Parasyte 02-04
Worst Pet Ever
So, when you saw the title of the post, I would imagine you were a bit surprised to see who wrote it. Yeah, I usually don’t write about shows like this, but why not give it a try. Plus, coming in after a few weeks to ‘save’ the show with coverage feels a little like this.
Somebody’s Going to Die
Ryouko Tamiya, don’t let her looks fool you
There’s no cooperation between the parasites, is there. At least that’s the way it seems, until we meet Ryouko Tamiya, a teacher who has just come to Shinichi’s school. But she’s different from the other parasites we’ve seen. She’s able to keep her knowledge and position in society, enough to become the math teacher at Shinichi’s school. And she has a truce with Shinichi, because she wants to find out more about his and Migi’s unique circumstances. She’s also able to get along better with other parasites, like A-san, and is interested in figuring out what they are and what their purpose is.
It’s like being at the eye of a very sharp storm
A-san’s not quite so circumspect, however, and decides to go kill Shinichi. Is Shinichi really more dangerous? We’ve seen quite a bit of discussion between Shinichi and Migi about his current predicament. Shinichi is part hostage to Migi, and part beneficiary, since he is the most well-equipped human to deal with other parasites, and can also detect and avoid them. Well, theoretically avoid them, because he hasn’t been able to avoid a single one yet since they can also detect him. But even then, as was proved by the fight with A-san, Shinichi has an advantage, since there are ‘two’ of him. Migi seems to suffer no handicaps from being just a hand, as opposed to a head. The only thing holding the two of them back is Shinichi’s hesitation in all things, it seems.
Psychological Tension
Mom might learn something she doesn’t want to know
The show is doing well playing on the multiple tensions that are presented by Shinichi and Migi’s ‘partnership’. Migi has very well-played reasons why Shinichi shouldn’t go to the police. One, Migi would probably just kill him and move to a different host. Two, even if that didn’t happen, Shinichi would become a medical test subject and lose all his freedom. And three, being in his current condition has the advantages I mentioned above. But that also plays on Shinichi’s nerves. Being the only person who knows what’s going on leaves him nervous about his parents going out in public, leaves him nervous about dealing with Murano, is really changing his life. His parents see that differently, with his mom worried that he’s going down the wrong path, and his dad just figuring that he’s growing up, and should have secrets from his parents.
Parents are major characters for once
The other tension that I get from the show is the constant fear that the people in Shinichi’s life will encounter parasites when he’s not there. For instance, when Shinichi’s parents are leaving for their vacation at the end of the latest episode, I was totally fearing that as soon as the door closed, Migi would say something like “one of my kind just arrived” like the cab driver. When will others be encountered? And then how will he deal with Satomi, who obviously has an attraction to Shinichi, and he to her, but when he allows himself to think about what he is, his confidence goes away and he doesn’t deal with her well. For Satomi’s part, she seems to sense something about Shinichi, with her question “You ARE Shinichi Izumi, aren’t you?” and then switching from holding his right hand to holding his left.
It was really nice how their hands just found each other, tho
This show’s really keeping a good balance. I was worried it would be too gory for me, but it hasn’t really gone that direction, certainly not in the over-the-top way that gets Terraformars censored. And more than that, it’s gone in the psychological thriller direction which is a type of show that I think is fairly rare, at least ones that don’t get too far into needlessly knocking people off. Not that this show is shy about killing people, but I like that it’s not just murdering people for fun while allowing Migi to raise questions about humans that throw Shinichi off, but ultimately I think are red herrings. We’ll see if Shinichi can come up with some answers in the future.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I-is that a gun you have in your hand?!
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Ryouko remarked something about either Shinichi or Migi being “impure,” or something along the lines IIRC. Perhaps the two are somehow merging due to technically sharing a body? That might sort of explain Mom and Satomi’s peculiar reactions to Shinichi.
Obviously the show is making it apparent that despite their best efforts at physical and behavioral disguise, the parasites are unable to fool those who were closest to the host. So I suspect we might see more suspicions of Shinichi’s identity in the future, as well as perhaps an identity crisis from the hero himself.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t know about ‘behavioral’. Ryouko says that her voice and look are the same, but what she doesn’t understand is manner. So it’s enough to fool people who don’t know her at all, but when mom shows up unannounced, she’s not going to fool her. I would guess that a lot of it is that the Parasites didn’t observe their targets / victims at all before taking them over. So they have no basis from which to model their behavior.
Shinichi is different, because he is still in control of himself. I’m a little spoiled on some of what’s going on (thanks, MAL), so I won’t say further. I could see more identity crisis from Shinichi, but that would be more of the Haruto Takushima style of “what am I anymore?” not “who am I?”
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, they didn’t even try behavioral. My disagreement was you saying
There was no attempt, no effort. Ryouko is surprised that there’s even something that she wasn’t doing right. It didn’t even register to her (and the other parasites) that there are ways people act which identify them.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I see. Now that I think about it, we’ve never seen any other parasite with a need to learn its host’s behavior. I imagine any immediate family was promptly eaten and then the host’s face was changed to that of some other unrelated victim to avoid the authorities. If this is true though, then that unrelated victim’s friends and family might still be out there so the chance of discovery is still possible. That said, the parasites might be intelligent enough to choose people who are isolated loners.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Last chain comment, I promise.
I remember reading comments somewhere that people find Shinichi boring or wimpy. I find this criticism strange. Shinichi acts very believably for a regular high schooler suddenly thrust into such a bizarre and horrifying situation. In fact, I would commend him for how well he’s kept it all in check and for his ability to maintain poise at most times until it comes to another one of those life-and-death confrontations. And even then, who would blame him for getting flustered in the face of a writhing mass of flesh, bone, and apparently metal?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, he’s handled it remarkably well, I think. But that’s what people generally do: adapt and move on. I wonder if that will be a theme of this show, in that the humans adapt and the parasites don’t.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Mother’s instincts are a powerful thing. Though it’s probably more of woman’s intuition as Murano also noticed something about Shinichi as well as Tamiya’s comment about him.
I’d say that Migi is definitely affecting Shinichi’s mind slowly but surely. And in turn, Shinichi is teaching Migi about human behaviors. One is a human while the other is a monster. There might be a time when the two roles will get switched later on. Something to look forward to I guess.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Which brings curiosity and curiosity killed the cat. Not saying her concern is misplaced but if she doesn’t back up a bit, she might end up dying. Shinichi knows it will come to that if Migi feels any imminent threat.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
A surprise indeed. This certainly isn’t the kind of series I expected you to be into, Highway. It really went over my head for a minute.
Parasyte is doing well. The pacing is consistant and more is being explained about these creepy creatures. Psychologically, they’re like blank slates learning about humans but already have built-in animal instincts. In a sense, they’re like infants making first steps (A pretty screwed up way of looking at it but it’s best analogy I have right now). Upon Ryoko’s last encounter with Shinichi, it’s apparent she defines herself like a machine, thinking everything has and needs a directive to prove its existence so it comes a shock to her when Shinichi admits he has no idea what she’s talking about.
To answer Ryoko’s curiosity on how the real one’s mother saw through her so easily, it’s because a mother knows her child. As she has yet to understand, humans study each as they interact. The way they move, talk, appear, especially their expressions. Over time, an individual makes a personal registry of whoever they meet. Spend enough time studying these aspects and if you look at someone in the eye and any change is to be noticed, they’ll know something is off and react. That’s why her camouflage failed right away.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
I just thought the same thing when Shinichi’s parents were going out. Like, damn, they won’t even be able to get to the safety of the countryside because some parasyte will be waiting for them.
Another thing I was scared was when the teacher just quit her host’s life. I thought she would go and slaughter everyone in that room. This woman/parasyte is really special, because she thought twice before killing her host’s mother, like, she cares about what people think of her host.
I guess with this show, there isn’t any point in censoring stuff. If they would censor any gory stuff, they might just censor the parasyte’s heads because that’s quite gory as well.
Another thing I just noticed. Murano is played by Kana Hanazawa *-* Every episode I look forward to seeing her just to hear her voice. She’s doing a surprisingly big amount of roles for gory/horror shows…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Like she did as Rize for Tokyo Ghoul and currently for Akame ga Kill as Seryuu.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
That bitc… I mean, the absolute justice is played by her?! o_o Seriously, I haven’t noticed before.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
A surprise, right? Kana Hanazawa has been breaking out into more vicious, sadistic roles lately. I remember someone writing a comment saying that in a Monogatari interview, the author asked her what kind of character she wanted to play and replied that she wanted to play an evil character.