Review of Parasyte: The Maxim

Parasyte -the Maxim- is an interesting thought experiment on our role as a species. It succeeds in a lot of ways, but there are plenty missteps that hurt it, mostly technical ones. But let's start with the good parts. I rarely watch an anime and seriously enjoy the plot. I am so used to it being more of a relaxed "turn your brain off" experience, that seeing something starting with a boob grab tackling the foundations of our species in a meaningful way kinda startled me. The premise is simple. A new species, referred in the show as Parasyte's, have appeared on Earth. They crawl intohuman brains, replace them and take control of their bodies, from which they fully develop and also gain an ability to shapeshift. They have an impulse to kill people, so it's a classic "the enemy is among us" situation overall. The protagonist was smart enough to know that fact about 8 spiders, so he wore headphones, which ultimately saved him. The parasyte doesn't mind though, and drills a hole in the arm trying to reach brain through there. That doesn't really work out for him, leaving us with a part Human part Parasyte having to co-exist and understand each other. From there they try to figure out what to do and encounter other Parasyte's, which usually doesn't end well. That's all you need to know, I'll save spoiler stuff for later, but the plot does a lot to engage you. It doesn't just go from event to event, but leaves points to think about and return to later. For example, the idea of how to differentiate between Humans and Parasyte's is great at how simple it is and how all the clues are given to you way before. The show could've gotten away without that foreshadowing and it would have been fine, but that adds a lot to the experience overall. The Parasyte's are pretty logical, and so is their arc of understanding themselves and humans. It's very well-made. What's not well-made is the show itself at times.
It has some laughably bad audiowork at times. And I'm not talking about OST, which has it's own share of problems, I mean the sound design. While the torn air, clanking metal, ripped flesh, punches being thrown sound pretty good, get used to sounds just disappearing and songs changing abruptly, I remember a child's cry going from 100 to 0 in a second and it was just baffling. It's overall inconsistent, but never gets good enough for you to forget the bad moments. The voice acting is overall high quality, even though my personal gripe was hearing a familiar VA who has exactly the same tone here and then not being able to unhear it, but that's my fault for liking Kaidou from Saiki K so much. Good OST clearly wasn't a priority, so get ready for the same track repeating for what felt like twice per episode. But I can't say it's bad. The opening is just the right amount of cheese, the ending is pretty sweet, something I would probably listen to on my own time, but what's in-between is by far the weakest part. Don't get me wrong, there are some okay tracks here and there, I just wish there was more variety, because the scenes it accompanies are usually top-notch.
I kinda like the artstyle of this show. The faces are way longer than you'd be used to and that's a good thing. Makes them look more human. Humans can look really scared by the way, shadows help it a ton too, so when someone is about to have a heart attack you see it. The animation is interesting, because it never really looks that well on individual screenshots, but the sense of flow and action is really there when it needs to be. A lot of work has been put into action scenes, both in animation and sound, and it shows. It's Madhouse, so the guys knew what they're doing, they made baseball into a thrilling anime once, but about that maybe some other time. With that said, bad 3d models and lack of polish in downtimes is still an issue. It's kind of a trend in animation in general, but in here it seemed more apparent to me, so it's up to you to decide how big of a problem it is. Character design is interesting, but it's mostly Parasyte's. They look great and freaky, and Migi, the one in protag's arm, is even cute somehow. One of the traits of good CD I've heard is being able to tell someone apart by their silhouette, and yeah, there's not much like it. Humans all have generic design, but I feel like that's the point and I'm fine with that. Overall it's all technicality and I can understand how someone would be okay with that, but there is a reason OPM S2 is universally disliked. It's just not up to par with what else is there.
As I mentioned before, the plot is phenomenal by anime standards. It's not perfect, I could name at least one storyline to cull, and I feel like some areas and most characters just aren't explored. Would be nice to know what happens in the world and not just Japan, but you'll mostly get nothing. It's weird because of how global it's trying to be, while only staying in one place, but it's a minor gripe. The love interest is just not interesting, and feels less human than Parasyte's at times, so it's generally a lost opportunity, as the show cares more about the setting than the characters. What is there is serviceable, but nothing mind-blowing. Yet, with all the flaws, it left a strong impression on me. Strong enough that I had to purposefully look for them for this review, which is a very good sign.
In the end, I can really recommend this show for those who are looking for a good plot that takes you for the ride, not drags you after it. I can also recommend it to anyone looking for a good horror anime, it didn't give me the chills, but it was creepy enough to keep me glued to the screen and that's something. Some gorgeous action is also there, but it's not the main focus, nor should it be. I've enjoyed my time with this one, even more so when rewatching it for this review, and it somehow makes a valid input on a topic that seemingly has been touched anywhere possible. Thank you for reading, the rest will be some spoiler discussion and overall thoughts.

---------------------------SPOILERS BELOW--------------------------------

There is a lot going on here. From Migi jerking off Shinichi to a Parasyte becoming so human that it has an existential crisis. So, where do we start. Surprisingly, the end is a good starting point, as it pretty much says what the show has been about. People are organisms. Same as Parasytes. We are not morally higher, we do not "deserve" to be at the top. Cards played out that way, that we are the dominant species, and because of that we exploit every lesser one. And, as organisms, we are not fully altruistic. Our concerns are just of our people, not the whole biosphere, we are more ready to choose what is best for humans, than what is best for all. We only have our small family to protect. The world is still be or be killed, we just don't really have a predator to kill us anymore to remind of that. And that's what the show is trying to say, and at times blatantly so. That's what biological, rational, side of us is. But what about the other one? Well, it's what we make of us. There is a balance between biological and social parts, burying a dog is at glance a human action, because social side makes us compassionate to most living things, but it's also a rational action benefitting the planet. We're okay with eating burgers, but when we see a cow getting chopped for it we feel sad, yet not all of us are vegetarians. We make our own morals that contradict our nature and sometimes itself, but that's what humans are. A contradiction. A symbiosis. See the parallel with Shinichi? The moral of the story, is that we are in no way special. We are different and can never understand another species, having a completely different point of view (something the show hammers pretty hard), but that doesn't mean we aren't amazing and can do a lot of good for each other and planet as a whole. Sure we fail, most of our focus is always on us, but we attempt, again and again, to be better, to not be a Parasyte on our own planet. We even get a subplot with a serial killer to show how the concept of humanity can be twisted and misunderstood, so you can see the idea from many angles. And it's all not just infodumped on you in the end, that's really what the whole anime is about, it just explicitly says so in the final episodes.
Is the show really that deep though? I'd say, yeah. It's still not something to be shown at philosophy classes, but it's deep enough to make you go hmmmm. Is the plot perfect? As mentioned above, not at all. Migi is confident in 1v1 any other Parasyte while he is not only stuck as a hand but also is 70% of what he used to be, the MC duo is pretty overpowered without much explanation. The scene of Tomuko's death is both amazing and awful, because, while it is important and touching, no real person would see a corpse in front of your crying friend holding a baby surrounded by cops and say that The Boys Are Back. The end is perhaps a bit too happy. For how much the story is trying to be realistic, the MC gets really lucky, in last 2 episodes especially. There is a lot to critique here, but ultimately, I don't want to. It's no masterpiece, it's human, and that's enough.