Review of Parasyte: The Maxim

Parasyte... is an interesting show, a good concept in paper but honestly this is one of the worst series I have ever seen. I will give my points on why this series is so dreadful to watch and describe some story bits here and there so yeah expect spoilers because they need to be told for some parts. Story = 3 The story starts very simple, you have this ordinary and normal world, no magic, no superpowers, nothing out of the ordinary when suddenly these creatures from outerspace looking blobs show up and start invading living beings bodies ,from Humans to dogs. When we meet our main characterShinichi which is infected by one of them, so he tries to understand this fusion within his body and try to live a normal life but also understand this blob looking thing which they agree to call Migi.

The story starts very simple, trying to keep going in life and not make such a fuss about this invasion of new creatures, but the fusion Migi tried to do with Shinichi fails because he could not reach his brain and now lives as part of his right arm. At first the story explains how these creatures survive by killing humans and killing other parasytes alike among other things that incllude when they decide to attack and some of their natural instincts they have. After the introduction is explained then the story makes a big 180 with a plot of revenge against these creatures because Shinichi loses someone important in his life because another parasytes kills that person. So he decides to protect and defend humanity against them and also exterminate every single one of them. Continuing with that then it is obvious that these creatures showing up and leaving death bodies in every corner around gets attention from the government and then we go with this philosophical cliche dilemmas if parasytes are good or bad beings, and why humanity is bad because they are the destroyers of everything surround him to later end that parasytes adapted and now live within the humans that they killed using their bodies as the human they are possessing

This show's story in simple words doesn't know what it wants to be, they throw these ideas out of the blue just because reasons. The actions that drive the story are so poorly done, the dialogue is sometimes very lame, the actions and the characters are very idiotic to drive the story. But more of that later, because that's what affects the story more. Also the story tries way too hard to play with your feelings in such cheap and crappy way. Because again the characters that die in this show are so low on energy and simply not memorable at all except for the first death that is related to Shinichi. Also also this show throws super powers out of the nowhere because reasons. They establish that the setting is a normal and mundane world and only parasytes grant you super abilities but for some reason we have characters that become clairvoyants because.... yes again reasons and nothing is explained on how those super powers exist.

Character = 2

If there are no characters there is no story but honestly I could not find characters at all except for 2, the main protagonists Shinichi and Migi.

Migi is the best out of both, because it shows how it is very antihuman in nature like not understanding human feelings, reasons and emotional drives everyone has. Also with a mentality of surviving no matter what and in mind that he has to cooperate with Shinichi to achieve that. Migi does the job done of being the creature that wants to understand the human society but that fails to comprehend at all seeing that as waste of time even as something as basic of having a name. It is just that but is so well portraited that you get to understand and care for the hanging arm.

Shinichi is also very well portraited, he is afraid of all this chaos and rampage that is invading his life and the others. But with Migi being part of him he loses the sense of being human and goes in a very cold tone in many ways but also trying to not lose his soul and heart.

These 2 are very basic characters but the actions and relations they have to just keep living complements each other and actually make a good pair that transform them into one solid character if you can say that because share the same body but for the rest.. hoo boy I have a lot to say.

First Murano is one of the dumbest and ridiculous characters I have ever seen, she is in constantly in love with Shinichi but starts to notice that he has changed but she still talks to him and tries to hit him and make him notice her. But when she talks to him and sees some of his actions she gets sad for seeing the drastic changes Shunichi has, but when she tries to accept him and sees that he is good in nature, she accepts him until another wrong action happens with him and we go into a infinite loop of "I love you but you changed, but I accept you, but I hate you because you change". Can this girl decide if he is good or not jeez? the unnecessary whining is so idiotic. Also she is a big airhead because along the story there is a part where Shinichi saves her by him falling with HER from like a 10 floor bulding and then him jumping through a barricade of like 4 meters and believe he was drived by the moment. I mean what kind of stupidity you have to be believing that a normal human can do that. Again this is a normal and mundane, no magic nothing like that at all setting, so no human is possible to do that simply 0% at all and to believe that it's because of the adrenaline rushing through your body is simply lazy, playing and making a fool out of the users watching. There is no characteristic besides that from her, she is useless and doesn't add anything to the series except of Shinichi wanting to protect her from the parasytes.

Then we have Kana, oh another useless character, she for some reasons has wet dreams with Shinichi, after she being part of thugs that assault Shinichi and touches him, she gets this superpower of sensing parasytes. Then with her it is just that wet dream, meeting with shinichi and use of her power, repeat the loop. It is not explained at all how this power came to be, it is just there because............. yeah again no explanation. She uses this power to attract Shinichi but for what? Just to get killed because the dumbass doesn't know that it makes her sense other human eating parasytes around the area. So knowing that she just risks her life like an idiot just to see if her wet dream of Shinichi and her making babies comes true and it is just that. She doesn't serve another purpose than being another person Shinichi must protect. This character could be cut from the show and you don't miss anything at all.

Then the human population as a whole is simply more retarded. There is one episode when a parasyte invades the school Murano and Shinichi go and shows that is a threat and danger to everyone around. Later they have a parasyte camouflage as a student and after getting poisoned and can't return to a human form,then it starts attacking everyone that is around it, just to show the students happily joking and KNOWING the threat like that already happened and that killing teachers and other students is not a big deal. But for some reason this is lovely goofy trick and prank of some sorts to them when it is clearly that is not something like that. Yeah I will be laughing my ass knowing that my life is in danger after hearing many news of brutal deaths of local citizens around my city. So normal right???

Also when the government gets the inside of what these creatures are and tell the population on how to detect them, noboby questions how to protect yourself from them in such case to say at least, when they report that the parasyte that they found and made test on him that he killed students, teachers and police reinforcements during the moment they tried to stop it. What they say is that they have to pull part of your hair and if some cells are moving after doing it they demostrate that they are parasyte and you defend with nothing, because you are already dead. Honestly is this society so stupid to don't question things like that? The show just go and roll with it because again reasons unknown. So yeah the government is horrendous at this but also the citizens not questioning nothing at all contribute to this idiotic way of life.

Finally the other parasytes, they are simply bland. The only ones that have some traits are Ryouko and Parasite. Ryouko with its understanding more about the humans, like doing sexual acts and raising a child as it is in a woman body but just that. Parasite would have been a great character to add with the dilemma of parasites adapting to its human partner and not controlling him/her completely but it is wasted because Shinichi and his owner Uda are the only ones that achieve this cooperation. The rest of the parasytes in the show are your typical villain of the week showing up and trying to devour everything in their path, even the last parasyte form called Gotou is just that, a multiple parasytes body created by Ryouko just to see how it goes with this social experiment until they die. Nothing more than that.

Sound = 5

The sound is a mixed bag. Some tunes are great some are just meh. The main ones being Next to You and Speak. But the Dubstep included in fight scenes is so out of place. They just throw it to put an ost there and I like dubstep music but it is just inserted because the scene needs music but it doesn't have something good to it, when they changed to the more instrumental and dramatic tunes for the fight scenes it got better. The opening and ending for me feel out of place. The opening is just your typical screamo autotune edge song that is required in your show if it has some gore in it and the ending is like meh, the song is not bad but it feels out of place when you see a head being cut from its body and tons of blood to this relaxed song coming up, it feels weird. The transition that they do is so sudden after a brutal scene happened. The voice actors do a great job, they portrait the characters really good even when some are just lifeless characters in the show but they bring out the little heart and soul they have,

Art=9

Simply outstanding. The character design is so well done. There aren't any weird frames when you pause an episode, the highspeed of the parasytes attacking each other is fabulous and exciting to watch. Everything is so fluid in this show and so amazing to watch and appreciate. The only thing I would criticize is the CGI in large crowds. Holy cow this tendency keeps going. They just look weird and like those early 3D videogames attempts but with HD resolution. They look bad honestly but other than that the production Madhouse did simply surpasses a lot other shows that do animate even to this day (2019)

Enjoyment = 3

Many things bugged me with this show. So many inconsistent things going with the story, the changed of the plot is horrible and the crappy superpower without explanation was tough to watch without questioning every single time. I couldn't entertain myself with this besides the battles and the AMV I did for this thing.

Overall = 2

This show is simply dumb, they treat the spectator as an idiot with their crappy plot points and inconsistent direction. Besides the battles and wanting to find how will end, I don't see the appeal of this, it is so basic but the basicness of it lacks a lot of elements that could be improved even if is adapted from an 80s manga and change the setting to this 2010s world,

Well thanks for reading this review. Enjoy whatever you are doing and see you around this site. Take care.