Kiseijuu

Parasyte is one of the best manga series I have ever read.
The concept is great, the character and plot development are superb, and overall it is just a perfect series. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this series. It is phenomenal. I cannot praise it enough.
The story is about a strange alien species that randomly comes to Earth; they look like little snakes, but they're much more than that. They are Parasytes. Their mission is to take over a human's brain, and then survive. The Parasytes feed off of the species that they take over, and their head can shift shapes into tentacles and blades and pretty much everything else. They are a truly powerful and disgusting species, and they are a threat to human kind.
A Parasyte tried to take over the main character Shin's brain. He fell asleep with headphones on, so the Parasyte had trouble getting in. The Parasyte stabs into Shin's arm and he wraps a cord around his arm to prevent it from going further up his blood stream. The Parasyte matures in his arm, and they become unlikely allies; human and Parasyte, fighting together for survival.
The manga quickly changes from a plain action manga into a psychological thriller. It begs many questions. Are the Parasytes really that bad? After all, they are just trying to survive. They eat food to survive, just like us. Their food just happens to be humans, but are they really that evil?
Are humans worse than Parasytes? Parasytes kill for food, but humans just kill. They kill for personal gain. Humans are the truly disgusting creatures. Humans are the Parasytes to the Earth; taking and taking and never giving anything back, and Parasytes were the cure.
All in all I would highly recommend this amazing series. It's short, sweet, and amazing.

Groundbreaking even today.

Although many have tried to look at Parasyte as an Alien Invasion manga (and it is a fresh one at that if not slightly relying on a successful shonen coming of age formula) what none of the reviewers have alluded to is how much realistic Parasyte is towards explaining the role of parasites in the ecosystem.

Albeit the manga doesn't scientifically "verify" the role of parasites, many of what you see in this manga happen to coincide with real parasites all over the world.

If parasites' existence were easy to explain this manga would only be slightly noteworthy but the things from how parasites need additional food to how they have a close symbiotic almost mutualistic relationship with their host separate this from your average invasion manga.

What makes this especially noteworthy is that, by accident or by purpose, reading this manga allows you to separate the complexity of why parasites exist in reality maybe even more so than a biology text book.

The thing that makes this happen is because parasites are sort of easy to define but to comprehend the theory behind their existence like how they outnumber several top species or how they break the food chain theory of humans being on top or how certain parasites complement and extend the host's instinct (like our desire to procreate) it's really hard to fill all this in if you know little about parasites. Especially as you go deeper into the rarer parasites that act like the parasites in this manga where they insert and change the inner anatomy of their host as well as their instincts.

By sort of turning parasites into living weapons with a catch and a virtual pet hunger meter, it transcends most of the explanation needed for the basic necessity of parasites and as you dig deeper into the manga and as the parasites' objective match closer to that of the humans - it becomes a sort of bridge as to how parasites seem to harm their host while at another extent seem to be useless outside of harming their host for self-preservation. Seeing parasites depicted like this in the manga helps bridge one closer to the interpretation that maybe just maybe parasites harm their host because they adapt slower to their host's habits and mentality and yet they stick very close to what makes their host survive and the combination in turn becomes very chaotic like the events shown in your typical fantasy war or battle or coming of age series but sort of alien.

Kiseijuu sounds like great a plot that makes it stand out compared to other manga's of similar genres. But I have found reading Kiseijuu to be very poor. The reason I decided to check out was becuase how good I heard it was. The issues I have with the series is that at times the series suffers from not exciting the reader. With no reveal shock factor, or cliff hanger. The series becomes a dull read waiting for spark of excitement waiting to capture the readers attention. For me there was no spark of interest that had me excited enough to want to finish this series.

They control the body by invading the brain. They can change the shape of their bodies and use them as weapons. They eat humans.

Like a logical continuation of John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), set in modern day society and with more than one parasite, Parasyte is an entertaining sci-fi horror thriller.

Descending from the sky, parasites fall onto humanity. They worm their way into humans, penetrating skin and then act erratically before eating whoever is around them. As the story begins, a parasite fails in its attempt to infect a teenager, Shinichi, who becomes the protagonist. The thoughtful and quick-witted guy manages to prevent the parasite by cornering it in his arm, which afterwards leads to lots of humour from his wayward right hand with a life of its own.

They settle into a symbiotic relationship, though the parasite, going by the nickname of Migi, needs the boy more than the boy needs Migi. Thus there is the threat of body mutilation waiting for the boy if he ever decides to attempt to remove his right hand or let the world know about the parasite.

It’s a great relationship, with high stakes, tension, and drama. Yeah it’s a boy and his right hand; there should be some kind of perverted subtext at play here.

Migi's presence begins to impact Shinichi's life more than practically, but also mentally. Fearing losing his humanity, he seeks to assert himself more in his daily life and relationships, to remind himself and to teach Migi what being a human is; what humans are capable of, how they can rise above basic instincts and defy logic with their positive traits of bravery, courage, self-sacrifice and love.

Don’t worry, that hokey path is mostly avoided by author Hitoshi Iwaaki who goes into far more interesting places by actually having the boy's humanity gradually seep out of him via various plot devices that don’t feel too cheap, because ultimately they result in far more thought-provoking and juicy themes and concepts.

From the moment the parasite entered Shinichi's body he became a neo-human, but by the midway point he's practically a superhuman, albeit constantly becoming more and more detached from the lives around him, discarding of dead puppies in trash cans without realising how cold he looks to cute girls around him.

Many genre traits appear in Parasyte, such as high-school based comedy and romance, but the key aspect is the thriller undertones that are tied with such a premise. There are many great tense situations. The staple of the thriller genre is to throw an unremarkable character into an extraordinary situation and to watch him squirm and struggle to get out of it. Parasyte delivers.

It more than delivers, it constantly heaps trouble on the poor teenager, terrorising him with death and misery, robbing him of loved ones, of every semblance of normalcy, completely destroying his life. The desperation of the character is palpable and makes us emphasise with him more, there's truly a great The Fugitive-esque vibe running through this manga.

As Shinichi gets accustomed to his predicament the rate of parasites around him and risk of collateral damage also increases. He has to navigate around potential parasites all around him in society while protecting the people he cares about without revealing that living in his right hand is a parasite.

Iwaaki goes many routes with the core premise, not just having the tale centred on one boy but including the far-reaching implications of parasites infiltrating humankind. They didn’t just happen to fall into the brains of high school teenagers, but people with all kinds of professions and backgrounds. An interesting plotline begins when a suspected infected politician starts campaigning for mayor.

There are also cool shonen style rules laid upon the boy's predicament, such as Migi having to sleep for four hours because the parasite is so ingrained with the boy's body, which of course leaves Shinichi vulnerable to attacks from his enemies, forcing him to rely on his own wits.

The art isn’t anything to shout about, though like most manga, improves slightly in later volumes. Action scenes however are drawn well, with good scope and motion conveyed via effective usage of speed lines and P.O.Vs. Gore-hounds will get a lot of pleasure from Parasyte, there are decapitations and blood-letting galore. Although for some reason it appears more dour and disturbing than most other manga I've read, such as Gantz.

Maybe we're jaded at this point, but also maybe because the author doesn’t revel in violence with glee. It’s always disturbing, tragic and merciless because there's no tongue-in-cheek attitude here. Humour is present in the story, but the implications of the premise are never sidelined, the horrifying nature of the parasites and their potential is always at the forefront of the story, and it’s made never more clear than watching random citizens eviscerated without any warning or mercy. Nobody is safe in this story, so after you’ve invested yourself in various characters, watching them chased and sometimes killed, is thrilling stuff.

If a criticism could be laid at this manga, it would be that Iwaaki doesn’t show more snapshots of regular peoples’ lives, the building up of paranoia in society, knowing that there are monsters out there. Wouldn’t there be a hysteria and tragedy after tragedy as the masses implode with suspicion against one another? Iwaaki avoids this by holding the truth of the parasites from society at large, only having the public aware of an urban legend, not solid facts, but even so, having his excellent writing delve into more random aspects of peoples’ lives would have gave the manga more gravitas.

Much like Carpenter's The Thing, Parasyte doesn’t build up to an epic battle to save the planet, but rather a more personal struggle for survival. It’s always personal in this story, and that’s why it works as a sci-fi thriller, constantly keeping you on edge while entertaining you with thrills.