【Parasyte】Horror x Science Fiction Winner of 1993 Kodansha Manga Award!! A Masterpiece Worth Your Time!!

2022-04-27

What is “Parasyte”?

Parasyte is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki.
The series was serialized in Kodansha’s Morning Open Zokan and Monthly afternoon magazine from 1988 to 1995. It’s chapters are collected into 10 separate volumes. As of December 2020, the series has over 24 million copies in circulation, worldwide. The series won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1993.
An anime television series named Parasyte-the maxim, by Madhouse, was released in 2014 and consisted of 24 episodes.
Parasyte (Kiseijuu)

What’s the story?

One day, out of nowhere, spherical objects the size of a tennis ball start falling from the sky. From these ball like forms, emerge snake like alien life forms that start moving about the streets.
One of the life forms is seen entering a house from under the door, slithering up to a sleeping man and entering his ear, and taking control of his body.
Elsewhere, one of the life forms enters the house of a teenager named Shinichi Izumi, the protagonist.
Seeing that he has headphones on his ears, it tries to enter through his nose, but Shinichi notices the sensation and wakes up. Thinking that it’s a snake, Shinichi jumps out of bed in an attempt to save himself.
The worm jumps onto his hand, drilling his way inside and moving towards his brain. Shinichi wraps the headphone wire around his arm to stop the creature. Hearing this ruckus, his mother and father make their way towards his room.
Shinichi tries to explain to his parents what happened but the snake and the whole in his arm have both disappeared. Hearing Shinichi like this, his father is forced to ask whether he is taking drugs, which Shinichi immediately denies.
Telling him that it must be a dream, his parents tell him to go back to sleep.
The next morning, in a house 10km away, a man being controlled wakes up, his wife asks him why he hasn’t dressed for his office, but he keeps making weird faces at the mirror. His wife tells him to eat breakfast, hearing this he comes close and grabs her, his mouth opens up into multiple toothed pieces and before his wife can do anything, he eats her entire head, killing her.
We come back to Shinichi, whose in school. His hand starts acting weird and touches a girl’s back, resulting in him getting slapped. His friend sees his arm stretching abnormally and freaks out, telling him to stay away from him and runs away.
Seeing this, Shinichi takes an early leave from school and heads home.
While on the train, he falls asleep and his hand starts moving again. When he wakes up, he sees his hand touching another man’s face. His friends surround Shinichi and make him get off at the next stop.
They take Shinichi to a public restroom, where Shinichi tries to explain the situation, but they don’t listen and keep beating him up.
Suddenly, an eye pops up on his hand, noticing Shinichi’s fast heartbeat and high blood pressure, it concludes that Shinichi is being attacked.
Before another punch hits Shinichi, his arm swings with full force towards the attacker, sending him flying across the room. Seeing this, his friends attack Shinichi all at once, but his arm proves to be too much for them, as it easily defeats them all while Shinichi stands still.
Upon returning home, Shinichi hurries to his room, and puts a knife above his right hand.
That is when his arm starts to tear up, turning into a creature with mouth, eyes and hands of its own.
Shinichi tries to stab it, but It easily catches the knife, breaks it in half, and hurls it towards the ceiling.
It then asks Shinichi to teach him how to talk properly.
At an another residence, a man is watching a news report on TV, when someone enters the house and he goes to great them, while the mutilated body of his wife lays on the ground.
What are these alien life forms? What will Shinichi do now that his hand has a mind of its own?

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