Not that violent

As a fan of horror and splatter fiction, all the reviews of this manga got me intrigued. With a myriad of people claiming it was "super violent", "The level of gore knows no bounds", "Oh it was bloody. Real bloody", "full of violence, very gory" and even "I'm still recovering from how fucked up this was", I was expecting an all out gorefest. And to be fair, there is some gore to be found, but within the more than 2100 pages, the scenes of gory violence is rather few and far between.

What little gore there is, is also not very detailed, and the author never lingers on the bloody entrails. Rather, I would say it's a normal amount of violence. That is to say: When someone gets cut in half, you see an image of them getting cut in half. You don't zoom in on the guts across several panels, and there is rarely any scenes where the gore has any function other than pure anatomical depictions. There are for example no scenes where someone picks up an intestine and uses it to choke some else, and no one, let's say, uses blood as make-up. Though there is one, way too brief, scene where a guy has sex with a headless corpse, but that is also very short and pretty much implied.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. It's a fairly entertaining high-school drama, with a storyline somewhat similar to the terrible American film The Faculty (1998). There are some nice characters, a little bit of suspense, some innocent romance and your typical Japanese ways of writing on-the-nose dialogue. But gory? Not so much.

I suspect the reason to why the short glimmers of violence is being deemed so over the top by fellow readers, is that it's not really an adult read at all. It's basically tween literature, which does not shy away from showing violence, like tween literature usually does. Rather, it shows the correct portrayal of violence and gore, where you would expect it to be: When someone is shot, you see a bullet hole. When someone gets their feet cut off, you see their bloody stumps. And when a monster bites the head of a human, the remaining neck squirts a bit of blood.

But since this publication is packaged as a cutesy tween story, it will probably attract a lot of inexperienced readers. And if you're a typical tween, who has been sheltered your whole life from being exposed to violence in all your literature and films, and you have no knowledge of horror or splatterpunk what so ever, then I guess it can be a little overwhelming when someone finally rips off the band-aid.

But in my opinion, this is the way it's supposed to be! I despise the way violence is portrayed in American superhero comics, where an endless amount of punches and bullets and all sorts of weapons just end up with someone straightening their clothes and getting back into the fight. THAT IS WHAT I FIND SICK.

Parasyte is a fairly entertaining monster drama, with some nice ideas and some cute tween innocence. But over the top gore? Nope. ( )

Un thriller inquietante... Shinichu Izumi debe aprender a convivir con su nuevo habitante. Mientras, otros parásitos depredadores acechan a inocentes por toda la ciudad. ( )

Guys...okay guys this series was part of my introduction into manga waaaaay back in 1997 when Mixxzine was a thing. When you have something like this wedged in between Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth it kind of makes you go 'whhhhaaa?' but I was so hooked.

Migi was, to be blunt, my hero. In this first volume he kind of like 'I could give a fuck' to Shinichi's horrified reactions. From a purely objective viewpoint Migi has a point--human beings are hypocritical. We see (or the vast majority of us see) no problem with killing other species to survive. How is that any different from Migi's species? Yeah they went about killing indiscriminately at first, but they were, for all intents and purposes, BABIES. Newly formed, newly arrived, newly conscious. They had no other guiding force except what their instincts were telling them and their instincts were like 'Eat humans!' (or dogs, or whatever their host species turns out to be).

I'll tell ya all a secret though - a 13 year old girl running around in junior high questioning the hypocrisy of humans based on a foreign comic with lots and lots of violence and foul language? Not the best way to make friends or be considered normal.

Anyhow this new version published by Del Rey is uber-slick. TokyoPop put the series out in 10 volumes, while Del Rey skimmed it down to 8 volumes by adding more chapters per book. Its a good presentation overall and looks very clean.

As the first volume is a set up in all respects--the aliens' arrival, Migi and Shinichi's bonding, adjustments and so forth--Shinichi can be a bit of a pain in the ass with his constant nagging at Migi to be more considerate. Granted it does make Migi think outside the box, but it also just makes a muddle of things that should have been straight forward. Also there's one too many gags as Migi tries to learn about human culture (and what makes Shinichi tick) and does something embarrassing (like turning Shinichi's entire right arm into a giant male member to see what human mating is like....which I can't remember if that was shown in the TokyoPop version or not, it may have been censored since the magazine wasn't technically slated at 16 and older at first).

Things came back to me also from when I originally read the series. I remember something ends up happening to Shinichi's mother and Murano (a classmate and a girl Shinichi is interested in) ends up learning about Migi at some point and they spend a lot of time joining forces to poke at Shinichi. That's all in the future. I can't remember if I read to the end of the series, but I don't think I did as it stopped being serialized in 2000 and at the time the graphic novels (which was $15 or so each--yeah once upon a time manga was really expensive guys) were too expensive to keep up with (as I had a lot of other interests).

I do plan on re-reading the entire series though--I miss Migi!! ( )

This is a classic. I wanted to try it and see if this manga might find a loving home in my collection . . . the answer is no.

It is still funny, gory and - weird in a good way, but this is not for me. Others will enjoy this story with a hint of body snatching, aliens and sci-fi.

'Parasites' come to earth with a mission. They have to invade the humans, so they have to enter the brain. Unfortunately, for one, he entered by the hand and matured before reaching the brain.

A lot of chaotic moments surrounding the mc and the parasite with awkward moments, but nothing screaming 'continue to read.'

3- stars for a classic and okay story. ( )

This has to be one of the weirdest manga series I’ve read to date. What starts as an alien invasion / body snatcher story evolves into a combination urban horror fantasy and a examination of various ecological issues.

The art work is a bit simplified for my tastes and the pacing a little inconsistent, but it’s an engaging premise that raises some interesting issues. ( )

The manga has held up really well over the last few decades and is still enjoyable today. ( )

(Possession, mutations, aliens) . This is a story I've read before, but it still made me grin. ( )

A fun, exciting story. Interested to see where this goes in the next volume. ( )

Strange, horrific murders are being committed all over the world. The identity of the culprit or culprits is, for now, a mystery. But one young man has, to his cost, learned the truth: a quiet invasion has taken place, and now the human race is no longer at the top of the food chain.
Do you like /body horror/? Stories about the human organism being changed and twisted and mutated into bizarre, terrifying new forms? Stuff like the Prototype games, or John Carpenter’s The Thing? If you do, me too. That’s why Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki is one of my favourite manga I’ve discovered lately.
What I’m particularly enjoying with Parasyte is the way the story makes you look at our world from the creatures’ point of view: Shin, the series’ central character, doesn’t so much fight for humanity as fight to /keep his own/.
As only the very best monster stories can, Parasyte makes you think about what it is to be human. If a bit of gore is a problem for you, your loss. For anyone else in search of something fast and fresh to feed on, I suggest you let Parasyte infest you today. ( )

I first learned about Hitoshi Iwaaki's manga series Parasyte at a library conference last year. Kate Dacey of The Manga Critic mentioned it during the "Best Manga You're Not Reading" panel which focused on great manga that relatively few libraries seemed to have on their shelves. Parasyte was originally published in Japan between 1990 and 1995, winning the Kodansha Manga Award in 1993. The series was initially published in English by Tokyopop in twelve volumes. In fact, Parasyte was one of the first series that they ever published. Beginning in 2007, Parastye was released in English by Del Rey Manga, following the original eight volumes of the Japanese edition. I've never read Tokyopop's version of Parasyte, but I have read the entire series as published by Del Rey. They have done a fantastic job with the printing and adaptation of the series. I completely agree that Parasyte belongs on the list of best manga you're not reading. That is, if you haven't already read it.

They fell from the sky. Small, intelligent, parasitic creatures that after entering the host's body, completely take over its brain and begin eating potential hosts of the same species. The parasites favored group? Humans. And most of them don't even know the parasites exist. But high school student Shinichi Izumi does. He's been infected by a parasite that failed to take over his brain and now resides in his right arm. Neither of them are particularly happy with this situation, but it's currently beneficial for them to cooperate with each other. Without Shinichi, Migi, the parasite, would die. Understandably, it's very protective of Shinichi's body. It soon becomes clear that Shinichi's survival depends on Migi, as well. And even if it didn't, without the parasite he would be down an arm. So, for the time being at least, they'll work together, hoping to keep their existence a secret from both the parasites and the humans.

The relationship between Shinichi and Migi is extremely important in Parasyte. Shinichi does seem to move rather quickly from absolute terror to a lazy acceptance of the situation, but he doesn't really have much of a choice. He gets more and more used to having Migi around, but every once in a while the parasite will do or say something to bring Shinichi crashing back to reality. I like Shinichi a lot. He has a good-natured, easygoing personality. Migi, too, is fairly likeable even considering what it is. However, the longer they stay together the more they change and adapt. And the changes don't go unnoticed--both Shinichi's (unofficial) girlfriend Murano and his mother sense something is different. As a reader, it's fascinating to watch Shinichi and Migi's relationship develop. Initially, Migi is only concerned about its own, and by extension Shinichi's, survival. In turn, this slowly makes Shinichi more ruthless and selfish in his own thinking.

I really like Parasyte. The first volume easily pulls the reader in. Not only is the series entertaining and engaging, it also considers pretty serious questions about the nature of humanity. Parasyte has some fantastic moments of humor, mostly caused by Migi not quite understanding the subtleties of human interaction yet, which keeps the series from getting too heavy. Granted, this does make the darker aspects of the story stand out even more in contrast. Another source of amusement is Shinichi's parents. They're wonderfully down-to-earth people, especially his father, and they have a great relationship with their son. Iwaaki also incorporates some excellent visual gags, including one of my favorite unexpected moments out of all the manga I've read so far. (I won't say more, because I don't want to spoil it.) I'll just end by saying you should give Parasyte a try if you haven't already; it's a great series.

Experiments in Manga ( )