Parasyte: I hope it doesn't become one on my pocketbook

Manga Blitz, part 2:

Parasyte, volume 3
By Hitoshi Iwaaki

So is this kind of a filler volume for the alien-arm series? Sure, there’s at least one cool fight, but the plot doesn’t rush forward as quickly as the first volume, and it’s not as deliciously formula-altering as the second. No, instead it sees a bit of a return to the goofy comedy (and attendant awkward character art) of the first volume, and only a little exploration of the changes that I found so fascinating the last time around. It ended up being somewhat disappointing, but there were still enough moments of interesting boundary pushing that I feel like I'm going to continue to buy it.

I think mostly I like that Iwaaki continues to explore how the eponymous alien parasites work, what different variations on their normal head-replacing modus operandi he can come up with, what their actual purpose is on earth, how humans react to them, and how Shin, our heroic student who might be bonding a little too closely with his own parasite, will relate to them, as well as to the changes going on in his own body.

There are certainly some interesting developments going on, like the Japanese government becoming aware of the alien menace lurking within the populace and trying to figure out what to do about it, or the continuing threat of the female parasite from volume one, who seems to want to test Shin and Migi and learn their capabilities. But the big plot here involves another parasite who poses as a student named Shimada and joins the student body of Shin's school, trying to form some sort of actual friendship with him. Or maybe he's just trying to get close enough for the kill. It makes for an interesting cat-and-mouse game though, and the big, violent finale is pretty awesome. In fact, it's probably the goriest bit of nastiness in the series so far, and it's pretty shocking, even when you're used to monsters slicing off heads like they've been doing for three volumes now.

I'm also liking Shin's continuing character development, as we see him start to lose his humanity while barely even realizing it. There's a great moment early on in which he finds a dog that had been hit by a car and is lying in the middle of the road, dying. He picks it up and holds it while it takes its last breaths, which impresses Murano, his love interest, but as soon as it's dead, he chucks it in a nearby trash can, and when Murano protests, he replies that it's dead, and no longer a dog, just "meat in the shape of a dog." Surprisingly, Migi is the one who questions him on this, saying it sounded like something an inhuman parasite like himself would say. While not even realizing it, Shin is becoming more and more like Migi (and as much as he protests, it seems Migi might be gaining a little bit of humanity). It's moments like this that make the series interesting outside of the action scenes.

Unfortunately, these character bits are often accompanied by some poor character art, and awful "humorous" expressions:



But this weakness becomes a strength when depicting the alien Shimada, who just looks wrong:



It's mostly the eyes, which are either drawn to look like he's got a lazy eye, or are just too far apart. And his weird lack of expression is certainly offputting; Iwaaki really makes him creepy, even before we see him kill anybody. The awkwardness is also effective when we see Shin's "feral" face, which emphasizes his fading humanity:



That's pretty creepy, and I'm sure it's at least half-intentional.

But while he can be awkward with the character stuff, Iwaaki shines when depicting action and freaky monsters. In the climactic action at the end of the volume, a parasite gets wounded and can't shapeshift properly, and Iwaaki makes it look even more weird-looking and gross than these things normally are:



And while I'll avoid spoiling any of the excellent violence, there was one moment that I liked a lot:



I love that use of blood smears to indicate a character being wounded when it shows up in movies, and Iwaaki replicates the motif perfectly. Nicely done.

So, yeah, I wouldn't call this volume a failure or anything, but if it represents what we can expect for the remainder of the series, I don't see myself following it for much longer. The series is at its best when exploring the ideas of the parasitical invasion and going crazy with the action and gore. There wasn't enough of either of those in this volume, and too much of the lame attempts at comedy. More character development (or drama) and less silliness, please. And maybe bring back that guy with the parasite chin; he was funny.

Parasyte: This is much worse than something like leeches

Hey, two reviews in one night! I'll keep harping on my contest, just to keep it at the top of the page. I've already received one entry, so let's get some competition going, people! Okay, on to the good stuff:

Parasyte, volume 2
By Hitoshi Iwaaki



A good quality of manga that Westerners often talk about (since it's an obvious comparison to our market-dominating superhero comics) is the finite nature of the stories. Without a need to maintain a rarely-changing status quo, characters are allowed to develop and plots can take unforeseen, series-changing turns. Even so, series can still hit a plateau and stay there with little forward movement, but I'm quite happy to say that Hitoshi Iwaaki's Parasyte is not one of those series. It could have continued with the wacky "kid with an alien arm" antics of the first volume (which I reviewed here), but it gets much more dramatic in this volume, with some major changes to the main character and those around him. There's some powerful stuff here, plots I wasn't expecting to encounter in a goofy "boy and his alien" story. And the whole nature of the series shifts; not only do Shin and Migi grow closer (in a manner of speaking), but Shin is starting to have to fight to maintain his humanity as much as he and Migi are fighting an alien invasion. I won't spoil any details of the plot here (at least, none that I haven't already), but I will say that this new direction has me even more interested in the series than before. It went from being "pretty enjoyable" to "can't wait for the next volume".

I think the art might have improved as well, possibly due to the shift toward a more dramatic tone. At the beginning, Iwaaki still includes some of his goofy facial expressions:



But he gets better as he shifts away from comedy; I was especially impressed with his depiction of Shin's increasingly animalistic countenance:



And the weird alien designs continue to be awesome; Shin and Migi encounter and befriend another human/alien pair that have taken a bizarre form:



And the action is still quite exciting and dynamic, especially as Shin begins to develop more superhuman abilities. Whether he's exhibiting acrobatic skill:



Or having badass alien duels:



It's exciting to watch. Like I said, I can't wait to see what happens next. I enjoy the implications of human/alien bonding that Iwaaki is continuing to explore (there's an especially funny/crazy bit involving a woman's head on a man's body), and I really want to see how he continues to develop Shin's character (parallels to puberty/the journey to adulthood!) and his relationship with Migi. Bring on the next volume!
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Okay, I think that's enough for tonight. Tomorrow: the monthly dose of girly comics!

Drifting Classroom and Parasyte: Two horror tastes that taste horrific together

Actually, they're fine together, but I thought it was funny. And really, Parasyte is probably more science fiction than horror, but whatever.

Drifting Classroom volume 4
By Kazuo Umezu



Man, the metaphors are going crazy in this volume, spreading beyond the school system and commenting on government and society. At the beginning of the book, the students decide to hold an election to determine who will be leader, Sho (our protagonist) or Princess (the leader of a bullying girl-gang). Princess and her cohorts try to bully students into voting for them, threatening violence to any Sho voters. And then [oh, spoiler] it ends up as a tie, with only a young child to cast the deciding vote [end spoiler]. Later, the students set up a huge, spiked booby trap to stop the monster that's roaming the desert in case it comes to attack the school:



As soon as I saw the trap, I knew it would be tripped by a student, symbolizing the way defense against "outside threats" can often be more dangerous to a nation's citizens than the "invaders" they're trying to stop.

Later, the monster does attack, leading to the use of another awesome trap:



And plenty of gruesome deaths:



Then the kids track the monster back into the desert, hoping to kill it once and for all. But then they discover that it's actually being manifested from a kid's imagination, so the dilemma of whether to kill the kid or not arises. It's pretty interesting, since in the last volume, a group of kids tried to crucify another kid that they believed was somehow the cause of the situation. In this volume, the main characters are faced with the decision of whether to do the same thing, since they know that this kid is responsible (whether consciously or not). I could probably come up with some sort of symbolism for this dilemma (punishing problem/underperforming students?), but I might be stretching the metaphors a bit too far already.

In fact, I'm not sure that the metaphors are holding up that well at this point (my limited knowledge of Japanese society at the time doesn't help). It seems that satires and allegories eventually run into a problem (if you want to call it that) in which following the story and characters become more interesting than trying to discern the author's symbolism. It's an interesting conflict, but if the characters are well-drawn and the plot is interesting and well-constructed, it doesn't make too big of a difference in the long run. And fortunately, Umezu is a hell of a storyteller, drawing us right in to this crazy situation and getting us to root for or against his excitable characters. I certainly can't wait to follow their further adventures and see what sort of insanity he has in store.
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Parasyte volume 1
By Hitoshi Iwaaki



I picked this one up after reading good reviews by the likes of Shaenon Garrity and Mike Sterling. And it's pretty damn enjoyable, with some crazy monster designs and wacky comedy. The premise has to do with a bunch of alien spores that invade the earth and take over the bodies of the humans they come in contact with, replacing the head with their own morphing biology, then regularly gruesomely murdering and eating normal humans. The main character, Shin, is infected, but the alien fails to reach his head, instead taking over his right arm. He names the alien Migi (which is Japanese for "right"), and tries to go about his life, which is constantly being interrupted by encounters with other aliens or Migi doing inappropriate things with his hand.

Artwise, the depiction of humans is nothing to write home about, with the shots of expressions of surprise or anger being especially poor:



But the scenes of humans (or other animals) morphing into freaky weapons are where the artwork shines, like in this scene of a guy's head turning into a bladed weapon:



And the portrayal of Migi is pretty charming, while still being offputting and weird. He's usually depicted as a mouth on Shin's hand, with the fingers turning into eyestalks:



But we also regularly see him roaming around Shin's room, studying books and learning as much as he can about Earth:



Migi's really a pretty interesting character. He failed in his mission since he didn't take over Shin's head, so he seems at odds with other aliens that they encounter. But he professes to have no human emotions, claiming that he is only using Shin as a host. They fight several other aliens, but Migi claims that it's just for survival; he's afraid the aliens will kill him for failing his mission. I'm pretty curious to see how he develops in future volumes.

Iwaaki also makes this an environmental issue, implying that the aliens might be a defense against the damage that humans are causing to the Earth. He also raises some interesting questions about the aliens, like when a pair of them that have inhabited male and female bodies conceive a child; what will be the result, and should these aliens be allowed to live after killing two (or possibly more) humans?

And then there's the cool action, with Shin and Migi getting in several fights that consist of freaky blades whizzing through the air like a morphing swordfight. And the silly comedy, like Migi constantly bugging Shin about having sex with the girl he likes because he can tell from his hormones that that's what he wants to do. It all makes for a very enjoyable book, and while I don't think I'll be rushing to the bookstore to pick up every new volume, I'll certainly try to keep following the series.
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Okay, I'm starting to get caught up. We'll see how much more I can continue to write over the next few days...