Parasyte – 23
The Showdown
Exciting times for me! I just got a new computer, and it’s so quiet I almost don’t think it’s on. Certainly a change from my old wind tunnel of a computer. Last week we saw how things had changed for Shinichi, too, after running away from the fight with Gotou, and Migi now gone.
Fight for Your Life
Shinichi gets in a critical hit
I think that before getting harangued by Mitsuyo, Shinichi was probably just going to go up and half-heartedly fight Gotou, getting completely creamed in the process. But after her empassioned argument that he should live, he’s actually thinking seriously about how he can beat Gotou. Not that he’s coming up with much in the way of possible solutions.
Mini-Migi maybe?
And the Gotou that Shinichi does encounter is a bit different from the one we’ve known so far. Freed from the constraint of not having to camouflage himself among humans, he’s taken on a much more monstrous appearance. And to hear Gotou talk about it, it’s like he feels he’s on vacation. Maybe the only downside is that there aren’t enough humans to eat. And it didn’t take long before he was found out, far less time than it took in the city for the parasites to be found out. Now, Shinichi’s right that if a big group had gone after Gotou, it would have been a bloodbath. But how long would it be until the literal big guns were brought out?
Final Showdown
Gotou finally loses
The way the fight went certainly wasn’t a surprise. I thought Shinichi dawdled a little too long in his first attack, but you gotta have time for the bad guy to wake up, I guess. And like we saw in the earlier fight with Shimada, a ‘poison’ that wouldn’t necessarily hurt humans too much, at least in that kind of exposure and concentration, becomes the complete undoing of Gotou. I wonder if Reiko knew that there was that manner of vulnerability to the parasites when she was talking about their fragility.
Shinichi the executioner
But the final exchange kind of dips maybe a little bit into the supernatural, with the fragment of Migi left in Shinichi providing enough defense, and then providing a call to the remnants of Migi in Gotou. Certainly improbable, but it didn’t feel like an impossible ask for the way the fight ended. I don’t even have much of a problem with Shinichi’s back and forth about the fate of Gotou. He’s definitely been changed a bit by his exposure to Migi and Reiko, and rather than viewing Gotou solely as a monster, he also views it as another life form. Ultimately, tho, Shinichi I think decides that even if the parasites are some sort of balancing effort from the earth, Gotou’s not the one who should be doing the balancing.
It’s a little bit of a shame that Shinichi can’t even go visit Mitsuyo after he wins. She knows that he survived thanks to the rusty cleaver, but he can’t exactly explain “Oh yeah, I got my arm back.” But we’ve got another episode to go, and I have no idea what they’re going to do with it. A reunion with Satomi seems a given, and maybe an explanation to his dad? And what will Shinichi and Migi’s relationship turn into, now that they’re past what seems to be the worst of the existential threats? But returning to Satomi, what will happen when she finds out about Migi? I could see it going any of a lot of ways, and can’t really say which I think would be most likely. I know what I’d like to see, but that might not be reality.
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: 900-999 with 915 comments
Shinichi probably stopped thinking about parasytes as some kind of “equalizer” for the nature at some point, and ultimately chose what was best for him as an individual, and for those around him, as suggested by his flashback with Satomi. You can’t put into your head that it’s important that some force lowers human population if that means that you or someone important to you could be one of those that will die for the planet’s sake.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
A reunion with Satomi seems a given. And if that relationship is to go anywhere Shinichi has to tell her about Migi. It’d be impossible to keep Migi a secret forever and Shinichi seems far too honest to try to hide Migi from her. I can see Satomi naturally being shocked at first, but if her feelings for Shinichi are true, and there’s every indication they are, she’ll accept Migi as part of Shinichi after she gets over the initial shock.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
That’s nice to think, but I’m not sure it’s that easy. People have a huge fear of the other. And it’s hard to think there’s more ‘other’ than a guy with an entirely different sentient entity as his right arm. In some ways, Shinichi is harder to accept than the ‘normal’ parasites, because with them you knew what you got. Could Satomi, or Shinichi’s dad, or anyone else, ever be comfortable with a non-moral entity with the power to kill being so close? I’m actually reminded of Shinichi’s first encounter with the parasite, which he thought was a snake. And there are some similarities to snakes in Migi. It’s said that even a pet snake will never be your ‘friend’ the way a cat or dog or even a bird would be. To a snake, you’re just food they aren’t big enough to eat yet. It would be hard to shake that kind of feeling with Migi, no matter how attached (har har) Shinichi is to it.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I’m not saying it’d be easy, just possible. But I think I’d like the show to end with Shinichi saying, “There’s something I have to tell you.” Then leave it there with the viewers deciding if they stay together or not.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Then you have to consider whether or not Migi would accept that. He’s often gotten hostile to anyone who was close to the truth. Had it not been for an impass, that investigator Reiko killed would have died a long time ago.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Migi’s changed significantly since then, even. It’s hard to extrapolate the way that it would react from previous behavior, because it is almost constantly evolving its thought processes. It’s learned to trust Shinichi more, just as Shinichi has learned to trust Migi. It’s learned the things that will be accepted by Shinichi, and the things Shinichi will push back on. I think that unless Migi was ready to die, or at least move on to a different host, it would never act against Satomi, because that would break the relationship between Shinichi and Migi.
There’s a bit of a fine line for Shinichi / Migi to let Satomi know. It’s not likely they could hide it forever if they were married, plus the fact that that would completely stifle Migi. So you assume that they tell Satomi sometime. When? Too soon and it will scare her off. Too late and there’s the risk of “You’re not the person I thought you were.”
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It’s funny. I’ve noticed for some time that you always refer to Migi as “it”, never “he” or “him”.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
That’s on purpose (it would have to be, because it’s harder than ‘he’ or ‘she’). Now, it’s possible that’s a little too dismissive, because ‘it’ is generally a non-person pronoun. And I think that you could make a strong case for Migi being a person. But I didn’t really want to confuse readers by using something like “Ze / Zir” or other non-gendered pronouns. Because what is Migi’s gender?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I feel indifferent about the episode as a whole. Plus the final confrontation with Gotou was bittersweet. On the one hand, it was unsatisfyingly quick to end. On the other, it presented how careless humans are in the disposal of refuse when Shinichi picked up that poison laced broken pipe from the trash heap to turn the tide in his favor. If the poison was lethal enough to weaken Gotou’s inner workings which couldn’t be done by gunfire, there’s no telling what toxic effect it can have on humans.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, like I said, it’s unlikely that that dose of cyanide that much would have had the same disastrous effect on a human. In high concentrations in the air? Sure. But it’s another data point in the “Parasites are fragile” argument. Very resistant to force, but relatively weak to chemicals.
The way I figure it, they took a whole episode for another fight with Gotou. I sure wouldn’t call that quick. And these are not brawlers. Knife fights end quickly.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
So the best way to deal with the parasites is through germ/chemical warfare. But that brings another risk to the table for humans since, like I mentioned before, they can be careless.