I am not a gore person... unless there's a good reason behind that gore. And Parasyte gave me many good reasons to keep reading! The manga doesn't give a long, dragging introduction. Rather, it stars off with a bang. While sleeping, these organisms called Parasytes start taking over brains of living things by entering their ears. Shinichi Izumi, however, has headphones on so when a Parasyte attempts to enter through his ear, it buries itself in his arm! Shinichi discovers that the organism (which he later names Migi) has the ability to turn his arm into a weapon. Others who have Parasytes in them have unfortunately become man-eating monsters. Thus, the fast-paced adventure to find out what the Parasytes purpose in the world begins...

Story: 9
I can't say much without giving away the whole story. Loved the premise of Parasytes taking over humans and turning them into monsters. Shinichi and Migi's journey is definitely worth the read. They encounter many obstacles to unveil the truth about Parasytes. The plot twists were mostly subtle but well done. I'm still not sure what to think of the conclusion. But the story was great overall.

Art: 7
While some of the drawings may be a bit rough-looking, I liked the design of the characters, mainly Migi and the Parasytes. I got a bit mixed up with some of the older male characters at times and had to read over it again to get their faces and names straight. The Parasytes are terrifying! And the gore scenes are drawn very well: viciously and with little left to the imagination.

Character: 8
Oh, Shinichi, you. Let me just say that Shinichi's character dynamics throughout were great. I loved how he battles for his humanity while having a Parasyte inside him. The struggle to remain human and come to the realization of what a human really was moved me. Migi completed the story. He was probably my favorite character. He doesn't give a crap and tells Shinichi how it is. His development was also well done. The female characters also contributed a lot to the story. Satomi Murano kept Shinichi sane as he fought to stay human. She wasn't really that strong, but I like how she was there to keep Shinichi grounded. I believe that was her main purpose in the series. Kana Kimishima, who is human but can sense Parasytes, was flat for me. She was just one of those characters there that just existed and was flat to me. Reiko Tamura was another strong character in the series. Seeing her change throughout the series was interesting. As for the other characters, they all contributed to the story, no matter how small their role was.

Enjoyment: 10
Really had a great time reading Parasyte.

Overall: 9
Awesome manga. Don't let the fact that it was written over twenty years ago stop you from reading! It's just as good, if not even better, than many of the manga series out there.