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Parasyte -the maxim-
Episode 7

by Nick Creamer,

Another solid episode of Parasyte this week, as Shinichi's island vacation came to an end. We started off by meeting Shinichi and Migi's first non-human ally, segued into learning more about our protagonists' evolving powers, and ended with a final confrontation with his former mother. Parasyte has momentum on its side at this point, and the show's only becoming more engaging as more and more interesting variables are added to the mix.

This week began with the show revealing that the parasite Migi detected wasn't Shinichi's mother after all - instead, we got to meet Uda and, uh, Parasite, whose backstory is fairly similar to Shinichi's. Parasite's face-melting movements were a very entertaining kind of creepy, and Uda being a total crybaby made for a nice change of pace from the increasingly stoic Shinichi and Migi. Their introduction made this episode's first half a great deal lighter in tone than the last few have been, though there were still interesting details here. I particularly liked the offhand reveal that Parasite learned speech not from books, but from movies. Like the contrast between Ryoko and A-san, the clear difference in intellectual curiosity between Migi and Parasite provides a strong reminder that the parasites possess just as strong personalities and temperaments as humans do.

From there, the episode moved to a scene of power-elaboration, where Migi broke down the changes both his and Shinichi's bodies are going through. There was some wonderfully gross animation of Migi splitting into many selves and recombining, and the idea that he can order directives to his smaller selves definitely offers some interesting narrative possibilities. But the most important reveal here was clearly that Shinichi has shifted much further from human than before - with a full thirty percent of Migi's mass now circulating in his body, Ryoko's "no longer pure" comment is now a serious understatement. And the fear of this change - that Shinichi is losing his emotions and self - is clearly going to have echoing consequences far down the road.

Finally, the episode's last act concerned the culminating fight between Shinichi and his mother's killer. I really liked the small detail of Shinichi wincing and looking away as his mother's face broke into the parasite blades - even if he's concerned about his humanity, moments like that reveal clear human emotion without a word. Unfortunately, the mom-parasite was much less discerning in her dialogue - though this battle was very engaging overall, I could certainly have done without the enemy parasite offering narration throughout every phase of the fight. But the direction was solid, and though the animation wasn't as impressive here as it's been earlier in the series, the depiction of Shinichi coming to embrace his new powers was a gratifying, tangible shift.

The fight's resolution was also excellent, and just a very clean example of excellent dramatic storytelling. Uda's last-second save might seem like an unexpected twist, but all the pieces were laid for it - Parasite clearly establishes that she only has one attack pattern, we've been given all the information necessary to know that pattern from her earlier attack on Shinichi (it's particular nice when something that was a natural plot event earlier becomes a clue in retrospect), and the idea that Parasite could control Uda's organs was laid out at the beginning of the episode. It's not a tremendous feat of plotting or anything, but it's always nice to see well-earned dramatic twists in action. Overall, this was a strong episode that offered one satisfying resolution while laying the groundwork for all sorts of future conflicts. Parasyte continues to become more fascinating and confident as its twisted narrative unwinds.

Rating: A-

Parasyte -the maxim- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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


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