Ranked #349

Parasyte (Manga)

Parasytes are an alien species that take over the human body by replacing the head. Our shmuck lead Izumi was about to be taken over by a parasyte, but due to some quick thinking he manages to stop the alien inside his arm, upon which the parasyte consumes his arm and takes it place. The two then have to learn how to live with each other while also dealing with all the other parasytes that have landed on earth.

What drew me to Parasyte originally was seeing the body horror pictures of how peoples’ bodies mutated and warped and started growing tentacles and teeth and occasionally dick hands. I’m usually a pretty queasy person so I’m not sure quite why this drew me in, but there’s a definite fascination with how alien the mutations the bodies undertake. Once you get over the original shock, it’s not even that scary anymore. The mutations are so alien and cartoonish they go into this area of scholarly fascination. The only times I would actually get a bit perturbed were the more ghoulish deaths of actual humans rather than the parasytes. This cartoonish nature of the body distortions could have undermined something that was only trying to shock you, but thankfully Parasyte is cleverer than that. It’s got a real dark sense of humour, one that’s willing to laugh at itself, what with the aforementioned dick hands and so forth. Plus the comedy segments don’t detract from the moments the deformations are supposed to shock you. It’s a delicate balancing act, but one that Parasyte pulls off remarkably well.

Parasyte does have more to it than just some alien horror story. Its larger theme is about humanity and what makes someone human. Migi, the parasyte that co-inhabits the main character’s body, is very Kyubey-esque in how he thinks. He has no empathy but endless curiosity driven mostly by a self-preservation instinct. Through his conversations with Izumi, they explore both sides of each character and broader concepts of what it means to be human and why it is that one might perform a selfless act. It’s got that perfect duo combination where the two sides’ conversations force both characters to develop. Migi’s development is more subtle than Izumi’s, but that’s because Migi slow development is reflected in the attitude of all the parasytes as they evolve and and start to change their approach to fitting into society. Their change becomes a way to explore what makes humans tick.

Izumi starts off as a bit of a Yuji Everylead, but he changes pretty quickly into a more fascinating character who struggles to find what it is that makes him human. Fairly early on in the manga he absorbs part of Migi into his bloodstream and it starts to change him in little ways. He doesn’t get emotional, can’t cry at friends and family’s deaths, and some of his actions start to reflect Migi’s apathetic nature. You get the feeling that the times he does show kindness and emotion is him trying to force himself to act human so he can reclaim his identity as a human. It mirrors how some of the more advanced parasytes try mimicking human actions in order to understand them and fit into society better, such as trying to smile, having children and laughing. This in turn causes them to start experiencing much more human emotions. It might sound like this is all heavy stuff, talking about the nature of humanity and all that, but it isn’t really. The last volume definitely gets a bit preachy, but otherwise the dialogue all feels very natural and goes about things with a sense of humour. Plus at the moment it really counted, when they really needed to bring everything to the table around both the parasyte’s increasing selflessness and Izumi’s own struggle with his humanity, they nailed the scene so well that it made me cry.

Let me repeat that for effect: I cried at Parasyte. Fucking Parasyte. The manga with dick hands made me cry. Do you know how often I cry at entertainment? Never! And yet somehow Parasyte made me cry? With proper tears streaming from eyes, so overcome with emotion that I had to stop reading and walk for a bit? The only other time in my entire life I cried at media was at Grave of the Fireflies, which is kind of to be expected since that is basically the only point of Grave of the Fireflies. Plus I’ve kind of gone off Grave of the Fireflies over time, as its method of drawing emotion is to have everything be shit and then everyone dies, which is kind of a cheap almost Jun Maeda-esque way of drawing emotion. Meanwhile Parasyte managed it by being positive. It’s key scene was the fulfilment of 8 previous volumes of thematic buildup and re-affirmation of the main character’s humanity that was so tragically beautiful it caused me to break down.

Sorry, is this all a bit serious?

I picked up Parasyte because I figured if I was going to jump into manga, I’d want to read something that would at least draw a reaction from me, but I ended up absolutely loving it. It keeps the story tight and focused on a small cast of characters. It’s paced excellently, comes to a conclusive ending and doesn’t drag on longer than it needs to. It has depth while keeping a sense of humour, and the body horror is shocking without being an obstacle to enjoyment. It’s a bloody great manga and highly recommended. read more

Parasyte is a series written and drawn by Hitoshi Iwaaki. Unfortunately this is his only notable series so I can’t so much about his career. I mostly picked up Parasyte on a whim and also because my favorite manga reviewer, Y Ruler of Time mentioned it on his Seven Deadly Series list. But I digress, lets get started.

Story: The story is your standard alien invasion story. Little spores about the size of tennis balls fall from space and give birth to little worm like creatures. The creatures then invade the heads of humans and take over their bodies. The end result being that the creatures can flex the heads into any shape or size, making them stretch and snap like rubber, or turn them into blades.
Our story follows a teenage male named Shinichi whom a creature tries to invade, but, due to a fluke, the creature ends up stuck in his arm. Shinichi ends up naming the creature Migi, and they develop a rather odd relationship. For the most part their relationship builds around the fact that they have to fight off creatures that have successfully invaded human heads. Why do they need to fight off the aliens? Well, only because that the aliens that successfully invade human heads have to survive by eating other humans. Needless to say Migi can change Shinichi’s arm into pretty much anything, so that makes for some pretty awesome fight scenes.
What’s really interesting about this series though is that a small group of parasytes inherit human personalities (whilst still remaining homicidal creatures) and end up banding together to not really destroy, but to simply observe and survive. One of them even ends up being the closest thing to human in this series what it started out the most brutal monster of them all. Though later the government actually steps in and takes care of some of them.
I have to say the story didn’t get quite as repetitive as I thought it would, it always kept moving at just the right pace. However, violence does seem to take up a good portion of the series, so if you’re squeamish it’s best not to look into this series. Sometimes the way humans die are just brutal. The story itself was interesting enough to keep me reading.


Characters: Our main character as I said is Shinichi, a young teenage male. I would like to say he’s your standard shonen hero, but he isn’t quite. Migi does most of the fighting in the stories, though Shinichi usually delivers the finishing blow in the more serious battles ironically enough. Shinichi is definitely interesting as a character, he doesn’t quite develop so much as a person as through relationships, in fact, due to some bad flukes, he gets a little worse as a character through the series. But that is mostly Migi’s fault to be fair.
Ah yes, Migi, who undoubtedly is the best character. Migi develops the best, and the most subtly throughout the series. While most aliens are heartless and emotionless, Migi ever so slowly starts to understand human emotions. I even got a little sad when…Well, I don’t want to spoil too much.
There are a few villians but most of them die off pretty quickly. Shinichi also develops a relationship with a girl, Murano, but Migi’s relationship is more important and prominent.

Art: I’m not so much one to criticize art in a manga, since everyone has their own style and what I am presented with, will automatically become my standard. It’s also clear that this was made in the 90’s with the manga style, but I really liked this art. It could become quite gritty and dark at times but was detailed and precise when it needed to be.


The Bad: If I had any complaints about Parasyte, it would have to be the violence. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude or anything it’s just some of the fights are way too violent, too pointless, and overall seemed to be layered in bullshit. Most of the fights do help develop in the story, even the seemingly inconsequential ones, like where they fight a dog that got invaded by a parasyte. But sometimes it’s just aggravating seeing so much blood and violence


Parasyte overall: I have to say with Parasyte you can’t go wrong entirely, I enjoyed the characters, the fights, and the ending especially. The morale and whole idea at the end through me for huge loop. It really raised some philosophical questions.

As this is my first shot at reviewing please don't be too harsh. I would much appreciate any comments on thoughts you had of the review. thank you very much.
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