×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Parasyte -the maxim-
Episode 1-3

by Nick Creamer,

Parasyte is a Very Good Show. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to those who did their homework - the manga is highly regarded (and as a personal fan, I can confirm that regard is well-earned), and Mad House is a top-tier studio. Neither of those things are a clear guarantee of quality, of course - but in its first three episodes, Parasyte has solidly earned its hype.

Our story so far is a combination of thriller, body horror, and personal drama. High school student Shinichi finds himself the unwilling host of the alien Migi, a shape-shifting creature that has devoured and replaced his right hand. Though he wants nothing to do with the creature, he soon realizes Migi might be the only thing protecting him from other monsters, parasites that have devoured their host-humans' brains and now survive through cannibalism. In these first three episodes, we've seen Shinichi and Migi come to an uneasy peace, with Migi's pragmatic alien values and Shinichi's high-minded human beliefs constantly clashing as they fend off other aliens and navigate Shinichi's newly terrifying daily life.

Parasyte demonstrates many of its strengths even within its very first episode. Its understanding of genre and mastery of tone is wonderful - from the show's unnerving shot framing to its tense pacing, Parasyte knows how to make the most of its premise. Mangled bodies linger in the corners of shots, and violence hangs as a threat until it's unleashed in one quick, awful moment. No opportunity for body-horror discomfort is missed, from Shinichi attempting to attack his own body, to the awful skull-splitting movements of the aliens, to the third episode's recent revelation of a parasite hosting a human baby. The discomfort and constant tension of the show is ably assisted by the show's animation, which is equally good at demonstrating the inhuman movements of the creatures and Shinichi's understandably panicked scrambling. And though the show's music can sometimes clash, its understanding of when to use music, and when to simply rely on its creepy sound effects or remain completely silent, is quite strong. The moments when Migi is blankly listing the meters remaining between Shinichi and some new monster are uniformly taut and dramatically effective.

The show's strengths aren't strictly limited to its horror form, though. So far, Parasyte has already demonstrated a clear interest in a number of strong thematic threads. The relationship between Shinichi and Migi lie at the center of the show's themes - the clash in their values is key to what it intends to say. On the most superficial level, Shinichi's “affliction” is a perfectly fair metaphor for adolescence itself - his body is moving beyond his control, and those around him are beginning to see him as a different person. The show even draws attention to this in its few moments of humor, with Migi's interest in “human reproduction” acting as a fair enough stand-in for any teenage boy who doesn't really understand what's going on with himself.

But that's the easy stuff. What Parasyte seems really interested in is human nature itself, and its often awkward relationship with animal instincts. Shinichi wants to believe himself a Good Person - he tries to do what's right, he stands up for the weak, and he disagrees with letting the aliens kill people. Migi, in contrast, is pure pragmatism - his ruling directive is “survive at all costs,” and the ways his pragmatism clashes with Shinichi's idealism results in some of the show's best moments. Though Shinichi is an honorable person, his ideals are impractical in ways that Migi's blunt personality often reveal as hypocrisy. From Migi's questioning of the ethics of killing non-human animals to survive, to the simple fact that all of Shinichi's heroic aspirations rely entirely on Migi to be realized, it's clear that Parasyte is not interested in simple answers, and that it will continue to interrogate human ideals in the context of an animal world.

This most recent episode gave us our first cliffhanger, and the promise of an intense fight to come. I'm excited to see how this resolves - on the thematic side, I find it really compelling that Shinichi and Migi's first movement of true unity comes when they must fight to survive as caged animals, and on the dramatic side, I'm just really excited to see another well-orchestrated action scene. Whether you're here for the meat or the metaphors, Parasyte is a substantive meal, and I'm looking forward to cataloging this journey into its dark heart.

Rating: A

Parasyte -the maxim- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.


discuss this in the forum (277 posts) |
bookmark/share with: short url

back to Parasyte -the maxim-
Episode Review homepage / archives