Review of Parasyte

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 Body Snatchers. What you get is a premise that’s interesting but not very original, even more so for the anime, which came out during the post Walking Dead and Shingeki no Kyojin fad.

Strong plot and themes

What sets this work apart from similar ones is the layers it adds to its premise, making it a far more complex and layered plot than you would expect from it, since it doesn’t stop at just humanity being devoured by monsters until they can fight against them, it also tackles into some sociological and even kind of philosophical questions regarding humans, the way we function as a society, and even our place on the Earth and even the whole universe, and if you’ve read some of my reviews before, you know by now how much of a sucker I am of such themes.

The theme exploration comes mainly from three character arcs, one from Shinichi, the protagonist, who managed to not get completely possessed by the parasite that attacked him, and just like Akira Fudo, he goes from a kind, quiet and nerdy guy to a cold and strong badass, with the difference being that the change is more gradual, believable and explored here, as there is a good focus on how his close ones perceive him, mainly his mother and love interest, as he becomes both inexplicably stronger and colder, resulting on some of the best scenes in this work, and he slowly regains his emotional side as a human being later on after all the tragedy that continuously take place around him.

Then you have Migi, said parasite, who although as colder and calculating as others of its kind at first, everything he learns, his interactions with Shinichi and his fights for survival against other parasites, and even consuming the same food as his host and eventually friend, end up making it completely different from them, as it becomes more sensitive, and also by developing both strengths and weaknesses in its abilities that most other monsters present throughout the show don’t have.

The third one comes from the best antagonist in the whole series, Ryouko Tamiya, also known as Reiko Tamura, who from the very beginning is far more concerned than the rest of her kind to learn more about her species both on a physiological and even existential level, as she is the only one that really wants to learn where they came from and what would be their role on the Earth, she is also the one that tries to learn about humans, understand them, communicate with them, even live through some of the same experiences as them, and she ends up even developing emotions along the way, even gaining the enmity of other parasites in the process.

Besides these three, it’s interesting to see the different perspectives among the parasites, as Migi wants to survive, Ryouko/Reiko yearns for learning, others try to blend in, and some others are just there to feast on humans, some for the sake of survival, and others like hungry beasts. This is one of the main elements within the plot and questions throughout the story, the role of humans on Earth, who called the parasites monsters for eating them, even though we, as a species, do the same with other animals on our planet. Just think about it, most of us eat other animals just to survive and stuff, yet most of us want them to have a delicious taste in the process, so eating them ends up losing its purpose of survival which we so much use as an argument when questioned about it by vegans. So, weirdly, the theme suits the anime better than the manga for the time it came out, when these sort of discussions and questions were becoming more prominent and relevant. Oh, and there also parasites that hunt humans just to test their strength to both themselves and others, just like some dickheads in our species hunt animals for the same reasons and for the sake of sport and entertainment.

The sociological aspect is present in the different ways the two species interact with their kind, as Shinichi is mortified by all the human deaths and want to warn others, but can’t because if he does Migi will dispose of anyone who knows about it to ensure its survival, and different authorities work together to find ways to identify and eventually fight against the parasites, and even the protagonist himself is reminded several times by several people what it means to be human, and how to face problems instead of running from them in order to keep on living, while also helping or receiving the help or advise of others in the process.

At some point, Ryouko/Reiko hires a detective to spy on Shinichi to both learn more about him and keep him on check, and yet that man, as well as another human/parasite hybrid end up cooperating with the protagonist instead, because, humans are capable of mutual understanding.

On the other hand, the parasites only stick together for the sake of survival, as soon as they can either eat, or kill, or take over another one, most of them will, that’s the reason why plenty of them turn on Ryouko/Reiko, because her actions are deemed as dangerous since everyone can be exposed to the rest of the world with the most minor mistake.

But it’s not like the manga and anime says that everyone in a species is the same, just like there are a few exceptions within the parasites, there are people who are not qualified as humans within this franchise, present in the form of a serial killer who is presented as a far worse monster than any non-human creature that appears in the story. Whether or not this is a correct take and idea from the author is an interesting discussion, but not one to have here on this review. The way this character is written doesn’t leave much room to talk about mental health and stuff anyways, his whole characterization is being a sadistic psycho for the sake of it without any character exploration whatsoever, he is just an over the top villain written on the early 90s after all.

Good pacing

The pacing is very good on both versions, as no fight or element or mini arc overstays its welcome and each one lasts just the right amount of length it needs to. If I had to choose between one of them, I’d say the manga is slightly better, as one can read at their own pace, but I also have to say that the anime knows how to end its episodes better than the lame attempts of the original version at finishing every chapter with a cliffhanger, even the ones that don’t have as much content as others.

Weak writing

Despite all the good things I wrote so far about it, Parasyte is sadly a series that works better for its themes and scope than level of writing, as there are plenty of illogical or poorly explained things, if even, in it, that end up playing against it and lowering the overall quality of the whole thing, such as:

Unnecessary and silly romantic elements

They even play out in the form of a telenovela, thanks mainly to the character of Kana, who for some reason is nowhere near as hated as much as Murano, the main love interest of the manga and anime, and I don’t understand why. Yes, it’s true, lots of lines from Murano are asking Shinichi if he is really him over and over again, to the point of becoming repetitive and even kind of annoying, but nowhere near as much as the main love interests of Naruto or Bleach, mind you. But even at her worst, that girl isn’t nowhere near as bad of a character as Kana, who appears as a sadistic girl that enjoys seeing others being beaten up, for no reason in the anime, and just because she likes strong men in the manga.

If that wasn’t enough, her reasons for falling in love with Shinichi are completely selfish and superficial, her dreams of her being rescued by him like he was her white knight are cringy as shit, and even worse in the anime thanks to the slower pacing of the scenes, voice acting and music. She also acts as a bitch whenever she is near Murano, and if all of that wasn’t enough, she ends up having a tragic end purely because she was dumb as shit and ignored every warning that was given to her. I’ve seen plenty of female characters being crapped on for years for far less and yet not this girl, why? It doesn’t count if the manga is retro or what? What did this girl add to the story? She, or rather, what happens to her, reminds Shinichi what it means to be human alright, but so did plenty of other characters, mainly other women, such as Murano or Shinichi’s mother, and they did a far better job at it.

At the end of the day I can’t help but feel like the preference of Kana over Murano comes from her adoring the protagonist, while the latter was constantly questioning and breaking up with him as they become more distant, which makes perfect sense given her lack of knowledge about the whole situation.

Harem bits

Nowhere near as bad as series within that genre of course, but you can tell the original work was written in the late 80s and early 90s when several girls end up liking or falling in love with Shinichi either only because of his manliness of just because he is the protagonist, something that not only is unnecessary, but also far more outdated in the anime for the time it came out.

Silly comical moments

Despite the serious pretense of the themes and plot, there are some silly moments that are meant to be funny that clash with the tone that such a story should have, and it’s even worse for those that aren’t even supposed to come off as funny, yet they do either because of the weak writing and or presentation, or because of another weak element, which is:

Weak and stupid secondary characters

Besides the main three and to a lesser extent Shinichi’s mom, nobody else is nearly as well written, and this isn’t just about Murano or Kana, or even other characters like the parasites, a lot of scenes comes off as unintentionally funny because of the stupidity of the common people from the manga and anime, such as chasing after a woman running with her head open or following a guy that single handedly killed a whole group of yakuza, crushing their heads, when the deal with the monsters was already known throughout the whole country or even world.

Unexplained things

For all the questioning that both Shinichi and Ryouko/Reiko did to themselves about the origin of the parasites, it is never answered, they have a thematic reason to be in the story that’s explored throughout the whole plot alright, but if the author didn’t intend to provide an answer for their origin, then why even bring it out in the first place? Hideaki Anno gets crapped on for not explaining where the Angels came from in Evangelion, when the series never even cared about that, but for some reason is not a problem here, it seems, even though it’s the main mystery of the whole story.

Also, that Kana girl has an ability similar to that of the parasites of detecting others with the same mental waves or something like that, and it’s never explained why or how she got them in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, the author only gave them to her for the sake of writing one of the worst love triangles of all time, with one of the most avoidable and pathetic tragic ends ever, with dozens of cringe overload included, both during, and after the event.

The serial killer also has a similar ability, but just like Kana, it is never explained why and how he has such ability, and the attempt of an explanation, which comes from him, as the result of all his sadistic killings, is so bad, it would be better if there never was one instead.

Plot armor

Despite all the deaths in the story, it somehow messes up by saving or resurrecting the protagonists more times than it would be acceptable. I can take the first time thanks to the excuse given and the consequences, shortcomings in capabilities, and character development for the two mains that come from it, but near the end of the series one of them comes back from the death or disappearing not one but two times at the most convenient moments.

Weak and rushed ending

Speaking of which, during the last arc, Shinichi fights against a much stronger enemy that he has no hope of beating, and yet he does in the most convenient, lucky and ass-pulled way possible, that thankfully was properly criticized when the anime aired, something that does not happen frequently with hyped series, especially at the moment they are airing because of recency bias.

What’s never brought up, however, is how unnecessary the follow up is, it’s supposed to be a relaxed epilogue especially for the protagonist after all the tragedy and angst he went through throughout the story, but here we are with an out of nowhere weak attempt of scientific and existential monologue from Migi (more so in the anime), a minor villain reappearing even after his role was over, everything in the last episode and chapter happening only because of the stupidity of Shinichi, and like I said, plot armor for the sake of a happy ending. Oh, and don’t forget how the humans and parasites end up learning to coexist despite nothing in the series leading to that.

Similar levels in visuals

In terms of production, both versions are very close to each other, the manga has an inconsistent artwork that’s at times very good and detailed, and others very simple and lacking, with generic character designs for its time, and with simply drawn backgrounds with not much variety. The special effects, however, are very good. The anime could’ve been much better in in this aspect, since the artwork doesn’t have the same drops in quality and is far more consistent, the backgrounds are better, the special effects are overall better, and the character designs got updated for the time it came out, Unfortunately the motions aren’t very good at any moment, and it’s also far worse during the action scenes, where characters stand still all the time, with just some speed lines representing the tentacles of the parasites moving at superhuman speeds. Not only that, but the bad CGI brings everything down. Good artwork? Yes, except for the CGI crowds. Decent character designs? Only if you don’t see those CGI crowds. Well done backgrounds? For the places, sure, but not with those CGI crowds. Not very good motions? It’s worse for those CGI crowds. Good special effects? Only until you see those CGI crowds, see what I mean? It’s funny because a lot worse came out since then, but still, it was quite an issue back then.

Horrible atmosphere

This is an issue that’s present only in the anime thanks to its audio department, the voice acting is fine, acceptable, but everything else is not. The opening was quite hyped back then and I never understood why, the lyrics are good, they reflect the themes of the series quite well, something rare for anime in general, I have to say, but the music it’s a combination of dubstep and screamo that made me want to rip off my ears, thankfully those times are over. I would say something about the ending if I even remembered it, but I do not. The background music has some good tracks in it, mostly the ones that attempt to be horror, but most of it is more unlistenable dubstep that doesn’t fit the series nor the limited animation. And finally there are the sound effects, which are good for the metallic clashes and stuff, but laughably low budget and effort for everything else.

Differences among both versions

To start with what the anime did better, there are some irrelevant girls that are friends of Murano in the manga, that the anime replaced with some girls that have a bit of a short lived importance at some point, thus introducing them earlier than the arc they appear in.

Something similar happens with the serial killer, who although is shown quickly in a random and out of place scene, that is still slightly better than he appearing in the last arc and becoming so important just because out of nowhere.

It also made the parasites in the original form much smaller, which although not as horrifying as I guess the original was going for, it makes more sense for them to enter a human body that way.

It also removed the stupid scene of Migi turning into a penis, and it toned down some unnecessarily violent scenes and the sex scene present in the manga, which although not explicit, it was done better in the anime but removing some details and giving it a more romantic and sentimental tone, closer to what was happening at the time of the series in terms of theme exploration.

Now for what it did worse, outside of the CGI crowds and most of the sound, the cringy scenes are even more painful in it, if I remember correctly it never explains how the police, military and scientists found out about all those parasites, something that the manga does, and the worst thing in it was the superficial update it gave to the setting by giving the characters cellphones fitting for the year it came out, something that Banana Fish would also do later. Not taking in count that, if the story takes place in 2014 instead of 1989 or some year in the early 90s, the level of technology that both the characters and the whole world have, should have a drastic change in the way that a lot of events play out, the characters could and should be in contact more frequently and quickly, to even be able to avoid several misunderstandings and tragic scenes, and also, the parasites couldn’t be hidden in the way they do, and the whole population would never react the way they do with them around. It’s the only thing I’m willing to give to a series that I despise in absolutely everything it does such as Crybaby over any other recent remake or adaptation of an old manga, the way it made the whole world to know about the demons thanks to the Internet, updating the setting in a way that others didn’t bother with. By not paying attention to that, a lot of the credibility in Parasyte gets compromised.

Conclusion

In the end, like I already said, Kiseijuu is a very interesting and overall well made series that sadly works better in theme exploration, main characters and conflicts it presents throughout its story than the level of writing of its plot and characters as a whole, and it feels like the author wanted to write a mature seinen story, while something else, like the magazine and later on the committee that ordered its adaptation, wanted to throw some shounen antics in it to make it more appealing for a larger audience, lowering the overall quality of the whole thing. Besides that, it’s worth consuming in either its anime or manga versions at least once thanks to its themes and main characters, with the original being slightly better for taking place in a time when the ways its events play out are easier to buy, but nowhere near as great as the retro suckers and elitists want you to think it is, by deliberately choosing to ignore all of its issues that they criticize whenever they are present on modern shows they don’t like.


6/10