Kiseijuu
Parasyte

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Alright, let's talk Parasyte:

STORY: Alright the story as described in the paragraphs above may sound cheesy and unoriginal to some, I know. However, as the story progresses the plot thickens and is beautiful. It shows how various people with the parasites, the bad not the good, try to cope in society and that's actually amazing to see unfold. One gets pregnant, one tries not to kill, etc.

Also, Parasyte shows quite vividly how someone would live with another symbiote in their body. Needless to say, this is very cool and interesting if you're in to that sort of thing. ... Even if your not, this doesn't slow down the story all that much which is fast-paced and easy to read.
(A tiny note here: One of my friends was reading it and it was about two in the morning so he told himself that after one chapter he'd stop reading. He stayed up until 4 to finish the whole thing.)

ART: The art is well done, although some may think it's a bit too sketchy and simple for their tastes. However, one of the neat things that the author/illustrator does, Hitoshi Iwaaki, is that he makes the eyes in such a way that after a while you can tell who's contolled by a parasite and who's not just by looking at their eyes.

Another great thing about the art is the transformations. When a parasite takes over a body they can change the shape and strength of the body to suit their needs. That means that their heads unravel to reveal blades, or they turn into a massive mouth, or many other neat, and creepy, ideas. The transformations are great to look at.

Also the author/illustrator can build teh tension very well by using great panel techniques. One such example is in the second new graphic novel, fourth old one (There have been two different publications), when Shin jumps over a ten foot wall. The panels keep widening until there's a full page spread of Shin leaping over the wall, then the next page the panels shortens to half the page to show the landing. Trust me, it gets your adrenaline pumped.

CHARACTER: At first Shin is just the average teenage hero archetype that has been seen in almost every shounen manga. But when you get to the second new graphic novel, fourth old one, things start to change. The parasite in his hand has to split and about 20% of it is strewn throughout Shin's body. Then Shin begins to start losing his very humanity and has to fight to get it back.

There is also a nifty little love triangle type deal that develops at the end of the second new graphic novel. Because every shounen manga needs to have a love triangle. (Sarcasm, if you hadn't noticed.) But I have to say this one's pretty well done.

ENJOYMENT: Wow. I just can't get enough of this series. Everything about it is pretty much perfect. Sure, you get a translation error every once in a while that makes you wince a little bit but besides that the thing is great. I read all the old graphic novels when I was about twelve and they blew my mind and now that it's being rerealsed by Del Rey there is no more perfect time to buy it. (They have combined two of the old graphic novels for a nice little price of $13-14)

If you like shounen, hell if you like action in your manga, check this out. You may not love it, but you won't be disappointed.

OVERALL: I want to give this series a ten but I just can't, otherwise I wouldn't be honest. If I could it would get a 9.5.

The only problems I can see is that every once in a while there is that translation error that doesn't make sense, and some people may find the art a little two simple.

However, the pluses definitely way out the minuses. There's a little something for everyone here: the one's who like a lot of action and not too much plot, the guys who like a deep story, the people who like watching others get chopped to bits, it's all here. (It even has a bit of sexual humor if you're into that.)

Even if you don't like manga too much, don't worry. I've had people read it who didn't even know what a comic book was, let alone manga, and they all really loved. One of them even went out and bought it himself. The others are all waiting on me to give them the next one when it's rereleased.

Try it, you'll like it.
(If you don't please tell me why. I'd like to know.)

Parasytes are an alien species that take over the human body by replacing the head. Our shmuck lead Izumi was about to be taken over by a parasyte, but due to some quick thinking he manages to stop the alien inside his arm, upon which the parasyte consumes his arm and takes it place. The two then have to learn how to live with each other while also dealing with all the other parasytes that have landed on earth.

What drew me to Parasyte originally was seeing the body horror pictures of how peoples’ bodies mutated and warped and started growing tentacles and teeth and occasionally ... dick hands. I’m usually a pretty queasy person so I’m not sure quite why this drew me in, but there’s a definite fascination with how alien the mutations the bodies undertake. Once you get over the original shock, it’s not even that scary anymore. The mutations are so alien and cartoonish they go into this area of scholarly fascination. The only times I would actually get a bit perturbed were the more ghoulish deaths of actual humans rather than the parasytes. This cartoonish nature of the body distortions could have undermined something that was only trying to shock you, but thankfully Parasyte is cleverer than that. It’s got a real dark sense of humour, one that’s willing to laugh at itself, what with the aforementioned dick hands and so forth. Plus the comedy segments don’t detract from the moments the deformations are supposed to shock you. It’s a delicate balancing act, but one that Parasyte pulls off remarkably well.

Parasyte does have more to it than just some alien horror story. Its larger theme is about humanity and what makes someone human. Migi, the parasyte that co-inhabits the main character’s body, is very Kyubey-esque in how he thinks. He has no empathy but endless curiosity driven mostly by a self-preservation instinct. Through his conversations with Izumi, they explore both sides of each character and broader concepts of what it means to be human and why it is that one might perform a selfless act. It’s got that perfect duo combination where the two sides’ conversations force both characters to develop. Migi’s development is more subtle than Izumi’s, but that’s because Migi slow development is reflected in the attitude of all the parasytes as they evolve and and start to change their approach to fitting into society. Their change becomes a way to explore what makes humans tick.

Izumi starts off as a bit of a Yuji Everylead, but he changes pretty quickly into a more fascinating character who struggles to find what it is that makes him human. Fairly early on in the manga he absorbs part of Migi into his bloodstream and it starts to change him in little ways. He doesn’t get emotional, can’t cry at friends and family’s deaths, and some of his actions start to reflect Migi’s apathetic nature. You get the feeling that the times he does show kindness and emotion is him trying to force himself to act human so he can reclaim his identity as a human. It mirrors how some of the more advanced parasytes try mimicking human actions in order to understand them and fit into society better, such as trying to smile, having children and laughing. This in turn causes them to start experiencing much more human emotions. It might sound like this is all heavy stuff, talking about the nature of humanity and all that, but it isn’t really. The last volume definitely gets a bit preachy, but otherwise the dialogue all feels very natural and goes about things with a sense of humour. Plus at the moment it really counted, when they really needed to bring everything to the table around both the parasyte’s increasing selflessness and Izumi’s own struggle with his humanity, they nailed the scene so well that it made me cry.

Let me repeat that for effect: I cried at Parasyte. Fucking Parasyte. The manga with dick hands made me cry. Do you know how often I cry at entertainment? Never! And yet somehow Parasyte made me cry? With proper tears streaming from eyes, so overcome with emotion that I had to stop reading and walk for a bit? The only other time in my entire life I cried at media was at Grave of the Fireflies, which is kind of to be expected since that is basically the only point of Grave of the Fireflies. Plus I’ve kind of gone off Grave of the Fireflies over time, as its method of drawing emotion is to have everything be shit and then everyone dies, which is kind of a cheap almost Jun Maeda-esque way of drawing emotion. Meanwhile Parasyte managed it by being positive. It’s key scene was the fulfilment of 8 previous volumes of thematic buildup and re-affirmation of the main character’s humanity that was so tragically beautiful it caused me to break down.

Sorry, is this all a bit serious?

I picked up Parasyte because I figured if I was going to jump into manga, I’d want to read something that would at least draw a reaction from me, but I ended up absolutely loving it. It keeps the story tight and focused on a small cast of characters. It’s paced excellently, comes to a conclusive ending and doesn’t drag on longer than it needs to. It has depth while keeping a sense of humour, and the body horror is shocking without being an obstacle to enjoyment. It’s a bloody great manga and highly recommended.

They control the body by invading the brain. They can change the shape of their bodies and use them as weapons. They eat humans.

Like a logical continuation of John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), set in modern day society and with more than one parasite, Parasyte is an entertaining sci-fi horror thriller.

Descending from the sky, parasites fall onto humanity. They worm their way into humans, penetrating skin and then act erratically before eating whoever is around them. As the story begins, a parasite fails in its attempt to infect a teenager, Shinichi, who becomes the protagonist. The thoughtful and quick-witted guy ... manages to prevent the parasite by cornering it in his arm, which afterwards leads to lots of humour from his wayward right hand with a life of its own.

They settle into a symbiotic relationship, though the parasite, going by the nickname of Migi, needs the boy more than the boy needs Migi. Thus there is the threat of body mutilation waiting for the boy if he ever decides to attempt to remove his right hand or let the world know about the parasite.

It’s a great relationship, with high stakes, tension, and drama. Yeah it’s a boy and his right hand; there should be some kind of perverted subtext at play here.

Migi's presence begins to impact Shinichi's life more than practically, but also mentally. Fearing losing his humanity, he seeks to assert himself more in his daily life and relationships, to remind himself and to teach Migi what being a human is; what humans are capable of, how they can rise above basic instincts and defy logic with their positive traits of bravery, courage, self-sacrifice and love.

Don’t worry, that hokey path is mostly avoided by author Hitoshi Iwaaki who goes into far more interesting places by actually having the boy's humanity gradually seep out of him via various plot devices that don’t feel too cheap, because ultimately they result in far more thought-provoking and juicy themes and concepts.

From the moment the parasite entered Shinichi's body he became a neo-human, but by the midway point he's practically a superhuman, albeit constantly becoming more and more detached from the lives around him, discarding of dead puppies in trash cans without realising how cold he looks to cute girls around him.

Many genre traits appear in Parasyte, such as high-school based comedy and romance, but the key aspect is the thriller undertones that are tied with such a premise. There are many great tense situations. The staple of the thriller genre is to throw an unremarkable character into an extraordinary situation and to watch him squirm and struggle to get out of it. Parasyte delivers.

It more than delivers, it constantly heaps trouble on the poor teenager, terrorising him with death and misery, robbing him of loved ones, of every semblance of normalcy, completely destroying his life. The desperation of the character is palpable and makes us emphasise with him more, there's truly a great The Fugitive-esque vibe running through this manga.

As Shinichi gets accustomed to his predicament the rate of parasites around him and risk of collateral damage also increases. He has to navigate around potential parasites all around him in society while protecting the people he cares about without revealing that living in his right hand is a parasite.

Iwaaki goes many routes with the core premise, not just having the tale centred on one boy but including the far-reaching implications of parasites infiltrating humankind. They didn’t just happen to fall into the brains of high school teenagers, but people with all kinds of professions and backgrounds. An interesting plotline begins when a suspected infected politician starts campaigning for mayor.

There are also cool shonen style rules laid upon the boy's predicament, such as Migi having to sleep for four hours because the parasite is so ingrained with the boy's body, which of course leaves Shinichi vulnerable to attacks from his enemies, forcing him to rely on his own wits.

The art isn’t anything to shout about, though like most manga, improves slightly in later volumes. Action scenes however are drawn well, with good scope and motion conveyed via effective usage of speed lines and P.O.Vs. Gore-hounds will get a lot of pleasure from Parasyte, there are decapitations and blood-letting galore. Although for some reason it appears more dour and disturbing than most other manga I've read, such as Gantz.

Maybe we're jaded at this point, but also maybe because the author doesn’t revel in violence with glee. It’s always disturbing, tragic and merciless because there's no tongue-in-cheek attitude here. Humour is present in the story, but the implications of the premise are never sidelined, the horrifying nature of the parasites and their potential is always at the forefront of the story, and it’s made never more clear than watching random citizens eviscerated without any warning or mercy. Nobody is safe in this story, so after you’ve invested yourself in various characters, watching them chased and sometimes killed, is thrilling stuff.

If a criticism could be laid at this manga, it would be that Iwaaki doesn’t show more snapshots of regular peoples’ lives, the building up of paranoia in society, knowing that there are monsters out there. Wouldn’t there be a hysteria and tragedy after tragedy as the masses implode with suspicion against one another? Iwaaki avoids this by holding the truth of the parasites from society at large, only having the public aware of an urban legend, not solid facts, but even so, having his excellent writing delve into more random aspects of peoples’ lives would have gave the manga more gravitas.

Much like Carpenter's The Thing, Parasyte doesn’t build up to an epic battle to save the planet, but rather a more personal struggle for survival. It’s always personal in this story, and that’s why it works as a sci-fi thriller, constantly keeping you on edge while entertaining you with thrills.

Parasyte is a series written and drawn by Hitoshi Iwaaki. Unfortunately this is his only notable series so I can’t so much about his career. I mostly picked up Parasyte on a whim and also because my favorite manga reviewer, Y Ruler of Time mentioned it on his Seven Deadly Series list. But I digress, lets get started.

Story: The story is your standard alien invasion story. Little spores about the size of tennis balls fall from space and give birth to little worm like creatures. The creatures then invade the heads of humans and take over their bodies. The end result being that the creatures ... can flex the heads into any shape or size, making them stretch and snap like rubber, or turn them into blades.
Our story follows a teenage male named Shinichi whom a creature tries to invade, but, due to a fluke, the creature ends up stuck in his arm. Shinichi ends up naming the creature Migi, and they develop a rather odd relationship. For the most part their relationship builds around the fact that they have to fight off creatures that have successfully invaded human heads. Why do they need to fight off the aliens? Well, only because that the aliens that successfully invade human heads have to survive by eating other humans. Needless to say Migi can change Shinichi’s arm into pretty much anything, so that makes for some pretty awesome fight scenes.
What’s really interesting about this series though is that a small group of parasytes inherit human personalities (whilst still remaining homicidal creatures) and end up banding together to not really destroy, but to simply observe and survive. One of them even ends up being the closest thing to human in this series what it started out the most brutal monster of them all. Though later the government actually steps in and takes care of some of them.
I have to say the story didn’t get quite as repetitive as I thought it would, it always kept moving at just the right pace. However, violence does seem to take up a good portion of the series, so if you’re squeamish it’s best not to look into this series. Sometimes the way humans die are just brutal. The story itself was interesting enough to keep me reading.


Characters: Our main character as I said is Shinichi, a young teenage male. I would like to say he’s your standard shonen hero, but he isn’t quite. Migi does most of the fighting in the stories, though Shinichi usually delivers the finishing blow in the more serious battles ironically enough. Shinichi is definitely interesting as a character, he doesn’t quite develop so much as a person as through relationships, in fact, due to some bad flukes, he gets a little worse as a character through the series. But that is mostly Migi’s fault to be fair.
Ah yes, Migi, who undoubtedly is the best character. Migi develops the best, and the most subtly throughout the series. While most aliens are heartless and emotionless, Migi ever so slowly starts to understand human emotions. I even got a little sad when…Well, I don’t want to spoil too much.
There are a few villians but most of them die off pretty quickly. Shinichi also develops a relationship with a girl, Murano, but Migi’s relationship is more important and prominent.

Art: I’m not so much one to criticize art in a manga, since everyone has their own style and what I am presented with, will automatically become my standard. It’s also clear that this was made in the 90’s with the manga style, but I really liked this art. It could become quite gritty and dark at times but was detailed and precise when it needed to be.


The Bad: If I had any complaints about Parasyte, it would have to be the violence. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude or anything it’s just some of the fights are way too violent, too pointless, and overall seemed to be layered in bullshit. Most of the fights do help develop in the story, even the seemingly inconsequential ones, like where they fight a dog that got invaded by a parasyte. But sometimes it’s just aggravating seeing so much blood and violence


Parasyte overall: I have to say with Parasyte you can’t go wrong entirely, I enjoyed the characters, the fights, and the ending especially. The morale and whole idea at the end through me for huge loop. It really raised some philosophical questions.

As this is my first shot at reviewing please don't be too harsh. I would much appreciate any comments on thoughts you had of the review. thank you very much.

I will write my review as an explanation to my rating.

Story: The plot, as simple as it appears, gets much more complicated as you read this manga. It tells us a story of parasytes along with the story of humans and the two are successfully merged together in a thrilling action plot. While this may not be the most original piece, it contains key contents that make you want to keep reading once you start.

Art: The drawing in this manga is not a 'standard' anime-like drawing you would see in Magical x Miracle or Mai Hime or most of other series. The drawings are more ... human-like and realistic. Sometimes rough, sometimes practically sketched, while sometimes quite detailed (Certain gory parts where quite visually descriptive) This kind of style suits this manga the most - keeping us reading a sci-fi manga while keeping us in touch with real world.

Character: Character development was great for the main character - throughout the story we see him change, we get to know everything about his family, relationship and the way he feels and thinks. The only thing that main character development lacks is his friends. We see him interact with them, but the story doesn't seem to talk about them too much. Which could be because the main character doesn't want any friends.
Another lack of character development shows in an incomplete storyline behind main sub characters (Arch rivals, girlfriend, etc). While it does not have an effect on the story - the fact that it wasn't there remains.

Enjoyment: I've already mentioned that this is not the first time that a story of aliens invading Earth comes out; however, once you get into it - you just want to keep on reading. The story sucks you in emotionally, bringing you a variety of feelings. It's genre also varies between gory horror to boring school days to romantic encounters to thrilling action.

Overall: All that can be said about this manga is this - It may not be a 'must read' because it is not as famous as manga that has been adapted into anime, but this manga is definitely worth reading (And a must read) if you like intense and anxious situations (This book has plenty). All fans of sci-fi will find this manga interesting, especially those who always enjoyed parts of movies like Spider-man or X-men when people just discovered their abilities.

Title: Parasyte

Alternate Title: Kiseiju

Mangaka: Hitoshi Iwaaki

Rating: 5.5/10

Genre: Not really sure how to put this

... Length: 64 chapters compiled in 10 volumes


Summary: The world has been infested by Parasytes, who can take control of human bodies. They don't know why they were sent here, they don't know how they were created. What they do know is that they must kill, and feed off of the human remains. They have the ability to shape the bodies of their hosts in any way that they desire, whether to alter the body to jump 50 feet in the air, or make blades out of arms. The worst part is that noone knows of their existence, as they blend in seamlessly with society.


One of the parasytes, however, messes up. Instead of taking control of his host's brain, he gets forced into the host's right hand instead. The name of this host is Izumi, and after waking up to this horror, he and the Parasytes, called Migi [which means right in Japanese, not a very creative name] form a symbiotic relationship, in order to fight the other parasytes.


Analysis: This entire manga is a coming-of-age story, focusing on Izumi. Because he and Migi each are two people in one body, they each retain their own minds. However, Izumi is influenced by Migi's cold, harsh, logical mind. The story tracks him and those surrounding him, as he changes and he deals with the changes. That part is pretty interesting. Additionally, some of the Parasytes [such as Migi, but there are others] see the human race as an interesting experiment, and its interesting watching them interact and learn about humans.


Whats also good about it is that its hinted, both at the beginning and the end, that the Parasytes were sent to the earth in order to cleanse it of a plague, that plague being the human race, for all of the evildoings that we have been inflicting on the earth. Its a very eco-friendly manga.


However, my problem with it are the fights. The manga, even though it is set up as such [what with the body changing], cannot do fights scenes. When they're done, they're done ok-ish, however they have no read purpose in the plot. Its almost as if the mangaka said 'Allright, I think I'm going to put a fight in here for no reason at all'. I can only think of 2, maybe 2.5 fights in the series that were actually important and helped the plot and the characters along. The rest of them, I feel like the manga could have done without. [Its because of that that I gave it a low score]


The main reason that you would want to read this manga is because of the characters, and how they develop. Thats the best part of it, and probably the only part worth reading [except for the 2.5 fights that actually matter]. Asides from that, you'd read it to read the insights on humankind, the world, and society as we know it.


Characters:


Because this entire manga is basically character devlopment, I'm going to be very brief with the characters, and I'm only going to mention four of them. There are more, and they do play important parts, but I feel like if I say anything about them, it will ruin it.


Izumi Shinichi: The protagonist of the series, he starts off as an uncaring boy, with a dim view of the world. After his right hand is inhabited by Migi, he changers, becoming more and more parasyte than human.


Migi: The other protagonist of the series, he inhabits Izumi's right hand. He is very interested in human society as a whole, but only sticks his neck out for himself and Izumi. He has a very narrow view of the world, and is very smart.


Murano Satomi: She is the childhood friend of Izumi, and spends some of her time in a romantic pursuit of the titular character. However, for the most part, in the series she serves as a sort of barometer to Izumi's humanity.


Tamura Reiko: She is a full bodied Parasyte, however she is not as mindless as the rest. Maybe its the fact that she possessed a teacher, but she sees the entire world as an experiment. She looks at the world through an outside observer's eyes and shares that perspective with us. Throughout the series, we see how the views of humanity changes. She is not as violent as the rest of the Parasytes, and is more logical and contains more reason than them too.

review taken from animeruwelz, see my profile for more details

Parasyte is one of the best manga series I have ever read.
The concept is great, the character and plot development are superb, and overall it is just a perfect series. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this series. It is phenomenal. I cannot praise it enough.
The story is about a strange alien species that randomly comes to Earth; they look like little snakes, but they're much more than that. They are Parasytes. Their mission is to take over a human's brain, and then survive. The Parasytes feed off of the species that they take over, and their head can shift shapes into tentacles ... and blades and pretty much everything else. They are a truly powerful and disgusting species, and they are a threat to human kind.
A Parasyte tried to take over the main character Shin's brain. He fell asleep with headphones on, so the Parasyte had trouble getting in. The Parasyte stabs into Shin's arm and he wraps a cord around his arm to prevent it from going further up his blood stream. The Parasyte matures in his arm, and they become unlikely allies; human and Parasyte, fighting together for survival.
The manga quickly changes from a plain action manga into a psychological thriller. It begs many questions. Are the Parasytes really that bad? After all, they are just trying to survive. They eat food to survive, just like us. Their food just happens to be humans, but are they really that evil?
Are humans worse than Parasytes? Parasytes kill for food, but humans just kill. They kill for personal gain. Humans are the truly disgusting creatures. Humans are the Parasytes to the Earth; taking and taking and never giving anything back, and Parasytes were the cure.
All in all I would highly recommend this amazing series. It's short, sweet, and amazing.

"Above Earth, someone was thinking...if half of Mankind dissapeared, how many forests would be saved?
Above Earth, someone was thinking...If 99% of Mankind dissapeared would pollution be reduced by 99%?"

Story - 10
What's there to say about the story? Extremely original. Upon finishing the first 4 or so chapters, I was amazed to an extent that's probably undescribable. The amount of gore, action, and plot progression they had done in such a short time was great. They'd portrayed it in a great manner. On a completely typical day, Shinji confronted a snake-like animal, which apparently, went inside of him. It went through his arm, and kept 'slithering' ... towards his brain. Luckily, he managed to stop the creature before it reached it's 'destination'. After that, his arm 'awakens' and introduces itself. This may sound like a childish story, which it did to me, at first. The manga isn't childish at all. The gore, the murder, and the blood will leave you horrified/frightened, and/or the opposite. Depends on what kind of a person you are.

Art - 7
The art is so-so. Even though it's to be expected of a manga created in the Early 90s'. Of course, the parasites are drawn exceptionally well, with really well detail. The humans on the other hand, could've used a bit of work. Actually, that might be just my opinion since I've never been a real fan of old manga or anime. When I read the first volume of this, I assumed it was a 70s or 80s manga. But, when I checked on MAL, I was welcomed by a "1990-1995". Although the art doesn't really matter, the thing on the inside is what matters. Unless you're an appearance whore. I think the story'll still make up for the lost art though.

Character - 8
There's characters of every personality. Cocky, arrogant, happy-go-lucky, comedic, etc. The list can go on and on. Even the so-called parasites develop these traits and become a big part of the manga in character development. The story and it's characters develop at a really fast pace, maybe even too fast. You'll see Shinji really confident at times, and scared so much that you wouldn't be scared if he shit his pants right then and there.

Enjoymeny - 10
Those who'll like this manga, will get so immersed in it that they'll be wanting more and more after reading a chapter. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed up the whole night reading it. Yep, no life at all. And, also, this manga's rather similar to Death Note. Strategy, luck, thinking, everything's in it.

Overall - 10
I wish there'd be more of this. I'd say this is definitely a "must-read" for all manga-lovers out there. Even if you aren't really a fan of gore or murder. I wasn't. I despised all them freakish manga/anime, but, after reading this, I changed my whole perspective. I'd say I still hate the useless killing in several anime/manga. But, "Parasyte" didn't have useless killing. It had freakishly awesome useless killing with twists and turns.

Kiseijuu sounds like great a plot that makes it stand out compared to other manga's of similar genres. But I have found reading Kiseijuu to be very poor. The reason I decided to check out was becuase how good I heard it was. The issues I have with the series is that at times the series suffers from not exciting the reader. With no reveal shock factor, or cliff hanger. The series becomes a dull read waiting for spark of excitement waiting to capture the readers attention. For me there was no spark of interest that had me excited enough to want to finish ... this series.

I am no expert reviewer, and generally I am very generous in my reviews. I am also relatively inexperienced with manga, so who knows how many great things I have yet to read to overshadow this particular work? But for now, and from my personal opinion, this is a brilliant manga that I hope to remember for years to come. Because I feel it deserves this, I will give an in-depth review of each section that I have scored to the best of my ability. I will try my best not to spoil anything, but I make no guarantees.

Story: No words I have could do ... it justice. It started off very odd, something I thought I would just read for the sake of reading something weird. When I saw how many chapters the story contained, I doubted I'd ever finish it. Instead, I was drawn in to what became an amazing emotional rollercoaster, an educational experience, and a brand new outlook on the world. There are statements made in the very beginning of the story that you may or may not think you understand, may or may not agree with, but it won't be until the very end that you truly hear the message of this story. It was very gripping, and I can recall at least 3 times that I was very nearly brought to tears. Any problems I had with the story stem only from a few shaky translations here and there, making the dialogue hard to follow, but this was very rare. If not for that, if I were allowed a perfect understanding of every panel, I would give the story a 10.

Art: The art is interesting. As I believe another reviewer mentioned, it's not quite the same art as you might expect from a manga. Every artist is unique, of course, but this style certainly stuck out, and it was somehow very fitting for the story. No character is overly beautified, as you'll often see. The characters all appear rather average, which of course adds to the realism. Of course, this also creates a sharp contrast with the titular parasites of the story, which are certainly some of the most abnormal things you will ever see drawn. No matter what, everything is very nicely detailed and anything involving the parasites is satisfyingly surreal. If the artist wants you to see the inside of a body, then you will be seeing the inside of a body. If you should be seeing an amorphous parasite, then you can trust that the art will clearly show you an amorphous parasite. As for the negatives, some minor qualms with the art include some strange facial expressions, particularly any view of an open mouth from the side, and the fact that certain characters, mostly females, looked almost inconveniently similar. While I approve of the characters having an average appearance, a little more effort to differentiate between them would have been nice.

Character: I have no doubts in my mind that these characters are a perfect 10. When the character's faced a struggle, I faced it with them. When they lost something precious, I felt their loss. When they attacked in blind rage, I felt their rage. These characters are very real, even in the most surreal moments of the plot, and I refuse to believe anyone could read through this manga without connecting to them. The human characters, even the minor ones, experience various flavors of pain, and just like real people you can sympathize with even the most subtle hints of emotional distress from these characters. Even the cold, emotionless parasites will relate to you in their logic. What they lack in emotion, they make up for with the delivery of a different view on life that you won't soon forget.

Enjoyment: Now, it is in this section that I believe opinions will differ the most. While some will find this work to be brilliant, others could completely, and even understandably, disregard it for what it is at face value. To read a manga about parasites taking over bodies and mutilating humankind will require a certain, possibly acquired, taste, or at least a certain level of tolerance. However, anyone who can enjoy or look past the more disgusting aspects of the story is sure to enjoy every moment of it. As I've stated above, I hadn't expected to have the attention span to bother to complete a story when all I was expecting was a quick fix for that desire for something out of the ordinary, and instead this manga grasped me tightly as I stayed up in the late hours of the night just to blast through another few chapters. I enjoyed every moment of this manga, and I'd like to believe I'm not alone in this.

Overall: In conclusion, this is among the best manga I have ever read. The art gave me very little problems, and I don't regret a single night I gave up sleep just to read this to its conclusion. The plot, the characters, the themes and messages delivered all sliced deep into my heart like only a parasite can. And, similar to certain events of the manga, this parasite has proven itself to be a symbiote, because as it invaded me I only felt myself grow stronger and become a better person for reading it. At least, that's how I feel, and how I hope all other readers will feel once they've allowed themselves to be taken over by Parasyte.

Groundbreaking even today.

Although many have tried to look at Parasyte as an Alien Invasion manga (and it is a fresh one at that if not slightly relying on a successful shonen coming of age formula) what none of the reviewers have alluded to is how much realistic Parasyte is towards explaining the role of parasites in the ecosystem.

Albeit the manga doesn't scientifically "verify" the role of parasites, many of what you see in this manga happen to coincide with real parasites all over the world.

If parasites' existence were easy to explain this manga would only be slightly noteworthy but the things from how parasites need ... additional food to how they have a close symbiotic almost mutualistic relationship with their host separate this from your average invasion manga.

What makes this especially noteworthy is that, by accident or by purpose, reading this manga allows you to separate the complexity of why parasites exist in reality maybe even more so than a biology text book.

The thing that makes this happen is because parasites are sort of easy to define but to comprehend the theory behind their existence like how they outnumber several top species or how they break the food chain theory of humans being on top or how certain parasites complement and extend the host's instinct (like our desire to procreate) it's really hard to fill all this in if you know little about parasites. Especially as you go deeper into the rarer parasites that act like the parasites in this manga where they insert and change the inner anatomy of their host as well as their instincts.

By sort of turning parasites into living weapons with a catch and a virtual pet hunger meter, it transcends most of the explanation needed for the basic necessity of parasites and as you dig deeper into the manga and as the parasites' objective match closer to that of the humans - it becomes a sort of bridge as to how parasites seem to harm their host while at another extent seem to be useless outside of harming their host for self-preservation. Seeing parasites depicted like this in the manga helps bridge one closer to the interpretation that maybe just maybe parasites harm their host because they adapt slower to their host's habits and mentality and yet they stick very close to what makes their host survive and the combination in turn becomes very chaotic like the events shown in your typical fantasy war or battle or coming of age series but sort of alien.

I am not a gore person... unless there's a good reason behind that gore. And Parasyte gave me many good reasons to keep reading! The manga doesn't give a long, dragging introduction. Rather, it stars off with a bang. While sleeping, these organisms called Parasytes start taking over brains of living things by entering their ears. Shinichi Izumi, however, has headphones on so when a Parasyte attempts to enter through his ear, it buries itself in his arm! Shinichi discovers that the organism (which he later names Migi) has the ability to turn his arm into a weapon. Others who have Parasytes in them have ... unfortunately become man-eating monsters. Thus, the fast-paced adventure to find out what the Parasytes purpose in the world begins...

Story: 9
I can't say much without giving away the whole story. Loved the premise of Parasytes taking over humans and turning them into monsters. Shinichi and Migi's journey is definitely worth the read. They encounter many obstacles to unveil the truth about Parasytes. The plot twists were mostly subtle but well done. I'm still not sure what to think of the conclusion. But the story was great overall.

Art: 7
While some of the drawings may be a bit rough-looking, I liked the design of the characters, mainly Migi and the Parasytes. I got a bit mixed up with some of the older male characters at times and had to read over it again to get their faces and names straight. The Parasytes are terrifying! And the gore scenes are drawn very well: viciously and with little left to the imagination.

Character: 8
Oh, Shinichi, you. Let me just say that Shinichi's character dynamics throughout were great. I loved how he battles for his humanity while having a Parasyte inside him. The struggle to remain human and come to the realization of what a human really was moved me. Migi completed the story. He was probably my favorite character. He doesn't give a crap and tells Shinichi how it is. His development was also well done. The female characters also contributed a lot to the story. Satomi Murano kept Shinichi sane as he fought to stay human. She wasn't really that strong, but I like how she was there to keep Shinichi grounded. I believe that was her main purpose in the series. Kana Kimishima, who is human but can sense Parasytes, was flat for me. She was just one of those characters there that just existed and was flat to me. Reiko Tamura was another strong character in the series. Seeing her change throughout the series was interesting. As for the other characters, they all contributed to the story, no matter how small their role was.

Enjoyment: 10
Really had a great time reading Parasyte.

Overall: 9
Awesome manga. Don't let the fact that it was written over twenty years ago stop you from reading! It's just as good, if not even better, than many of the manga series out there.

Almost but not exactly the same

I’ve recently watched and read Kiseijuu/Parasyte, a very interesting case of a work that was very faithfully adapted and yet with a very relevant difference that isn’t brought up as much as it should, so I thought about writing about both versions.

Interesting premise

The premise is about monsters taking over humans from within and mimicking them to feast on them, hence the name. Since the origin of the parasites is not clear, it can be seen as a combination of Devilman, the first one in its kind in the manga and anime mediums, with The Thing and the Invasion of the ... Body Snatchers. What you get is a premise that’s interesting but not very original, even more so for the anime, which came out during the post Walking Dead and Shingeki no Kyojin fad.

Strong plot and themes

What sets this work apart from similar ones is the layers it adds to its premise, making it a far more complex and layered plot than you would expect from it, since it doesn’t stop at just humanity being devoured by monsters until they can fight against them, it also tackles into some sociological and even kind of philosophical questions regarding humans, the way we function as a society, and even our place on the Earth and even the whole universe, and if you’ve read some of my reviews before, you know by now how much of a sucker I am of such themes.

The theme exploration comes mainly from three character arcs, one from Shinichi, the protagonist, who managed to not get completely possessed by the parasite that attacked him, and just like Akira Fudo, he goes from a kind, quiet and nerdy guy to a cold and strong badass, with the difference being that the change is more gradual, believable and explored here, as there is a good focus on how his close ones perceive him, mainly his mother and love interest, as he becomes both inexplicably stronger and colder, resulting on some of the best scenes in this work, and he slowly regains his emotional side as a human being later on after all the tragedy that continuously take place around him.

Then you have Migi, said parasite, who although as colder and calculating as others of its kind at first, everything he learns, his interactions with Shinichi and his fights for survival against other parasites, and even consuming the same food as his host and eventually friend, end up making it completely different from them, as it becomes more sensitive, and also by developing both strengths and weaknesses in its abilities that most other monsters present throughout the show don’t have.

The third one comes from the best antagonist in the whole series, Ryouko Tamiya, also known as Reiko Tamura, who from the very beginning is far more concerned than the rest of her kind to learn more about her species both on a physiological and even existential level, as she is the only one that really wants to learn where they came from and what would be their role on the Earth, she is also the one that tries to learn about humans, understand them, communicate with them, even live through some of the same experiences as them, and she ends up even developing emotions along the way, even gaining the enmity of other parasites in the process.

Besides these three, it’s interesting to see the different perspectives among the parasites, as Migi wants to survive, Ryouko/Reiko yearns for learning, others try to blend in, and some others are just there to feast on humans, some for the sake of survival, and others like hungry beasts. This is one of the main elements within the plot and questions throughout the story, the role of humans on Earth, who called the parasites monsters for eating them, even though we, as a species, do the same with other animals on our planet. Just think about it, most of us eat other animals just to survive and stuff, yet most of us want them to have a delicious taste in the process, so eating them ends up losing its purpose of survival which we so much use as an argument when questioned about it by vegans. So, weirdly, the theme suits the anime better than the manga for the time it came out, when these sort of discussions and questions were becoming more prominent and relevant. Oh, and there also parasites that hunt humans just to test their strength to both themselves and others, just like some dickheads in our species hunt animals for the same reasons and for the sake of sport and entertainment.

The sociological aspect is present in the different ways the two species interact with their kind, as Shinichi is mortified by all the human deaths and want to warn others, but can’t because if he does Migi will dispose of anyone who knows about it to ensure its survival, and different authorities work together to find ways to identify and eventually fight against the parasites, and even the protagonist himself is reminded several times by several people what it means to be human, and how to face problems instead of running from them in order to keep on living, while also helping or receiving the help or advise of others in the process.

At some point, Ryouko/Reiko hires a detective to spy on Shinichi to both learn more about him and keep him on check, and yet that man, as well as another human/parasite hybrid end up cooperating with the protagonist instead, because, humans are capable of mutual understanding.

On the other hand, the parasites only stick together for the sake of survival, as soon as they can either eat, or kill, or take over another one, most of them will, that’s the reason why plenty of them turn on Ryouko/Reiko, because her actions are deemed as dangerous since everyone can be exposed to the rest of the world with the most minor mistake.

But it’s not like the manga and anime says that everyone in a species is the same, just like there are a few exceptions within the parasites, there are people who are not qualified as humans within this franchise, present in the form of a serial killer who is presented as a far worse monster than any non-human creature that appears in the story. Whether or not this is a correct take and idea from the author is an interesting discussion, but not one to have here on this review. The way this character is written doesn’t leave much room to talk about mental health and stuff anyways, his whole characterization is being a sadistic psycho for the sake of it without any character exploration whatsoever, he is just an over the top villain written on the early 90s after all.

Good pacing

The pacing is very good on both versions, as no fight or element or mini arc overstays its welcome and each one lasts just the right amount of length it needs to. If I had to choose between one of them, I’d say the manga is slightly better, as one can read at their own pace, but I also have to say that the anime knows how to end its episodes better than the lame attempts of the original version at finishing every chapter with a cliffhanger, even the ones that don’t have as much content as others.

Weak writing

Despite all the good things I wrote so far about it, Parasyte is sadly a series that works better for its themes and scope than level of writing, as there are plenty of illogical or poorly explained things, if even, in it, that end up playing against it and lowering the overall quality of the whole thing, such as:

Unnecessary and silly romantic elements

They even play out in the form of a telenovela, thanks mainly to the character of Kana, who for some reason is nowhere near as hated as much as Murano, the main love interest of the manga and anime, and I don’t understand why. Yes, it’s true, lots of lines from Murano are asking Shinichi if he is really him over and over again, to the point of becoming repetitive and even kind of annoying, but nowhere near as much as the main love interests of Naruto or Bleach, mind you. But even at her worst, that girl isn’t nowhere near as bad of a character as Kana, who appears as a sadistic girl that enjoys seeing others being beaten up, for no reason in the anime, and just because she likes strong men in the manga.

If that wasn’t enough, her reasons for falling in love with Shinichi are completely selfish and superficial, her dreams of her being rescued by him like he was her white knight are cringy as shit, and even worse in the anime thanks to the slower pacing of the scenes, voice acting and music. She also acts as a bitch whenever she is near Murano, and if all of that wasn’t enough, she ends up having a tragic end purely because she was dumb as shit and ignored every warning that was given to her. I’ve seen plenty of female characters being crapped on for years for far less and yet not this girl, why? It doesn’t count if the manga is retro or what? What did this girl add to the story? She, or rather, what happens to her, reminds Shinichi what it means to be human alright, but so did plenty of other characters, mainly other women, such as Murano or Shinichi’s mother, and they did a far better job at it.

At the end of the day I can’t help but feel like the preference of Kana over Murano comes from her adoring the protagonist, while the latter was constantly questioning and breaking up with him as they become more distant, which makes perfect sense given her lack of knowledge about the whole situation.

Harem bits

Nowhere near as bad as series within that genre of course, but you can tell the original work was written in the late 80s and early 90s when several girls end up liking or falling in love with Shinichi either only because of his manliness of just because he is the protagonist, something that not only is unnecessary, but also far more outdated in the anime for the time it came out.

Silly comical moments

Despite the serious pretense of the themes and plot, there are some silly moments that are meant to be funny that clash with the tone that such a story should have, and it’s even worse for those that aren’t even supposed to come off as funny, yet they do either because of the weak writing and or presentation, or because of another weak element, which is:

Weak and stupid secondary characters

Besides the main three and to a lesser extent Shinichi’s mom, nobody else is nearly as well written, and this isn’t just about Murano or Kana, or even other characters like the parasites, a lot of scenes comes off as unintentionally funny because of the stupidity of the common people from the manga and anime, such as chasing after a woman running with her head open or following a guy that single handedly killed a whole group of yakuza, crushing their heads, when the deal with the monsters was already known throughout the whole country or even world.

Unexplained things

For all the questioning that both Shinichi and Ryouko/Reiko did to themselves about the origin of the parasites, it is never answered, they have a thematic reason to be in the story that’s explored throughout the whole plot alright, but if the author didn’t intend to provide an answer for their origin, then why even bring it out in the first place? Hideaki Anno gets crapped on for not explaining where the Angels came from in Evangelion, when the series never even cared about that, but for some reason is not a problem here, it seems, even though it’s the main mystery of the whole story.

Also, that Kana girl has an ability similar to that of the parasites of detecting others with the same mental waves or something like that, and it’s never explained why or how she got them in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, the author only gave them to her for the sake of writing one of the worst love triangles of all time, with one of the most avoidable and pathetic tragic ends ever, with dozens of cringe overload included, both during, and after the event.

The serial killer also has a similar ability, but just like Kana, it is never explained why and how he has such ability, and the attempt of an explanation, which comes from him, as the result of all his sadistic killings, is so bad, it would be better if there never was one instead.

Plot armor

Despite all the deaths in the story, it somehow messes up by saving or resurrecting the protagonists more times than it would be acceptable. I can take the first time thanks to the excuse given and the consequences, shortcomings in capabilities, and character development for the two mains that come from it, but near the end of the series one of them comes back from the death or disappearing not one but two times at the most convenient moments.

Weak and rushed ending

Speaking of which, during the last arc, Shinichi fights against a much stronger enemy that he has no hope of beating, and yet he does in the most convenient, lucky and ass-pulled way possible, that thankfully was properly criticized when the anime aired, something that does not happen frequently with hyped series, especially at the moment they are airing because of recency bias.

What’s never brought up, however, is how unnecessary the follow up is, it’s supposed to be a relaxed epilogue especially for the protagonist after all the tragedy and angst he went through throughout the story, but here we are with an out of nowhere weak attempt of scientific and existential monologue from Migi (more so in the anime), a minor villain reappearing even after his role was over, everything in the last episode and chapter happening only because of the stupidity of Shinichi, and like I said, plot armor for the sake of a happy ending. Oh, and don’t forget how the humans and parasites end up learning to coexist despite nothing in the series leading to that.

Similar levels in visuals

In terms of production, both versions are very close to each other, the manga has an inconsistent artwork that’s at times very good and detailed, and others very simple and lacking, with generic character designs for its time, and with simply drawn backgrounds with not much variety. The special effects, however, are very good. The anime could’ve been much better in in this aspect, since the artwork doesn’t have the same drops in quality and is far more consistent, the backgrounds are better, the special effects are overall better, and the character designs got updated for the time it came out, Unfortunately the motions aren’t very good at any moment, and it’s also far worse during the action scenes, where characters stand still all the time, with just some speed lines representing the tentacles of the parasites moving at superhuman speeds. Not only that, but the bad CGI brings everything down. Good artwork? Yes, except for the CGI crowds. Decent character designs? Only if you don’t see those CGI crowds. Well done backgrounds? For the places, sure, but not with those CGI crowds. Not very good motions? It’s worse for those CGI crowds. Good special effects? Only until you see those CGI crowds, see what I mean? It’s funny because a lot worse came out since then, but still, it was quite an issue back then.

Horrible atmosphere

This is an issue that’s present only in the anime thanks to its audio department, the voice acting is fine, acceptable, but everything else is not. The opening was quite hyped back then and I never understood why, the lyrics are good, they reflect the themes of the series quite well, something rare for anime in general, I have to say, but the music it’s a combination of dubstep and screamo that made me want to rip off my ears, thankfully those times are over. I would say something about the ending if I even remembered it, but I do not. The background music has some good tracks in it, mostly the ones that attempt to be horror, but most of it is more unlistenable dubstep that doesn’t fit the series nor the limited animation. And finally there are the sound effects, which are good for the metallic clashes and stuff, but laughably low budget and effort for everything else.

Differences among both versions

To start with what the anime did better, there are some irrelevant girls that are friends of Murano in the manga, that the anime replaced with some girls that have a bit of a short lived importance at some point, thus introducing them earlier than the arc they appear in.

Something similar happens with the serial killer, who although is shown quickly in a random and out of place scene, that is still slightly better than he appearing in the last arc and becoming so important just because out of nowhere.

It also made the parasites in the original form much smaller, which although not as horrifying as I guess the original was going for, it makes more sense for them to enter a human body that way.

It also removed the stupid scene of Migi turning into a penis, and it toned down some unnecessarily violent scenes and the sex scene present in the manga, which although not explicit, it was done better in the anime but removing some details and giving it a more romantic and sentimental tone, closer to what was happening at the time of the series in terms of theme exploration.

Now for what it did worse, outside of the CGI crowds and most of the sound, the cringy scenes are even more painful in it, if I remember correctly it never explains how the police, military and scientists found out about all those parasites, something that the manga does, and the worst thing in it was the superficial update it gave to the setting by giving the characters cellphones fitting for the year it came out, something that Banana Fish would also do later. Not taking in count that, if the story takes place in 2014 instead of 1989 or some year in the early 90s, the level of technology that both the characters and the whole world have, should have a drastic change in the way that a lot of events play out, the characters could and should be in contact more frequently and quickly, to even be able to avoid several misunderstandings and tragic scenes, and also, the parasites couldn’t be hidden in the way they do, and the whole population would never react the way they do with them around. It’s the only thing I’m willing to give to a series that I despise in absolutely everything it does such as Crybaby over any other recent remake or adaptation of an old manga, the way it made the whole world to know about the demons thanks to the Internet, updating the setting in a way that others didn’t bother with. By not paying attention to that, a lot of the credibility in Parasyte gets compromised.

Conclusion

In the end, like I already said, Kiseijuu is a very interesting and overall well made series that sadly works better in theme exploration, main characters and conflicts it presents throughout its story than the level of writing of its plot and characters as a whole, and it feels like the author wanted to write a mature seinen story, while something else, like the magazine and later on the committee that ordered its adaptation, wanted to throw some shounen antics in it to make it more appealing for a larger audience, lowering the overall quality of the whole thing. Besides that, it’s worth consuming in either its anime or manga versions at least once thanks to its themes and main characters, with the original being slightly better for taking place in a time when the ways its events play out are easier to buy, but nowhere near as great as the retro suckers and elitists want you to think it is, by deliberately choosing to ignore all of its issues that they criticize whenever they are present on modern shows they don’t like.

PARASYTE:

CHARACTERS- each characters has a story. Each parasite in these chapters shows their weaknesses and strength. Each parasite shows their strategy skills when they were on fighting.

STORY- the story is about a parasite that falling from the sky and the teenage high school boy battling with parasites. If they will invade into your brain, they will eat humans. If they become unsuccessful, they can use hands, eyes, nose, mouth, or ears and it won’t attack humans. They can also change appearance; they can easily remember things, can presence from other parasites and the human that they invade can be ... strengthening skills or abilities.

ART- the art of hitoshi wasaki was very good, creative and unique. Migi is one of the cute parasite while the others are scary especially gotoh, the strongest parasite. The drawing in manga is not the same in anime. I choose to read manga rather than watch the anime. But their voices in anime were cute.

ENJOYMENT- while reading this manga, i am counting on how many parasites living inside the body of humans. How many are the parasites fighting over migi. How many are the parasites comrade with migi. And what is the new image of the parasites in the next chapter. Who will die in the end of the fight?

Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki is an utter masterpiece of a work. The characters were so good, OMG! I loved them all. Each one is unique and adds so much depth to the story. The way the story progresses is just pure perfect. The plot twists and turns are so well-crafted that you can’t help but be completely engrossed.

The artwork is mediocre but trust me the writing takes the cake.

And the ending? It’s so good, but I ain’t spoiling it for you. Trust me, you need to read this manga. It’s an unforgettable experience that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last ... page. Whether you’re a long-time manga fan or new to the genre, Parasyte is a must-read. It’s a journey that challenges your perceptions and keeps you hooked from start to finish.

A strong blend of action and provoking social commentary that is for once done well. There aren't many mangas I have read that successfully pull off both an exciting and thought provoking story, without erring on one side. Where Parasyte succeeds is in its strong and likable characters that you can't help but root for. There's tons of character development and the conclusion is a very satisfying one that finishes off a very solid story that has few flaws.

The concept is clever: a school kid gets infected by an alien who then becomes symbiotic, giving the teen unusual powers, but gradually transforming him into ... something less than human. This is not the only alien however, and the kid is one of the lucky few who becomes symbiotic rather than dying and being taken over by the alien, creating the conflict present in the plot. This story has many highs and lows for the protagonist, and for once I found myself rooting for and relating to his struggle. Mostly when high school characters are involved in a manga, you'll get all sorts of terrible angst or melodrama, but this manga has a good amount of subtlety.

The hits come fast and hard at certain points for the protagonist who has a horrible life as a result of the Parasyte and the other aliens. The alien becomes a character in its own right as it develops a personality and befriends the main character. You get some pretty funny wacky humour at the start, and there's always some comedy despite all the serious plot going on, except for an extremely tense conclusion that is an absolute nail biter. The other side characters, some alien and some that are school friends, all serve a good purpose in development for the main character. I'd like to have gone over a few specific moments I loved here but I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who wants to read this manga.

As far as action goes, this series doesn't have the flashiest of fights or anything. It's not a fighting series but the action is fun enough to keep you interested. The Parasyte gives the protagonist certain powers like massive stretchy limbs or very precise aim, and the predictable superhuman strength, but mostly the fights come down to him having to outsmart his opponents. This can require some ingenuity on his part or teamwork with the Parasyte and the stakes are always high and at the same time, realistic. As the story has so many tragic poignant moments and no filler, suspension of disbelief actually works. Again I wouldn't want to spoil any of this specifically, but there's not nearly as much plot armour as you'd think, it's refreshing after so many supposedly mature series that follow the same set of clichés,

The art is one area I may want to criticize slightly as it's not the greatest art. It's of its time, this is a fairly old manga now, around 30 years. It's pretty simplistic and while it has its moments, such as awesome detailed gore and other great bits and pieces, especially in the first few chapters, the simplistic 80s style of the humans can become a little tiresome. There aren't any good human designs, though it's par for the course compared to the average modern anime and there's at least great designs for the aliens and so on. (Off topic, the anime adaptation really manages to impress me with how it changes (see: ruins) several of the human characters by modernizing them to look like sissy losers because it's set in current day Japan.)

As far as complaints go, this is a very solid manga with little negative to say. There were a few moments that made me go "Huh?" Namely one of the plot twists about the corruption sub-plot's major players, and some of the wackier parts can be a bit too silly. The villains aren't too numerous, what is there is well done and I loved the final major alien confrontation. Even the very last confrontation had me second guessing what might happen. The plot is not that riveting and definitely could've done more with the corruption sub-plot. What is bad is merely stuff I feel could've been done slightly better, but overall this is simply a great manga that I find hard to imagine anyone wouldn't enjoy.

I um... wow. This manga was incredible. It has a completely different feel to it from any other manga I've read or anime I've seen. This is truly a masterpiece.

- - - S T O R Y - - -
Parasitic aliens taking over humans, disguising themselves to kill/eat more humans. You might think it sounds like your average horror movie, but that line of thinking is completely wrong.
Only Shin's right hand is taken over by a parasite and he has to learn to co-exist with it. The parasite is as logical as math itself and has conversations with Shin. The story is ... not so much about some alien takeover horror, but instead about the way these characters change and grow throughout the series, as well as the way the other parasites learn to become less conspicuous in today's society. Some of them even learn to become more human than humans. It's just amazing to follow the plot and see how these things develop, and infinitely better than some simple war against aliens.

The story is very thought provoking. I also find that it's written in a way that can be taken literally and make perfect sense - or - you can read it with an alternate interpretation for an even more thought provoking experience when you think about things like how Shin's "right hand" is killing parasites guised as humans, and how the parasites are the same as humans. You can also read it as a simple battle manga, I suppose, if the plot is too complex for you. It's like 3 full manga series packed into one.

- - - A R T - - -
Seeing as this is from the '80s to early '90s, the art is from a time before "moe" and 2D wives existed. Truly, a better time for real stories to be told. Some of the characters have lame hairstyles and they don't look sexy like modern art styles, but who cares about that? This manga is dark and the art fits it nicely. It aims for a realistic approach, making it easier to take the story seriously.

I really liked how the characters' faces actually had emotions. The artist did a really good job of showing the sorrow in Shin's eyes when he'd give a distant look. One part of the art that had an impact on me was when a character was shown looking cheerful, then the next panel was pretty much the same drawing, except the smile was small, half-hearted, and the eyes looked like those of someone who's lost their way. It was just so perfectly executed and showed the emotion loud and clear.

- - - C H A R A C T E R S - - -
I suppose I was hoping for a little more with the characters, though they are quite good as is. Some characters simply fade out of the story, but I suppose there isn't really any reason to keep them around (for example, the girl Shin met on the ferry). A little more closure would be nice, though, as long as it doesn't devolve to pointless interactions. Many characters die even after we get to know and like them, so this manga may cause your emotions to react.

The way Shin's character developed was surprising and is also open to interpretation. Did he become the way he was because of the parasite's influence on his body or did he become that way due to psychological reasons? I'm leaning towards thinking it was psychological since even Migi acted more human than Shin at times, and that's really saying something. Still, you could just as easily see it the other way, which makes it interesting.

- - - O V E R A L L - - -
Well, this left me on the edge of my seat. I was completely engrossed in the story. Some moments were so tense and suspenseful I was sweating. Other moments were so sad I nearly felt like crying. In any case, it's addictive and has you wanting to know what happens next.

I have mixed feelings about the ending. Chapter 63 is the true ending. Chapter 64 is more like a little add-on to give closure to a few more things, but leaves you with a kinda empty feeling. So, if you read this, keep that in mind and look at chapter 64 as just a little bonus.

This manga is fairly short, so you should just read it if you have time to waste reading a long ass review like this. If you like stories with depth and value, you'll probably enjoy this.

An incredible piece of art!

At first the grotesque story nearly put me off, but since a dear friend recommended it to me I pushed through the first few chapters.

The story developes pretty fast and all of a sudden the reader is soaked deeply into it. It's astonishing how repulsive and captivating the whole thing is. In the end you learn to find the beauty in the horror.

This is a review I decided to write after re-reading Parasyte 2 or 3 times on a period of about 4 years. There are many reviews already written, so I'll try writing a complete, simple review.

Story:
I loved it. Fairly long but not of epic sizes, it's just right not to be too short and leave you disappointed of an abrupt ending, nor is it one of those mangas you just lose interest after days of reading it because it seems it will never end. The storyline can be classified in only a few major chapters, and all of them continue each other, so ... basically it's a continuous reading, not the type of manga where you see a major enemy getting killed and just when you think that's about it, a new menace appears and must be stopped. When the plot starts, it starts without being too much all of a sudden, but it doesn't stagnate, and when it ends, that's it. Forever. No sequel, no nothing. Only an extremely short epilogue, so you won't be left thinking, 'wish there was more', because that epilogue gives you closure, with no loose ends within the characters or the storyline.
The plot itself is simple, but not completely clear on all details. You never get to find out where exactly DID the parasites come from, what ARE they, not what is their PURPOSE in the world, only enough hints to be well-rounded. What is clear is, they come from outer space as snakes/worms, they invade a part of a human's body (preferably the head), they can change shape, aaand~ they eat their host's species, using their host's own organs to digest it.
Story goes like this: parasite comes to earth, tries to enter Shinichi's head, fails, retains his arm and so becomes part of his host, without either of them losing their personalities. So, they go out facing those who wish to kill them, help a little the japanese army in fighting the maneaters, become stronger together, and also learn to understand each other in their free time. It's related mostly from Shinichi's point of view, but there are exceptions.
A few random scenes are shown so that you are helped to understand what kind of world this is, like, for example, a dog getting infected, a parasite attacking his prey while he's driving so that they both end up dead/on the verge of it, etc. In the end, all small things fit into place.

Art:
It's a stretchy art, not your every day anime style, with big eyes, small mouths and unnoticeable noses. No wasp-shaped female bodies, with departed feet and toes from one foot facing those of the other. So, if you like it realistic, you'll love it, and if you prefer classic innocent art, you should go pick something else to read. Either way, it's very clean, no useless lines, no greys, no overwhelming background. Balanced and nice. Not much gore, merely your every-day blood here and there to go along with the severed arms, heads, feet, and not to forget, the corpse-left-to-dry-on-a-rope-like-a-piece-of-clothing, with bones and flesh sticking out.

Character:
The characters are well- made, each of them has its own personality and way of thinking, even the parasites, who basically become human-like diverse, with emotions (...well, mostly different ways of interpreting their instincts), memories, and judgement. No two parasites are the same. some are dumb, others are curious, some are intelligent whilst others are leaders, well... you get the idea. People are just as well outlined: sometimes, you can guess how they will react, other times, they surprise you.
Reading the story overall, you can outline 3 distinct collective characters: parasites, feeding of and mingling with humans; humanity,conscious of the presence of its predator and fighting it off, and the 2 known symbiots (parasites who failed to invade the brain + the host), outcasted by other parasites, are helping humanity. Sometimes, parasites win, other times, humans do.
The most complex characters are Shinichi and Migi, and in both their cases we see a huge character growth from the start to the end of the story.Migi becomes like a thinking weapon for Shinichi, whilst Shinichi grows up, matures, and changes along the way. He becomes more mature in the way of thinking and judging, and at the same time, his emotional nature is being dulled by the presence of his parasite, to the point where he is regarded as an extremely cold person by some.

Enjoyment:
Well, I did say i re-readed it a couple of times already, and it's also my favorite manga of all times, so it's obvious that I really enjoyed it. I laughed my ass off when Migi transformed into a huge penis when Shinichi was in public, I felt sad for the puppy that died in Shinichi's arms after being hit by a car, and I was hooked up with the development of the plot 'til the very end, not once bored.
There are no flashbacks, so the story is incredibly easy to follow.

Overall: The only thing I trully didn't like about the manga was that I didn't get to know what exactly were the parasites and where did they come from and all of that. It felt as id there was some sort of all-powerful being that had a plan for them, and after a while, he abandoned it and left the poor parasites to survive on their own and do what they will with their lives, as if it was testing humanity. It left a blank sheet on this chapter. But this is only a small Minus that is overthrown by countless Pluses. I deeply recomment it to anyone who appreciates action, crime, survival and evolution. If you just want to see senseless fighting, sex or an alien invasion, pick something else, because this is not what you're searching for.

masterpiece

everything about this manga is great and the more you read the better it gets

i cant remember the writer name he is one talented genius for writing this and " hestorie ".

best thing about this is the character development from the beginning to the end it never stops being engaging , the main guy is very likable : much like the main guy from hestorie " .

this is nothing but a reflection on humanity itself in the form of an " outsider " , you cant say these things are evil but you cant love them either .. you dont get it ... ? , oh well .. youll understand when you start reading it .