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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.