Kiseijuu (Parasyte)

ZangBang

2 years ago

Kiseiju is my favourite manga of all time, but I can\'t let my personal taste cloud my judgment when trying to be as objective as possible: Kiseiju is a story about empathy. About how the inherent selfishness of every living animal, as it fights for its own survival in a cruel world where the strongest prevails, surprisingly coexists with the warmth of altruism, and the seemingly nonsensical act of putting another life before our own. About justice and morality\'s places in the natural world.\r\nIzumi Shinichi, a young man walking on the bridge between childhood and maturity, will face these philosophical questions as he struggles to\n ...\n discover who he is and what he wants out of life in this poignant, endearing but most of all beautifully intimate story of morality that uses a creative, layered supernatural element as a pretext to talk about something painfully real and human. It is far from a perfect story: a couple of storylines were not developed as thoroughly as they needed to be to properly justify their magnitude within the plot, and one key character, despite their importance and potential, is only used as a plot device.\r\nNonetheless, Kiseiju is a compelling emotional drama that efficiently blends the sentimental with the adrenaline, the drama with the thrilling, and fully expresses the beautiful potential of its original narrative ideas without ever losing the focus on its core underlying themes, instead making both elements of the story complement each other.

burger_time

3 years ago

The story of Parasyte puts an average high school boy―Shinichi Izumi―into a world well beyond the limits of his imagination, as a creature attempts to take over his brain. The creature seems to fail but, soon enough, Shinichi realizes that his life would never be the same. The creature has inhabited his left hand, forcing Shinichi into a monstrous world, learning of the species which is now a part of himself. \r\n\r\nShinichi tries to simultaneously live his new life and the life he once had, which proves to be impossible. The story unfolds as he and the creature inside him, named Migi, converse. Shinichi feels\n ...\n it is now his duty to do something about the alien invaders feeding on humans. In his journey, he is forced to contemplate the intricacies of mankind and the species, both preexisting and new, with which they coexist on Earth. \r\n\r\nThis manga puts an emphasis on humanity and the supposed 'foolishness of mankind', flipping the term \'parasite\' from the alien newcomers to humans. Multiple characters in the manga preach this, saying that these 'alien invaders' are not parasites to mankind but, rather, they are the cure to the Earth\'s poisonous inhabitants: humans.\r\n\r\nThe manga delves deep into the coexistence of parasites and humans, akin to the coexistence of humans and the countless other species on Earth. 'Who has the right to be at the top of the food chain?' 'Who has the right to decide whether or not another organism has the right to live?' 'Who has the right to decide how to alter the world in which they live?' 'Who has the right to use the world to the benefit of themselves?' 'Who has the right to live?' Many questions like these are thrown around, in order to highlight the hypocrisy that mankind holds.\r\n\r\nMany conflicts present themselves as these 'parasites' and humans hold an innate inability to exist alongside each other. Shinichi strikes deeper into parasite society, being told that parasites are merely clumps of cells unable to survive on their own, much like the early stages of human life. He learns that parasites are not above humans or vice versa―he learns that they are the same.\r\n\r\nThe prevailing theme in all of Parasyte is the humanity and selflessness that mankind holds for each member of their own species. We would put ourselves in disadvantageous situations in order to help one another. We would care for those unable to do so themselves. We would do something for someone else, even if there was nothing to gain from it for ourselves. We spend time and relate with each other, cherishing our moments of life together and caring for those who will carry this behavior of ours on.\r\n\r\nParasyte manages to unfold an extraordinary story with philosophical, contemporary, and social themes, through the lives of seemingly ordinary and average characters. The characters are very realistic, believable, and relatable, being normal people forced to live abnormal lives. The story is a very nice length: not too long and not too short. Not once did I feel the story to be rushed, muddled with inconsistencies, or anything of the sort. The only thing I can complain about is that it is over. I consider Parasyte to be the best piece of work I have consumed, being a very peculiar story with characters I can understand and relate to. Parasyte also gives you lots of things to ponder, leaving behind a very important message to carry with you: 'Hold close to something...Until the day you die.'

Larsen__

4 years ago

I don\'t like this manga. I think it\'s overrated and very poorly written. I\'ve no idea how it receives 10\'s and 9\'s from other people, I simply don\'t get it.\r\n\r\n>Story\r\nThe story in this manga is actually... decent. It has a cool and relatively unique premise, and it\'s (sometimes) interesting to see what happens next. However, the author has no idea how to properly move with it. The structure of the story itself isn\'t dynamic at all, it\'s too slow for its\' own setting and there\'s a lot, and I mean A LOT, of filler and just stuff that isn\'t very interesting to look at in\n ...\n a world where Parasites exist. Also, apparently, now that I have finished this manga, the author doesn’t even want to come up with an interesting explanation to Parasites, dismissing their existence to “lol they just came from space”. 5/10.\r\n\r\n>Art\r\nIt\'s very bad and disappointing, and the few color pages at the beginning of each volume don\'t save it. The art is bland, everything feels so empty and soulless most of the time because of the lack of backgrounds. All we get is characters in an actually neat-looking artstyle in front of a white square (https://i.imgur.com/fzG6Lrv.jpeg - perfect example of what I\'m talking about, laziness like this is all over the place). Riveting. Is this your award-winning manga?\r\nWhile I\'m on the topic of art, I\'d like to touch up on the subject of the designs: they\'re repetitive as hell. I mean, come on, the mangaka creates a world in which there are intelligent parasites that can shape a human\'s head in any way, shape, or form they want once they inhabit it, and all he does with that is just draw the samey-looking stripes and blades over and over again. There was a breath of soul in terms of design somewhere near the beginning where the characters meet a Parasite-infested dog that transforms his head into a pair of giant bat wings, how cool is that? I wish this manga had more unique and interesting stuff like that, but, unfortunately, the mangaka doesn\'t seem to share my wish. 3/10.\r\n\r\n>Characters\r\nWHOOOOO BOY, HERE WE GO! Lots of spoilers in this bit, so be sure to skip it if you still want to read this manga.\r\nThe characters here are one of the stupidest I\'ve ever seen in a manga. And to explain why, I\'ll just write about the two examples which frustrated me the most:\r\n1) The case of the sukeban girl (I forgot her name because of how bland of a character she is, more on that later). So, you\'re trying to tell me that when there are rumors of Parasites going around all of Japan, that when these rumors are being even further explored in national television, that when the MC tries to tell this girl the truth about Parasites and actually explains what they are in great detail, that when said girl can literally SENSE THEM WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT SHE EVEN SENSES OR WHY, SHE DOESN\'T BELIEVE THE MC AND SIMPLY DISMISSES HIS WARNINGS!? I\'m sorry, but this is atrocious. To top it all off, because she doesn\'t believe the mc, she proceeds to die right in the same chapter by the hands of a TOTALLY RANDOM parasite-infested human. Absolutely brilliant.\r\nAnd when she dies, am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Am I supposed to feel sorry for her because she\'s in love with the MC and is jealous of the girl he\'s going out with? Am I supposed to feel sorry for her because she got an 'embarrassing' dream about the MC once? Those two things are the only things I remember about this filler of a character.\r\n2) The case of the detective (guess why I don\'t remember this guy\'s name either). Alright, I can give the girl the benefit of the doubt, maybe there is some human out there stupid enough that wouldn\'t believe in the existence of Parasites in the sort of sutiation she is, but this guy? This guy? You\'re telling me this guy only 'half believes' in their existence WHEN THERE WERE TWO OF THEM RIGHT BEFORE HIS VERY EYES A DAY AGO THAT ALSO THREATENED TO KILL HIM!? He got told not to meddle in this kind of business by two people: his wife and a woman he fears, and he still goes to investigate the matter of Parasites further with the help of his detective friend. To top it all off, not only have the humans told him to buzz off, one of the Parasites that he saw ALSO told him to mind his own business. And only when his detective friend gets killed by a Parasite, only then he realizes that hey, Parasites are actually dangerous! Who would\'ve thought? God, what a joke.\r\nThe main villain of this manga is laughable. He barely gets any development, he barely has his ideologies shown and the final fight with him is just extremely underwhelming. Then again, at that point I was speedreading the manga because I was so bored of it, so maybe I did miss a few crucial points of his character.\r\nBut, it\'s not all that bad, I found the MC and his partner relatively interesting. The MC\'s development in partucular was interesting to watch, so there\'s that. But even he isn\'t safe from mediocrity, because he only gets a clear-cut goal by the 38th chapter, which is more than half of this snoozefest. Unfortunately, even with his flaws, I think that Shinichi is the only decent character in this manga. Every other one is just a stupid device to incite forced drama in the story. 2/10.\r\n\r\n>Enjoyment\r\nI didn\'t enjoy this after the first few chapters in the slightest. This manga is very stupid, and it really boggles my mind how stupid it is. The mangaka expects us to care about characters when he can\'t properly set them up for us to care about them. The art and the general designs are too boring for the premise the author created, becoming more and more repetitive as the manga goes on. I honestly hated it. The underwhelming villain, the stupid characters, the bad art that gradually got worse and worse (honest to god, defend this https://i.imgur.com/ECj2fQo.jpeg), it\'s all just terrible. 2/10.\r\n\r\n>Overall\r\nThe story needs to be more dynamic in order for the story and the world to work and coexist. The art is borderline painful to look at. The characters are stupid. I didn\'t personally enjoy it, and I think it\'s highly overrated. What is there to look for in this manga when the only good thing about it is the distinct atmosphere of the 90\'s it has? I really just don\'t get it. 3/10.

SmashDee

8 years ago

A strong blend of action and provoking social commentary that is for once done well. There aren\'t many mangas I have read that successfully pull off both an exciting and thought provoking story, without erring on one side. Where Parasyte succeeds is in its strong and likable characters that you can\'t help but root for. There\'s tons of character development and the conclusion is a very satisfying one that finishes off a very solid story that has few flaws. \r\n\r\nThe concept is clever: a school kid gets infected by an alien who then becomes symbiotic, giving the teen unusual powers, but gradually transforming him into\n ...\n something less than human. This is not the only alien however, and the kid is one of the lucky few who becomes symbiotic rather than dying and being taken over by the alien, creating the conflict present in the plot. This story has many highs and lows for the protagonist, and for once I found myself rooting for and relating to his struggle. Mostly when high school characters are involved in a manga, you\'ll get all sorts of terrible angst or melodrama, but this manga has a good amount of subtlety. \r\n\r\nThe hits come fast and hard at certain points for the protagonist who has a horrible life as a result of the Parasyte and the other aliens. The alien becomes a character in its own right as it develops a personality and befriends the main character. You get some pretty funny wacky humour at the start, and there\'s always some comedy despite all the serious plot going on, except for an extremely tense conclusion that is an absolute nail biter. The other side characters, some alien and some that are school friends, all serve a good purpose in development for the main character. I\'d like to have gone over a few specific moments I loved here but I wouldn\'t want to spoil it for anyone who wants to read this manga. \r\n\r\nAs far as action goes, this series doesn\'t have the flashiest of fights or anything. It\'s not a fighting series but the action is fun enough to keep you interested. The Parasyte gives the protagonist certain powers like massive stretchy limbs or very precise aim, and the predictable superhuman strength, but mostly the fights come down to him having to outsmart his opponents. This can require some ingenuity on his part or teamwork with the Parasyte and the stakes are always high and at the same time, realistic. As the story has so many tragic poignant moments and no filler, suspension of disbelief actually works. Again I wouldn\'t want to spoil any of this specifically, but there\'s not nearly as much plot armour as you\'d think, it\'s refreshing after so many supposedly mature series that follow the same set of clichés, \r\n\r\nThe art is one area I may want to criticize slightly as it\'s not the greatest art. It\'s of its time, this is a fairly old manga now, around 30 years. It\'s pretty simplistic and while it has its moments, such as awesome detailed gore and other great bits and pieces, especially in the first few chapters, the simplistic 80s style of the humans can become a little tiresome. There aren\'t any good human designs, though it\'s par for the course compared to the average modern anime and there\'s at least great designs for the aliens and so on. (Off topic, the anime adaptation really manages to impress me with how it changes (see: ruins) several of the human characters by modernizing them to look like sissy losers because it\'s set in current day Japan.) \r\n\r\nAs far as complaints go, this is a very solid manga with little negative to say. There were a few moments that made me go 'Huh?' Namely one of the plot twists about the corruption sub-plot\'s major players, and some of the wackier parts can be a bit too silly. The villains aren\'t too numerous, what is there is well done and I loved the final major alien confrontation. Even the very last confrontation had me second guessing what might happen. The plot is not that riveting and definitely could\'ve done more with the corruption sub-plot. What is bad is merely stuff I feel could\'ve been done slightly better, but overall this is simply a great manga that I find hard to imagine anyone wouldn\'t enjoy.

TheBesty

10 years ago

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\n ...\n this series.

skaterperson777

10 years ago

I am not a gore person... unless there\'s a good reason behind that gore. And Parasyte gave me many good reasons to keep reading! The manga doesn\'t give a long, dragging introduction. Rather, it stars off with a bang. While sleeping, these organisms called Parasytes start taking over brains of living things by entering their ears. Shinichi Izumi, however, has headphones on so when a Parasyte attempts to enter through his ear, it buries itself in his arm! Shinichi discovers that the organism (which he later names Migi) has the ability to turn his arm into a weapon. Others who have Parasytes in them have\n ...\n unfortunately become man-eating monsters. Thus, the fast-paced adventure to find out what the Parasytes purpose in the world begins...\r\n\r\nStory: 9\r\nI can\'t say much without giving away the whole story. Loved the premise of Parasytes taking over humans and turning them into monsters. Shinichi and Migi\'s journey is definitely worth the read. They encounter many obstacles to unveil the truth about Parasytes. The plot twists were mostly subtle but well done. I\'m still not sure what to think of the conclusion. But the story was great overall.\r\n\r\nArt: 7\r\nWhile some of the drawings may be a bit rough-looking, I liked the design of the characters, mainly Migi and the Parasytes. I got a bit mixed up with some of the older male characters at times and had to read over it again to get their faces and names straight. The Parasytes are terrifying! And the gore scenes are drawn very well: viciously and with little left to the imagination.\r\n\r\nCharacter: 8\r\nOh, Shinichi, you. Let me just say that Shinichi\'s character dynamics throughout were great. I loved how he battles for his humanity while having a Parasyte inside him. The struggle to remain human and come to the realization of what a human really was moved me. Migi completed the story. He was probably my favorite character. He doesn\'t give a crap and tells Shinichi how it is. His development was also well done. The female characters also contributed a lot to the story. Satomi Murano kept Shinichi sane as he fought to stay human. She wasn\'t really that strong, but I like how she was there to keep Shinichi grounded. I believe that was her main purpose in the series. Kana Kimishima, who is human but can sense Parasytes, was flat for me. She was just one of those characters there that just existed and was flat to me. Reiko Tamura was another strong character in the series. Seeing her change throughout the series was interesting. As for the other characters, they all contributed to the story, no matter how small their role was.\r\n\r\nEnjoyment: 10\r\nReally had a great time reading Parasyte.\r\n\r\nOverall: 9\r\nAwesome manga. Don\'t let the fact that it was written over twenty years ago stop you from reading! It\'s just as good, if not even better, than many of the manga series out there.

mariadaisy

10 years ago

PARASYTE: \r\n\r\nCHARACTERS- each characters has a story. Each parasite in these chapters shows their weaknesses and strength. Each parasite shows their strategy skills when they were on fighting. \r\n \r\nSTORY- the story is about a parasite that falling from the sky and the teenage high school boy battling with parasites. If they will invade into your brain, they will eat humans. If they become unsuccessful, they can use hands, eyes, nose, mouth, or ears and it won’t attack humans. They can also change appearance; they can easily remember things, can presence from other parasites and the human that they invade can be\n ...\n strengthening skills or abilities. \r\n\r\nART- the art of hitoshi wasaki was very good, creative and unique. Migi is one of the cute parasite while the others are scary especially gotoh, the strongest parasite. The drawing in manga is not the same in anime. I choose to read manga rather than watch the anime. But their voices in anime were cute. \r\n\r\nENJOYMENT- while reading this manga, i am counting on how many parasites living inside the body of humans. How many are the parasites fighting over migi. How many are the parasites comrade with migi. And what is the new image of the parasites in the next chapter. Who will die in the end of the fight?

SirPendragon

10 years ago

An incredible piece of art! \r\n\r\nAt first the grotesque story nearly put me off, but since a dear friend recommended it to me I pushed through the first few chapters. \r\n\r\nThe story developes pretty fast and all of a sudden the reader is soaked deeply into it. It\'s astonishing how repulsive and captivating the whole thing is. In the end you learn to find the beauty in the horror.

Danno

11 years ago

I um... wow. This manga was incredible. It has a completely different feel to it from any other manga I\'ve read or anime I\'ve seen. This is truly a masterpiece. \r\n\r\n- - - S T O R Y - - - \r\nParasitic aliens taking over humans, disguising themselves to kill/eat more humans. You might think it sounds like your average horror movie, but that line of thinking is completely wrong. \r\nOnly Shin\'s right hand is taken over by a parasite and he has to learn to co-exist with it. The parasite is as logical as math itself and has conversations with Shin. The story is\n ...\n not so much about some alien takeover horror, but instead about the way these characters change and grow throughout the series, as well as the way the other parasites learn to become less conspicuous in today\'s society. Some of them even learn to become more human than humans. It\'s just amazing to follow the plot and see how these things develop, and infinitely better than some simple war against aliens. \r\n\r\nThe story is very thought provoking. I also find that it\'s written in a way that can be taken literally and make perfect sense - or - you can read it with an alternate interpretation for an even more thought provoking experience when you think about things like how Shin\'s 'right hand' is killing parasites guised as humans, and how the parasites are the same as humans. You can also read it as a simple battle manga, I suppose, if the plot is too complex for you. It\'s like 3 full manga series packed into one. \r\n\r\n- - - A R T - - - \r\nSeeing as this is from the \'80s to early \'90s, the art is from a time before 'moe' and 2D wives existed. Truly, a better time for real stories to be told. Some of the characters have lame hairstyles and they don\'t look sexy like modern art styles, but who cares about that? This manga is dark and the art fits it nicely. It aims for a realistic approach, making it easier to take the story seriously. \r\n\r\nI really liked how the characters\' faces actually had emotions. The artist did a really good job of showing the sorrow in Shin\'s eyes when he\'d give a distant look. One part of the art that had an impact on me was when a character was shown looking cheerful, then the next panel was pretty much the same drawing, except the smile was small, half-hearted, and the eyes looked like those of someone who\'s lost their way. It was just so perfectly executed and showed the emotion loud and clear. \r\n\r\n- - - C H A R A C T E R S - - - \r\nI suppose I was hoping for a little more with the characters, though they are quite good as is. Some characters simply fade out of the story, but I suppose there isn\'t really any reason to keep them around (for example, the girl Shin met on the ferry). A little more closure would be nice, though, as long as it doesn\'t devolve to pointless interactions. Many characters die even after we get to know and like them, so this manga may cause your emotions to react. \r\n\r\nThe way Shin\'s character developed was surprising and is also open to interpretation. Did he become the way he was because of the parasite\'s influence on his body or did he become that way due to psychological reasons? I\'m leaning towards thinking it was psychological since even Migi acted more human than Shin at times, and that\'s really saying something. Still, you could just as easily see it the other way, which makes it interesting. \r\n\r\n- - - O V E R A L L - - - \r\nWell, this left me on the edge of my seat. I was completely engrossed in the story. Some moments were so tense and suspenseful I was sweating. Other moments were so sad I nearly felt like crying. In any case, it\'s addictive and has you wanting to know what happens next. \r\n\r\nI have mixed feelings about the ending. Chapter 63 is the true ending. Chapter 64 is more like a little add-on to give closure to a few more things, but leaves you with a kinda empty feeling. So, if you read this, keep that in mind and look at chapter 64 as just a little bonus. \r\n\r\nThis manga is fairly short, so you should just read it if you have time to waste reading a long ass review like this. If you like stories with depth and value, you\'ll probably enjoy this.

5camp

12 years ago

Parasytes are an alien species that take over the human body by replacing the head. Our shmuck lead Izumi was about to be taken over by a parasyte, but due to some quick thinking he manages to stop the alien inside his arm, upon which the parasyte consumes his arm and takes it place. The two then have to learn how to live with each other while also dealing with all the other parasytes that have landed on earth.\r\n\r\nWhat drew me to Parasyte originally was seeing the body horror pictures of how peoples’ bodies mutated and warped and started growing tentacles and teeth and occasionally\n ...\n dick hands. I’m usually a pretty queasy person so I’m not sure quite why this drew me in, but there’s a definite fascination with how alien the mutations the bodies undertake. Once you get over the original shock, it’s not even that scary anymore. The mutations are so alien and cartoonish they go into this area of scholarly fascination. The only times I would actually get a bit perturbed were the more ghoulish deaths of actual humans rather than the parasytes. This cartoonish nature of the body distortions could have undermined something that was only trying to shock you, but thankfully Parasyte is cleverer than that. It’s got a real dark sense of humour, one that’s willing to laugh at itself, what with the aforementioned dick hands and so forth. Plus the comedy segments don’t detract from the moments the deformations are supposed to shock you. It’s a delicate balancing act, but one that Parasyte pulls off remarkably well.\r\n\r\nParasyte does have more to it than just some alien horror story. Its larger theme is about humanity and what makes someone human. Migi, the parasyte that co-inhabits the main character’s body, is very Kyubey-esque in how he thinks. He has no empathy but endless curiosity driven mostly by a self-preservation instinct. Through his conversations with Izumi, they explore both sides of each character and broader concepts of what it means to be human and why it is that one might perform a selfless act. It’s got that perfect duo combination where the two sides’ conversations force both characters to develop. Migi’s development is more subtle than Izumi’s, but that’s because Migi slow development is reflected in the attitude of all the parasytes as they evolve and and start to change their approach to fitting into society. Their change becomes a way to explore what makes humans tick.\r\n\r\nIzumi starts off as a bit of a Yuji Everylead, but he changes pretty quickly into a more fascinating character who struggles to find what it is that makes him human. Fairly early on in the manga he absorbs part of Migi into his bloodstream and it starts to change him in little ways. He doesn’t get emotional, can’t cry at friends and family’s deaths, and some of his actions start to reflect Migi’s apathetic nature. You get the feeling that the times he does show kindness and emotion is him trying to force himself to act human so he can reclaim his identity as a human. It mirrors how some of the more advanced parasytes try mimicking human actions in order to understand them and fit into society better, such as trying to smile, having children and laughing. This in turn causes them to start experiencing much more human emotions. It might sound like this is all heavy stuff, talking about the nature of humanity and all that, but it isn’t really. The last volume definitely gets a bit preachy, but otherwise the dialogue all feels very natural and goes about things with a sense of humour. Plus at the moment it really counted, when they really needed to bring everything to the table around both the parasyte’s increasing selflessness and Izumi’s own struggle with his humanity, they nailed the scene so well that it made me cry.\r\n\r\nLet me repeat that for effect: I cried at Parasyte. Fucking Parasyte. The manga with dick hands made me cry. Do you know how often I cry at entertainment? Never! And yet somehow Parasyte made me cry? With proper tears streaming from eyes, so overcome with emotion that I had to stop reading and walk for a bit? The only other time in my entire life I cried at media was at Grave of the Fireflies, which is kind of to be expected since that is basically the only point of Grave of the Fireflies. Plus I’ve kind of gone off Grave of the Fireflies over time, as its method of drawing emotion is to have everything be shit and then everyone dies, which is kind of a cheap almost Jun Maeda-esque way of drawing emotion. Meanwhile Parasyte managed it by being positive. It’s key scene was the fulfilment of 8 previous volumes of thematic buildup and re-affirmation of the main character’s humanity that was so tragically beautiful it caused me to break down.\r\n\r\nSorry, is this all a bit serious?\r\n\r\nI picked up Parasyte because I figured if I was going to jump into manga, I’d want to read something that would at least draw a reaction from me, but I ended up absolutely loving it. It keeps the story tight and focused on a small cast of characters. It’s paced excellently, comes to a conclusive ending and doesn’t drag on longer than it needs to. It has depth while keeping a sense of humour, and the body horror is shocking without being an obstacle to enjoyment. It’s a bloody great manga and highly recommended.

Altaica

12 years ago

This is a review I decided to write after re-reading Parasyte 2 or 3 times on a period of about 4 years. There are many reviews already written, so I\'ll try writing a complete, simple review. \r\n\r\nStory: \r\nI loved it. Fairly long but not of epic sizes, it\'s just right not to be too short and leave you disappointed of an abrupt ending, nor is it one of those mangas you just lose interest after days of reading it because it seems it will never end. The storyline can be classified in only a few major chapters, and all of them continue each other, so\n ...\n basically it\'s a continuous reading, not the type of manga where you see a major enemy getting killed and just when you think that\'s about it, a new menace appears and must be stopped. When the plot starts, it starts without being too much all of a sudden, but it doesn\'t stagnate, and when it ends, that\'s it. Forever. No sequel, no nothing. Only an extremely short epilogue, so you won\'t be left thinking, \'wish there was more\', because that epilogue gives you closure, with no loose ends within the characters or the storyline.\r\nThe plot itself is simple, but not completely clear on all details. You never get to find out where exactly DID the parasites come from, what ARE they, not what is their PURPOSE in the world, only enough hints to be well-rounded. What is clear is, they come from outer space as snakes/worms, they invade a part of a human\'s body (preferably the head), they can change shape, aaand~ they eat their host\'s species, using their host\'s own organs to digest it. \r\nStory goes like this: parasite comes to earth, tries to enter Shinichi\'s head, fails, retains his arm and so becomes part of his host, without either of them losing their personalities. So, they go out facing those who wish to kill them, help a little the japanese army in fighting the maneaters, become stronger together, and also learn to understand each other in their free time. It\'s related mostly from Shinichi\'s point of view, but there are exceptions. \r\nA few random scenes are shown so that you are helped to understand what kind of world this is, like, for example, a dog getting infected, a parasite attacking his prey while he\'s driving so that they both end up dead/on the verge of it, etc. In the end, all small things fit into place.\r\n\r\nArt:\r\nIt\'s a stretchy art, not your every day anime style, with big eyes, small mouths and unnoticeable noses. No wasp-shaped female bodies, with departed feet and toes from one foot facing those of the other. So, if you like it realistic, you\'ll love it, and if you prefer classic innocent art, you should go pick something else to read. Either way, it\'s very clean, no useless lines, no greys, no overwhelming background. Balanced and nice. Not much gore, merely your every-day blood here and there to go along with the severed arms, heads, feet, and not to forget, the corpse-left-to-dry-on-a-rope-like-a-piece-of-clothing, with bones and flesh sticking out. \r\n\r\nCharacter:\r\nThe characters are well- made, each of them has its own personality and way of thinking, even the parasites, who basically become human-like diverse, with emotions (...well, mostly different ways of interpreting their instincts), memories, and judgement. No two parasites are the same. some are dumb, others are curious, some are intelligent whilst others are leaders, well... you get the idea. People are just as well outlined: sometimes, you can guess how they will react, other times, they surprise you. \r\nReading the story overall, you can outline 3 distinct collective characters: parasites, feeding of and mingling with humans; humanity,conscious of the presence of its predator and fighting it off, and the 2 known symbiots (parasites who failed to invade the brain + the host), outcasted by other parasites, are helping humanity. Sometimes, parasites win, other times, humans do.\r\nThe most complex characters are Shinichi and Migi, and in both their cases we see a huge character growth from the start to the end of the story.Migi becomes like a thinking weapon for Shinichi, whilst Shinichi grows up, matures, and changes along the way. He becomes more mature in the way of thinking and judging, and at the same time, his emotional nature is being dulled by the presence of his parasite, to the point where he is regarded as an extremely cold person by some.\r\n\r\nEnjoyment: \r\nWell, I did say i re-readed it a couple of times already, and it\'s also my favorite manga of all times, so it\'s obvious that I really enjoyed it. I laughed my ass off when Migi transformed into a huge penis when Shinichi was in public, I felt sad for the puppy that died in Shinichi\'s arms after being hit by a car, and I was hooked up with the development of the plot \'til the very end, not once bored. \r\nThere are no flashbacks, so the story is incredibly easy to follow.\r\n\r\nOverall: The only thing I trully didn\'t like about the manga was that I didn\'t get to know what exactly were the parasites and where did they come from and all of that. It felt as id there was some sort of all-powerful being that had a plan for them, and after a while, he abandoned it and left the poor parasites to survive on their own and do what they will with their lives, as if it was testing humanity. It left a blank sheet on this chapter. But this is only a small Minus that is overthrown by countless Pluses. I deeply recomment it to anyone who appreciates action, crime, survival and evolution. If you just want to see senseless fighting, sex or an alien invasion, pick something else, because this is not what you\'re searching for.

CodeProvider

13 years ago

Parasyte is one of the best manga series I have ever read. \r\nThe concept is great, the character and plot development are superb, and overall it is just a perfect series. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this series. It is phenomenal. I cannot praise it enough. \r\nThe story is about a strange alien species that randomly comes to Earth; they look like little snakes, but they\'re much more than that. They are Parasytes. Their mission is to take over a human\'s brain, and then survive. The Parasytes feed off of the species that they take over, and their head can shift shapes into tentacles\n ...\n and blades and pretty much everything else. They are a truly powerful and disgusting species, and they are a threat to human kind.\r\nA Parasyte tried to take over the main character Shin\'s brain. He fell asleep with headphones on, so the Parasyte had trouble getting in. The Parasyte stabs into Shin\'s arm and he wraps a cord around his arm to prevent it from going further up his blood stream. The Parasyte matures in his arm, and they become unlikely allies; human and Parasyte, fighting together for survival.\r\nThe manga quickly changes from a plain action manga into a psychological thriller. It begs many questions. Are the Parasytes really that bad? After all, they are just trying to survive. They eat food to survive, just like us. Their food just happens to be humans, but are they really that evil? \r\nAre humans worse than Parasytes? Parasytes kill for food, but humans just kill. They kill for personal gain. Humans are the truly disgusting creatures. Humans are the Parasytes to the Earth; taking and taking and never giving anything back, and Parasytes were the cure. \r\nAll in all I would highly recommend this amazing series. It\'s short, sweet, and amazing.

thejackal1234

13 years ago

Parasyte is a series written and drawn by Hitoshi Iwaaki. Unfortunately this is his only notable series so I can’t so much about his career. I mostly picked up Parasyte on a whim and also because my favorite manga reviewer, Y Ruler of Time mentioned it on his Seven Deadly Series list. But I digress, lets get started.\r\n\r\nStory: The story is your standard alien invasion story. Little spores about the size of tennis balls fall from space and give birth to little worm like creatures. The creatures then invade the heads of humans and take over their bodies. The end result being that the creatures\n ...\n can flex the heads into any shape or size, making them stretch and snap like rubber, or turn them into blades.\r\nOur story follows a teenage male named Shinichi whom a creature tries to invade, but, due to a fluke, the creature ends up stuck in his arm. Shinichi ends up naming the creature Migi, and they develop a rather odd relationship. For the most part their relationship builds around the fact that they have to fight off creatures that have successfully invaded human heads. Why do they need to fight off the aliens? Well, only because that the aliens that successfully invade human heads have to survive by eating other humans. Needless to say Migi can change Shinichi’s arm into pretty much anything, so that makes for some pretty awesome fight scenes. \r\nWhat’s really interesting about this series though is that a small group of parasytes inherit human personalities (whilst still remaining homicidal creatures) and end up banding together to not really destroy, but to simply observe and survive. One of them even ends up being the closest thing to human in this series what it started out the most brutal monster of them all. Though later the government actually steps in and takes care of some of them. \r\nI have to say the story didn’t get quite as repetitive as I thought it would, it always kept moving at just the right pace. However, violence does seem to take up a good portion of the series, so if you’re squeamish it’s best not to look into this series. Sometimes the way humans die are just brutal. The story itself was interesting enough to keep me reading.\r\n\r\n\r\nCharacters: Our main character as I said is Shinichi, a young teenage male. I would like to say he’s your standard shonen hero, but he isn’t quite. Migi does most of the fighting in the stories, though Shinichi usually delivers the finishing blow in the more serious battles ironically enough. Shinichi is definitely interesting as a character, he doesn’t quite develop so much as a person as through relationships, in fact, due to some bad flukes, he gets a little worse as a character through the series. But that is mostly Migi’s fault to be fair. \r\nAh yes, Migi, who undoubtedly is the best character. Migi develops the best, and the most subtly throughout the series. While most aliens are heartless and emotionless, Migi ever so slowly starts to understand human emotions. I even got a little sad when…Well, I don’t want to spoil too much.\r\nThere are a few villians but most of them die off pretty quickly. Shinichi also develops a relationship with a girl, Murano, but Migi’s relationship is more important and prominent.\r\n\r\nArt: I’m not so much one to criticize art in a manga, since everyone has their own style and what I am presented with, will automatically become my standard. It’s also clear that this was made in the 90’s with the manga style, but I really liked this art. It could become quite gritty and dark at times but was detailed and precise when it needed to be.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Bad: If I had any complaints about Parasyte, it would have to be the violence. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude or anything it’s just some of the fights are way too violent, too pointless, and overall seemed to be layered in bullshit. Most of the fights do help develop in the story, even the seemingly inconsequential ones, like where they fight a dog that got invaded by a parasyte. But sometimes it’s just aggravating seeing so much blood and violence\r\n\r\n\r\nParasyte overall: I have to say with Parasyte you can’t go wrong entirely, I enjoyed the characters, the fights, and the ending especially. The morale and whole idea at the end through me for huge loop. It really raised some philosophical questions.\r\n\r\nAs this is my first shot at reviewing please don\'t be too harsh. I would much appreciate any comments on thoughts you had of the review. thank you very much.

Foolness

13 years ago

Groundbreaking even today.\r\n\r\nAlthough many have tried to look at Parasyte as an Alien Invasion manga (and it is a fresh one at that if not slightly relying on a successful shonen coming of age formula) what none of the reviewers have alluded to is how much realistic Parasyte is towards explaining the role of parasites in the ecosystem.\r\n\r\nAlbeit the manga doesn\'t scientifically 'verify' the role of parasites, many of what you see in this manga happen to coincide with real parasites all over the world.\r\n\r\nIf parasites\' existence were easy to explain this manga would only be slightly noteworthy but the things from how parasites need\n ...\n additional food to how they have a close symbiotic almost mutualistic relationship with their host separate this from your average invasion manga.\r\n\r\nWhat makes this especially noteworthy is that, by accident or by purpose, reading this manga allows you to separate the complexity of why parasites exist in reality maybe even more so than a biology text book.\r\n\r\nThe thing that makes this happen is because parasites are sort of easy to define but to comprehend the theory behind their existence like how they outnumber several top species or how they break the food chain theory of humans being on top or how certain parasites complement and extend the host\'s instinct (like our desire to procreate) it\'s really hard to fill all this in if you know little about parasites. Especially as you go deeper into the rarer parasites that act like the parasites in this manga where they insert and change the inner anatomy of their host as well as their instincts.\r\n\r\nBy sort of turning parasites into living weapons with a catch and a virtual pet hunger meter, it transcends most of the explanation needed for the basic necessity of parasites and as you dig deeper into the manga and as the parasites\' objective match closer to that of the humans - it becomes a sort of bridge as to how parasites seem to harm their host while at another extent seem to be useless outside of harming their host for self-preservation. Seeing parasites depicted like this in the manga helps bridge one closer to the interpretation that maybe just maybe parasites harm their host because they adapt slower to their host\'s habits and mentality and yet they stick very close to what makes their host survive and the combination in turn becomes very chaotic like the events shown in your typical fantasy war or battle or coming of age series but sort of alien.

HenryZhao

14 years ago

I am no expert reviewer, and generally I am very generous in my reviews. I am also relatively inexperienced with manga, so who knows how many great things I have yet to read to overshadow this particular work? But for now, and from my personal opinion, this is a brilliant manga that I hope to remember for years to come. Because I feel it deserves this, I will give an in-depth review of each section that I have scored to the best of my ability. I will try my best not to spoil anything, but I make no guarantees.\r\n\r\nStory: No words I have could do\n ...\n it justice. It started off very odd, something I thought I would just read for the sake of reading something weird. When I saw how many chapters the story contained, I doubted I\'d ever finish it. Instead, I was drawn in to what became an amazing emotional rollercoaster, an educational experience, and a brand new outlook on the world. There are statements made in the very beginning of the story that you may or may not think you understand, may or may not agree with, but it won\'t be until the very end that you truly hear the message of this story. It was very gripping, and I can recall at least 3 times that I was very nearly brought to tears. Any problems I had with the story stem only from a few shaky translations here and there, making the dialogue hard to follow, but this was very rare. If not for that, if I were allowed a perfect understanding of every panel, I would give the story a 10.\r\n\r\nArt: The art is interesting. As I believe another reviewer mentioned, it\'s not quite the same art as you might expect from a manga. Every artist is unique, of course, but this style certainly stuck out, and it was somehow very fitting for the story. No character is overly beautified, as you\'ll often see. The characters all appear rather average, which of course adds to the realism. Of course, this also creates a sharp contrast with the titular parasites of the story, which are certainly some of the most abnormal things you will ever see drawn. No matter what, everything is very nicely detailed and anything involving the parasites is satisfyingly surreal. If the artist wants you to see the inside of a body, then you will be seeing the inside of a body. If you should be seeing an amorphous parasite, then you can trust that the art will clearly show you an amorphous parasite. As for the negatives, some minor qualms with the art include some strange facial expressions, particularly any view of an open mouth from the side, and the fact that certain characters, mostly females, looked almost inconveniently similar. While I approve of the characters having an average appearance, a little more effort to differentiate between them would have been nice.\r\n\r\nCharacter: I have no doubts in my mind that these characters are a perfect 10. When the character\'s faced a struggle, I faced it with them. When they lost something precious, I felt their loss. When they attacked in blind rage, I felt their rage. These characters are very real, even in the most surreal moments of the plot, and I refuse to believe anyone could read through this manga without connecting to them. The human characters, even the minor ones, experience various flavors of pain, and just like real people you can sympathize with even the most subtle hints of emotional distress from these characters. Even the cold, emotionless parasites will relate to you in their logic. What they lack in emotion, they make up for with the delivery of a different view on life that you won\'t soon forget.\r\n\r\nEnjoyment: Now, it is in this section that I believe opinions will differ the most. While some will find this work to be brilliant, others could completely, and even understandably, disregard it for what it is at face value. To read a manga about parasites taking over bodies and mutilating humankind will require a certain, possibly acquired, taste, or at least a certain level of tolerance. However, anyone who can enjoy or look past the more disgusting aspects of the story is sure to enjoy every moment of it. As I\'ve stated above, I hadn\'t expected to have the attention span to bother to complete a story when all I was expecting was a quick fix for that desire for something out of the ordinary, and instead this manga grasped me tightly as I stayed up in the late hours of the night just to blast through another few chapters. I enjoyed every moment of this manga, and I\'d like to believe I\'m not alone in this.\r\n\r\nOverall: In conclusion, this is among the best manga I have ever read. The art gave me very little problems, and I don\'t regret a single night I gave up sleep just to read this to its conclusion. The plot, the characters, the themes and messages delivered all sliced deep into my heart like only a parasite can. And, similar to certain events of the manga, this parasite has proven itself to be a symbiote, because as it invaded me I only felt myself grow stronger and become a better person for reading it. At least, that\'s how I feel, and how I hope all other readers will feel once they\'ve allowed themselves to be taken over by Parasyte.

Nightt_

15 years ago

'Above Earth, someone was thinking...if half of Mankind dissapeared, how many forests would be saved?\r\nAbove Earth, someone was thinking...If 99% of Mankind dissapeared would pollution be reduced by 99%?'\r\n\r\nStory - 10\r\nWhat\'s there to say about the story? Extremely original. Upon finishing the first 4 or so chapters, I was amazed to an extent that\'s probably undescribable. The amount of gore, action, and plot progression they had done in such a short time was great. They\'d portrayed it in a great manner. On a completely typical day, Shinji confronted a snake-like animal, which apparently, went inside of him. It went through his arm, and kept \'slithering\'\n ...\n towards his brain. Luckily, he managed to stop the creature before it reached it\'s \'destination\'. After that, his arm \'awakens\' and introduces itself. This may sound like a childish story, which it did to me, at first. The manga isn\'t childish at all. The gore, the murder, and the blood will leave you horrified/frightened, and/or the opposite. Depends on what kind of a person you are. \r\n\r\nArt - 7\r\nThe art is so-so. Even though it\'s to be expected of a manga created in the Early 90s\'. Of course, the parasites are drawn exceptionally well, with really well detail. The humans on the other hand, could\'ve used a bit of work. Actually, that might be just my opinion since I\'ve never been a real fan of old manga or anime. When I read the first volume of this, I assumed it was a 70s or 80s manga. But, when I checked on MAL, I was welcomed by a '1990-1995'. Although the art doesn\'t really matter, the thing on the inside is what matters. Unless you\'re an appearance whore. I think the story\'ll still make up for the lost art though.\r\n\r\nCharacter - 8\r\nThere\'s characters of every personality. Cocky, arrogant, happy-go-lucky, comedic, etc. The list can go on and on. Even the so-called parasites develop these traits and become a big part of the manga in character development. The story and it\'s characters develop at a really fast pace, maybe even too fast. You\'ll see Shinji really confident at times, and scared so much that you wouldn\'t be scared if he shit his pants right then and there. \r\n\r\nEnjoymeny - 10\r\nThose who\'ll like this manga, will get so immersed in it that they\'ll be wanting more and more after reading a chapter. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed up the whole night reading it. Yep, no life at all. And, also, this manga\'s rather similar to Death Note. Strategy, luck, thinking, everything\'s in it.\r\n\r\nOverall - 10\r\nI wish there\'d be more of this. I\'d say this is definitely a 'must-read' for all manga-lovers out there. Even if you aren\'t really a fan of gore or murder. I wasn\'t. I despised all them freakish manga/anime, but, after reading this, I changed my whole perspective. I\'d say I still hate the useless killing in several anime/manga. But, 'Parasyte' didn\'t have useless killing. It had freakishly awesome useless killing with twists and turns.

Beatnik

16 years ago

They control the body by invading the brain. They can change the shape of their bodies and use them as weapons. They eat humans.\r\n\r\nLike a logical continuation of John Carpenter\'s The Thing (1982), set in modern day society and with more than one parasite, Parasyte is an entertaining sci-fi horror thriller.\r\n\r\nDescending from the sky, parasites fall onto humanity. They worm their way into humans, penetrating skin and then act erratically before eating whoever is around them. As the story begins, a parasite fails in its attempt to infect a teenager, Shinichi, who becomes the protagonist. The thoughtful and quick-witted guy\n ...\n manages to prevent the parasite by cornering it in his arm, which afterwards leads to lots of humour from his wayward right hand with a life of its own.\r\n\r\nThey settle into a symbiotic relationship, though the parasite, going by the nickname of Migi, needs the boy more than the boy needs Migi. Thus there is the threat of body mutilation waiting for the boy if he ever decides to attempt to remove his right hand or let the world know about the parasite.\r\n\r\nIt’s a great relationship, with high stakes, tension, and drama. Yeah it’s a boy and his right hand; there should be some kind of perverted subtext at play here.\r\n\r\nMigi\'s presence begins to impact Shinichi\'s life more than practically, but also mentally. Fearing losing his humanity, he seeks to assert himself more in his daily life and relationships, to remind himself and to teach Migi what being a human is; what humans are capable of, how they can rise above basic instincts and defy logic with their positive traits of bravery, courage, self-sacrifice and love.\r\n\r\nDon’t worry, that hokey path is mostly avoided by author Hitoshi Iwaaki who goes into far more interesting places by actually having the boy\'s humanity gradually seep out of him via various plot devices that don’t feel too cheap, because ultimately they result in far more thought-provoking and juicy themes and concepts.\r\n\r\nFrom the moment the parasite entered Shinichi\'s body he became a neo-human, but by the midway point he\'s practically a superhuman, albeit constantly becoming more and more detached from the lives around him, discarding of dead puppies in trash cans without realising how cold he looks to cute girls around him.\r\n\r\nMany genre traits appear in Parasyte, such as high-school based comedy and romance, but the key aspect is the thriller undertones that are tied with such a premise. There are many great tense situations. The staple of the thriller genre is to throw an unremarkable character into an extraordinary situation and to watch him squirm and struggle to get out of it. Parasyte delivers.\r\n\r\nIt more than delivers, it constantly heaps trouble on the poor teenager, terrorising him with death and misery, robbing him of loved ones, of every semblance of normalcy, completely destroying his life. The desperation of the character is palpable and makes us emphasise with him more, there\'s truly a great The Fugitive-esque vibe running through this manga.\r\n\r\nAs Shinichi gets accustomed to his predicament the rate of parasites around him and risk of collateral damage also increases. He has to navigate around potential parasites all around him in society while protecting the people he cares about without revealing that living in his right hand is a parasite.\r\n\r\nIwaaki goes many routes with the core premise, not just having the tale centred on one boy but including the far-reaching implications of parasites infiltrating humankind. They didn’t just happen to fall into the brains of high school teenagers, but people with all kinds of professions and backgrounds. An interesting plotline begins when a suspected infected politician starts campaigning for mayor.\r\n\r\nThere are also cool shonen style rules laid upon the boy\'s predicament, such as Migi having to sleep for four hours because the parasite is so ingrained with the boy\'s body, which of course leaves Shinichi vulnerable to attacks from his enemies, forcing him to rely on his own wits.\r\n\r\nThe art isn’t anything to shout about, though like most manga, improves slightly in later volumes. Action scenes however are drawn well, with good scope and motion conveyed via effective usage of speed lines and P.O.Vs. Gore-hounds will get a lot of pleasure from Parasyte, there are decapitations and blood-letting galore. Although for some reason it appears more dour and disturbing than most other manga I\'ve read, such as Gantz.\r\n\r\nMaybe we\'re jaded at this point, but also maybe because the author doesn’t revel in violence with glee. It’s always disturbing, tragic and merciless because there\'s no tongue-in-cheek attitude here. Humour is present in the story, but the implications of the premise are never sidelined, the horrifying nature of the parasites and their potential is always at the forefront of the story, and it’s made never more clear than watching random citizens eviscerated without any warning or mercy. Nobody is safe in this story, so after you’ve invested yourself in various characters, watching them chased and sometimes killed, is thrilling stuff.\r\n\r\nIf a criticism could be laid at this manga, it would be that Iwaaki doesn’t show more snapshots of regular peoples’ lives, the building up of paranoia in society, knowing that there are monsters out there. Wouldn’t there be a hysteria and tragedy after tragedy as the masses implode with suspicion against one another? Iwaaki avoids this by holding the truth of the parasites from society at large, only having the public aware of an urban legend, not solid facts, but even so, having his excellent writing delve into more random aspects of peoples’ lives would have gave the manga more gravitas.\r\n\r\nMuch like Carpenter\'s The Thing, Parasyte doesn’t build up to an epic battle to save the planet, but rather a more personal struggle for survival. It’s always personal in this story, and that’s why it works as a sci-fi thriller, constantly keeping you on edge while entertaining you with thrills.

vavoysh

16 years ago

Title: Parasyte\r\n\r\nAlternate Title: Kiseiju\r\n\r\nMangaka: Hitoshi Iwaaki\r\n\r\nRating: 5.5/10\r\n\r\nGenre: Not really sure how to put this\r\n\r\n ...\n Length: 64 chapters compiled in 10 volumes\r\n\r\n\r\nSummary: 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nOne 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnalysis: 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nWhats 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nHowever, 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]\r\n\r\n\r\nThe 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nCharacters:\r\n\r\n\r\nBecause 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nIzumi 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nMigi: 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nMurano 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nTamura 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.\r\n\r\nreview taken from animeruwelz, see my profile for more details

MetalWing

16 years ago

I will write my review as an explanation to my rating.\r\n\r\nStory: The plot, as simple as it appears, gets much more complicated as you read this manga. It tells us a story of parasytes along with the story of humans and the two are successfully merged together in a thrilling action plot. While this may not be the most original piece, it contains key contents that make you want to keep reading once you start.\r\n\r\nArt: The drawing in this manga is not a \'standard\' anime-like drawing you would see in Magical x Miracle or Mai Hime or most of other series. The drawings are more\n ...\n human-like and realistic. Sometimes rough, sometimes practically sketched, while sometimes quite detailed (Certain gory parts where quite visually descriptive) This kind of style suits this manga the most - keeping us reading a sci-fi manga while keeping us in touch with real world.\r\n\r\nCharacter: Character development was great for the main character - throughout the story we see him change, we get to know everything about his family, relationship and the way he feels and thinks. The only thing that main character development lacks is his friends. We see him interact with them, but the story doesn\'t seem to talk about them too much. Which could be because the main character doesn\'t want any friends.\r\nAnother lack of character development shows in an incomplete storyline behind main sub characters (Arch rivals, girlfriend, etc). While it does not have an effect on the story - the fact that it wasn\'t there remains.\r\n\r\nEnjoyment: I\'ve already mentioned that this is not the first time that a story of aliens invading Earth comes out; however, once you get into it - you just want to keep on reading. The story sucks you in emotionally, bringing you a variety of feelings. It\'s genre also varies between gory horror to boring school days to romantic encounters to thrilling action. \r\n\r\nOverall: All that can be said about this manga is this - It may not be a \'must read\' because it is not as famous as manga that has been adapted into anime, but this manga is definitely worth reading (And a must read) if you like intense and anxious situations (This book has plenty). All fans of sci-fi will find this manga interesting, especially those who always enjoyed parts of movies like Spider-man or X-men when people just discovered their abilities.

FALLEN101

16 years ago

Alright, let\'s talk Parasyte:\r\n\r\nSTORY: Alright the story as described in the paragraphs above may sound cheesy and unoriginal to some, I know. However, as the story progresses the plot thickens and is beautiful. It shows how various people with the parasites, the bad not the good, try to cope in society and that\'s actually amazing to see unfold. One gets pregnant, one tries not to kill, etc. \r\n\r\nAlso, Parasyte shows quite vividly how someone would live with another symbiote in their body. Needless to say, this is very cool and interesting if you\'re in to that sort of thing. \n ...\n Even if your not, this doesn\'t slow down the story all that much which is fast-paced and easy to read. \r\n(A tiny note here: One of my friends was reading it and it was about two in the morning so he told himself that after one chapter he\'d stop reading. He stayed up until 4 to finish the whole thing.)\r\n\r\nART: The art is well done, although some may think it\'s a bit too sketchy and simple for their tastes. However, one of the neat things that the author/illustrator does, Hitoshi Iwaaki, is that he makes the eyes in such a way that after a while you can tell who\'s contolled by a parasite and who\'s not just by looking at their eyes.\r\n\r\nAnother great thing about the art is the transformations. When a parasite takes over a body they can change the shape and strength of the body to suit their needs. That means that their heads unravel to reveal blades, or they turn into a massive mouth, or many other neat, and creepy, ideas. The transformations are great to look at. \r\n\r\nAlso the author/illustrator can build teh tension very well by using great panel techniques. One such example is in the second new graphic novel, fourth old one (There have been two different publications), when Shin jumps over a ten foot wall. The panels keep widening until there\'s a full page spread of Shin leaping over the wall, then the next page the panels shortens to half the page to show the landing. Trust me, it gets your adrenaline pumped.\r\n\r\nCHARACTER: At first Shin is just the average teenage hero archetype that has been seen in almost every shounen manga. But when you get to the second new graphic novel, fourth old one, things start to change. The parasite in his hand has to split and about 20% of it is strewn throughout Shin\'s body. Then Shin begins to start losing his very humanity and has to fight to get it back.\r\n\r\nThere is also a nifty little love triangle type deal that develops at the end of the second new graphic novel. Because every shounen manga needs to have a love triangle. (Sarcasm, if you hadn\'t noticed.) But I have to say this one\'s pretty well done.\r\n\r\nENJOYMENT: Wow. I just can\'t get enough of this series. Everything about it is pretty much perfect. Sure, you get a translation error every once in a while that makes you wince a little bit but besides that the thing is great. I read all the old graphic novels when I was about twelve and they blew my mind and now that it\'s being rerealsed by Del Rey there is no more perfect time to buy it. (They have combined two of the old graphic novels for a nice little price of $13-14) \r\n\r\nIf you like shounen, hell if you like action in your manga, check this out. You may not love it, but you won\'t be disappointed.\r\n\r\nOVERALL: I want to give this series a ten but I just can\'t, otherwise I wouldn\'t be honest. If I could it would get a 9.5. \r\n\r\nThe only problems I can see is that every once in a while there is that translation error that doesn\'t make sense, and some people may find the art a little two simple.\r\n\r\nHowever, the pluses definitely way out the minuses. There\'s a little something for everyone here: the one\'s who like a lot of action and not too much plot, the guys who like a deep story, the people who like watching others get chopped to bits, it\'s all here. (It even has a bit of sexual humor if you\'re into that.) \r\n\r\nEven if you don\'t like manga too much, don\'t worry. I\'ve had people read it who didn\'t even know what a comic book was, let alone manga, and they all really loved. One of them even went out and bought it himself. The others are all waiting on me to give them the next one when it\'s rereleased. \r\n\r\nTry it, you\'ll like it.\r\n(If you don\'t please tell me why. I\'d like to know.)