Time: Parasyte

"Upon researching the concept of 'demons', I believe that,
among all life, humans are the closest things to it."
-Migi​

Once upon a time on a website far far away known as Facebook, a friend of mine recommended that I watch Parasyte the Maxim (and note, this is the same friend that recommended that I watch Akame ga Kill) saying that it was a brilliant masterpiece that was worthy of an Emmy award (if it was originally in the US). When he first recommended it to me, it didn't have a western release, so I decided to drag my feet in watching it.

Then, months ago, Sentai Filmworks announced they were going to team up with Adult Swim and air it on the Toonami block. Feeling I had nothing better to do and head much praise about it, I decided to give it a crack.

So, let's get started: Parasyte.

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Story:

In my opinion, the story for Parasyte wasn't absurdly awesome, but I suppose it was a somewhat enjoyable ride. It has tragic character deaths (one of which I felt REALLY didn't deserve to die) and a story making you wonder which are the true monsters: the humans or the parasites? Because of this, it seems a bit reminiscent of Shiki's second half where you're wondering which one is the hunter and which is the hunted.

But the show's story is not without its flaws. A few to say are character motives (specifically the humans), their backstories, and some of the abilities the characters possess that aren't really explained very well as to why they even have them in the first place.

Characters:

Generally, I didn't really find any of the characters very interesting. Most of the characters are a bit two-dimensional with the exception of the lead characters, Shinichi and Migi, who go through significant change throughout the progression of the series. But aside from them, the majority of the supporting characters are more there just to be there with little to no personality. The only ones I feel can get a free pass off of this flaw are the parasites that possess the humans since they're supposed to be lifeless and cold to begin with.

Art:

The artwork for this series is presented from the studio Madhouse, who are famous for creating a number of (somewhat) high-profile series, such as Trigun, Cardcaptor Sakura, Gunslinger Girl, No Game No Life, and Hajime no Ippo. Both the artwork and animation for the series are wonderfully done, especially during the fight scenes in which the fluidity of the animation is marvelous.

Audio:

With the music for Parasyte, the majority of the tracks were composed by a Mr. Ken Arai who, upon checking his ANN page, is either completely unknown in the anime industry or is very new to it due to the fact that he has only been credited with one other anime's music production, Starmyu, of which I have not seen.

As for the voice acting in Parasyte, as I said in the preface of this review, I decided to watch the dub of the show instead of the original Japanese audio. Aside from a somewhat decent performance as Migi by Brittney Karbowski, I don't feel that there's really much of a special mention when it comes to this series. The majority of the voice actors/actresses are either brand new voices for Sentai Filmworks or completely unknown (with the exception of Brittney Karbowski and Luci Christian). I don't know how the Japanese voice actors fared in their performances, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check them out.

Verdict:

Really, I was expecting a LOT more from his series. I mean a LOT more. Like walking down the street and someone suddenly drops a piano on you from eight stories above more. Sadly, in my opinion, it didn't really deliver the promise that the person who recommended me to watch this said it would.

Still, it's not a BAD series per se, just a bit lackluster. So I suppose I would recommend watching it, but rather look for a streaming site rather than go out and buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.

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If you'd like me to review a show, go ahead and comment down below and I'll see what I can do so long as it's not an extremely bulky series (Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, One Piece, etc.) ^_^

 

The only edit in this review was changing per-say to per se. It's been quite a while since I had to change something in Time's reviews...