Review of Parasyte: The Maxim

Number of Episodes: 24 (about 20 minutes an episode) Plot: B *Ever watched John Carpenter's horror classic The Thing? Imagine a creature like that that is able to take control of a human body living in our society. There is sadly no explanation as to where they came from, but what we do know is that they are highly intelligent and they are able to adapt to their surrounding very quickly as they get accustomed to the bodies that they've taken control of whether it is a human or an animal. The story follows that of Shinichi Izuma, a boy in high school that has aparasyte try to infect him but gets stopped before reaching his brain and it instead is only able to control his arm. Together, the two of them must learn to live together and to fight to survive against the other parasytes that are trying to kill them. It's an entertaining show with a few twists that I wasn't expecting.

Visuals: B *Nice artwork and the fight scenes were interesting too. The designs of the parasytes were really cool.

Voice Acting: B- *I chose the dub as usual. I loved Migi's voice. Shiniji's voice was a bit rough at times, but I got used to it.

Film Score/Soundtrack: B- *In the context of the show, the music did a good job of making the fights more interesting and actually having me feel moved towards the end. Like I genuinely don't think I would have felt emotional at the end, but then that theme hit and I was like... ok maybe I was much more attached then I realized I was haha.

***My favorite track: Next to You
(This is the song. Every time I heard it I felt something inside. God damn, it's the type of song that can make you get emotional for no reason at all. It has a few different variations, but this is the one that plays during the most sentimental moments and it got me every time.

Characters: B+ *I feel like this show has some really good characters and a bunch of forgettable ones. Migi and Ryouko Tamiya were both excellent. Gotou was an interesting and intimidating antagonist. Shinichi started off pretty bland but I grew to like him more and more as the show went on. Although he did have a few questionable decisions and a few annoying outbursts, I did like how he changed from the shy and flustered awkward teenager to the half-human/half-parasite person that is very different from the Shinichi Izumi we saw in the beginning. His parents just seemed oddly written to me. I get it that Shinichi was an odd kid even before the parasyte, but they still seem to handle his quirks in a bizarre sort of way. And then when his mom picks up on the fact that something was up with Shinichi while there are murders going on, they decide that now would be a good time to go on vacation. Isn't Shinigi nearing the age where he'd go to college? Couldn't they vacation after?... when it's safe and when Shinichi isn't acting out? Kana Kimishima I had mixed feelings for. Part of me felt bad for the circumstances she found herself in, but the other part of me found her really annoying considering how many times Shinigi warned her to stay away from him and to not follow the signal. Plus, her psychic ability to detect whether a person is actually a person or if they are a parasyte wasn't really explained even though we find out later that she isn't the only person with that capability and we have a mass murderer named Uragami who is also capable of doing the same thing. I think my biggest issue with Satomi Murano is that she casually asks Shinichi "you're still Shinichi Izumi right?" all the damn time. It makes sense after he gets the personality and physical changes, but she asked him before they happened to him and it just seemed weird. It just felt like the type of question that a person would say in a movie but never in real life. That just isn't something you ask someone out of the blue. Thematically I get why they have her ask him this, but as a character of the worrying girlfriend, it made her more of a plot device as opposed to an actual character to me which was a shame since I thought the worrying aspect of her character and her demanding Shinichi to open up to her were well done.

Cringeworthy Anime Moments: Like just about every anime with a loner male protagonist, (that's pretty much every anime with a male as the lead isn't it? That's a trope in itself :D) they found a way to thematically include an accidental boob grab. Nice! Also for some reason, every girl at school apparently had the hots for Shinigi. But I think that the trope Parasyte: The Maxim was guilty of displaying the most was when Shinichi and Migi or even the parasytes were in a fight and they landed a powerful blow. But instead of following up with more attacks, they chose to be polite and gave their opponent enough time to heal and to get a counter-attack in and I'm sitting here watching screaming at Shiniji to finish the parasyte off lol! The only other thing that I found more amusing than annoying was the absurd amount of times the frames were focused on the skirts of various school girls. None of the frames were gratuitous or anything, but it happens quite a lot in this show for some reason haha.

Titles:

Opening: *Not my style of music. I tend to be into the poppier or jazzier intros. And I'm not a big fan of scream-o music either.

Closing: *Wouldn't put it on a list of favorites, but I did like it significantly more than the opener. This is a more sentimental piece that fit really well during the episodes with the heaviest endings.

Final Verdict: 7/10 *An enjoyable experience with some heavy moments and other moments that made me think that this could have been better. I loved Ryouko Tamiya as a character and wish that she had more of a focal point in the show instead of being an ominous presence behind the scenes after she left from Shinichi's immediate surroundings. I like the idea of watching a Parasyte start off as someone that sees themselves as superior to humans and then slowly start to change their perspective and to adapt to life and to help her kind try to do the same. Her story was a tragic one and I loved the parts that we got to see. Migi's story with Shinichi is pretty similar. He started out only caring for his own survival, therefore, he needed Shinichi to survive, but then his opinion of life other than his own changed significantly with experience. Migi had a progression that was fun to see and much like Shinichi, we become attached to him and to his quirks. Still, I feel like Shinichi's home life, the bullying, and his school life could have been written better than they were and that the ending felt a bit rushed. We have quite a few things that are left ambiguous and not a lot of closure with Shinichi and his dad. Plus, I can't say that I like how they ended it off with Migi and Shinichi. It left me feeling pretty bittersweet. I'm happy to have watched this, but I feel like it needed some polishing for me to have truly fallen in love with the anime.