It kills me that I only found out about the new episode yesterday.
Anyways, I finished watching the special and, out of all the great episodes this series has, this one felt like the greatest. Maybe it's the after-glow of watching something awesome that's doing the talking, but I loved everything about this one. I also tend to really love the episodes where the universe gets some development like in Pickers of Empty Cocoons and A Sea Of Writings. Usually, the episodes of Mushishi have you seeing Ginko play detective and he's the smartest guy in the room. But in those other episodes, and in this one, Ginko is interacting with people that are either his equal or know more about the situation than he does. In this latest episode you see him interacting with a Mushi master that is part of a clan that has been passing down the work for a century or more.
The way Kumado (the other mushi master) treats Ginko, with a general disdain for what Ginko does and represents, is just interesting to me. It shows you that Ginko is an outlier in the way he views mushi. They're two masters clashing over what to do.
The story of Kumado was ace too. I welcome any reason to have Tanyuu back on screen, but what was done here was really moving. Mushishi has always been about people trying to adapt to the strange powers of the mushi and this episode is no different. It presents people who are forever linked to mushi and how it affects their outlooks on life. I've always liked this aspect of the series since it gives the series a spiritual vibe that I don't often see in other media. It's less about the abilities of the mushi and more about the people dealing with them and how they struggle to cope.
So yeah, amazing episode. I think it encapsulates what Mushishi is all about for me. I can't wait for October.