Parasyte: The Grey

Considered to be a sequel to the famous Anime, Parasyte: The maxim, this show has a very different plot then the original anime itself. Maybe that is what makes it unique in the way, it tells a science-fiction story in such a normalised way. The VFX work is really excellent and it is good to see Korean shows coming with much better stories and beautiful background music. What I felt was that, it was missing the emotional touch, which they tried by exploring some of the relations, but still could not touch at that level. Overall, it is a decent watch for a weekend and I am excited for the next season as it has a hidden surprise for all us anime fans.

So I did not know about the manga I just saw this had pretty good reviews and got into it.

Graphics/CGI are definitely on the lacking side but I mean nowhere near cartoon/anime level so I'm ok with it however it is rough to watch if you are picky about that.

Got pulled in with the interesting story of an alien 'parasyte' invasion which take over the host and then a small and odd war happening. Characters were good with a decently explained backstory which was spread well throughout the series instead of in huge amounts (i.e. I don't like to see a whole episode be a backstory).

Story continuity 9/10 Acting 8.5/10 Special Effects 6/10 # of episodes 6/10 Fulfillment 7/10

Overall I was interested in finding out what was happening and how they were going to defeat the 'enemy'. The end result was to be expected but the way they got there was quite entertaining and kept things interesting.

No overtelling or under telling of the story was noted. Although season 1 was literally 6 episodes I'd say they could and should have expanded on a few elements more seeing as how they have a whole manga to base from.

Enjoyable and entertaining but too short to be memorable or really fulfilling. The action was good and understandable with a good flow, there is no dawdling on insignificant matters. The ending is a surprise and you might need to read into who is introduced and what significance they have to the universe.

Needs to have more story and something of actual importance or value happen in season 2 to not ruin it. Season 1 was really just introductory imo. Worth checking out for sci fi lovers.

I came into this expecting a live action adaptation of the manga/anime, but they ended up using new characters and a new setting to tell a different story. At first I was just going to cut the show off, but I decided to give it a chance and honestly..

It's not bad. They stick to the rules that were developed inside of the book and show pretty well, the only thing that concerned me was the head swapping. There is 1 parasite that swaps bodies a lot but in the source material, swapping bodies was regarded as pretty dangerous. I also don't understand why they'd swap bodies when they had the ability to change the way their faces looked in the book/show.

I'm not a film critic and I am not going to pretend to be like other reviewers. The show is a decent watch for fans of the series. It's not as deep in terms of philosophy and character development as the book/show but it's a good time passer. If you've never seen the source material, the show might seem a little goofy.

Plot

A group of humans wage war against the rising evil of unidentified parasitic life-forms that live off of human hosts and strive to grow their power

Cast

Written by Hotishi Iwaaki (As it should have been) and starring various folks who you'll recognize from various comparable shows and movies.

Verdict

We've had quite a bit of Parasyte, from animated series to live action movies and not one bit of it has been bad despite it not being a fan of the Manga. You know what else has consistently been great over the last few years? All things South Korea, I don't know what's happened but they've been on form for quite a while now and therefore a Korean Parasyte most certainly got my attention as soon as it dropped on Netflix.

Initially you notice it looks great, as it needs to being Parasyte. It needs fantastic gory visuals and it delivers, though arguably the gore is quite light here. It tells a story revolving around a person comparable with Shinichi but delivers a very different bigger scale story. The trouble is we only have 6 episodes so is it able to deliver?

Well, mostly but I still found it lacking. It looks solid, it has decent characters and the plot is passable but as with any 6 episode tv show it's difficult to really pace it correctly and get much character development done.

The Grey is enjoyable and a welcome addition to the Parasyte universe, I'm also looking forward to season 2. But something is missing, and it feels pretty integral.

Rants

I feel as though we need a Parasyte horror movie, no real depth, no real connection to the canon universe but a 90 minute movie that grabs hold of the horror elements of Parasyte with both hands and really delivers. Can you imagine how genuinely unnerving, creepy and intense it could be? Seriously, if they can do a horror movie with Bambi, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh I'm pretty sure we could get a Parasyte one!

The Good

Looks great Solid character

The Bad

Plot could be better Feels rushed.

I have an understandable fear when it comes to anime live action adaptation, especially when we talk about shows where CGI is required, but this was executed relatively well.

The story is good, but not perfect. It can be seen that it uses similar topics compared to the original, when the series elaborate on what being a human means, but the series definitely made those topics its own with its own plot points. Pacing-wise - because the story tries to be a bit more complex at certain points - the first half can feel a bit slow.

For the characters, the main cast is much more unique personality-wise. Like from acting you could tell who has a bigger role in the series. I wouldn't call it bad and it made the characters interesting and less boring, but sometimes it was like that the main cast are the players in a game and everyone else is an NPC. The main cast was good and their characters felt real and developed with the story.

About the technical aspects, the sound directing and OST were good. Nothing exceptional, but worked perfectly.

Directing and editing, again it was good overall, nothing exceptional. There was one really good chase scene without a single cut.

About the CGI and effects, errr... it look good, there was maybe one scene where it looked a bit funny, but even in daylight it looked okay. One little complaint maybe about the blood. They surprisingly low amount of blood. I mean people got beheaded and there wasn't a lot of blood there.

And I would say the weakest part was the choreography. When it comes to normal hand to hand or weapon to weapon combat there are some really good scene out there. We spent decades on creating good looking fights, but here they should have developed a new fight, because the parasites head could shapeshift into a tentacle monster. I believe they failed to do that.

In many cases, while the tentacle fights look cool in a close up, but from a bit afar it looks like they are tied to bodies and their bodies don't do anything just stand there. Imagine a rock with a tentacle, the rock sits in one place while the tentacle fight.

They could have came up with some more unique or interesting fights.

All in all, good to watch, at least once. It is not as good as the original anime, but not as bad as I was expected to be.