Parasyte, are humans really that bad? The premise behind Parasyte is this..On Earth someone thought…..”if, there were half the number of humans, how many fewer forest
would burn?” On Earth someone once thought….”if there was one human for every hundred,
then the poison they would give off would be that much less.” Someone again once thought….”we all
must protect future life.” So let me ask you this, what does that make humans? The victim or
the villain? Welcome to Parasyte and a descriptive albeit quick review!
Meet Shinichi Izumi,
In Parasyte, Shinichi seems like your typical average teenager…
He lives at home with his parents, goes to school, makes average grades, but he has one not so typical secret. I introduce Migi he’s
an alien parasite who’s smart, logical, and adaptable. Migi (which literally means right in
Japanese ) is Shinichi’s right hand after a failed attempt to enter his brain. In volume 1 of
Parasyte you’ll join Shinichi and Migi on the journey of discovery as with each page they find out
a little more about themselves, while at the same time, they come to find they’re not the only
ones who has garnered alien adaptations.
Parasyte is a sci-fi horror manga that no doubt is filled with gruesome violent death scenes at
first glance. Deep down, it’s an anime that answers the age old classic question “are we alone in the
universe?” While at the same time giving a great example of how other intelligent life forms may view
the human race and how our actions can contradict what we say. In one scene Shinichi calls
Migi and his race a bunch of monsters for what they’re doing to humans. If I could paraphrase Migi
replies
“Shinichi my kind eats for survival while your kind kills each other with no benefits. If
monsters do exist it would be humans”.
Mind you Migi reads a lot and takes in what he sees from his environment while giving the most
logical answer in any situation. This indeed makes him seem alien but you’d never know the difference in line of thinking. You’ll see
his line of thinking. It would be hard to not appreciate his logic on that which is the human plight. You’ll see
dialogue and ponderings like this throughout the manga not only from Migi but his fellow parasites such as Mr.
A and Reiko Tamura as they both give their insights on the human species. Also, *Spoiler Alert*, pay attention
to how Migi’s thinking is slowly influencing Shinichi. There’s no doubt Hitoshi Iwaaki drew
inspiration from Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers. One more thing before this
review is done if you haven’t watched the anime adaptation Parasyte The Maxim read the
manga first. Typically the manga version is slightly better because it’s uncut and conveys the
views without fillers. Also, don’t skip the Q&A at the back of book. You’ll be
intrigued at how Hitoshi thinks.
I purchased a digital copy of Parasyte through Amazon for $4.99
and can’t wait to read the next volume.