Searching For Life On Earth That Isn’t Related To Us [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2brd-3OVgn8


• Wikipedia contributors. (2021a, August 7). Yuki Urushibara. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuki_Urushibara


• Wikipedia contributors. (2021b, August 31). Mushishi. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi

[Art Credit]

"Shounen Protagonist" Logo & Design by Jules Riseling

https://www.julesriseling.com (thank you Jules!)

https://www.twitter.com/julesriseling

[Music Credit]

Intro & Outro Music: "Next" by Gio Navas

Intermission Music: "Brave" by Gio Navas

https://www.gionavas.com/ (thank you Gio!)

https://www.twitter.com/giomaria