Koisuru Kiseichuu

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This is a very underrated manga for me.

Story - 9
The story abous a grown male and school girl falling in love with each other by the cause of the "worm". Expected a happy ending but in the last chapter we got revealed that the "resistance parasites" were only in Kousaka's body. Surprisingly i wasn't as sad as i expected to be when it's ended, but anyways i liked that plot twist in last chapter rather much.

Art - 9
Amazing art for this genre, coudn't say more.

Character - 10
We are shown the backstory of misanthropy and of the MCs and it's cause, also we get to ... see the backstory of every side characters in this title in only16 chapter, every characters is unique and feels "real".

(btw i'm not a native english speaker so there's might be some mistakes ;D)

Don't get the reason why it has only 7.8 score, obviously everyone has different opinions but for me this was a pretty good read!

A manga with a really gripping conceit that unfortunately gets bogged down by a lot of the smaller details that just don't quite add up for me. I ended up feeling less enthusiastic about it as a whole, and more just appreciate certain aspects of it.

I'll start with what I really loved about it. The character art is very Yoshitoshi Abe-esque, which I was really fond of. Honestly from a pure technical level, it might even be better than lots of the stuff he's done and I really hope this artist makes more works in this style. I would happily check out anything they do ... from this point.

The other aspect that really sold me, especially as the story was first revealing it, was the concept of the parasitic, controlled love of the two main characters. The start of this manga feels compelling in some ways, but is not something terribly unique or interesting unless you are super invested in the characters already. The reveal of the parasites re-contextualizes everything that's happened so far and adds much more to it. The existentialist ideas that now lurk in the background of every interaction they've had are pervasive and eerie in a really effective way. Suddenly, the story is taking a very unique approach to the emotional turmoil of these characters.

I was equally impressed with how the reveal played out. I felt that the flashbacks with the professor and his patient slowly uncovering how the parasite behaves was well-handled. Their actions and motivations made sense, and of course, the omnipresence of the parasites in their own minds carried over that level of intrigue I was talking about. The question of what is their true free will and what is being controlled by the parasite is seriously fascinating and it was immersing me into this manga so much by this point.

From here, however, I started to notice more aspects that were really taking away from how I felt the story should have been playing out and was feeling more and more plagued by what seemed like unclear plot decisions. For example, I had expected that this reveal was implying that Izumi knew Kosaka was infected with the parasite, or at least strongly suspected it after seeing his interaction with the cashier. Turns out, Izumi was totally not expecting him to be infected and literally only chose him cause he somehow had dirt on him, since he knew about Kosaka making a virus (which he never explains how he knew by the way). If it had been the way I was assuming at first, I felt that it would make sense. Izumi and Sanagi's grandfather would be trying to further their research on the parasites in a controlled environment by studying exactly how they form connections with other hosts, but instead their motivations turned out to be way more pure, but in turn, way more bizarre. They were actually just trying to have someone become Sanagi's friend so that she'd be more willing to have treatment and try and save herself from the parasite.

Why would anyone think that paying a random, germophobic, 27 year old man to be a 17 year old girl's friend would work out in any way? I mean the question of whether they did connect because of the parasites (and if so to what extent it was and wasn't their own emotions) is meant to be left somewhat open-ended, but regardless it was a miracle that they got paired up. And to pursue this as your plan to get her some friends, let alone WITHOUT the knowledge or even suspicion that Kosaka is a host just seems fucking alien. I'm aware that they tried to pay other people before Kosaka, including some girls her age, but why they would ever turn to this random, grown-ass man who makes viruses and hates germs is just lost on me. I mean, sure, you have dirt on him, but you're paying the people anyways so that doesn't make him any better of a candidate than anyone else. If Sanagi and Kosaka had met at least once on their own, we could say that it was due to the signaling properties of the parasite, and Izumi could have just followed on what seemed like an oddly promising connection they could form (with or without knowledge of Kosaka as a host, he would be valid for trying this). If Izumi knew or suspected Kosaka of being a host, it would make sense for the reasons I named earlier. As it currently stands, there is no comprehensible reason why they would chose Kosaka.

Honestly, even the idea of "pay someone to be her friend" just seems like such a loose, roundabout plan that can go wrong in so many ways, ESPECIALLY considering they believe the real risk of the parasites is them copulating with the ones of another host they've spread to and reaching a number where a human can't stand to live with anymore. If Sanagi was isolated, instead of actively being made to meet new people, her parasites would never have a way to multiply to the point of causing her to un-alive herself (this being based on the knowledge they are working with at this point). So why was this their plan at all?? Couldn't you just start giving her the medication without her realization, instead of trying to "instill in her a will to be cured" since you were so convinced at this point that medication was in fact the cure? They wholistically believed that the suicidal thoughts were cause by the parasites, so I understand the point of saying "someone dealing with these thoughts needs to want the help themselves or it's meaningless" but in their scenario, that wouldn't really play a part in it. They're under the impression that the parasite is causing all those issues in her head. Again, I'm not implying that this would be the actions that would solve the problem, as is revealed in the end, but based on their understanding, their actions would be more along these lines. The plan they did come up with just kinda comes from no logical thread.

Once they do discover that Kosaka is a host, I don't really see why no one was bothering to ask him questions about his experience with the parasite, like when he first started having his germophobic condition. Because Kosaka, as it turns out, has had his parasite since he was 9 YEARS OLD. He's been dealing with it for 18 years and never un-alived himself. I think what the manga is implying with this is that since it's revealed that the parasites eat away at negative emotions, Kosaka's level of anguish was enough for the his amount of parasites to deal with, whereas Sanagi's levels of anguish were enough that she was still feeling depressed and would need more parasites to relieve those feelings. So I don't think it's a flaw that Kosaka has been fine for 18 years (although if there was a flaw there, it would be that this feels like an insane amount of time for him to never have experienced any "signaling"), the flaw is in the fact that neither Izumi nor the grandfather bothered to ask anything about another host subject who could offer them valuable information.

The other aspect that just feels like a huge hole is the research and conclusions done on the parasites themselves. As I said, I was really enjoying the way the first experiments were unfolding. I thought it was realistic for there to be a lot of unknown factors and felt that the studying was well considered. Something that played a large factor in this was that the professor mentions to Izumi's daughter that he has verified that the parasites can be treated with existing medication. This is why he felt comfortable with using his own body to study the parasites and never seemed to treat the test cases with any kind of grave urgency. Taking this at face value, fair enough, it validates the professor's action pretty well. But thinking on this after what happens, the medication had never, in any of the professor's cases so far, completely removed the parasite, it just SEEMED to be working to remove them. The two patients he referred to were never completely treated because they fucked off before he could actually remove the parasite (which he assumed the parasites were making them do to protect themselves).

All of a sudden, the professor doesn't actually have viable proof and kinda seems like total fucking idiot. There are various sicknesses, viruses or diseases that can be treated and improved but are subject to return or worsen given any other factors. Also, the effects or severity of the parasite could very well be more treatable in some people than in others (for instance, the parasites that grew in Kosaka's body ended up creating a variant that was immune to these medical treatments, which really only happens cause there are external factors at play in the parasites formulation which will be different for different people), so why would he take this risk without at the very least seeing anyone make a full recovery? Well the real answer to this is that if anyone had made a full medical recovery from the parasite at this stage in the story, the final reveal would be spoiled, but as far as the logic dictating the actions of the characters this just seems like a major, inexplicable fuck-up.

And speaking of the Kosaka variant parasites, this is probably the outright most egregious plot point for me. I mean, it is definitely contrived that Kosaka HAPPENED to have a variant that is immune to the medication, but as I said earlier the parasite is meant to create new breeds when entering new hosts, so fine, at least there's an explanation for the mini deus ex machina. Way more importantly: why was he losing his symptoms after taking medication? Izumi just describes it as "a lull" and the story leaves it at that. Huh? Can we not unpack that a bit? Is that not just an extremely convenient cop-out? The parasites in Kosaka are immune to medication and yet taking medication relieves him of his symptoms. Why not just keep taking the medication then? Don't you have the best of both worlds, where your parasites will not die off but you can also suppress your germaphobia with the meds? Why is the story implying that his misanthropic symptoms are going to return? Why did they diminish in the first place? Am I seriously meant to just be satisfied with "it was a lul, lol"?

I'm aware that many parts of this story are meant to be allegoric, and while I understand what the conceit is symbolically representing, I also don't think that it's a story where the parasites are not meant to exist in the context of it's world as well. I think the writing is making a clear effort to have the parasites be a realistically explored science fiction concept and for it to follow a set of established rules in the narrative. So although I didn't comment much on the mental illness parallels, it's not because they were lost on me, but because they didn't relate much to my complaints about the characters' actions and established information.

To go back to a big positive and end on a higher note here, I did really enjoy the ending. It made sense to me that the parasites were not the same when transferred to Sanagi because it follows the logic that the parasites are meant to create different variants when entering different hosts. The ambiguous final scene of whether or not she took her own life mirrors the ambiguity that the parasite conceit was adding to all of the character's action in the story. It's a strong final note, even if by this point I was really in my head thinking of all the bits that were pissing me off. Credit where it's deserved, I think this is a great ending.

I honestly wouldn't have felt passionate enough to write about Parasite in Love if not for great decisions that it makes throughout. Honestly at a certain point, I was convinced I was reading something I'd consider a favorite, so when the detractors reared their heads, I was a lot more passionate about them than I otherwise would have been. If anyone feels that I've missed something or interpreted the story differently, I'm totally open to hearing some possible explanations that for these points. I certainly don't think my critiques are definitive, although I made a good effort to dispel my own complaints, because once again, I really wanted to like this more.

Parasite in Love was... a dissappointment.
Please read this before reading the manga, I don't want other people to have the same experience. At least know what you are getting into.

This is my first ever review, I will try my best to keep it short, shorter the better - and spoiler-free but within my understanding, the very exact reason I began changing my score to this from 7 to 4 is a spoiler in on itself. I think that many people will dislike this certain aspect of the manga, but no one here in reviews actually discussed it. Well, there is very little discussion that ... is had on this manga anyway.

So, why is it a dissapointment? Because it had everything in the bag at the start, it had simply a great start for a short sweet romance manga with symbolism about love and how parasitic it is. No really, before getting to the middle part of the story I actually gave this a solid 7. Then it devolves into oxford biology class, giving examples of people different than the main protags. Let me remind you, there is only two characters featured in the front page, while this manga has 6 of them. 6 characters. I'm not saying there shouldn't be more, I'm saying this manga is specifically about two people and their dynamics. Not random couples and their parasites.

Look, it was that good of a dynamic between them, I have around 10-11 pages saved in my gallery, I absolutely loved seeing those two, story could've gone *anywhere* in *anyway* possible, but instead it turned into some kind of a medical drama. Some people would like it, sure, but most? I really don't think so.

So, this is the max I can talk about without getting deep into it, and I could just of course yap around meaninglessly about the manga and certain details designs and the afterwords, which entertained me the most - the art is gorgeous, Sanagi is drawn so beautifully and its in stark contrast to Kosaka who is much bigger (of course) and even then enviroments and characters look great. It's eye candy.

I put my review on "not recommended", well, I really wouldn't recommend it to most people, just after finishing it couple of my friends messaged me and my response was the same, its a dissappointment.
If you still want to read the manga despite reading all my review though, please go and read it. Just be strictly aware that this is not lovey dovey heart warming cute manga and end up like me. This is a ... different beast, to say at least. If I had known what I've written before reading it, my experience surely would be better, my expectations would be different, and I would still be sad and dissappointed but I couldn't judge the manga for this reason. So if you wanted to read this, and still want to read it after reading this review, do not waste a second. It is far, far, far better than most manga out there. I really can't emphasize on this enough. For most people, people like me, this manga is not a bad manga, its just not what we went out for. So now you know what's in there, go and read it.

Oh and it's open ended. I know this is a huge deal breaker to many people, so I'm adding this bit at the end where people just scrolling through can see it clearly. It does not have definite conclusion. It's all up to you how the story of Sanagi continues. No, there is no concreate way of knowing how, even the light novel is open ended. This bit also contributed to my dissappointment, since in the last 2 chapters they were actually getting close again, it was fun to read. Then in the middle of last chapter, oh welp.

To people who'd might say "how is this not romance", I do understand your point of view, these two characters surely get close to each other but this manga is not about *their* love, *their* romance, its strictly about parasites. the love they have is not the main focus, I would absolutely love this if they kept parasitic relationships (even toxic ones!) as a subtext and focused on the two. This is not the case. How else can I put it... Romance between them, is like a sub-plot in a random arc in a random anime.

I personally gave this manga a 4, because of my personal experience and feelings, but for anyone else, this manga can and should be a 6. It's not average, its far better than the average, it made me personally sad so I gave 4, but professionally, this is a good manga. It's a 6.