Review: PARASYTE THE MAXIM
Wiki Synopsis: Parasyte centers on a 17-year-old teen named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother and father in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo. One night, worm-like creatures called Parasites appear on Earth, taking over the brains of human hosts by entering through their ears or noses. One Parasite attempts to crawl into Shinichi's ear while he sleeps, but fails as Shinichi is wearing headphones, and enters his body by burrowing into his arm instead. In the Japanese version, it takes over his right hand and is named Migi (ミギー?), after the Japanese word for 'right';
Because Shinichi was able to prevent Migi from travelling further up into his brain, both beings retain their separate intellect and personality. As the duo encounter other Parasites, they capitalize on their strange situation and gradually form a strong bond, working together to survive. This gives them an edge in battling other Parasites who frequently attack the pair upon realization that Shinichi's human brain is still intact. Shinichi feels compelled to fight other Parasites, who devour humans as food, while enlisting Migi's help.
Earlier in the year, I featured Parasyte: The Maxim as a must watch anime due to its gore, horror, and animation elements. While I still stand by that initial analysis, I have to say the final half of the series is by far what makes this series a must watch. It's one thing to watch an Alien meets Bodysnatchers gore fest, and it's quite another to physically feel something upon its completion. Obviously I won't go far into the final half of the series for those who still have yet to watch it but, needless to say, things take a widely different turn from the series' beginning to its end.
Is the message deep? Is it one you've heard before? Not really. The way the story evolved to deliver the message while still keeping the show very much rooted in its gore and violence was fantastic storytelling you don't typically see in the horror genre. It's literally the first time I left a horror thriller feeling introspective as opposed to, "Wow, that was gross/scary/bad."
The series clocked in at about 9 hours, which (for what we were given) was fantastic. Complete, fleshed out, story with action, gore, and a message that makes you think? I've watched shittier for longer to be honest, and would not be recommending this to you if I thought it was "just okay." That being said, I did have one problem with the series.
The love interest, Satomi Murano, is just the worst. She is vital to the series, I'll admit, due to much of her significance being tied to the change in Shinichi's humanity. Because of this, there's not really much of a dynamic between the two as the series develops except she's there to tell him he's "changing", then one episode they bang. Seriously, it's just like: "I like you." And, "I like you too." Then bam they are in bed naked. It's so hilarious and out of the blue you can't help but chuckle at how easily she submits to the charm of a pseudo human who's essentially become another person over the past couple months. The best thing I can say is the relationship has no impact on the overall story, and once again the random banging literally made me lol.
Other than that, a lot in this series knocked it out of the park. Migi being a part of Shinichi really throws a different philosophy into the show's situations and makes you realize human perspective is, at times, just as twisted as the parasytes' perspective. The animation and fight scenes were always on point. There are no filler episodes, and things never got to bogged down in dialogue. So what more can I say? If you enjoy horror/sci-fi/violence, you are doing yourself a disservice if you're not watching this.
One final thing I failed to mention in my previous post — largely because I thought it would be terrible — is the live action movie. If you've seen live action adaptations of anime, you know they can be dodgy in production value and "okay" at best, but this one looks pretty solid.
I bring this up because the final half of the live action movie premieres next month. So if you watch the series, give this a watch, as well, as fans have been all about it.