Nice pacing, always interesting, nice character developement, and a very solid story and message. Parasyte is the best action manga out there.

Of course, it's not perfect. A few moments made little sense. To avoid spoilers I'll say that some characters are not fully explained, some small moments make very little sense, and this series can come off as a cliche superpower/save the world from beasts type manga if you are very close-minded towards it. Yes some of the content does require contemplation.

Also, I have a warning about the gore. There is a lot. It never feels gratuitous or fanservicy, but it's abundant. Animals, humans, and parasytes are killed in very very brutal ways, often with their organs exposed. I handled it though, so you should be able too.

And yes, though Parasyte does have flaws, in my eyes it's perfect. It's better than the sum of it's parts.

Parasyte has a very solid plot, likeable characters, good character development.. what can I say? The flow is just perfect, not too fast, not too slow.. I never felt like the manga was being draggy, especially since this is one of the longer mangas I've commited myself to reading. There's just something about this manga, maybe some of the reasons I listed above, that just draws you in. Oh, and I absolutely adore Migi

Let me start off by saying that this is just awesome!
It had some interesting philosophical connotations and a good plot, i actually liked the fact that the main character evolved quite nicely. There were some very good developments and good twists thrown in the mix. I really enjoyed this manga.
In my view the art was great, really liked it.
If there is one fault to this manga it's the way things were rushed towards the ending with the military and such, i believe the mangaka could've explored more the concepts of this amazing piece of work and take more time. In other mangas, like romance types things seem to drag and drag, in this case i wouldn't have minded more 10 or 20 chapters.
The characters felt real and they were explored nicely.
Highly recomend it!

i usually read only josei and shoujo, but one day i went out of my way to try this out. i didnt regret it. i finished it all in one go, was thouroughly touched and crying at the end, and could not stop going over how amazing the series was in my head. i know this is a story i will not forget. dont let the art or apparent weirdness of plot stop you! i recommend this, HIGHLY.

One thing I like about this piece of work is that the protagonist is always learning, always enduring and moving on despite the disagreements Shinichi and Migi has. Not only that, when Migi possesses him, he starts to learn about a part of himself and learn to get used to Migi. This manga did an awesome job of character development; in the beginning, we see a boy who has grown to a loner to a hero and then...to a man.

Another thing I loved about this piece of work...is that no matter who's the enemy or friend, you always remember them for the part they played in this manga. We'll always remember the teacher parasite (obviously, I forgot her name) who grew to love her child, the chubby guy who's half possessed just like Shinichi, the student who went insane (Mimada, I believe), Goto (the strongest parasite), the mayor (who wasn't possessed but was on the parasites' side), the girl who came onto Shinichi, and lastly...Migi. These were all very wonderful characters and the good thing about each and everyone of them is that they all came into Shinichi's life and made him realize something good about himself.

The artwork isn't the best but I do like the artist's opinion of human distortion (physically) when possessed by an alien. The plot is something everyone should look into, extremely unique and recommended to anyone who loves and has an open mind about the extra-terrestial life.

great story. It's doesn't contain too much gore and it focuses on ideas about what it means to be human (some which have been done before, but many ideas are quite original). At one point in particular this theme is quite powerful. All of you who've read it should know which part i'm referring to
The art isn't top-notch, neither is that the point.
It introduced me to psycological and sci-fi manga, and i'm hooked for more
10/10. give it a shot! you won't regret it.

... Last updated on February 8th, 2010, 12:50am

One of the most interesting plots I have seen, the start is brilliant and interesting the middle is a bit ruined and boring but the end is touching and well written. ^^

The start was good although strange. This author gives some kind of sensation of lack of emotion in the characters he draws though the realism is splendid. In the middle part it gets kind of boring and I think i didn't stop the reading cause the next chapters where already translated. But when you reach volume 8 the flow begins to change and all the battle and action and emotions make you enjoy the story a lot. And the last volume is what you'd call superb, every part of it.
So i'd say it is a good read if you can stand the art and keep going till the end that left me plenty satisfied.

... Last updated on September 13th, 2009, 4:08pm

...or perhaps just to caught up in reading mindless shonen tournament manga to realize the brilliance of this work. Iwaaki is absolutely brilliant in his pacing and everything in the series is nearly perfectly executed. There's always something interesting happening, and the manga is packed with so many intricate and subtle details (most of which you probably didn't even notice if you disliked this) that I find it hard to see how anyone could call this manga dull. Sure, the art style's kind of bland, but it serves the story extremely well. Iwaaki draws in a very realistic style, and with the exception of a few choice panels, it's almost always perfectly done.

And what's with all of these complaints about the ending? Abrubt and forced? Are you kidding me? Were we reading the same manga? Because, oh, I don't know, not only does he spend THE ENTIRE SERIES developing towards that ending, he wrapped up everything important while still managing to get the main message across perfectly. After I had finished the last chapter I spent about an hour thinking of how amazing it was.

It's also one of the only manga I've ever read where I've had an actual emotional attachment to the characters. The dialogue is priceless and manages to balance humor and urgency extremely well.

I think of it as a story that has everything I could ever want in a manga (likable characters, an interesting story, subtle philosophical undertones, violence, etc.) without ever overdoing any of its elements so as to seem cliche. Sure, there's ridiculous gore, but I don't feel as if it ever got in the way of the story so as to seem gratuitous or unnecessary (a manga which ryhmes with "Pantz" and seems to have ridiculously high ammounts of praise comes to mind).

Oh, another thing, this is also the only manga that I've read that can hold up to repeat readings without becoming boring or having any less impact on me.

All in all, this is definitely one of the best manga I've read. It might not seem like it but I seriously can't give it enough praise. If you haven't read it because you're sceptical, try it out. If you've completely ignored it because of it's "bland" art, then try reading it again with an OPEN MIND. If you have read it but disagree with me, read it again. You don't want to? I honestly don't care, this is my review e.g. my opinion.

If you do agree with me--hell, even if you don't agree with me--check out his other series Historie and Tanabata no Kuni. They're both excellently done in a fashion similar to Kiseijuu. Historie might even manga to steal it's title of my favorite manga if the quality manges to keep that high. Other manga you might want to check out include: Freesia or Homunculus. Hell, you might even want to pick up an actual book--no, manga isn't literature despite how close Kiseijuu comes--or do something useful with your lives you jerks.

P.S. Buy the Del Rey version of the series so the chances of more of his work getting released in English are increased, you dirty theiving bastards. You know who you are

... Last updated on October 20th, 2010, 4:22pm

ok, when I first saw the cover I definitely was not interested. But one day I got bored and flipped open the book, expecting it to be some disgusting pointless horror thing. But amazingly, I ended up not able to put it down! The story is so interesting (sci-fi in a realistic way) and it's not as gory as I thought. His story-telling is very good and so is his art (not beautiful but suitable to the story and not unpleasant). Yeah, don't judge the book by its cover in this case (unless you like the cover).