Parasyte -the maxim-

Is it anti-hype working?

Pretty damn cool!

This seemed to be quite loyal to the manga - or at least it contained everything about the beginning I cared enough about to remember (been years since I read it!). One thing I didn't like was the accidental breast groping crap, although admittedly I don't remember if that was already in the source material to begin with (and it's a pet peeve anyhow). The updated setting with smartphones and whatnot made me smirk.

Animation was quite great, I enjoyed both the visual presentation and the lack of censorship. I felt they did a good job introducing Shinichi and the parasyte, too, and their very first interactions together. As expected the latter's voice choice feels weird to me, but towards the end of the episode I'd say I'm growing used to it. Hirano manages to sound more neutral/less human than I gave her credit for, so that's good. I enjoyed the soundtrack as well, even the wacky dubstep in that one scene, haha.

Another thing I'm definitely sure they changed and I didn't like was the "Someone had a thought" scene. No over-the-top psycho stabbing a woman and laughing his ass off that I can remember, the manga simply started with a shot of planet Earth and those spore-like things falling over it.


Then there's kind of ridiculous things, like two parasytes flying around and battling in the middle of a park on daylight without anyone being around to see it, but suspension of disbelief is just something I came to accept from the manga as well.


Anyway, this kind of sounds like I'm pouring down criticism on the pilot, but in truth I quite enjoyed it for the most part. If they keep this up I think we'll be in for a treat. The manga may not be great or anything in my eyes, but hell, it was definitely a fun read, and hopefully Madhouse will be up to par.

PS: The opening is a bunch of fucking noise. Then again Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has a pretty extreme style so I don't expect to like them everytime.

I also feel like this episode did several things right that tell me this isn't going to go like Ghoul. First of all this episode wasn't censored to pieces. There was a fair amount of gore here and it was shown without the annoying black bars. I am really surprised the dog eating the other dog and the last scene with the man stabbing the woman weren't censored.

However, I think the real thing this first episode did was not create such a deadly serious tone from the start. Tokyo Ghoul had very little levity when it came to its main subject matter even if there was humor around the sides. This episode incorporates the humor much better and I laughed several times and when I wasn't laughing I was feeling creeped out by the bizarre nature of the body of horror stuff going on here. His conversations with the thing that has taken over his hand had the perfect mix of surreal humor and true horror of having a part of your body that is no longer yours. The hand's emotionless reactions played really nicely off his obvious horror. "I'm going to sleep now, use me with care." Just a really funny line in such a bizarre situation. I think this episode nailed down just the right tone between being a serious thriller while still not taking the wacky concept too seriously to have some fun.

The other big laugh of the episode for me was the father's line "you better not be on drugs" followed by the mother's uncomfortable chuckle. It was a great line reading and again played well off of the boy's horror. It's a bizarre situation for a teenage boy to be up screaming from what they assume is some kind of nightmare so again, the scene both combines horror and comedy in a satisfying manner that doesn't take away from either the comedy or the horror.

This a very confident first episode that doesn't feel the need to explain everything at once. Instead we're fed bit of exposition through new broadcasts that make it clear something is happening on a large scale but we don't quite know exactly what yet. People are being taken over by alien organisms, but it seems even those organisms don't quite know what they are yet or if they have a particular purpose. The exposition works naturally and is content to leave us wondering at the full scale of what is happening. Instead we focus on out main character and his more personal struggles with this new threat.

Thus far the main character is fine, his reactions are pretty much what you'd expect from a guy that's had his right hand stolen by something he doesn't understand. I wouldn't say he's shown any special personality or is a great character so far, but the potential is certainly there and his conversations with the hand have been very good so far. I did like his parents that seemed to act like normal parents rather than the anime standard not give a fuck or completely absent parents. The hand was obviously the standout this episode and yes the voice is weird but what is a right hand supposed to sound like, instead I think it does a good job of sounding neutral and emotionless. The two girls that were introduced were fine, nothing special but with two cour there's plenty of time to develop that part of the story as well.

I think the other thing I want to point out about this episode is how everything is subtly off from the start. Even little details like the first breakfast the boy's mother prepares it looks like food and yet not quite right, it is subtle but provokes disgust. There were a lot of little signs like that littered around the episode even when things start and seem normal they aren't quite normal. This is always a good thing for a horror anime as it leads to a feeling of unease even when things aren't going on.

The music was pretty great this episode even if the OP and the ED weren't that great. The animation for the OP is great though even if the song is meh. The in episode OST is fantastic and suited the scenes perfectly.

And the biggest part the artstyle is great and is a good compromise between the older style of the manga and a more modern style. Even more important the weird animations for the hand and other alien things is perfect. The splitting wounds when something transforms or the weird shapes the hand can take are just awesomely creepy.

The action scenes were short but looked great as well. I also like that the hand used some strategy to defeat the dog and used its experience and knowledge to win the fight. Since they have a human brain to go along with the hand I feel like this could give the main character a bit of an advantage when it comes to fighting other monsters since we know they still have to learn once they take over the body of the host.

More like what you'd expect an alien organism to sound like, or this one specifically after reading the manga. Hirano just didn't click as the parasyte's voice for me since when I think Hirano I think Haruhi (and I expected a neutral male voice anyway), but now that I've heard it she's done a decent job, so I'm okay with it.

Don't remember that scene with mc saving the kid either

Well, yeah, I meant more along the lines of an alien doing the best it can with limited knowledge and not the best location. But yeah, I'd see how you'd have expectations after reading the manga and seems we agree the casting worked out well in this case.

You are right on both regards. I just checked and with Murano there's a bit of a similar scene but it's not breast groping - the hand just touches her in the back or something. I guess her anger for that wouldn't make much sense nowadays, but still...

On the other, no kid being saved in the manga, but the original way to display the parasyte's power was far lamer, trust me.

Only things I disliked about this was OP and ED which are unimpressive at best, and some ugly zoomed out scenes. But that's about it.

I think they're following the manga closely enough, with few noticeable enhancements along the way. I don't really remember how long this all was in manga chapters, but I liked how this was paced. This episode showed a lot of potential even thought it wasn't really ambitious with its setting. We learn about the world alongside its characters, and there's not a point beside the intro when we know more than them - it was very natural and well handled. Most of exposition was done in interactions between MC and his hand, and it was easily the best thing about this episode. It was weird. funny, awkward, and really fun. Even when it was done via TV broadcasts, which is where so many shows fail so hard, didn't felt intrusive or needless because it was a natural development that should follow after that first scene.

I'm confident that this show will do well if it continues with this quality of writing. MC might be your everyman, and this setting might not be the most mind boggling thing you've ever seen, but definitely give it a few more episodes for it to show all it's capable of. I am officially hypeth.

And what's wrong with you people? That alien was adorable.