Parasyte: The Maxim(the anime) review essay

Want to start with that this anime is hard to explain in sections unlike other anime because everything flows together so I will do my best.
—Plot/setting—
-Non-Spoiler Section
•The show is only 24 episodes yet nothing felt rushed, the sequence of events line up exactly how it feels it should.
•The show never feels slow, so much intense sections, action set sections, drama, and sections that make your heart bleed.
•Basically the pacing of the show is really nice.
•The Story is told amazing well, this is genuinely one of the best stories of of a show, not just anime, but a tv show I have ever watched. Shinichi’s and Migi’s story arc were bitter at times and sweet at other times.
•It has aspects of slice of life(which I’m usually not a fan of) but it plays it off so well while still having a consistent story line.
•The show consist of mainly good characters such as Shinichi, Migi, Ryoko, Murano, Kuramori, Goto, Detective Hirama, and the serial killer.
-Spoiler section
•Hard to talk about spoilers because it’s going to be mainly in The characters section.
•The massacre of the people that was caused my by the inspector director and his men from the police department/agency really showed that the humans can be just as cruel as the parasites without a shed of sympathy due to panic rather than hunger. The message was loud and it was heard.
•Goto is a beast whenever he is showed in action, like the Yakuza bit, the fight with Shinichi etc.
•The mayor being Human was a real twist and impactful.
•The serial killer was a good character and showed how evil humans can be.
•
—Philosophy —
•The whole premiss of the show is what does it mean to be human and goes deep into that thought using fear, love, relationships through friendships, parenthood, significant other, etc.
•Also shows grief through death and life, as well as enlightenment through death and life.
•Also expresses the differences between animals and humans the boundaries of thought and emotions.
•I’m keeping this section short because this section alone along with the others I could spend days explaining, it does that deep.

—Characters—
-Shinichi and Migi’s duo interactions
•The two reflect off of each other negative and positive, one point Shinichi starts talking, thinking, and acting like Migi with human traits and vice versus with Migi but with like Shinichi and with parasite traits.
•These two start as enemies that have to work together to survive/co-exist into friends and trusted allies.
•Their bond is heartfelt and feels natural and realistic, like Shinichi calming him down during a fight before he completely changed it was to keep himself alive but after he completely change he did it to support Shinichi.
•Shinichi even explain to Kuramori that Shinichi went through so much and he’s only 17 years old.
-Shinichi’s character development
•This falls under Shinichi’s and Migi’s character interaction section.
•Of course Shinichi starts changing when Migi enters his hand fails to reach Shinichi’s brain, but he drastically changes when his mother turns into a Parasyte/dies in the process of course and stabs Shinichi in the heart and when he kills her after Migi heals him, also his father ends up in the hospital.
•After 30% of Migi enters the heart wound of Shinichi, he physically gets stronger, he can run fast as 40mph, jump up to 30-40meters, he has insane amount of endurance and stamina, his sense became stronger as well. He can heat up to 4 blocks to even people talking, he can hear Murano’s heartbeat when she was walking next to him, he can smell very well although they don’t portray this aspect as much in the show compared to his other senses, his taste and touch aren’t even portray only implied, he can see pretty well as well, he can see the blades of the parasites move which were fast enough to cut bullets.
His mentality and personality also changed, he lost all phobias, he can calm himself in matter of seconds even when he has panic attacks, he can maintain his composures 99% of the time even when people get mutilated around him, he didn’t lose his sympathy but he became way colder as a person, he tries to save people but when they die he doesn’t cry, he cares but he can’t seem to express it which causes him concern that he’s no longer human. He blurts out comments like “That fucking bitch!!” Or “I will kill you, you piece of shit!” When he’s angry which he never did before his mother died, he also would say shit calmly like “Don’t fight me, wont go like before” very calmly unlike before when he would nervously plead not to rely on violence.
•Shinichi gains PTSD, and they express this very realistically and not edgy and anime-like how cough Tokyo Ghoul cough did.
•Shinichi is finally able to cry in episode 20 when Ryoko(a very intelligent parasite) dies and hands him his baby before talking about how she changed and started to use human emotions which Shinichi wasn’t able to cry until now and Murano was there to see it after always questioning the Shinichi she knew was gone and how he changed and her seeing him cry she knew he was back. Beforehand Shinichi couldn’t cry that the fact his mom died, that Kana died, and his friend died. Even afterwards he always had a calm constant emotion.
•At first he hated the parasites but eventually he recognize them as beings that are similar to humans and killed only for food, he obtained sympathy for them, he event thought he was not much different from them before he had that whole understanding with parasites.
•Shinichi went through so much obstacles that would break any human in reality but he went through these and got stronger, but he also became more understanding with death, life, parasites, animals, humans, and the environment through his journey and grew as an individual in general.
-Migi’s character development
•Migi was very intelligent almost from the very start since he doesn’t most of his time reading books and looking up information in the internet in his free time(when Shinichi was sleeping).
•Migi started out as an emotionless being that would do anything to keep himself alive without hesitation to a being that called Shinichi is friend and was scared of dying alone, and couldn’t even kill his own race. This change was visible throughout the show despite how slow it went unlike Shinichi’s(fast change). Shinichi’s change wasn’t rush even though it was fast.
•Also anytime I call Migi “he” I just make it simple but technically he’s neither since he doesn’t have male sexual organs nor female because she never reached Shinichi’s brain.
•Migi also went through a journey with Shinichi and grew as an individual.
•When Migi decided to go into deep sleep so Shinichi could live his life despite Shinichi didn’t want him to and wanted Shinichi to forget him(Shinichi didn’t), showed how much he grew, and saving Murano despite it didn’t affect Migi’s existence was truly amazing character development.

-Murano
•Murano is a reminder to Shinichi that he’s human and that he’s vulnerable whenever Shinichi went through that drastic change, she’s also a reminder that he had someone that cares for and someone to look after. Murano is his support and helps him through the toughest decisions and vice versa for Murano, Shinichi saves her multiple times and takes care of her. They are a package how Shinichi and Migi are a package just in a different tone.
•Murano’s and Shinichi’s romance is beautiful and natural, the ways they were feeling through tough times felt realistic, they lacked communication by default but Murano started understanding to an extent that was implied.
•This character is important for Shinichi to cope for the shit he’s been through, she makes Shinichi feel safe, when he was frightened he went to her, when he was hurt he went to her.
•Since she reminded him that he was human he buried the dog after he threw it in the trash.

-Reiko Tamura
•This character is vital for the bridge of parasites and humans just like Migi and Shinichi are vital for the bridge between humans and parasites except for instead of having a bond of co-existing she has curiosity which eventually develops into having a child that she cares for and loves but lies and says it for research.
•She’s also vital for Shinichi to gain the ability to cry again and to recover from his PTSD.
•She was very intelligent but also became a true mother and became an unfortunate loss.
•Going to leave this character short because like I said earlier I can spend so much on each section and each character but I’m trying to keep this review compact.

-Kana
•A tragic character that puts a toll on Shinichi after her death.
•She believes the two are connected and she can sense but she thinks it because that’s her true love, but in reality she can feel brain waves and later on send out her own so she can sense parasites.
•She’s one of the few that know Shinichi’s situation and about Migi.
•Shinichi is always trying to protect because she accidentally always finds trouble.
•Another important side character.

-Kuramori
•Keeping this one simple, pretty much Kana’s role but not obsessed with Shinichi because of love but because of his mystery and bridge between humans and parasites, he’s a good guy that dies and loses his family yet when he lost his family and when he was dying he protected Shinichi’s true identity.
—Soundtrack—
•In my opinion sometimes the music can bring you out of the mood, but this case is on the contrary, the soundtrack brings you into the scene and really feel it out.
•The soundtrack is diverse with different music, dubstep, a trap/hip-hop beat mix, slow lofi, sci-fi mystery, opera intense epic fighting music or opera intense dramatic scene music, and it’s all original soundtrack, 90% of the music very good and 100% of it is appropriate.
•The song ‘Next to You’ this song is the most recognizable or most popular song in this anime, I call it Murano’s theme even though they play during any sad or emotional scene, but it becomes a trend later on the show when it only plays when Murano is around or when Shinichi is talking to Murano in the park. It’s a bitter-sweet piece of music.

—Animation—
-The animation is pretty good, it’s not dogshit and it’s no Violent Garden or Demon Slayer(pretty much god tier animation, sometimes they use CGI to blur out the background to gain focus on the main characters and main situation which is affective or sometimes express how ugly and disturbing the parasites can be, and despite that it’s cgi it never looks awful like Berserk 2017 did.
—Memories I have with this show—
-Nostalgia, I have so much nostalgia with this show, I first watched it with my best friend 3-4 years ago back when I was in high school, a sophomore, not that anyone cares but we are best friends still, in fact we are roommates and we have been friends for 15 years now, but anyways he introduced me to the show and the first episode I fell in love with it. It was so good I showed my ex(my girlfriend at the time) a week later and rewatching so quickly after my first viewing of the show didn’t make it worse for me at all, I loved it. I then showed my young er brother who’s 3 years younger(we are pretty close, he’s like my other best friend) 4 days ago and it’s already nostalgic to me.
-Coping. The ex I mentioned earlier, I dated her all throughout high school for about 3-4 years and when we broke up my teenage heart was destroyed(end of junior year), so I put on Parasyte and watched it, it helped a lot, I couldn’t watch shows, movies, or play games only way I could cope was hang out with my buddies and get high or just hang out, go on long walks, or watch Parasyte. 2 years later I lost my grandmother who adopted me, she died from age so she lived a good long life, but her and I were very close and I was devastated, I didn’t get high or drunk like I did in high school to cope with my breakup because I matured but I was still very sad, she was like my mother, but when I put in Parasyte it distracted me and temporarily made me better until I fully recovered which I don’t if I did yet but I’m doing a lot better, when I saw Shinichi lost his mother it reminded of me losing my grandmother since she was like my mother and it hit me hard. The soundtrack especially next to you was a great way to cope or to sleep.
—Conclusion-
•Why am I explaining this useless review well its fun and I thought I should share my love for this show. It’s a beautiful show with horror, philosophy, gore, action, consistent story line, romance, slice of life, and great memories.