Parasyte: The Maxim Full Anime Review - We Were Born into This World

Written by Rei Caldombra 2/18/2024 Video version: https://youtu.be/4-OpWge1LcA

I can often struggle to find the time to watch older shows due to consistently following the seasonals. I finally got around to watching Parasyte: The Maxim and I absolutely loved it. This is a thoroughly engaging and thought provoking story from beginning to end. It was hard to get myself to stop watching so I could spread it out. There will be heavy direct spoilers.

Parasyte excels on every front. This show is a suspenseful thrill ride from beginning to end. There were so many sudden "oh crap" moments that made me terrified for what was about to come next. The way the plot flows feels very natural and logical. The characters are very nuanced and always changing. The story is super interesting but I always got excited when the action picked up again due to how well done they are. I do think the peak of the show is in the middle surrounding the scene of Tomura's death but all the way through it is thoroughly engaging and thought provoking. The scene in the park was utter perfection, a beautiful and emotional culmination of everything the series was building to at that point. Everything concerning Tomura is fantastic, she is such a rich character. The entire story is rich with detail. The production value is extremely great, featuring smooth animation and great attention to minor details that add more to the scene. The character animation is so good, with lots of small and/or short movements or extra detail expressions that accentuate the character's emotional state.

The biological angle of the show is just so interesting. I love the level of detail we get into how the parasites work. Every time they took the time to explain how the parasites work I happily devoured every little detail. And the time and level of detail is justified because they end up being relevant to the plot and fights. You get satisfaction from paying attention because you understand why things work or don't. It's not mindless repetitive details just for the sake of padding out the runtime. I love when we get to learn about the unique organisms in fantasy and science fiction and Parasyte satisfied me perfectly.

A big focus of the show is on change, particularly adaptation and evolution. I love that Shinichi's growth as a character was not a simple downward slope. He has ups and downs, goes back and forth on believing in different ideas and perspectives. One point I love is how long it took for him to recognize that he was changing. Noticing yourself changing is pretty difficult. People can overestimate the self awareness an individual has towards their own behavior. You often do need someone else telling you you are changing and a serious low point for improvement to truly happen. With see this play out with his tumultuous relationship with Satomi. His failure to open up to her at the park was so painful. He is continuously falling for much of the series but we see moments of self realization and trying to fight against it as well as giving in. It's like a seesaw. He may have lost a lot of his emotional responses, but he did still have very strong responses to the topic of his mother. Then he later regains them. In the end he becomes not necessarily a perfect person, but a more complex person who can view life from a better perspective. It hurt so much to see him struggle because of how real he felt. We also have Migi who ends up being a very dynamic character. He starts out as being entirely utilitarian and self serving. His rationality reacting to Shinichi’s “irrationality” is very engaging and interesting to follow. But over time we see him better understand Shinichi and humans. He goes from demanding Shinichi do what he thinks is objectively best to trying to do the best he can while working within Shinichi's boundaries. He even learns to have a decent understanding of human ideals. The relationship between him and Migi is a dense swinging pendulum of comradery and antagonism that ends in mutual understanding while still recognizing the differences between them.

Watching the parasites evolve over the course of the story was so engrossing. Them slowly becoming more like humans is amazing to watch, especially when it is contrasted with the way we see Shinichi become less human. We see Parasytes go from simple minded predators to developing individuality is so interesting. The way they copy humans to the point of developing individuality and forming an organization which leads to their downfall is perfect. This duality is so engaging. Migi's desire for learning is my favorite trait of his, and it ending with him trying to evolve into something truly unique is perfect and fits the theme of individuality between all creatures. I loved watching him evolve over the course of the story.

I have heard some criticism of the story with the segment that lead's to Kana's death. Yes, Kana was very stupid for leaving her phone behind. But I think it works for her character. It felt in line for a high school girl who desperately wanted connection and to chase the strong feelings she never felt before. She wanted to feel special and believed in the romanticized idea of the “fated lover” that media often portrays. She believed in Shinichi being her "fated love" so strongly that she was willing to risk being wrong. These are all understandable desires, especially for someone of her age. I remember thinking similarly when I was her age. And even if you didn't this is showing how people have different belief systems and do not live entirely based on rationality. These ideas fit great into the show's themes. Her death is very important to the story and I think the way her death comes about is very well written. I think she was a great character and have no major issues with how her story goes.

Difference in perspective is also a big point of the series. Migi and Shinichi see life and other creatures in different ways. But both are presented as valid perspectives. You should seek to understand other people’s viewpoints, but expecting to entirely understand is not possible. As your experiences can never truly be the same. This is not posited as being negative, and I agree. It’s just the reality of existence. I agree that there is arrogance to believing you can understand how other people feel. Assuming other people’s perspectives can bring a lot of harm. We can be empathetic and do our best to act on their perspectives, but you will never truly have the same perspective. Every creature is unique based on their own individual differences. We should respect each other’s independence and uniqueness as living beings. A single actor cannot represent an entire species. Migi and Shinichi both desired to understand each other. And this is what allowed them to succeed. While parasites like Gotou forced their will onto others and failed because of it.

This show brings up so many great philosophical questions. They confirmed parasites can live without eating humans, as they can survive on the normal human diet. Which is how you can contextualize their killing of humans as wrong. But humans can survive without eating animals. So are we wrong for killing animals when we don’t need to? Should causing the death and/or suffering of one organism be treated differently? You could think it's wrong that Tomura viewed her human child like an experiment. But do humans not conduct experiments on animals? Is that so different from a parasite experimenting on humans? What about humans experimenting on Tomura’s child? Is there much of a difference between a creature like the parasites that kills humans and a serial killer? Can different creatures truly understand one another? Are all living creatures not doing their best to survive and thrive? Do all living things not have the right to live? They were born into this world with desires the same as us. They search for purpose the same way humans do. Should we judge all creatures based on human values?

There are plenty of series that explore human nature. But many lack the nuance and good writing that Parasyte has. My main point being that the humans here are not ridiculously stupid and unrealistically vile. There was not a single time I felt the intelligence of human characters were degraded for the sake of the plot or to make a point. Even during moments of arguable immorality like the soldiers killing humans had a clear utilitarian basis. In other worse shows you have people killing other with no good reason just so they can say humans are cruel. We do have a truly cruel human in Uragami but he serves clear narrative and thematic purpose.

I think there’s a lot of value to the killer’s inclusion as a human antagonistic force. While people like him are the vast minority of humans, they do exist. He acts a lot like the Parasytes as a predator. He brings up the point that stepping over others is the "natural order of things" that humanity has lost. The last plotline is a reminder of how cruel humans can be, and that being more compassionate to others is for the best. There are some points that can argue that thinking selfishly is not wrong, but this segment makes it clear that selfishness to the degree that he promotes is wrong. This story was not about some threat to human society, with humans being innocent victims. The final confrontation was around him and her because of the themes of love and human capabilities. She is the more pure human heart of the series. Amongst the chaos of the parasite stuff she keeps the story grounded. She represents the noble and caring side of humanity while he portrays the dark side. And through love the positive side of humanity is shown. Their relationships shows the importance of love in humanity. We succeed through our connections. The connection between Shinichi and Migi that was unique to them is what allowed Migi to evolve further that we see his character end with pursuing. Early in the series they state that creatures like the parasites should all act similarly based on their shared directive but we see this not end up being true. Creatures do not have some singular directive that dictates their behavior and makes them all the same. Creatures across the scale of simple to complex are unique. Shinichi is truly able to grow as a person and regain his will to live through his relationship with Satomi. Their love gets more into the point about how your close relationships should be a main focus of an individual, rather than looking entirely from a collectivist perspective. The right spot is in the middle.

By the end the show is clear in criticizing humanity because of the negative impact it has on the planet. But where it differs from other perspectives is following that up with whether something being harmful does not necessarily mean it should die. Both sides in the human vs parasite war wanted to protect their own interests and projected their values onto the other. You have to look from different perspectives. As Migi says, do we have the right to say we are doing something “for earth” when it is not a living being you can attach values to? It's very interesting that Shinichi changes his mind from letting him live to killing him. He goes from believing he has the right to live and that he should let nature take its course, but then flips to deciding to ensure his and his family’s safety by killing him. He goes from acting from a macro perspective to a micro perspective. And is the showing saying this is how we should think? Do the best you can for the people around you, rather than attempting to act on what is best for a collective? In the end, are we not all acting in our own self interest at its core? This fits with that one biology lecture, where the debate about whether things can truly act outside of self interest. It is important to consider the environment but a lone person should not overestimate their ability to alter it. There is the criticism of humanity but it clearly states that feeling terrible about ourselves as humans is not the message. This is clearly shown through how Takeshi is portrayed, with him being an environmental terrorist who says humanity should be diminished. I do believe that as humans we should be a lot better to ourselves, each other and our world. But we are all just trying to live in the system that we are born into. Our world does not allow us to better ourselves with absolutely no consequence to others. And allowing humans to die on purpose is not the solution. We should love ourselves while also seeking to improve. As the old lady said, be flexible and never give up.

This show is fantastic and one of my favorites I have watched in a long time. It is just that good. There is so much worth talking about that I did not even get into. But I'm no perfect creature so I cannot singlehandedly represent everything in this story. And that's fine. There are plenty of other unique perspectives to read/hear. Feel free to add yours in the comments! Thank you for reading!

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