Review of Parasyte: The Maxim

I’ll start with what truly impressed me, maybe only I care about this, but we’ll see. It is how well directed it is, which I didn’t truly appreciate until it’s final episode. Parasyte has many tasteful and gory action scenes, but the time between them is only filled with characters talking and dumping exposition, usually Migi to Shinichi. However, these scenes don’t bore you as many animes tend to do with these scenes. The characters dispense just enough exposition to keep you in the plot, but not so much that it annoys the viewer, which is refreshing. Each scene of dialogue actually adds to yourknowledge of the setting of the universe. However if you’re only watching it for the actions scenes and the gore, you’ll be driven away.

But by far, the best part of this anime is Shinichi Izumi, the main character. As Migi, the parasite in his right hand, sticks with him and keeps each of them alive, the character development of Shinichi as an individual is amongst the best I’ve seen. He knows he has no choice but to live with Migi, just as Migi has no choice but to keep each of them alive. However the difference between each of them is morality. Migi has no concept of morality or emotion, which is what separates Shinichi’s decision making from his. “Shinichi, the man knows of us, kill him!” Only for Shinichi’s battle tested moral compass to kick in and refuse. Each episode brings a new dynamic to their relationship. On one episode, Shinichi and Migi will argue how realistic it is for the pair to take on pipedream of a mission in working with the military in the elimination of all parasites. The next episode will then have Shinichi’s resolve be tested between his internal struggle and the external relationships of his friends and family. Then the next episode there will be a new and dangerous parasite they have to eliminate by coming up with a cunning strategy, as running in and make a sexy battle will not end up working. Gradually, Shinichi becomes that strong protagonist we all want to see, but still is emotionally and physically vulnerable enough for us to be invested in each of his fights and feel that “he can actually lose, how’s he gonna think his way out of this?”

In addition, Shinichi’s character development is strong enough to carry the emotional weight of the show, if you’re looking for more of it than just the action scenes. HE has to, because no supporting characters are even close to interesting. More on that later though. As he and Migi become closer and more cohesive as a pair, he then has to struggle with his own humanity. As he does so, he begins to ask himself the larger questions associated with that. “What makes a human?” “What is humanity as it relates to morals?” “Can humans and parasites actually coexist?” “Who are you to respect life by taking something else into your hands?”

Well, as much as I just talked about how good Shinichi is, I could go just as long on how bad all the other characters are. His father shows up, but get no screen time beyond his character arc. The antagonists he faces are only interesting because they are odd both socially and as parasites, but only because you wonder how Shinichi will eventually defeat them.

The main supporting characters are Shinichi’s love interests, Murano and Kana. However, they each are frustratingly uninteresting. In the beginning of the series, Kana harbors this forced and random attraction for Shinichi, and she begins to basically stalk him. However their relationship doesn’t go anywhere, and makes no progress at all. She doesn’t develop as a character into someone you want to invest interest in. She actually hinders Shinichi and Migi infinitely more than she can ever hope to contribute, to the point that you don’t like her getting screen time because you know Shinichi is going to be forced to save her instead of pushing the plot along. Well… if the show even has a plot.

Murano, Shinichi’s longtime friend, is his primary love interest, but she feels no more important to the plot than Kana. Personally speaking, I find Murano more frustrating. The anime is written for you to like her, and it painfully obvious that the two will end up together, no matter how bad their relationship appears to be. On the other hand, as Kana gains in screentime, she doesn’t prove to be any closer in conquering Shinichi’s heart. Murano’s most frustrating quality is that she spends a large chunk of her dialogue with Shinichi telling him how he’s changed and saying he is a different man, but never acknowledges what the change is. The two have no chemistry, and their relationship never appears to get closer to achieving this. Furthermore, Shinichi’s development with his parasite places strain on the relationship between he and Murano, so they frequently drift apart only to want to make up later. However, this often goes awry, because it is difficult to have desire for them to be together. Shinichi will muddle for an entire episode about whether or not to repair their fragile relationship, only for her to run away when she sees him approach her. Murano will want to talk to Shinichi, but waits until Shinichi has to sprint away and handle one of his enemies, but never use that as ammunition against him when she says he changed. All of this might come off as me being annoyed by romance, but this is not so. The anime never gives us a reason to want to like Murano, or even show us why she is important to Shinichi. They never show us scenes of Murano and Shinichi before the timeframe of the anime, and we are simply le to consider her important ONLY because Shinichi does.

I rolled my eyes every time she was onscreen, because you know exactly what the scene was about to be, and found myself zoning out as those two talked.
Quick change of gears here to something positive. To be fair, the only other interesting character aside from Shinichi, is one of the bigger antagonists, parasite Tamia Ryoko. You quickly learn that she isn’t just one of the smart parasites that survives by blending in to human society. Even among parasites, she is more mentally advanced. Not only this, her process of thinking is far beyond even Migi. She asks the biggest questions of the series. “What is our future as a species?” “Can parasites survive by not eating human flesh?” Questions such as that.

Back to the bad. The soundtrack is awful, and on top of that, none of it goes along with the visuals. Tense moments don’t feel as tense as they should because the music doesn’t feel as if it fits the situation. The clips used to play in the background of a standard exposition scene, also plays when the battle begins with Shinichi and one of his many various opponents. In addition the opening theme… you decide.

Final Reaction!

With it’s interesting concept, multi-tiered character development, and tasteful actions scenes, Parasyte is a decent addition to your anime list. Not for the faint of heart, the action scenes don’t skip on plenty of killing and blood. Those with a short attention span, should be wary as dialogue heavy scenes dominate a lot of the episodes. Shinichi as a character that one can align with as he progresses, and Migi begins to become a loveable character. Humans and Parasites become more aware of each other and play a cat and mouse game. The big questions of what the ultimate reason for parasites existing keeps you going through the more dry scenes. I fully recommend this anime if Science-Fiction is your thing, and I hope you enjoy it as I did. Kinda...

So! Now that I’ve said too much, what did you think of Parasite? Please, let me know. It is available for legal and free streaming on Crunchyroll.