Review of Parasyte: The Maxim

Heyo! I'm back again. Upgrading my PC to properly run Yakuza Kiwami 2, but that hasn't happened yet, so I've been playing Shin Megami Tensei for the first time and watching anime. We're in for a real good one: Story: So...this show's story is AMAZING. At first it seems cliche with a whole 'Aliens are taking over the world plot, but it grows beyond that and gets more and more in depth as the show progresses, which I found really good in keeping me engaged. The Parasytes constantly trying to kill Shinichi and the struggle of him trying to balance out his 'normal' life with High Schoolwas really well balanced here (though I wonder how he WASN'T held back for graduation considering how he was gone for up to a week when he'd spontaneously vanish.) A really good story that has heart, action, and solid writing throughout.

Art:

Well, it's a mid-2010's show, so it looks really good and still holds up. There's some weird moments that usually where if a character is really far away, they look a little weird but the show as a whole still looks really good. The designs of the characters are all distinct, look good, and are all animated AMAZINGLY, especially, the Parasytes and their fights, where the fights actually make sense to have blur to empathize the speed of the limbs unlike FMA: Sacred Star of Milos. There is some noticeably cheesy, out of place-looking, CGI that I know was probably made so they didn't have to draw and animate 400 characters on-screen at a time, it's a little weird to see, but I can understand. Overall, it's still a good-looking show.

Sound:

Sound design is great! When things smash and blades clash, it sounds like it's got weight to it and it's very....Shounen-like? It makes the fight scenes all the more brutal when things start getting tense. The Japanese Sub (Japanese Dub) is really solid, no out of place voices (I even recognized Kaworu Nagisa/Byakuya Togami's CV in this show, which I thought was interesting) or anything of the sort. I've only heard some bits of the dub and it's...meh, not the worst dub, but it's far from something like Fullmetal Alchemist or something like that. The music is uhhh....well you either love it or you hate it. It's Dubstep to the tee in fights and mostly orchestral or 'thinking songs' as I'd like to call songs that are good BGM but not much else, it's a good diverse mix of genres, all of it being really solid stuff. I feel like some songs are kinda used a little too much here and there, but when they're used at the right moment like 'I AM' (a song from the soundtrack) that plays at both the beginning and the end of series, it's REALLY cool. Overall solid stuff all around.

Characters:

I don't think there's a character in the show that I hated or disliked at all. I liked all of the characters and while characters like Akiho are kinda cliché, they fit alongside everyone else just fine. The Humans and Parasytes act in good contrast with each other and don't ever act too out of character and if it does happen, it's for comedic effect or dramatic irony. I can't really say much more than that except for maybe the fact Shinichi is a little too crazy on either leaning either with 'I'm too scared to fight' or 'I'm ready to kill some people!', but it makes sense considering what's going on with the story, it was a little weird though. Great characters overall, even if there's some small faults and clichés here and there.

Overall:

I REAAAALLY liked this one. I'm glad I've finally gotten around to watching it too, I've had this on my watchlist arguably since it came out (before I even full-on got back into anime two years later in 2017 with FMA), it just...stuck out to me. Anyways, backstory of me asides, this a good show for Sci-Fi peeps who want a lot more action while having some feels here and there. Oh, and don't be like my friend Xranth tuning into me streaming this and freaking out over the body-horror stuff because there is A LOT of it in this show. But yeah, if it you want a Humans Vs. Aliens with Shounen-like action and some feels here and there, go for it, it's AMAZING!

Next review will most likely be Serial Experiments Lain...yeah, I'm a sucker for Sci-Fi stuff just like my Dad (except he doesn't do anime stuff), if you couldn't tell.

...Hopefully, I can get my PC upgraded soon so I can get back to Yakuza Kiwami 2, gotta love unoptimized engines. Shin Megami Tensei's cool though, been playing through the first one (with SMT Imagine on the side) on the GBA version and I'm digging it.