The strongest Parasyte in a while this week, with both the action and themey-wemey sides of the show putting up strong performances. The Gotou fight was the most well-depicted one in a while (a long while, actually… hell, maybe ever? Parasyte hasn’t exactly had the most impressive fights), and the final Shinichi-Migi conversation was great on both a character and idea level. I really thought the show was just falling apart altogether a few episodes ago, but this post-police stakeout arc has been pretty solid. Nice to see!
My full ANN post is available here, and notes as always are below.
Hunting Gotou. Knows he can’t win. All emotions numb
“What’s motivating me isn’t justice or anything. I just don’t want to see any more deaths due to my actions. It’s my turn.”
“I don’t care anymore. I’m tired.”
He feels like things might work out. Calm, with sharp senses. Like an animal hunting
Episode title: “Life and Oath”
“Migi… could you be alive in his body?” That’s what I figured – he wasn’t motivated by general human instinct, but by his individual human bond with Migi. Human bonds are articulated through individual familial connections, but they add up to a greater whole
Gotou looks pretty badass now
“A mere human dares to challenge me?!” damnit parasyte
I like how Shinichi not being able to be sensed changes the dynamic. This feels like a more engaging fight already
After all this time, he goes back to the old lady for strategic advice? This seems like a crazy waste of narrative resources… just poor writing, actually
Oh nice, we’re getting some solid animation! And this fight is solving exactly my problem from last time – we understand the stakes of the fight as they approach, so we know what to feel tense about
“That appearance suits you a lot better than a human face did!” Go Shinichi!
Shinichi getting blown away looks so good! Great smears, great direction!
More great animation as Shinichi scrambles away. “This is where I’m going to die?”
We’re also close enough to the end that there’s some actual tension here
The biggest problem with this episode is Gotou’s really awkward lines. “It could’ve been more interesting if I were fighting Tamura Reiko, who created me, but she’s apparently dead.” Bleh.
Gotou’s other brains are resisting him
Migi’s “hey.” So good
“Impossible! Why do you defy me…” dammit Gotou
His parts are in rebellion since they sense the body is dying
Shinichi unknowingly drove toxins into his body with that pipe
His victory was accomplished because humans dumped toxic waste in the forest. Oh humans
Migi doesn’t want to finish off Gotou. He’s adopted human beliefs, and doesn’t want to kill his own kind
Shinichi now directly addressing how the parasites might be a response to humans destroying other species
“Isn’t that unwillingness to kill the last remaining treasure left in humans?”
“He’s not human. I don’t want to impose human values on him.” There we go. Each of them have come to adopt something from the other side
“If that’s your decision, that’s fine by me.” Migi and Shinichi BEST BUDS
“Can I say that an organism has no right to live just because it’s harmful?” His words to justify leaving Gotou alive also validate humanity’s own survival, in spite of their violence
“I despise humans who’re saying they do something ‘for the earth.’ The earth has no emotion.” And Shinichi turns back, and kills Gotou. To kill to save your own species is also natural. We can only protect those close to us
Wow…did we watch the same episode?
Because the episode I saw was horrible. There was no tension whatsoever and I don’t think there’s any way they could have been more heavy-handed or unsubtle in delivering their message. This show, which was so utterly brilliant in the early going, has slowly and steadily devolved into a “save the earth” soap opera where everyone’s motivations are constantly being vomited out in self-conscious dialogue. To me, it’s more painful to watch this than something that was lousy from the get-go, because that sort of work doesn’t ever hold the power to disappoint like this one has.
I’m not sure why you think the point of this episode was “save the earth.” Did you read my piece? The show basically directly challenges that simplistic answer, and cuts back to the human/animal question.
I think that Gotou makes the most sense if you assume that just as Migi learned about human culture from literature and Joe learned about it from film noir, he learned it from Dragonball Z. And then Reiko let him LARP as Perfect Cell.