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A friend whom I made many recommendations to returned the favor by pointing me to Mushishi; he adopted the same system of ranking anime which I adopted for my own purposes, and said that in the recent dearth of quality shows, Mushishi was a delightful surprise and a solid B+, "Very Good," which places it just one category below excellent, which is A- and up and made up of just 10% of all the shows I've seen.
The story belongs in that genre of anime that takes a slow, tasteful approach to story-telling, with a focus on Japanese folklore as generated by the beings known as Mushi. The anime uses very little background music, and very subdued ones when it does, which allows one to feast on the beautiful visuals and the story itself without drawing attention away to the music itself... in fact, one hardly notices the music for it blends in so well.
What I find most attractive about this show is that its apparent lack of "themes," in the modern sense of the word. The character is not exactly a hero of justice, nor are the mushis an evil force despite the threat they may pose towards humans. That is not to say each story accomplishes nothing, for it manages to reach out to touch the viewer on deeper levels, so that we're able to appreciate the subtle joys and sadnesses that the characters experience in their lives.
I am tempted to draw comparisons of Mushishi to other "mellow" shows, such as Kamichu, Haibanei Renmei, or Kino no Tabi, but have given up; Mushishi's stories and the way it tells them is simply unique.
This is truly an excellent show which I would recommend to a far and wide range of viewers... and there are few shows that I believe can achieve such universal appeal.
OP/ED: B+; very good (Opening was wonderful, ED was nice)
Music: B+ (It blends in so well I hardly noticed it)
Art: A; excellent
Animation: A-; excellent
Plot/Character Depth: A-; excellent
Overall: B+/A- (very good;excellent)
Tentative ranking out of some 70+ series reviewed: #8
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