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Few anime has ever genuinely made me reflect on any extensional questions. In fact, I'd say few any type of media has done this. Parasyte completely made me think and consider the question "What does it mean to be human?".

Parasytes take over humans to live, as they are too weak survive on their own. The human race, once this is found, attempt to completely eradicate them. It doesn't attempt to frame humans or parasytes as good or bad, but rather that they both exist in the same world and are just doing what they think is right to survive.

The character development in ... this show is some of the best I've seen to date. Once Migi, Shinichi's parasyte that only infected his right hand, appears, Shinichi changes from an emotional, nervous, and determined teenager, into a more cold, calculating human (much like the parasytes themselves). But as Shinichi changes, so does Migi. Migi goes from the stoic and all about survival into a more human-like being, capable of understanding and feeling what humans can feel. Once Migi is cut off of Shinichi later in the series, Shinichi completely starts to revert to what he was like before. As they join back before the end, they both show off what they have learned from each other.

The character development of another parasyte, Reiko Tamura, is amongst the most heart touching. After Reiko becomes impregnated by another parasyte, the baby turns out to be completely human. Whilst Reiko discusses throughout the series about killing the child or experimenting on it, she later shows the type of emotion that a human mother would feel for their child after a detective attempts to kill her child in front of her. Even, completely allowing her death in order for the child to have a chance at life.

Parasyte has an important aspect of even romance as well. Murano is seen by Shinichi as one important person to him throughout the series. She draws attention to how Shinichi changes throughout the show even without knowing the reason why. They form a relationship in a natural way throughout the series. Going from friends to very distant people to a couple with a deep connection.

The action is well done and the styles of parasytes when they engage some of their powers are unnerving enough to give it that more atmospheric feeling. The only small complaint I have on design choice is the music. Very dated dubstep type music, although I liked both the OP and ED songs.

It's very hard to completely list all of the things I found attractive and very heart touching about this show, but it's a breath of fresh air to have one completely nail romance, action, thought provocation, and character development with such high bars.

Although this anime is still in the top 50 most popular anime, I think it's still not popular enough. Many people do not discuss this show when it comes to the discussion of the greatest show made. It's one that has a general consensus of being very good, but not genre defining. I disagree. A piece of media that makes you ask all of the questions such as "what are emotions?" and "what does it mean to be human?", while having all of the peak development of its characters and incredible romance development and action sequences, is one that everyone should have the pleasure of experiencing.

"Izumi, you're eyes. they're so empty."

As this is my first review on MAL, I wanted to save the first for something I needed to talk about. This is that anime. Without a doubt, this show is downright creepy and absurdly disgusting to watch. It is quite literally "Adult stalks and harasses high schooler: the anime". Simply put, there's a reason why anime has a stigma about it to those who don't watch any. This show does not help and is one the reasons why anime is still stigmatized.

The age gap is the first problem, and the most obvious. I don't care about age of consent. Legality of something does ... not equal morally correct. There's no way you can defend this without sounding like a complete creeper. People who yell and cry about 17 and 19 are weird, I agree. This is not in the same stratosphere as that.

2 types of people defend this:
1. Still under 18 and does not understand what being an adult is like
2. Genuine creeper

Ryo is older than me, and I could not imagine being with a high schooler. That's seems pretty abhorrent. If you have a career and a place of your own, you shouldn't be with someone who needs help in math class. It's funny how Ryo's father is painted as the bad guy for not wanting his son to be with a high schooler

The most frustrating thing is both Ryo and Arima meet perfectly fine people to date within their age group. If that were to happen, this wouldn't have been as bad as it is and would've been an average romance anime.

The second major issue is that Ryo forces his feelings onto Arima. She said "please leave me alone". His reply is essentially "lol don't care". Regardless of age, that is disgusting.

I can't recommend this. If you can somehow get past the age, there's the real stalker feel to the show too. There's a million other romance animes that have better plots, characters, and less insanity.