Mushishi Collector's Edition 2

Mushishi Collectors Edition #3-4

by Yuki Urushibara

THERE ARE SOME YOU CAN SEE, and some you cannot. Mushi are a different kind of life-ones that Ginko, a mushishi, travels across the land seeking to decipher their ways. Some mushi can affect a person's body, causing a rust-like feeling in their limbs that ache without any rhyme or reason. Others can mystify a person's passage of time when enshrouded in an eerie sea mist. While Ginko observes and deducts how to live with mushi, it is when a boy finds a false spring in the barren winter landscape that Ginko may also come dangerously close to crossing to the other side. CONTAINS VOLUMES 3 AND 4

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Manga

496 pages, Hardcover

Published April 14, 2026

About the author

Yuki Urushibara (漆原友紀) is a Japanese manga artist from Yamaguchi Prefecture.
She is best known for the series Mushishi, for which she received an Excellence Prize for manga at the 2003 Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.

She is also known by the pen name Soyogo Shima (志摩 冬青 Shima Soyogo).

Reviews

[Othy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another magnificent collection of short stories about Ginko and the Mushi. I feel like I enjoyed these more, but I think I may have just read them more slowly and pondered them. They really need a lot of time to digest.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review of this book probably doesn't change much in general from my review of the first book so much that I could directly copy and paste it here and it would be the same other than this is a collection of books 3 and 4. I mean, I assume it is, since I don't have the ACTUAL books 3 and 4 anymore to compare, but I also don't see why they would have bothered rearranging the chapters.

The main thing I want to comment on is the inclusion of two "young Ginko" stories: one (somewhat predictably) about when he was a normal Japanese* boy and ended up losing his left eye and hair colour, and one when he ended up with a group of "wanderers." My spouse just asked me if there was anything about where he picked up Western clothing—since this was apparently the creator's subtle hint that Ginko is actually supposed to be a foreigner—but

- the story was never covered in any of the original 8 volumes (or 10, since the "last" one in the original translation was released as an 8+9+10 omnibus), and
- his "origin" story seems to contradict the idea that he's a foreigner, since he looked like a local and wore local clothing until he was older.

I still like this, and other than missing the introduction on mushi, it's just as readable for complete newcomers as the first book. Still don't know if I would re-collect the series for it, though—LOTS of competition for permanent shelf space lately.

*I assume—there's no indication that he was ever non-Japanese, but there's no indication that this is all in Japan in the first place, or even what general timeframe it is if it IS supposed to be our same Earth but mushi exist

[Aaron Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't get enough of the stories. They really are top notch. I also love how we are getting stories that are current and also from the past in Ginko's life. It really makes the overall tales so much better.

[Kailen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful art, beautiful stories, as always.

[E. G.]

--Mushishi: Collector's Edition, Volume 2

Afterword
Translation Notes

[Eli Pinkerton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent set of stories and art, while doing some really great character development.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED THIS LOVED THIS LOVED THIS

emotionally i have been torn apart