This review will contain spoilers The first I time I watched Parasyte a very long time ago I was not in the right place for judgment or appreciation. I was still wet behind the ears and didnt understand the full picture of what Parasyte is trying to convey to us. To the noobie me it was a fullon action anime with a war between humans and this sentinel organism from outer space. I did understand it was trying to tell more but I was unable to put it into words and feel a sense of security in what I am saying. But rewatching once again made me realize Parasyte is whole more than meets the eye. Its a story that relies heavily on the philosophical aspect to tell both a deep and complex story. It asks questions that would make your brain hurts under normal circumstances. You know things like what are humans and what does it mean to be one? Who are the real devils the parasites or the humans? When is it right to take another life? What really is right and wrong? These are some of the core questions that are brought up through our journey in Parasyte. It throws one into a deep state of thinking. It makes you whack your brain to a point to see an actual logical satisfying and fair answer can come to mind. Even if it does not since of course its a rather heavy topic that not mere words and deep thought can give your resolution to. In Parasyte we see such examples on display both with the actions of humans and the parasites themself. It explores these erudite issues indepth and shows it to you in a way you can understand both sides the parasites and the humans. We see both of their evil and likewise the kind side that shooks you to your very core with emotions. Parasyte first stars Shinichi who is just your average boy who doesnt excel at anything. He is rather timid shy and easily scared of bugs. One day by pure coincidence he gets attacked by a snakelike alien creature who tries to take over his head but ultimately fails. But Shinichi loses his right hand to the snake and the arm is no longer his own. Parasyte uses both Shinichi and his companion Migi to explore all of the questions Ive mentioned above and so much more. Migi starts out with somewhat a bland personality lacking any emotions empathy and is only focused on his own survival. But since Shinichi is bounded to his life they both must learn to live together. As Shinichi and Migi overcome multitudes of precarious situations even close lifedeath calls they start to develop a bond of friendship. At one point Migi saves Shinichi from a certain death situation sacrificing 30 of his own being. When that happens Shinichi slowly starts to lose his humanity. He cant even mourn for his losses and becomes emotionless unable to exhibit any kind of feelings. This is the result of Migi becoming a part of him. Since Migi already lacks those kinds of emotions so it starts to affect Shinichi. The Migi which is part of his heart anyway since the Migi on his hands is beginning to develop an understanding of things and a sense of humanity. While Shinichi loses himself as his mother is killed and gets driven by vengeance and anger to the point it affects him negatively. Shinichis path to ruin as he slowly loses himself is executed so brilliantly and you learn to really understand him. He also knows both sides the parasites and the humans and where both are coming from. This was only possible through going hell and back and experiencing witnessing many sides of both sides. When it comes to deep questions Parasyte brings up. There is one in particular that never ceases to make me into a sobbing mess. I am talking about Reikos growth going from a parasite to a human and then finally into a mother. That scene where she is getting gunned down as she walks to Shinichi as she is protecting her child is absolutely beautiful and very meaningful. Who are the real devils humans or the parasites? In my case this goes to the humans since they were fully aware of the child and still gunned Reiko down without batting an eye. Its such an awful tragedic moment but it runs deep with symbolism and it makes it so much more impactful when you realize thats the moment Shinichi comes back from the abyss. Its where he finally regains his humanity and can mourn for his mother. That whole scene doesnt only show the supposed enemies can be gentle too but it also adds muchdeserved respect to every mother out there. For those reasons alone I have no qualms in saying I consider that episode especially a masterpiece. Another proof of where the humans are the bad guys are during when they intervened in the conference building. At first they used a sensible approach to differentiate humans from parasites. Before shit went to hell and they gunned down anyone who was in their vicinity. It didnt matter if they were humans or not. They just wanted to completely destroy the parasites off the face of the earth without a damn trace. Thats of course the logical course of actions and I am not saying the humans are wrong to think that way. I am just saying surely there could be a different way? Just like humans the parasites also have both the bad and the good guys when they get to mature to that level. The best example we saw by far was Reiko Migi and of course Joe. Parasyte is honestly naive and childrenlike. They dont know whats right from wrong like Migi said. They are just now coming into life and are just now tasting all forms of situations emotions actions consequences and so forth. Compared to humans they are terrifyingly strong children who can easily kill you. I hope anyone gets what I am implying with this reasoning. It took Reiko a while before she became a genuinely good person. We remember how she had that funny time where she was going around laughing in a crazy voice? Now thats comedy gold. Just think if you saw a human with teeth of a head running around laughing in that kind of voice? Yeah now that I think about it would be terrifying. She first realized these sensations when that dorky investigator slipped and fell in the restaurant. Afterward she went on a lecture on the human psyche and experimented on her own time. This leads to a great change in her gradually over time. Then she started to also care about the child to the point she sacrificed her life with not an ounce of hesitation. Reiko couldve escaped since it clear she is among the strongest of her kind. But It makes the moment that more impactful. Just like how when a child is born first dont know whats right or wrong. They learn that from their parents or through experience or realizing that there are consequences for their actions. For instance when a child calls you some words you rather not say. Its not untill much later when they are older that they realize how awful it is what they are saying. How much it hurts their parents and the people around them and so forth. There are many examples but this should hopefully get the point across. So what does it mean to be humans? For me thats to be happy depressed sad angry. To love or hate someone. Its a connection like family or experience pain from an injury stress from schoollife not treating you well and to put simply to live. Its more or less our entire being the yin and yang. This could also be said for the concept of life itself. Of course people might have some different viewpoints but here you have at least my. Regardless of the things I have explained about Parasyte tries to explore and show. There is more it adds beliefs to like how fragile the humans are because of emotions and concern. But to cut to the chase for me thats an advantage since it means we can be flexible when it comes to feelings and that once again makes us human and really alive. No humans are the same either because of the concept of empathy and the broad topic of personality to mention some. As you can see Parasyte has really made me question a lot of things and thus its been a genuine pleasure to experience it once again. It was on a whim but I couldnt be happier to see all these things I couldnt see before and actually put words to the ideas its trying to show and tell. Parasyte is arguably one of the few stories that I would say has the qualities of a masterpiece. It would not be wrong to call it that either since it has more than enough proved itself. Sadly Parasyte is not without flaws. First off what was the point of Kana besides making Shinichi realize he cant feel emotions? And also add fuel to the fire to make sure Shinichi gets thrown even further into the deep abyss? When his mom died he only experienced anger and longed for vengeance and ultimately lost himself when he was forced to kill his mom wearing the mask of the devil. It was not before Kanas death he got the time to realize he is not crying even a lick. Anyway for me Kana was honestly a waste of potential. Sure she is lovely and a sight for sore eyes. No doubt my best girl of Parasyte. Still you cant deny she set up for her own death and was way over her head. That said it does not make the death any less impactful. I cried when Kana died and I am still salty about how they handled her story. I saw potential in how Shinichi and Kanas relationship could grow since both had an understanding of the unknown in some way. Plus Shinichi felt more secure about telling Kana of his secret friend than Satomi who was all over the place. When I first time saw Parasyte I didnt even care about Satomi and I was all about Kana and honestly still am. But I can also understand where Satomi is coming from now. Regardless of what Shinichi went through she had no idea. That was honestly her fault and our main male who felt insecure about telling her the truth. There where multiple times where her behavior changed at the drop of a hat from wanting to know to not wanting to know Shinichis predicament. On top of that there is that thing with the whole romance side plot. It was not as fleshed out as I liked and it moved way too fast for my liking. In fact Parasyte might be one of the best shows I have seen. But I wont deny the pacing did feel awkwardly timed at certain moments throughout the course. In other words some things felt appropriately paced and executed like Shinichis path to doom before liberation and maturity. On the other end there was not as much Shinichi and Migi interactions as one would like. It felt slightly thin and I would love to have seen it more of that. Now dont get me wrong I still love the relationship between those two. Migi is easily one of the best friends anyone could ask for no doubt. I just want to tell you all my feelings on both the good and the not so good sides. Then there is the final villain Gotoh who started out with a rather complex deep frightening personality. Someone you wanted to learn more about. Then regressed back to a state of onedimensional boring and mediocre villain who tried to kill Shinichi for being bested by a human. Now Reiko was a great example of how to write a villain character and then truly make you fall in love with her. Although in the end she became a good person. No I am not trying to excuse her wrong decisions in the past. I am looking at the result and not the path she took to get from A to B. In that way Gotoh also had the potential for greater things. It would make more sense to actually live up to her creators values and beliefs in some way. Now Reiko learned to value human connection understand whats right and wrong. What it means to be human. What it means to be a mother. So how about Gotoh instead of going that path could try to better the life of his kinds and indeed seem like a caring leader who wants a better future for his brethren? That would honestly make for a better story than what we ended up getting. It would put emphasis on what Parasyte is trying to showcase and deliver a more satisfying conclusion. This is just a basic scope of my idea and I have more to go on but it should tell you more than enough to know where I am coming from. That may be what they were going for actually now that I think about. But the author decided to sadly cut the story short so that story direction didnt get across as profoundly as the other themes of Parasyte. Not to mention the ending left more to be desired. I would love to have seen how the parasites stopped hunting humans for food and went on to fully live amongst the humans without spilling an unnecessary drop of blood. We still dont even know the full origin of them either but thats probably intentional. Since the philosophical and characterdriven aspect is the heart of Parasyte. The parasites are among others just there to prove a point and to explore assess and justify the elaborate questions. Lets discuss shortly the production of Parasyte which is as you would expect from Madhouse topnotch. The animation is damn fluid and the action scenes are depicted with the utmost intensity and emotions. It makes the experience even better with that gorgeous and absolutely masterpiece of a soundtrack which blesses our ears and the show to a greater height. All of the action scenes are so amazingly choreographed are fastpaced and gives you an adrenaline rush of excitement. Not to mention those with dialogue. To put it into perspective that beautiful last episode of Reiko was breathtakingly executed and direction. As a result of the passion the staff put into the scenes they worked rigorously for probably to the point of exhaustion to make sure to deliver an ultimate experience and burst of emotions. Artstyle is beautifully drawn and Madhouse can genuinely convey any forms of emotions without a hiccup to the viewers. There is also a ton of gore and Parasyte is not for the faint of heart. Expect to see dismembered bodies intestines in full view. Its very violent bloody and is not afraid to show some horrifying and scary sights. Lastly I just wanna say the OP is very catchy addicting and immensely bop inducing. While the ED is so soothing beautiful and it gives you a sense of comfort as the episodes come to an end. Overall I would like to say that Parasyte definitely is one of the few shows I can consider having the qualities of a masterpiece and not feel as insecure about it. It asks tons of difficult questions and adds support for them by showing and telling. Shinichi is a great example of how a real person might change in attitude as they experience hardships and more. Plus he goes to show us how fickle fragile and even flexible the human race is who can change for the better or worse if given the time. I would honestly say Parasyte for me falls in the category of mustwatch at one point in your life. Its truly a very memorable meaningful thoughtprovoking exciting heartcrushing and a liberating journey you cant miss out on or youll be doing yourself a disservice. I highly suggest Parasyte to everyone and cant recommend it enough.