Blog entry Animation Spotlight: Parasyte -the maxim-

[Lynk Former]

The first volume of the Parasyte manga
Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at online bookstores that operate within Australia for manga to buy to fill the empty bookshelves in my theatre room. So far, I’ve bought the entire series of Kare Kano and GANTZ with my next target being Berserk. As I’m scrolling through the catalogue of one of these sites I spot an extremely strange cover of a manga I’ve never heard of before in my entire life.
The cover art showed a hand with two wide open eyes on the palm with the word “Parasyte” written underneath. I soon discovered that the cover art for the other volumes of this strange manga were even weirder. At first, I dismissed this unknown manga, thinking “well, that’s Japan for ya” and moved on to find more familiar titles I had heard of before. However, something made me go back to find those strange covers again. The covers were so simple in comparison to a lot...

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[Kyuu]

I was about to say "WHAT? YOU JUST DISCOVERED PARASYTE?!" and then the blog entry is from 2017. BUT STILL-!!!

 

[Lynk Former]

No, you're right, Kyub. Even back then, I was surprised it took me so long to discover Parasyte. Afterward, I was so interested, I bought the manga and was amazed with how accurate the anime was to the actual manga with very few details changed.

Just one scene or two to make things a little more cohesive and the changes to the timeframe... newspapers being replaced by tablets, etc.

When I first watched it, I thought "Why is this new anime so good?" but when I learned that it was made in the late 80s it all suddenly made sense.

 

[Rebel]

I heard about this show a while back and kept meaning to watch it.....still haven't done that.

 

[Lynk Former]

The nice thing is that it has a really good English dub.

At least, I enjoyed it.

 

[m4v]

oh I remember the manga, I forgot how it ended but it was a great story.

 

[Lynk Former]

Spoiler

Shinichi fights the uber-parasyte without migi's help and wins, manages to save his girlfriend from that psycho on the rooftop and realises that most of the parasytes are adapting to human life.

The funny thing is that I was expecting the anime to have some kind of different ending to the manga, but nope... it's exactly how it is in the manga. It's one of the few manga to anime adaptations I've seen that is so accurate.

 

[Rebel]

I just finished binge watching the show and I gotta say it did a pretty good job of holding my attention. Good characters, cohesive plot, though a little predictable at times. Didn't really care for the message though. Not to say I think the message is wrong, just that it wasn't really conveyed well.

 

[Lynk Former]

@Rebel what message was that specifically?

 

[Rebel]

@Rebel what message was that specifically?

The humans are bad for the environment message.

 

[Lynk Former]

Indeed, the environmental message was pretty hamfisted, but there was another message that the series has about the "parasites of society" that I did enjoy a lot more.

The idea that there are people out there who are taking advantage of society to get their own way and don't care about the greater good or how their actions affect others in that society. By the end of the series, Shinichi realises that the Parasytes are learning to adapt and are starting to find their own place in human society...

In the time that Parasyte was made, I'm sure that this spoke more about social delinquents and giving them a chance to come into their own and adapt to the world around them. In today's climate, you could apply that to the way people see immigrants as parasites to a nation and all that comes with that kettle of fish.

 

[Rebel]

Indeed, the environmental message was pretty hamfisted, but there was another message that the series has about the "parasites of society" that I did enjoy a lot more.

The idea that there are people out there who are taking advantage of society to get their own way and don't care about the greater good or how their actions affect others in that society. By the end of the series, Shinichi realises that the Parasytes are learning to adapt and are starting to find their own place in human society...

In the time that Parasyte was made, I'm sure that this spoke more about social delinquents and giving them a chance to come into their own and adapt to the world around them. In today's climate, you could apply that to the way people see immigrants as parasites to a nation and all that comes with that kettle of fish.

I think that message would have come across better if we had seen another Parasyte that made a full "adaptation" to human life. Taken the Ryoko Tamiya (is that the name? I forgot already!) approach to the full extent. It would have been nice if they had come across at least one Parasyte who didn't go psycho at any provocation and had fully outgrown eating people.

Otherwise even with the immigration and assimilation message, it still sort of leaves it hanging that while yes they can adapt, they're still basically monsters just waiting for a moment to set them off and go crazy. Which frankly it's an entirely un-Japanese concept. But it certainly doesn't leave us with the message that "they'll adapt into normal people".

 

[Lynk Former]

@Rebel : They did show that at the very end. How most parasytes put aside eating people and began to eat normal human food, adapting a human way of life. It was brief, but this is primarily a show about conflict so showing an extended epilogue where there is no conflict wouldn't make for good television.