Based on a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Afternoon Season Zokan from 1999 to 2002, and in Monthly Afternoon from December 2002 to August 2008. The individual chapters were collected and released into ten tankobon volumes by Kodansha.
Mushishi is an adaptation of Yuki Urushibara's award-winning manga of the same name. The series adapts the first 26 chapters of the manga, adapting one per episode. The anime aired these stories in a different order than that of the manga.
The series won the Tokyo Anime Award in the Television category in 2006. The series premiered on October 23, 2005, but went on hiatus on March 12, 2006 after having aired 20 episodes. Broadcast resumed on May 15, and aired the remaining 6 episodes, concluding on June 19, 2006.