- Episodes : 24
- Genre : Action, Drama, Horror, Psychological, Seinen
- Airing Date : Oct 9, 2014 - Mar 26, 2015
- Producers : Madhouse, VAP, Sentai FilmworksL, Nippon Television Network Corporation
Parasyte: The Maxim (Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu) Preview / Plot (No Spoilers)
The anime follows a 17 year-old named Shinichi Izumi, who lives in a quiet neighborhood of Tokyo.
One night, weird looking creatures begin to surface on Earth, hosting onto humans while taking control of their brains. They become known as Parasites, and they enter through the nose or ears in order to control the brains of their host.
One day, Shinichi encounters a Parasite, but it was unable to enter his ear or nose and instead burrowed through his arm. Preventing it from traveling further into his body, he contained it in his arm and began to restrain its influence while being able to develop a strong bond and work together.
This helps Shinichi keep his untainted brain from being hosted by other Parasytes as he struggles to survive by living a normal life.
Who does Parasyte: The Maxim cater to?
Parasyte: The Maxim takes place in present day Tokyo where human beings go about living their lives as we would in reality. The story follows the life of Shinichi as he is a normal school teenager who feels intimidated by others.
Everything appears to be normal as life goes on in a busy city like Tokyo, and maybe calmer in the suburban area where Shinichi lives until something unexpected turns up and forces others to react.
This anime would definitely intrigue those who love suspense and horror in a sci-fi storytelling. As well as those who are looking for something original and unique.
What's so appealing about this piece of work.
What would appeal the viewer the most about this anime, is it presents a unique story and and concept of what it means to be human and understanding the human emotion. The events which take place in the series, will have you guessing the entire time. What would happen? What are the characters going to do? And ultimately, how is this all going to end?
Parasyte will definitely have the viewers on the edge of their seat, as they watch the nerve recking decisions which the main character must make in order to survive.
Parasyte Anime Official Trailer
Parasyte: The Maxim Main Characters List
Shinichi Izumi
Voice Actor :Nobunaga Shimazaki
Shinichi is a very thoughtful and compassionate individual going to high school. He is infected by an alien parasyte which puts him in difficult situations repeatedly, residing in his right hand, he must learn to coexist with the parasite who has a mind of its own.
This begins the struggle of balancing his everyday life while trying to keep his infected right hand, who he names Migi, a secret from everyone he encounters. In this process of secrecy, Shinichi learns about Migi, and vise versa, while they confront other parasites who see them as a threat.
Migi
Voice Actor :Aya Hirano
Migi is the parasite that attempts to take over Shinichi's brain, but fails to do so as he restrains Migi in his right arm. Because of this failure, Migi is not like other parasites existing in the world, he thinks independently for himself and doesn't act on what is similar to animal instincts.
Therefore, Migi doesn't have the urge to kill in order to survive.
Migi has no emotions or regards for life in general, only viewing it as a means to survive, which coincidentally, is based on animal instincts. Migi's presence is both forthcoming in danger, and also troublesome with decision making.
Contains Spoilers
Parasyte: The Maxim (Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu) Review
Parasyte: The Maxim (Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu) is a brilliant and unique anime series, which everyone should see. The series is well developed, in most cases, and has a very good presence between humanity and alien (or parasite, in this case). For those out there who never heard of Parasyte: The Maxim, the manga of course, has a more detailed and in depth view of Shinichi's life coexisting with Migi.
A fun fact about the manga, it originally released in 1989, making it more than twenty years old before the series was developed as an adaptation of an anime! We here at Honey's Anime, actually remember reading it back in our school days (please don't judge us)! And it was quite the pleasure to see it in anime form. I based the review solely on the anime, while disregarding the manga, because the details we found in the anime were very exciting and wonderful to watch.
There were some good explanations about the differences between the humans and the parasites. You definitely learned to love, or hate, what would become of a person after being infected by a parasite, both successfully and unsuccessfully. There's also a wonderful understanding of Shinichi's struggle with the transition from being normal/human, to being something unknown and foreign. That would absolutely change a person, depending on how strong they were.
In this case, Shinichi actually went through some incredible situations that made him stronger and more resentful of the parasites. Even though he's a victim of a parasite himself, the death of his mother and the trauma his father went through from witnessing her death, is what separates him from the others. This brings us to the discovery of other parasites in the city.
So far, this is just in Tokyo, it never really goes to explain if this happened to the rest of the world. We can assume the events which took place, can be dealt with in the same manner as what happened in Tokyo, Right? The details explained in terms of the parasite and what goes through the mind of, it, is very comprehensible and disturbing as far as visuals.
Which brings us to the illustration of the series. It was GREAT! Everything perceived in the art, is extremely well drawn as it's absorbed in your mind. Some of the scenes which Shinichi and Migi encounter with other parasites, are extremely intense, but not too excessive either. In my opinion.
Shinichi's life drastically changes throughout the series, and for good reason. I strongly believe the way the character development was presented, was in fact the best. Imagining a life like Shinichi's, is one filled with doubt, emotions, anger, and regret. The crazy thing is, because of his transformation, he lacked the emotions which made him human, while Migi was the one who was gaining human emotions the most.
In addition to all these life changing events, you have a great description of what the rest of society would think if word got out about the parasites. Which it did, and was well presented as a natural reaction to an alien takeover, if you want to call it that. I'm sure that's what the officials were thinking in the series.
The craziest situations that surprised me the most were two things, one is that certain parasites only wanted to learn and coexist with humanity, because they realized how similar they really are from humans. The second part, is how they became aware of there abilities, to the point of fusing a number of parasites together to form one being, much like Gotou.
The particular scenes of the series where Satomi is constantly questioning Shinichi's existence as far as being normal/human, was a bit annoying to me. But, it did make a great outcome for the story, both in keeping Shinihci's sanity together and remembering the human inside of him. Satomi was basically the reality check character. Without her, Shinichi would be lost, as well as the series.
1. Migi
Migi is definitely one of kind in the series, but ultimately, it was because he was paired with Shinichi. There is one other person in the series that's in the same situation as Shinichi and Migi, but the parasite and its host lack the experience in which Shinichi and Migi went through. Which is the death of his mother and close friends, as well as, the near death of Shinichi himself.
Because of the near death injury Shinichi occurred when confront his parasite mother, Migi fuses with him in order to keep him alive, thus keeping Migi alive as well. The outcome of the fuse forces Shinichi to develop special abilities that enhance his senses and make him almost superhuman like.
Together, they are a perfect fighting tool in order to defeat other parasites who seek to control humanity.
2. Other Parasites
The other parasites in the series are pretty much the same as any parasite we know in reality. They survive by latching on or taking over a host, while using it until it can't survive any longer. The unique quality these parasites have in the series, is they are able to develop intelligence from the occurrences they experience in life.
They also have the ability to completely take over their host, and manipulate it to do what ever it pleases. The only thing they aren't able to do, is develop any sort of human emotion or characteristics, let alone showing those emotions. They live like a leech inside an empty vessel.
3. Gotou
Gotou is apparently an experiment which other parasites have created. This was a test to see the extent of their abilities, as well as their survival amongst the human race. Gotou, at first, is an individual who doesn't seem all that different from the other parasites.
He still has the emotionless look and attitude about him, but is in fact very different indeed. Gotou is later revealed to be an experiment who possesses a body with five parasites combined into one utilized being. He is later proven to be very dangerous and difficult to defeat. Ironically, Shinichi does defeat him, by stabbing him with a rusted pipe.
The rust on the pipe infects Gotou's body and makes him extremely vulnerable, which gives Shinichi the chance to destroy him!
Overall, Parasyte: The Maxim was a splendid series that ended well, but it also felt like it could've been better. The art in the series is well developed and brings great representation to the story for which it conveys. The life situations in the series are also realistic as to what an individual or a group of people would do in the events that take place in this anime.
The audio was great, and brought more realism to the experience, while the plot was pretty solid and didn't veer away to far from the story. While there were still some unanswered points which took place in the series, it wasn't too significant, and didn't force the viewer to rethink or question what was going on.
For those who haven't seen this anime, I highly recommend you do. It is definitely a great series you don't want to miss.
Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz
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