And Parasyte finally ends, with an episode that sure was incredibly boring to write about. I’m pretty happy to see it over, honestly – it’s been something of a trial in this second half, doing a full day of work only to know I’ll have to come home and say something about a show that could never quite be as good as I wanted it to. Ah well. I’ve watched plenty of ultimately disappointing anime, I’m sure I’ll watch plenty more.

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

Shinichi summing up public thoughts on the parasites – they’re known, though there’s no formal announcement

They’ve gone quiet since the fight at city hall. They’ve gotten better at blending in, and know they can’t win

Some altered their diet to become more human

Now it’s clear that they never were a true threat to humanity’s survival

Migi’s decided to go to sleep, maybe until he dies

He’s going to use the information and multiple avenues of thinking he gained while part of Gotou while shutting out new information. Migi’s essentially going into a meditation retreat

“I want to try going in a slightly different direction than your world.” Migi’s always been a much deeper thinker than Shinichi, and now that he’s stopped thinking of the world in terms of just animal survival, he’s got a lot to consider

“I want you to think of me as a dream. That’s why I’m saying goodbye to you in one.”

“Oh, so this is how you perceive your mother in your mind. They’re all very different from how I saw them in my mind’s eye”

“We can pretty much only hope to understand each other on certain points”

Even the differences between individual humans are beyond mutual understanding, nevermind between species. The last episode was about the animal instinct, so this one is about the hope for connection

“Besides, it’s not normal for someone to talk to his hand, anyway.”

Migi wants Shinichi to be able to live a normal life. The ultimate expression of non-animal instinct – the instinct towards familial self-sacrifice. Migi has come to embody the personal instinct

Some nice random character animation from Murano’s friends

Oh dang, Shinichi got some kind of haircut

Also some great Murano animation. Last episodes!

“Migi… in the end, I never did understand you.” But he cared about him, and that’s the important thing

Migi staring at the cherry blossoms lol

Migi’s little waddle versus this solemn speech stawp

“Those battles we fought weren’t for earth or anything… they were for humanity, or rather, me as an individual”

Animals can’t understand each other, can’t judge other species according to your standards, etc

“We protect the environment because humans ourselves don’t want to go extinct.” We reaaally didn’t need this whole laying-it-out speech

“What drives us is self-gratification. But I think that’s fine, and that’s all there is to it.” Stop spelling out last episode’s gracefully handled point nooo

“So in the end, it’s hypocritical of us to love the earth without loving ourselves”

Another nice Murano cut

ono, it’s the serial killer!

So the last conflict is versus a wild human

Welp, Murano just saw two people get murdered in front of her

“It makes sense when monsters kill humans. They’re just feeding themselves. But what about me? What do you think I am?”

“I’m the true human here.” He thinks pure violence is the human instinct

“It’s human nature to want to kill each other, you know?”

Bringing back “Shinichi’s a monster” one last time

“Compared to Gotou you’re spun glass, but I’m not that strong anymore.” Shinichi’s pretty cool, huh

He’s also comfortable with his “halfway between human and parasite” nature. Recalling Tamiya. Bringing it all back!

“How can he be considered a normal human being?!” Yeah, Murano!

“Sure you might not be ‘normal,’ but you’re human!” Murano taking names

OH MY GOD THIS MIGI

Migi saves the day, of course

And one last “You’re Shinichi-kun”