Title: Parasyte
Alternate Title: Kiseiju
Mangaka: Hitoshi Iwaaki
Rating: 5.5/10
Genre: Not really sure how to put this
...
Length: 64 chapters compiled in 10 volumes
Summary: The world has been infested by Parasytes, who can take control of human bodies. They don't know why they were sent here, they don't know how they were created. What they do know is that they must kill, and feed off of the human remains. They have the ability to shape the bodies of their hosts in any way that they desire, whether to alter the body to jump 50 feet in the air, or make blades out of arms. The worst part is that noone knows of their existence, as they blend in seamlessly with society.
One of the parasytes, however, messes up. Instead of taking control of his host's brain, he gets forced into the host's right hand instead. The name of this host is Izumi, and after waking up to this horror, he and the Parasytes, called Migi [which means right in Japanese, not a very creative name] form a symbiotic relationship, in order to fight the other parasytes.
Analysis: This entire manga is a coming-of-age story, focusing on Izumi. Because he and Migi each are two people in one body, they each retain their own minds. However, Izumi is influenced by Migi's cold, harsh, logical mind. The story tracks him and those surrounding him, as he changes and he deals with the changes. That part is pretty interesting. Additionally, some of the Parasytes [such as Migi, but there are others] see the human race as an interesting experiment, and its interesting watching them interact and learn about humans.
Whats also good about it is that its hinted, both at the beginning and the end, that the Parasytes were sent to the earth in order to cleanse it of a plague, that plague being the human race, for all of the evildoings that we have been inflicting on the earth. Its a very eco-friendly manga.
However, my problem with it are the fights. The manga, even though it is set up as such [what with the body changing], cannot do fights scenes. When they're done, they're done ok-ish, however they have no read purpose in the plot. Its almost as if the mangaka said 'Allright, I think I'm going to put a fight in here for no reason at all'. I can only think of 2, maybe 2.5 fights in the series that were actually important and helped the plot and the characters along. The rest of them, I feel like the manga could have done without. [Its because of that that I gave it a low score]
The main reason that you would want to read this manga is because of the characters, and how they develop. Thats the best part of it, and probably the only part worth reading [except for the 2.5 fights that actually matter]. Asides from that, you'd read it to read the insights on humankind, the world, and society as we know it.
Characters:
Because this entire manga is basically character devlopment, I'm going to be very brief with the characters, and I'm only going to mention four of them. There are more, and they do play important parts, but I feel like if I say anything about them, it will ruin it.
Izumi Shinichi: The protagonist of the series, he starts off as an uncaring boy, with a dim view of the world. After his right hand is inhabited by Migi, he changers, becoming more and more parasyte than human.
Migi: The other protagonist of the series, he inhabits Izumi's right hand. He is very interested in human society as a whole, but only sticks his neck out for himself and Izumi. He has a very narrow view of the world, and is very smart.
Murano Satomi: She is the childhood friend of Izumi, and spends some of her time in a romantic pursuit of the titular character. However, for the most part, in the series she serves as a sort of barometer to Izumi's humanity.
Tamura Reiko: She is a full bodied Parasyte, however she is not as mindless as the rest. Maybe its the fact that she possessed a teacher, but she sees the entire world as an experiment. She looks at the world through an outside observer's eyes and shares that perspective with us. Throughout the series, we see how the views of humanity changes. She is not as violent as the rest of the Parasytes, and is more logical and contains more reason than them too.
review taken from animeruwelz, see my profile for more details
 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Parasite, Parasitic Beasts Japanese: 寄生獣 More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 10
Chapters: 64
Status: Finished
Published: Nov 22, 1989 to Dec 23, 1995
Demographic:
Seinen
Serialization:
Afternoon Authors:
Iwaaki, Hitoshi (Story & Art) Statistics Ranked: #2412 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #136
Members: 102,790
Favorites: 4,420 Resources | Reviews
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Mar 9, 2015
Kiseijuu sounds like great a plot that makes it stand out compared to other manga's of similar genres. But I have found reading Kiseijuu to be very poor. The reason I decided to check out was becuase how good I heard it was. The issues I have with the series is that at times the series suffers from not exciting the reader. With no reveal shock factor, or cliff hanger. The series becomes a dull read waiting for spark of excitement waiting to capture the readers attention. For me there was no spark of interest that had me excited enough to want to finish
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Nov 17, 2023
Almost but not exactly the same
I’ve recently watched and read Kiseijuu/Parasyte, a very interesting case of a work that was very faithfully adapted and yet with a very relevant difference that isn’t brought up as much as it should, so I thought about writing about both versions. Interesting premise The premise is about monsters taking over humans from within and mimicking them to feast on them, hence the name. Since the origin of the parasites is not clear, it can be seen as a combination of Devilman, the first one in its kind in the manga and anime mediums, with The Thing and the Invasion of the ... |
