Review of Parasyte: The Maxim

Hello dumplings, it’s Cin, I know it’s been a while DeviantArt but are you ready for this? Today little old Cin will be reviewing…ready? You ready? Well, you probably guessed from the title, and you are totally right it is Parasyte. (If you read that carefully it rhymes…hehe). *Spoilers* Story: So the story is as copied here, I do not own this summary. Citation is below. Parasyte centers on a 17-year-old male named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother and father in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo. One night, worm-like creatures called Parasites appear on Earth, taking over the brains of human hosts by entering throughtheir ears or noses. One Parasite attempts to crawl into Shinichi's ear while he sleeps, but fails as Shinichi is wearing headphones, and enters his body by burrowing into his arm instead. In the Japanese version, it takes over his right hand and is named Migi (ミギー?), after the Japanese word for 'right'; Tokyopop's version, in which the images are flipped horizontally, has the Parasite take over Shinichi's left hand and it is named Lefty.
Because Shinichi was able to prevent Migi from travelling further up into his brain, both beings retain their separate intellect and personality. As the duo encounter other Parasites, they capitalize on their strange situation and gradually form a strong bond, working together to survive. This gives them an edge in battling other Parasites who frequently attack the pair upon realization that Shinichi's human brain is still intact. Shinichi feels compelled to fight other Parasites, who devour humans as food, while enlisting Migi's help.
(Wikipedia). All rights Reserved.

Summarized Version: Long story short this high schooler named Shinichi is targeted by a parasite trying to take over his brain, instead Shinichi traps the parasite in his right arm by preventing it from moving further up in his body. He basically gets scared thinking it is a snake, freaks out and cuts off his circulation to his arm. The parasite takes over his right arm, they maintain separate minds, parasite gains a personality, and they encounter more parasites while trying to survive. A parasite that did not take over the brain is considered a failure so “naturally” other parasites will try to kill them. Although in the anime series there is only one other person with a similar parasite situation as himself. Shinichi feels obligated to stop these other parasites and yeah…may sound a bit complex at first but it can be watered down to, creature fails at conquering human, human ends up having to work with foreign creature for mutual survival, and human ends up wanting to eliminate other foreign creatures to help humans…in other words. Humans! Yay homo sapiens! #1 race on Earth! Nothing else matters! Woo… story gets an 8/10, it has uniqueness, I like that, and it addresses the ego humans have.

Characters: Moving on to the characters, and who better to begin with rather than, Shinichi Izumi our main character. Now Shinichi he had a pretty wimpy look at first, but later learns to pack a punch. In the beginning of the anime he has a rather pathetic image, and cares more about his own survival and living, and…himself? Yet he does not want others too involved, and completely depends on Migi, this changes when he pulls an Aizen (Sosuke Aizen) …his mother nearly kills him, but Migi regenerates the wound and Shinichi’s physical abilities enhance. He grows colder towards humans yet maintains his wanting to save humanity from the parasites, he basically takes a 180 in the middle of the series and slowly becomes a bit more like Migi, but near the end and in the end is a bit more human...? I suppose. Next is Migi, the parasitic right arm of Shinichi. The End. No, but really Migi is pretty heartless but very logical. Migi is probably my second favorite character in this series. He issues precise judgements and is somewhat “coldhearted” in the series. He develops a strong bond with Shinichi overtime their relationship going from being survival based to…” I…guess after killing parasites like the bad arses we are and having some critical moments and tough situations like with Gotou, I guess we can be friends…” Migi is my man…voiced by a woman both in English and Japanese. Let’s talk about Nobuko Izumi, the mother of our lovely main character, a sweet caring woman whom tries not to worry her son; while worrying about him herself. She carries a burn scar as a reminder from the past…and is later killed in the series turning into a parasite that nearly kills Shinichi. Of course later Shinichi kills her, but it was something very difficult for him, I actually really liked his mother too. Moving on to Satomi Murano, to be honest I did not like her that much, she played the somewhat annoying female love interest. Thank god she did not get too much screen time. Her character development was alright, and in the end the cannon couple got together. Great for you Satomi! Hmm, Kana Kimishima. The girl whom used to hang out with those guys that beat up Shinichi now turned into his spiritual soulmate? Kana was convinced she was meant to be with Shinichi when she could “sense” his presence. In all honesty she just had high spiritual abilities and could “sense” parasites which Shinichi warned her was dangerous. Yet blinded by love! She carved her own path to her downfall, and death. (I kind of shipped her with Shinichi). Who is Yuko Tachikawa you ask? Only one of Satomi’s BFFs. Yuko is the sister of a profiler that works for the police and discovers a drawing of a parasite. For those of you who do not know a profiler is a person that sketches an image of a potential perpetrator or suspect based on a description a witness gives. Now, Yuko learns of the parasites and suspects Shinichi, all the while crushing on a parasite at their school...no wonder she nearly died. Earlier in the summary I stated there was someone much like Shinichi, well that person is Mamoru Uda. His parasite is trapped around his mouth, chin area (awkward, guess he is not getting babes anytime soon). He ends up helping Shinichi track down his mother, and struggles to almost kills her himself, but at that point Shinichi takes matters into his own right arm (hehe). Reiko Tamura, she is a parasite that teaches at Shinichi’s school, then motivated by science has a drive to learn about her species she gets impregnated by another parasite, only to find out that the baby would be human, and ends up changing identities after being discovered as a parasite. Reiko is an interesting character, she treats her baby strangely but up until her death when she asks Shinichi to take care of her child she seems to have maternal instincts and want to protect her child. Finally, Gotou he is an interesting character. An experiment developed by Reiko and the last..parasite(s)? Gotou is a mix of three different parasites one of them being Miki. He is an extreme pain in the butt to Shinichi all while being freakishly tough, he is my favorite character oddly enough. Although in the end when Shinichi has his revelation about humanity Gotou ends up dying. He was pretty much the threat in the last few episodes. The characters were pretty well developed for the most part, and although I did not like all of them I liked a majority of them, 8.2/10.

Art/Sound: Lemme tell you, this art was unique in a good way. I liked the real-ness of the characters, no overly dramatized features. It was wickedly gore, and the detail in the heads of parasites astonished me! It was some of the most realistic approach I have seen, although it was not completely realistic. The soundtrack was fitting as should all soundtracks be…but that opening just gets you ready and excited for what is to come! Literally some good stuff here. 8.5/10

Overall: Just to sum it up. This is a great piece of work here. Great stuff. Recommended for those looking for something with some actual plot. It has its moments but is truly deserving of an 8.7/10.

Yeah, that took a while. Especially those characters. Well hope I did not put anyone to sleep! Stay awake! Otherwise you will miss out. Look forward to my next review! Whenever that happens…