Parasyte is about what it means to be human; it deals with important issues such as being faithful to one's own nature; it teaches you to question your beliefs and ideas of good and evil with a light and heartwarming friendship that slowly develops throughout the entire series. It is an anime that covers many aspects of being human, and it brings you to shatters to then give you hope for the main protagonist; there are moments when he seems to lose his own sanity and go rogue, but he maintains his calm also thanks to a dear childhood friend which keeps him stable, is tricky to review Parasyte without mentioning the main character personal journey of acceptance, and grief, as it is crucial to understanding the deep intricacies which go on in this anime. Parasyte is about, in broader terms, the environmental damage that humans brought and the instability that has been caused due to human loose waste management, battery farming, and cultures. The author offers a solution to this issue, which is natural selection; in the anime, the Earth recurs to the use of these parasites as predators, which take control of their host by mainly going for the head if they are successful. Still, sometimes, as it happens to the main character, they do not, and thus, the long friendship and changes occurring through the main character's mind all come from this first contact with this alien body taking over his right hand. There are many episodes which delve into deeper topics like motherhood and mutualism from the scientific point of view broadly concerning the Earth we live in as a living being; there is an interesting quote which covers the same lines as Dr Anderson from The Matrix said by a mayor working with the man-eating parasites about how in reality humans are the natural parasites for our planet. This anime is also one of the reasons why, after I finished it, I struggled to find any good anime that could make me feel, or that intrigued me. I thought a lot about my own behaviour and how it is so easy to fall into being animals; we are all children of the Earth. How could humanity be a collective organism that should be seen not individually but as a community? This story goes so deep into the big questions that it messes you up in multiple ways. It gets to you emotionally, physically, and foremost through reason. I could put it on the same shelf as Death Note for the depth of how it goes through the difficulties of being human and searching for true justice. On the other hand, I would put it on the same shelf as Clannad for the amount of tragedy the main character goes through and dealing with grief, and I should also put it on the same shelf as Gurren Lagan for how it develops the friendship between the host and its symbiont. After all, this anime is a must-watch if you are interested in thinking about what it means to be human.
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