Parasyte is an anime I feel that the exact criteria of being a great anime. It is not the best anime, but it does enough for me be satisfied of the entire experience. To be real here, this anime really got me to analyze the positives and negatives of an anime thanks to the anime’s straightforward narrative. The anime really got me to think about a lot of things in terms of morality and myself.
I love how the anime explores the bond between a parasite and a human, and the two characters create a very interesting chemistry that makes you want to se how they grow in later episodes. It is not just that, but how he grows to become stronger thanks to his friends. Even more interesting, but it also explores the morality of other parasites and how they view or adapt to human society. There are very rarely times where the story distracts from its goal and its just straightforward engaging story from there. It never wastes time during an episode and adds enough to keep the plot very interesting. In terms of visuals, animation, and music, they do a great job in keeping the terrifying tone of Parasyte, although techno/dubstep music can be a bit questionable at a few times.
That said, there are some things I would have loved to see in the anime. These are not so much negatives, but rather suggestions that I felt could be explored more, beware SKIP THIS SECTION if you want to avoid spoilers:
1. There are a few characters I would’ve love to see side characters explored more like Jaw, Uda, Mitsuo, and Makiko because I feel this desire to learn more about these characters because honestly their develop didn’t feel complete to me. I wanted to know what these characters thought about the parasites, and for Uda/Jaw in particular more of their backstory.
2. I would have loved to see more emotional moments and humor to balance the emotions given in the anime. I fully understand that Shinichi’s phase of lacking pure empathy and soul is meant to give sort of negative emotions to the viewers, but what I would suggest is that there would be some added humor and emotional moments with side characters in particular so that the viewer does not feel negative emotions all the time after Shinichi’s lack of feeling emotion. Shinichi can remain the same as is, but I think having side characters go through emotional phases or having them think about the different moralities of parasites would have made this anime feel more complete.
3. I feel in terms of the moralities and the stories of parasitical characters themselves, I feel not enough it has been explored yet. I wanted to see more of those parasitical politics, more interesting parasite humans, how parasites gradually began to coexist with humans and one another, and much more that makes me feel that I desire more. You could say you can interpret it for yourself based on how it ended, but I feel there isn’t enough stuff to think about in terms of parasites for viewers to really desire or imagine the a parasitical/human world.
I think all of this could be filled in if the anime had another season or more episodes to cover such topics, but since the anime basically covers the entire manga that dates back to the 1980s, I doubt such exploration could be fulfilled unless the anime staff is willing to research and explore more territory in Parasyte that the mangaka could not. In terms of a direction if there were another season, I would love to see a time-skip of sorts to see how Shinichi develops and how parasites adapt to human society over the years. I think overall, Parasyte is an anime you DEFINITELY need to watch sometime. If you can get past the gore and terrifying parasites, then you’ll find a very interesting story to enjoy and think about.
