Parasyte follows the life of Shinichi, a shy, average 17 year old who's life was turned upside down after a parasyte named Migi burrowed into his right arm. The story documents Shinichi fighting against parasytes who have taken other people's whole bodies, as well as trying to come to terms with their existence.
In terms of a genre, Parasyte isn't far enough to be classed as a horror, but more as a sci-fi thriller, and it's the thriller aspect of the show they succeed at. Atmospherically, the sudden switch from the norm for Shinichi's life almost has a direct effect on the viewer, as in the first few episodes, the fast pace of the story allows us to relate to Shinichi struggling to come to terms with parasytes who are looking to attack him. It's almost as if both the viewer and Shinichi is thrown into the deep end straight away. As a story, Patasyte tries to view a possibility of a symbiotic relationship between humans and parasytes, as well as empathizing with a species that, with a high amount of knowledge like humans, gets killed off due to them being feared as they kill humans. Parasyte looks at survival of the fittest, whether it be for humans or parasyte, and thus leads the show to take more of a philosophical route. Are humans really morally just in its treatment of other species? These questions are constantly made throughout. Lastly, Shinichi's life is turned upside down and the story looks at how him becoming half parasyte-half human affects his own beliefs, his family and his friends around him.
However, the main weaknesses of the show are it's pacing, the message the story tried to make and the ending. In terms of pacing, the fast paced start at the beginning lead the show to become interesting early on, as we wanted to gain more information about how parasytes are, how they think ext. However, the pace of the story couldn't keep up with its fast paced start, which lead to a decrease in character development which couldn't occurred later on, secondly, there were many instances in scenes which felt very rushed and uncomfortable, as it didn't seem to fit well with what was going on at the time. Furthermore, the message it tried to get across seemed too cheap. Although it clearly showed how inhumane humans can be, it was almost mixed up in trying to decide whether to understand where parasytes came from, or to try and understand them, or both. Lastly, the ending mainly was an upset due to it coming across as a filler, as well as the constant repeat of its philosophical message.
In terms of animation, the battle scenes really do spice up the thriller aspect of the show, with the fluid animation of fighting in full view. Very typical of madhouse to make sure the show was given a great feel with the brilliant lighting, as well as making darkness that bit more sinister.
The characters in parasyte are done to a acceptable standard. Shinichi and Migi make up the the main characters of the show, with both equally sharing the spotlight because of their symbiotic relationship. Shinichi is developed very quickly in a very short space of time, due to the events of parasytes attacking him, as well as killing others lead to Shinichi to overcome drastic changes, which cause a devastating effect to his family life and his life at school. He turns from shy and fragile to assertive and calm for the most part. He constantly undergoes many internal struggles to find the answers in understanding parasytes, as well as humans too. Migi comes off as more of an interesting character, as his lack of emotion as a parasyte comes across as simplistic at the start, as he helps shinichi defeat other parasytes, but Migi also tries to empathize with humans too. Finally Tamura Reiko, a parasyte who had taken over a teachers body acts as main embodiment of the relationship between parasyte and humans, with her theories and beliefs ever present in the shows message.
However, the main criticism of the cast is towards Murano, shinichi's partner. She is very much useless in terms of what she brings to the show, as her stance mainly stays the same throughout, as she constantly repeats "shinichi, you've changed" over and over again. Furthermore, she tends to be neglected for large portions of the story, making her influence on the show very slight.
In terms of music and OST, parasyte has a very quirky soundtrack, with many battle scenes containing dub step music, which fits in quiet well. Not to mention the increased suspense it gives to certain scenes. Also, the opening song was sort of a cross between techno and rock, which I wasn't a huge fan of. But I did personally lie the mellow j-pop ending.
To conclude, parasyte started off as a show with potential to become a stand out show, which it had done based on the epic battles and interesting concept, but failed as story.
