is a Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

horror manga series written and illustrated by

Hitoshi Iwaaki is a Japanese manga artist, whose works include the science-fiction/horror series ''Parasyte''. The Mixx editions of ''Parasyte'' romanize his name as "Hitosi Iwaaki", while the Del Rey Manga editions use "Hitoshi Iwaaki". Career During hig ...

and published in Kodansha's ''Morning Open Zōkan'' and ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga was published in North America first by

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed ...

, then Del Rey, and finally

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, ...

. The series follows Shinichi Izumi, a high school senior who is the victim of a failed attempt by a parasyte organism to take over his brain. Instead of burrowing into his brain, the parasyte landed in his hand and matured partially up his arm. The manga has been adapted into two

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

films in Japan, in 2014 and 2015. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series adaptation by Madhouse, titled ''Parasyte -the maxim-'', aired in Japan between October 2014 and March 2015. The English-language dub aired on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

programming block in the United States between October 2015 and April 2016. In 1993, ''Parasyte'' received the 17th Kodansha Manga Award for the general category as well as the 27th

Seiun Award The is a Japanese speculative fiction award given each year for the best science fiction works and achievements during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by , the awards are given at the annual Japan Science Fiction Convention. ...

for best manga in 1996. As of August 2022, the manga had over 25 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series.

Plot

''Parasyte'' centers on a 17-year-old male high school student named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother and father in a quiet neighborhood in

Fukuyama, Hiroshima is a city located on the Ashida River in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. As of September 30, 2019, the city has an estimated population of 468,812 and a population density of 904.80 persons per km2. The total area is . After Hiroshima, it is the l ...

, Japan. One night, tiny worm-like aliens with drill-like heads called Parasites arrive on Earth, taking over the brains of their hosts by entering through their ears or noses. One Parasite attempts to crawl into Shinichi's nose while he sleeps, but fails as Shinichi wakes up, and enters his body by burrowing into his arm instead. In the Japanese version, it takes over his right hand and is named , after the Japanese word for 'right'. Because Shinichi was able to prevent Migi from traveling further up into his brain, both beings retain their separate intellects and personalities. As the duo encounters other Parasites, they capitalize on their strange situation and gradually form a strong bond, working together to survive. This gives them an edge in battling other Parasites who frequently attack the pair upon realization that Shinichi's human brain is still intact. Shinichi feels compelled to fight other Parasites, who devour other members of the species they infect as food, while enlisting Migi's help. The series explores philosophical and psychological questions such as the meaning of humanity, humans' relationship to the environment and other species, the role of instinct and love, and the inherent anthropocentrism of morality. Shinichi's experience with Migi causes him to question if humanity has any right to claim moral superiority to the Parasites, while Migi and Reiko Tamura's experiences with humans cause them to take on more human traits, such as love and sacrifice.

Development

Iwaaki chose a high school setting due to a scene he had thought of. When considering a scene where Migi turns his shape into a penis in front of Satomi Murano, Iwaaki believed that the scene would work best in a high school setting, so Iwaaki gave ''Parasyte'' a high school setting. Iwaaki, Hitoshi (translated by Andrew Cunningham). ''Parasyte'' Volume 5.

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing relation ...

. P. 288

Media

Manga

''Parasyte'' was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''

Morning Morning is the period from sunrise to noon. There are no exact times for when morning begins (also true of evening and night) because it can vary according to one's lifestyle and the hours of daylight at each time of year. However, morning s ...

Open Zōkan'' from 1988 and switched to ''

'' after a few issues, where it ran from 1990 to 1995. Kodansha collected its chapters in ten ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes, released from July 20, 1990, to March 15, 1995. It was later republished in eight '' kanzenban'' volumes from January 21 to June 21, 2003. It was originally licensed for English translation and North American distribution by

, which published the series over 12 volumes. The Tokyopop version ran in '' Mixxzine''. Daily pages from the Tokyopop version ran in the Japanimation Station, a service accessible to users of America Online. The Tokyopop English-language manga went out of print on May 2, 2005.

later acquired the rights to the series, and published eight volumes following the ''kanzenban'' release.

Kodansha Comics Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, ...

later republished the volumes in North America between 2011 and 2012.

Tributes and spin-off

A tribute project titled , consisting of various one-shots written and illustrated by various

manga artists A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist bef ...

, and based on the original manga to promote the then upcoming anime adaptation, began publishing on ''Monthly Afternoon'' on September 25, 2014. The list of collaborators includes

Akira Hiramoto is a Japanese manga artist. He made his debut with ''Sono Tomodachi ni Gimon Ari'' story in 1995 in Weekly Young Magazine. He is best known as the creator of ''Prison School'', which won the General Manga Category award at the 2013 Kodansha A ...

, Yukari Takinami, Yasushi Nirasawa,

Hiroki Endo is a Japanese manga artist. He graduated from Musashino Art University. He is most known for his science-fiction series '' Eden: It's an Endless World!'', which has been translated into English by Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesse ...

Riichi Ueshiba is a Japanese manga artist. He has written and drawn '' Yume Tsukai'' (''Dream User'') and '' Nazo no Kanojo X'' (''Mysterious Girlfriend X''), both of which were adapted into anime series. Another of his works, ''Discommunication'', had its mai ...

Ryōji Minagawa is a Japanese manga artist born in Sumida, Tokyo. He was invited with ''Spriggan'' story writer Hiroshi Takashige to go to a comic convention in Portugal in 1996 as a guest of honor due to his work on ''Spriggan''. He worked on other manga c ...

, Takatoshi Kumakura,

Peach-Pit A peach pit is the pit or stone of a peach. Peach pit or peachpit may also refer to: *Peach-Pit (manga artist duo), a manga artist duo *Peach Pit (band), a Canadian indie pop band *Peachpit, a publishing company *The Peach Pit, a fictional diner in ...

, Hiro Mashima, Moare Ohta, Takayuki Takeya and Moto Hagio. The stories were collected into a single volume, published by Kodansha on July 22, 2016. In North America, Kodansha USA published the volume on November 21, 2017. Another tribute project, titled , began in Kodansha's ''

Aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...

'' on September 27, 2014. The list of collaborators includes MikiMaki, Miki Rinno, Ema Tōyama, Hikaru Suruga,

Asumiko Nakamura is a Japanese manga artist, born in Kanagawa Prefecture. She began her career as an author in 2000. She is best known for her Yaoi or boys' love manga and her major work is which was released in 2006–07 The manga was made into an animated ...

Kaori Yuki is a Japanese manga artist best known for her gothic manga such as '' Earl Cain'', its sequel ''Godchild'', and ''Angel Sanctuary''. Yuki debuted professionally in 1987 with , which ran in the manga anthology ''Bessatsu Hana to Yume'' published ...

Yuri Narushima is a Japanese manga artist best known for her series ''Planet Ladder'', licensed in English by Tokyopop, and '' The Young Magician'', licensed in English by CMX. Narushima is a member of the dōjinshi circle Comodo. Bibliography Manga *''R ...

, Yui Kuroe, Renjuro Kindaichi, Banko Kuze, Kashio, Yūki Obata, Asia Watanabe, Lalako Kojima and Hajime Shinjō. Kodansha compiled the stories into two volumes, published digitally on April 24, 2015. Kodansha USA published the stories in a single volume, released on October 25, 2016. A spin-off manga, titled , started on Kodansha's ''Comic Days'' app on March 2, 2018. It is written and illustrated by Moare Ohta. The series finished on May 7, 2021.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation titled aired in Japan on

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

between October 9, 2014, and March 26, 2015. It was produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television, VAP and Forecast Communications and directed by Kenichi Shimizu, with

Shōji Yonemura is a Japanese writer from Fukuoka Prefecture. He is known mainly for his work in anime and tokusatsu. After having graduated from Tokyo Zokei University, he worked as a freelance writer in Arakawa and would attend various film festivals. Then, ...

handling series composition, Tadashi Hiramatsu designing the characters and Ken Arai composing the music. The opening theme song is "Let Me Hear" performed by

Fear, and loathing in Las Vegas Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas ''( sic)'' (フィアー·アンド·ロージング·イン·ラスベガス) is a Japanese electronicore band from Kobe that was formed in summer 2008. The band currently consists of vocalist So, keyboardist Mi ...

. The ending theme is "It's the Right Time" performed by

Daichi Miura is a Japanese singer, songwriter, dancer, and choreographer. He also directs his own concerts. He belongs to Rising Production and has a record contract with Avex. He is from Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He has an official fan club called "Daichi ...

. At

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first w ...

2015, Sentai Filmworks announced that the anime would run on

programming block on October 4, 2015. The series was

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

by Crunchyroll outside of Asia and by

Animax Asia Animax is the pay television channel in Asia owned by KC Global Media Asia which broadcasts Japanese language anime and Simulcast anime, anime programming through English-language feeds in Southeast Asia (formerly including Brunei), South Asia (e ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

has licensed the anime for North America, South America, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand release. UK Distributor

Animatsu Entertainment Crunchyroll Ltd., trading as Crunchyroll UK and Ireland, is a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Founded in 1987 as Island World Communications, the company operated as Manga Entertainment Ltd. until ...

released the series in the UK and Ireland. In Australia and New Zealand, Hanabee acquired the series and released it within the region. The English dub, provided and distributed by Sentai Filmworks, has been released on DVD and Blu-ray in two parts, with Part 1 (Episodes 1–12) on April 5, 2016, and Part 2 (Episodes 13–24) on July 5, 2016.

Live-action films

Hollywood's

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...

had acquired the film rights to ''Parasyte'' in 2005, and a film adaptation was reported to be in the works, with Jim Henson Studios and

Don Murphy Don Murphy (born April 1967) is an American film producer who produced '' Natural Born Killers'', ''Real Steel'', '' Splice'' and many other films, including ''Transformers'' and '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen''. Personal background ...

allegedly in charge of production. New Line Cinema's option expired in 2013, prompting a bidding war in Japan. Film studio and distributor

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

won the rights, and decided to adapt the manga into a two-part live-action film series directed by

Takashi Yamazaki is a Japanese visual effects artist, television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. He won the Director of the Year and Screenplay of the Year awards at the Japan Academy Film Prize in 2006 for '' Always: Sunset on Third Street''. He ...

. The first part, '' Parasyte: Part 1'', was released in November 2014 and the second part, '' Parasyte: Part 2'', was released in April 2015.

Korean series adaptation

In August 2022,

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

announced a South Korean series adaptation, titled ''Parasyte: The Grey''. It will be directed by

Yeon Sang-ho Yeon Sang-ho (born 25 December 1978) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He gained international popularity for working his adult animated films ''The King of Pigs'' (2011) and '' The Fake'' (2013), and the live-action film '' Tr ...

with Jeon So-nee,

Koo Kyo-hwan Koo Kyo-hwan (born 14 December 1982) is a South Korean actor and film director known for his role in the films ''Jane'' (2016), ''Peninsula'' (2020), and '' Escape from Mogadishu'' (2021). He also attracted recognition for his performance in Ne ...

and Lee Jung-hyun in leading roles.

Reception

''Parasyte'' won the 17th Kodansha Manga Award for general manga in 1993. It also won the 27th

for being the best manga of the year in 1996. On

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...

's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150.000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, ''Parasyte'' ranked #60. The series has been praised and recommended by

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

professor and literary critic , and by philosopher

Shunsuke Tsurumi was a Japanese philosopher, historian, and sociologist. Tsurumi Shunsuke was born in Tokyo in 1922. In 1937, his father sent him to study in the United States, where he enrolled at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. At the age of 1 ...

. As of November 2013, the manga had over 11 million copies in circulation. As of December 2020, the manga had over 24 million copies in circulation. As of August 2022, the manga had over 25 million copies in circulation. Connie Zhang of Mania.com ranked the first volume of ''Parasyte'' as A−. Zhang wrote that the series' main focus is the dynamic relationship between Shinichi and Migi and their discussions about

human nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

. Zhang stated: "It's this casual philosophical pandering that makes ''Parasyte'' a cerebral manga. As the parasytes gradually adapt to human life and become cleverer at disguising their true identities, Shinichi finds himself in more and more danger". She concluded: "''Parasyte'' isn't just about a teenager saving the world. It's about a teenager at the cusp of adulthood and his cynical, mutinous right hand...saving the world. Highly recommended". The anime adaptation by Madhouse was well received by critics and fans alike, getting praise for the animation, characterization, pacing and the soundtrack of the anime.

China ban

On June 12, 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Culture listed ''Parasyte'' among 38 anime and manga titles banned in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

. Nonetheless, the live-action version of ''Parasyte'' managed to be released in nationwide cinemas across mainland China, using a 125-minute special cut which condensed part 1 and part 2.

Notes

References

External links

Official manga website
at ''

Afternoon Afternoon is the time after solar noon. It is the time when the sun is descending from its peak in the sky to somewhat before its terminus at the horizon in the west. In human life, it occupies roughly the latter half of the standard work a ...

''
Official anime website

Official film website
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