Manga Review: Parasyte By: Hitoshi Iwaaki

"Above Earth, someone was thinking...'If half of making disappeared, how many foists would be saved? If 99% of mankind disappeared, would pollution be reduced by 99%?' Above Earth, someone was thinking...Someone was thinking 'If we protected life...'"

Title: Parasyte
Author: Hitoshi Iwaaki
Volumes: 10
Chapter: 64
Status: Completed
Chapters Read: 64 (Completed)
Tags: Horror, Seinen
For: Adults (Mature readers only!)
Warnings: Contains a lot of violence/gore and scary-ass aliens
Extra Info: MAL Info HERE


Summary: One night, tiny parasites invaded earth. There was no warning, no one had any idea the sort of horror that was in store for them in the days to come. The parasites invade their human hosts and take on their body and also an insatiable hunger for their fellow humans. They use any means to get the flesh they so crave including transforming into horrific monsters with giant teeth and razor sharp, vine-like ribbon heads. Slowly more and more gruesome murders begin to pop up all over and no one understands what is happening except for one high school student by the name of Shinichi Izumi.

Shin is just an ordinary boy. Compasionate. Not particularly bright. Sweet. Filled with an understanding of what is right and wrong. Nothing about him suggests he could have anything to do with the recent mass murders except for the fact that he is the victim of a botched parasite invasion. Instead of invading his brain like the parasite was supposed to, it invaded his right hand and as a result the parasite (later named Migi) has taken over his right arm. Now Shin needs to learn to coexist with his new partner and to keep his situation a secret in order to protect himself from being turned into a lab rat or worse, to turn up dead. However, what should Shin do when the parasites begin to kill at an alarming rate and even begin to attack those around him?

Wdebo's Review: Even though I am the biggest scaredy-cat on the face of the planet (3D underwater movies scare me really badly...) I have an unnatural love for the horror genre. I love horror movies and horror stories. Therefore, it's no wonder I turned to horror manga to try to find something else I may add to the "Scare myself shitless but enjoy it" list. However, it just seemed like I was constantly looking at the wrong mangas. None of them interested me in the least. I tried out Skin and Bone and found myself disgusted, yes, but not in a good way for I found it too RL Stine-y for my taste, too over-the-top gruesome and also boring. The same went for Yami no Koe.  Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show was better than the others I read but still just not what I was looking for (and it also creeped me out due to the fact that there were basically no boundaries to the whole story). To sum it up, what this long paragraph is trying to say is that all of the horror mangas I read were just not very good. Therefore, I thought PARASYTE would be the same. I thought it would be pretty lame, I mean look at that plot. Even if you ignore my not that exciting writing, it still sounds pretty boring. Alien invasion? Yeah, it's not like I haven't seen that like a bagillion times. But, I was very surprised about how much I enjoyed it.

The storyline is very easy to follow.  (However, I am confused by the fact that the parasite invasion only seemed to have occurred in Japan? Wouldn't aliens want to take over more places than just there?) Protagonist is part of a failed parasite take over and has to work with parasite to protect those around him and try to stop other parasites. But it became so much more than that. It raised good questions even though I personally wasn't paying attention to them until they were bluntly brought up again towards the end of the novel. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of "philosophical" questions it raised (or tried to raise), seeing as how I was only reading for the horror/gore aspect of it.

Also, the characters were nicely developed and enjoyable.  There were also many great characters that filled the story. Shin and Migi were both wonderful protagonists. I loved how as the plot progressed their "humanity" decreased and increased respectively. I do have to admit though that I have a sweet spot for Migi (When you read it, you will understand!). The most disagreeable character for me though is the love interest who gives the protagonist power and desire to protect her because she is too weak to actually do anything apart from being a subconscious mental cheerleader, Satomi.

I also enjoyed the light amount of humor that helped to dispel some of the heaviness of the whole gruesome activities that the parasites were bringing to earth. It was a welcome addition.

Towards the middle; however, it did feel like it was getting repetitive. The fight scenes were beginning to blend in together and nothing truly stood out to me. Thankfully, it shifted gears and I was entertained once again. I did enjoy the fights though. The artwork itself is pretty obviously 90's (which can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on your own stance) and though at times it seems kind of vague, the fighting scenes are very detailed. Including the remaining body parts which at first disturbed me just because they were all completely mutated and butchered and it was just creepy. (Just a warning for readers!) The transformations of the parasites are also very interesting to look at. I have never seen aliens' heads become ribbon-like then slice through the bodies of their enemies. (Or maybe that might just be because I haven't watched a crazy amount of horror movies...maybe it's a common monster attack I am unaware of....) Going off the artwork, I also liked how it was pretty easy to tell who the parasites were by the way that the eyes are drawn.

All in all, a very enjoyable manga that may not be suitable for everybody but will not be a complete waste of time if you just give it a chance. For a story that I thought was going to be lame and boring, it had surprisingly great flow and was really addicting. After reading for a while, I did feel myself getting transported into the story and fearing for the lives of Shin and those around him. It was a scary thought to think what would happen to us if aliens invaded. How would we survive? What would we do? And the most important question of all: Are they the real monsters or are we?

Grade: A-

Wdebo :)

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Read the manga HERE~
Check out the playlist I made for PARASYTE HERE~
Wanna check out my anime/manga progress? Check out my anime list HERE~