Parasyte – 05
You gotta fight when they grab your girl
Sorry for being a bit slow on posting this week. It’s been busy with food poisoning and then a band gig. But let’s see about getting caught up on some anime.
An Old-style Enemy
What does she see in him?
Not all the threats come from the parasites. In fact, most of the world doesn’t even know about the parasites, so they’re going along on their daily business… which includes beating up other guys. Apparently there’s some ‘gang’ activity going on in town, and Shinichi gets caught up in it when he runs across a classmate getting roughed up by a rival tough guy. Or is it a tough girl, because it seems that Miyuki Sawashiro… er, I mean Kana is the one calling the shots, not Mitsuo, the supposed leader of the toughs. Either way, Shinichi gets himself beat up a little bit, without fighting back, but distracts these guys enough to get them to give up on beating up Nagai.
Sometimes you should walk away
How much credit do we give Shinichi for interjecting himself in a fight. I think it has to be a lot. It’s not like he’s literally offering himself as a punching bag, but he’s also not wading into someone’s fight knowing that he’s got overwhelming force in the form of Migi. In fact, he’s almost deathly afraid that Migi will wake up in the middle of the fight and interpret something incorrectly. That doesn’t happen, but I think it still shows Shinichi’s fortitude. He is willing to take a beating if it’s the right thing to do. He doesn’t run away here when threatened or even hurt, even when it doesn’t concern him. Is this related to the conversation that he and Migi were having earlier about him changing due to Migi’s influence?
Irreversible Changes
Whose will?
There have to be some changes that have happened to Shinichi. For one, Kana sees something terrible in him, which seems to both fascinate and horrify her. Migi describes this as ‘seeing wavelengths that only his kind see’, although he seems to be only speculating. It also acknowledges that this is a trait that Satomi has as well, although not nearly as strongly as Kana. But what changes explain his willingness to not back down when the person at risk is Satomi? Shinichi is hell bent on finding differences between animals and humans, and rightly points out to Migi that this is a time when a human must fight. But why? To save face? Or to try to protect the ones he cares about? I think Migi would argue back that Shinichi by himself is no match for Mitsuo and his gang, and so would have no chance of ‘saving’ Satomi by his own efforts. But would he? There was something different about “when the claws came out.” Was that Migi? Or was that Shinichi’s will, having demanded “full control” of his right arm, and his brain realizing an ability that he now had.
An unhappy reunion
The other major change this episode is much more dire: the ‘death’ of Nobuko, Shinichi’s mother. He thought they’d be safer away from the city, and statistically they would have been, just bad luck (or plot convenience) happened. But Shinichi hasn’t changed enough to have the correct reaction to the obvious when ‘she’ comes back home and confronts him. This may be the most irrational behavior that Migi has experienced on Shinichi’s part, and I wonder what it’ll learn from the experience. I don’t think that Shinichi really needed to be told that it wasn’t his mother, but there was just a much deeper response preventing that from being something he could react to. Migi actually seems somewhat confused at Shinichi’s response, and almost pleads with him to stop interfering. But in the end, because of that, he is powerless to defend Shinichi from the strike.
Well, I think we know that Shinichi’s not going to die. Not in episode 5. I’m not even that interested in what the mechanism to save him will be. It’s possible this will be the payoff for the earlier revelation that Migi can wholly separate from Shinichi for a certain time. But ultimately, the other things in this episode were much more interesting to me than the confrontation between “Nobuko” and Shinichi. The development between him and Migi, as far as possible changes to Shinichi’s mind and body. The development of Shinichi’s character as far as being one who will step in to help someone else, even though he’s fairly helpless (unless he’s deadly). And even the cute romance between Satomi and Shinichi. She’s obviously really into him, although I’m kinda surprised she didn’t stay longer. Maybe he was a little too forward with his “My parents aren’t home” (seriously, in western culture this is always a complete come on, but in Japanese it’s at least halfway a “It’s alright to just spend time together because it won’t bother my parents”), although she didn’t react poorly, just “nah, I gotta go home.” This isn’t a romance show, but I think it’s a part of the show that’s working well.
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: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Migi’s sound effects are provided by 17-yr old beatboxer Rinka, winner of the 2013 Japan Human Beatbox Battle.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-10-16/parasyte-migi-gets-its-sound-effects-from-a-beatboxing-teenage-girl/.80014
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
This is made of awesome. A living breathing, Foley stage for squishy sounds….
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Feeling bad for Shinichi here. The moment that parasite said it needed a new host and his mother just happened to show up in the next frame, you know it wasn’t going to end well. For sake the sake of everyone else he has left to care for, he has to realize there’s no other choice but to take that thing out. That’s no longer his mother.
As for the hopes of Shinichi surviving that otherwise mortal wound, the rate should be fairly high. Since everyone close pointed he’s changing psychologically, it wouldn’t be a stretch to also assume he’s also undergoing one physically. He and Migi are connected by his blood flow, keeping Migi alive. Enough to suggest a flip side, making the body more durable to attacks. Their disposition is already a rare anomaly, even by the standpoints of other parasites.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Of course Shinichi new from the start that that thing wasn’t his mother or else, he wouldn’t be standing there, dumbfounded with a bladed monster in one hand (looks like a weird puppet) and a knife on the other.
But damn, they really made me feel Nobuko’s death. Worse because I’m an only child of a single mother.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 140 comments
I think we all know that it would be a poor choice to kill off the MC in this kind of situation. Just like in a Shonen Fighting manga, you know that even though the hero is weaker than his enemy, he won’t die in battle (series with resurrection non-withstanding). The key to all of this is to want to see the comeback. We all know Shinichi will deal with this in some way, not just roll over and die. The comes from seeing will he snap like Kaneki does in the end of Tokyo Ghoul, or will he stick to his morals?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
If it’s to his will to survive and protect those he cares about, I think he might indeed snap. After Kaneki went through his reconditioning in Tokyo Ghoul, it became difficult to imagine he was ever a helpless, pacifist and naïve lead character.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, that’s the thing about me. I don’t really care about the fighting, and I personally don’t really care about the way that Shinichi wins the fight. It’s why I don’t watch shounen fighting shows, or much of anything that would be considered ‘fighting’, and get kind of annoyed when the fighting gets in the way of the things I consider cool like metaphysical exploration of self. I don’t think that’ll happen here, because this show has really been ‘fight free’ for the most part. I actually like knowing how the fight will turn out, ultimately (as in, Shinichi alive), but just want it to get over with.
It will be good if that resolution comes with some realization or other character development.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
The outer battles are a foregone conclusion. The inner ones are where this story likes to go all combatant…