Some manga are better off never being animated.

What They Say:
They arrived in silence and darkness, descending from the skies with a hunger for human flesh. Parasites – alien creatures who must invade and take control of a human host to survive – have come to Earth. No one knows their secret except high school student, Shinichi Izumi, who’s right hand has been invaded by an alien parasite. Shinichi and Migi, the parasite in his hand, begrudgingly form a friendship and find themselves caught in the middle of a war between humans and parasites.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
What a depressing journey Parasyte: the Maxim has been. From cautious optimism, to happiness at seeing favorite moments realized, to growing doubt, and then utter collapse. Most of the misfires have come at the most important moments, wounding any real emotional power the show might have had. And, unfortunately, if you blow the landing, few people will really care how well things started out. The show’s become quite a chore for me to watch, and with the wretched OP and ED not buoyed by any content in the middle, it’s a mild form of torture.

Things improved with these last two episodes by their being vaguely competent in contrast to the absolute disaster of the SWAT Team arc. The Mayor is ambushed and killed, though not before he points out mankind’s hypocrisy in a pointed speech. When his body is examined, it turns out that he was human all along. It’s a cute gimmick, but since we never got to know the character over the series, any gravitas this revelation might have had is absent. Things then degrade with a rooftop shootout with Gotoh, including a duel wielding, smoke bomb shooting Bad Cop. It’s hollow action cliche at its worst, and not a few people compared it to Resident Evil. I can’t deny the comparison myself.

Then there’s a sex scene between Shinichi and Murano that pretty much comes out of nowhere and means nothing. And it comes complete with cheesy keyboard music.

Shinichi and Migi decide to fight back against Gotoh, but not before escaping off to a remote area. This is a good place to talk about how absolutely poorly this show is edited, because the cold open ends with Migi launching a car at Gotoh, and it cuts off a quarter of a second too short and drops right into Fear and Loathing’s fearful and loathsome opener. The end of the episode does the same thing, as it has all along. There’s no room to breathe, and no musical lead out. Action stops, and treacly pop plays. Clearly the amateurish editing mistakes back in the first episode were a harbinger of what was to come: That was the polished episode.

I won’t deny there’s still some pathos in seeing Shinichi run around with one arm and a stump, after Migi sacrifices himself for his friend. But even here the base shounen cliche shines through. Without detail, without development, it comes off as hackneyed development we’ve seen a million times before. Oh, the alien is becoming human. How original.

Despite this being the most important shounen “fight” in the series, the animation is no better than the standout work we saw in the first episode, and the fight with Shimada in the school. There’s no visual energy, no innovative direction, and Gotoh is wearing a bizarre purple Speedo, which is the least menacing wardrobe choice possible.

At this point you might as well guess that the series will have a happy end, because the shounen hero always wins, even if he whines and cries the entire course of the series.

Is this really Izumi Shinichi?

No. Not at all.

What an absolute waste.

In Summary:
On top of just having to be disappointed that a series turned out poorly, I feel especially guilty in this case because this is a show I tried to get people to be excited for. I don’t necessarily feel I’ve lost anything, as the manga still exists, and is still excellent. But to those whose time I’ve wasted, I wish to offer an apology.

Grade: C

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony VAIO 20″