×
  • 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

Forum - View topic
Parasyte -the maxim- (TV).


Goto page Previous    Next

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:44 pm Reply with quote
I loved the crap out of this show. I have rated it Excellent. It didn't always fire on all cylinders, but when it did, oh my god. I like the fact that the ultimate resolution with the parasytes is spoiler[left ambiguous. Yes, you get the sense that the survivors have found a way to blend in, but I wouldn't put it past those effers to try a revival at some point.] This one is going in the collection, for sure.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:26 am Reply with quote
Episode 24

What I really liked about the episode was near the beginning where Migi is surprised by how Shinichi sees other people and even Migi himself. It might just sound like Migi is saying that Shinichi had problems remembering small details, but it was more about the fact how things really can look different with different frames of mind. I am pretty sure the implication was that Parasytes see things as biological machinations, while humans who are looking at the same thing instead see an emotional image. I feel like it might have relevance to the trending discussion of a dress being black blue, or white and gold, it is the exact same picture but it really can look different in perception.

What this scene included was that Migi probably saw itself as a sleek organism, who's appearance of a hand can be a factor and did not waste much. But Shinichi could instead the sort of pudgy looking creature that comes from his hand not as something mostly repurposes the hand's shape in not needing to change to much when being himself, more as an emotional image that seems friendlier. Humans really do have a predisposition to see round, big eyed things in a sort of cute manner, often gives us a protective feeling for babies, but Migi would not have seen it that way. By the spoiler[end of it, it looked like Migi did some thinking in really trying to understand how humans can see things in a more emotional way, and this seem evident that in the dream he looked closer to what Shinichi could see]. I was worried spoiler[that we would have a tragic end, but it seemed more that Migi understood a little about Shinichi]. I also liked visuals of different animals, a number of which have a beneficial relationship with another species, and notably the dog seems like a good example of one species that we often see as "mans best friend", but it is not at all how dogs likely see things.

I am rating this series as Very good, it was a great watch and kept me interested, but usually seemed to miss a certain bang in my opinions to raise it up a bit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:19 am Reply with quote
Is anyone besides me curious about what treasure trove of information Migi encountered that would compel him to spoiler[go into hibernation/isolation possibly for the rest of his life just to contemplate it?] Gotou didn't really strike me as the reading type.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:29 am Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
Is anyone besides me curious about what treasure trove of information Migi encountered that would compel him to spoiler[go into hibernation/isolation possibly for the rest of his life just to contemplate it?] Gotou didn't really strike me as the reading type.


Not what he read, but the spoiler[life experiences of 5 separate parasytes both before and after they merged into one collective organism.] Migi probably found the information overload from all the experiences too much to condense whilst active.

As highlighted during the show, Migi loves introspection to a greater degree than the other characters.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:27 pm Reply with quote
I think we have to acknowledge that Migi's "going to sleep to think about things, perhaps permanently" is really only a convenient narrative excuse to return Shinichi to "normal" while not actually killing Migi off. I don't know if the mangaka was thinking of the potential for a sequel, but obviously this route would have left such a possibility open. Pity it never happened (and perhaps was never intended to).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:45 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
I think we have to acknowledge that Migi's "going to sleep to think about things, perhaps permanently" is really only a convenient narrative excuse to return Shinichi to "normal" while not actually killing Migi off. I don't know if the mangaka was thinking of the potential for a sequel, but obviously this route would have left such a possibility open. Pity it never happened (and perhaps was never intended to).


That's the realistic/cynical way of seeing things, but probably harder to think up an excuse to kill Migi off when deactivation is so much easier to narrate.

Since you've obviously caught up with the source material after your complaints from a few weeks ago, note the date of this series. There have been at least 2 one-shot tributes to the series from other illustrators as well accompanying the publicity of this adaptation and the two live-action movies.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:52 pm Reply with quote
I'm not caught up on the source material at all. If the show doesn't prompt a license in NA, I will probably at some point seek out the manga through *ahem* other means but I'll take a wait and see attitude first.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
LordMaou



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 70
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
I'm not caught up on the source material at all. If the show doesn't prompt a license in NA, I will probably at some point seek out the manga through *ahem* other means but I'll take a wait and see attitude first.


The manga has been published in english if that's what you were wondering about. It ran from 1988 to 1995. Tokyopop, Dei Rey, and Kodansha Comics USA are the publishers for the english Manga.

Sentai Filmworks and Animax Asia(Southeast Asia english broadcasts) have license for the Anime.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:05 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the head's up - did not know that. Not sure why I thought it was unlicensed in NA. TRSI has the Kodansha volumes, so now I know what to ask Santa for.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 10:12 am Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
I think we have to acknowledge that Migi's "going to sleep to think about things, perhaps permanently" is really only a convenient narrative excuse to return Shinichi to "normal" while not actually killing Migi off.


This seems almost certainly like the most plausible explanation for spoiler[Migi going into "permanent sleep." The mangaka wanted to wrap things up and have Shinichi be normal again without Migi having another dramatic "death."] It's not necessarily a bad decision, but definitely fairly simplistic for a show that has flexed its intellectual muscle on numerous occasions.

As for the episode itself, I thought it did endeavor to end the series on a fairly intellectual level as far as Shinichi's internal monologue about Parasytes and the place of mankind in the universe. It was pretty good stuff. I especially liked how he talks about how humans arrogantly think that we understand how other animals see the world but we really don't know. The picture of the dog with some douchy sweater on it looking back at the viewer with an incomprehensible "expression" was just perfect. We think of dogs as "man's best friend," but we really have no idea what a dog thinks or how it sees the world. Same with the other animals that were shown. It was no mistake that they showed dolphins, who are considered to be one of the most intelligent animals in the world. How do they see the world, and how do they perceive us or other animals? We can never know.

It was also great that the writing doesn't pull any punches, even when it comes to environmentalists. The show is clearly on an environmentalist vibe, but Shinichi's internal monologue still asserts that even environmentalists are selfish. They want to save the world, but not because they can understand and connect with other animals. They want to save the world because of human desires. At least, that's the message in Shinichi's monologue. There was a really cool big thought experiment going on in the finale, and I really enjoyed it.

Also, even though Uragami was a pretty ridiculous villain, and even though his claims about humans vs monsters ring hollow in the perspective of society, maybe there was something to consider from his crazy talk (and Murano's reaction to it). Maybe it speaks more to the idea that psycho killers like him are essentially a different kind of organism than a normal human. I guess you could ask what does it mean to be human. Does that simply mean you share common physical/biological features with other humans, or does it extend to ability to perceive the world in the same way as other humans?

Anyway, I also think this show should get a grade of Excellent. Although the show was fantastic on the whole and has a great pedigree, it's not quite masterpiece material, as there were a number of negatives that keep it from that level.

Most notably, the Murano character was a highly frustrating character. For almost the entire series, she seems to somehow stay in the dark about this whole parasyte thing spoiler[but then suddenly appears to "get it" all in the last moments of the finale.] That was a bad writing decision. It meant that she was an annoying "tag-along" character for the whole series spoiler[(she even seems to acknowledge it at the end by saying she's been playing "catch up" to Shinichi the whole time)]. These types of characters generally serve as convenient victims and hostages for the bad guys, such as spoiler[what happened here with Uragami.] They also rarely contribute anything useful to progressing the plot, and serve as mindless sounding-boards for the protagonist. For most of the show Murano fit that archetype perfectly. I think they could have made her a much more interesting character by letting her be shown to be actively figuring things out and either doing things behind the scenes to help Shinichi or being a confidant for him.

Another negative in my mind was spoiler[Reiko dying as early as she did.] For the first half of the series, a HUGE chunk of the intrigue was with her. Sure, Migi and Shinichi's antics were fun and interesting, but she was the intellectual heavyweight. spoiler[When she died,] the quality definitely dropped off. It did recover decently by the end, but I don't think the spoiler[aftermath of her death] was planned out well enough.

Anyway, like I said, I really loved the show overall and think it probably will be considered as a classic in due time.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 3:22 pm Reply with quote
@ CK - I share your assessment of Murano as a character. She was the one area where the Parasyte source material was really showing its age. What's ironic is the mangaka clearly knew how to create an interesting female character - i.e. Reiko - but I guess that talent didn't extend to creating a satisfying girlfriend character. Sadly the writers on Parasyte the anime clearly decided not to make improvements (from what I understand; I haven't read the manga yet) - perhaps they felt overly bound by the manga.

I disagree with your sentiment that spoiler[Reiko died] too early. It happened in episode 17, I believe, so the show was two-thirds over. I agree the show never scaled the same heights, but damn, it would have been hard to top her, no matter what. What I liked about spoiler[her dying] at that point was that it raised the expectation in me that she was trying to forge Shinichi into some sort of "bridge" entity that would help parasytes and humans reach some sort of accommodation, which I found to be an interesting idea. Sadly, that concept was never actually realized. Oh well.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:01 pm Reply with quote
I'm also giving this an Excellent, really enjoyable show overall.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:10 am Reply with quote
Does anyone know how closely the anime follows original manga?
And does the ending of anime match the ending of manga?

Overall, this anime deserves "Excellent" rating. If not few stretches here and there and injustice done to main hero's girlfriend, I would even rate it "Masterpiece" since otherwise it is literally work of masters in nearly every aspect of the project.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:45 am Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
Does anyone know how closely the anime follows original manga?
And does the ending of anime match the ending of manga?


spoiler[90-95% match to the source material. Update to environment and setting to match the 21st century rather than the 20th. All events replicated faithfully in chronological order. Ending is exactly the same for both adaptations. ]
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:51 am Reply with quote
Thanks.

Author is still alive -- and not even old -- so, theoretically, he can come up with a continuation? Yes, most of related to the concept themes were already explored, so it might be unnecessary, but author seems to be smart enough to be able to come up with something intricate and not repetitive with this Parasyte thing. No chances for that, maybe he has hinted something in interviews?

I am interested because most of anime is so much worse than this. I would trade maybe a dozen or more of regular anime titles for project of quality like this one. Give-me-give-me-give-me, I-want-I-want-I-want-I-want to see really good anime like this. I am starving for more of better anime like this one.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 25 of 26

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group