Body horror? Check. Gratuitous amounts of gore and violence? Check. Psychological horror? Check. Fans of Junji Ito’s work will love this series about aliens taking over human hosts.
Imagine a parasitic alien race that suddenly descended to Earth one day without warning. That is the sudden reality that Shinichi Izumi has to face when a Parasite miserably fails to take over his mind and becomes part of his right hand instead.
Unable to relocate and find a new host, the Parasite now named Migi by Shinichi, is forced to rely on and co-exist with him. But thanks to Migi’s infection on his right hand, he can use the Parasite’s abilities to get them out of sticky and often deadly situations.
Now that Migi failed to take over a host’s brain, fellow Parasites see Migi as a threat and the unlikely duo must face other Parasites and infected hosts for their lives. Shinichi must now balance his regular life and the parasitic life of his alien partner for them to survive their new reality.
The Notable Humans
Shinichi Izumi
Our main protagonist and one of the few infected hosts resisted being taken over by his Parasite, Migi and now co-exists with the alien in a rocky way. Using Migi’s abilities, Shinichi wants to protect his fellow humans like a superhero, while keeping his infection a secret to avoid being killed or becoming a lab specimen.
Over time, he becomes highly efficient at dealing with Parasites, thanks to the mutation of his cells due to Migi’s infection, giving him heightened abilities and senses against Parasites. He goes to South Korea and helps Jun-Kyung and his Team Grey to get rid of Parasites.
Satomi Murano
Satomi is Shinichi’s love interest, being romantically attracted to him despite being best friends thanks to the latter’s kind and sensitive nature. However, their relationship is almost broken when Shinichi becomes cold and distant when infected with Migi, trying to keep Satomi out of harm’s way from the Parasites.
And despite knowing the truth behind Shinichi’s infection with the Parasite, her feelings and support towards him didn’t wane, becoming stronger, saying that his humanity remained even after being infected.
Mamoru Uda
Another human host wherein the Parasite failed to take over his brain, Mamoru is a gentle, friendly person who becomes nervous under pressure and highly emotional, whether fighting other Parasites or facing complicated things in his daily life. His parasite is attached to his mouth and lower jaw, unofficially being nicknamed Joe by the fans (due to the word Joe sounding like Jaw in Japanese, referencing the “Jaws” movie).
Despite his peaceful and easygoing nature, since he’s just like Shinichi, he often finds himself in deadly fights against fellow hosts with hostile Parasites. And just like in Migi’s case, the other aliens consider Joe to be a threat as well, putting Mamoru at a disadvantage since he isn’t like Shinichi with heightened senses and abilities.
Takeshi Hirokawa
Acting as the second major antagonist in the latter part of the story, Takeshi is the ringleader of a Parasite conspiracy group who later becomes the Mayor of East Fukuyama City. Using his position and power, he funds both resources and his political understanding so that his conspiracy of the Parasites taking over humanity can be realized.
Due to his hatred of humanity, he wants the Parasites to become successful in their conquering, dubbing them “Mincemeat Murderers” and wants to streamline the process of mass murdering humanity by using them and their abilities.
The Notable Parasites
Reiko Tamura
An intelligent Parasite driven by scientific inclinations to learn more about her kind, she originally infects a female human named Ryouko Tamiya, one of Shinichi’s teachers in his high school. Wanting more about her race, she intentionally gets pregnant with a human baby after assuming herself as Reiko Tamura in the latter half of the series, joining Takeshi in his plans and his conspiracy group.
However, she had a change of heart after giving birth to her baby and developing maternal instincts for it. That change resulted in other Parasites in Takeshi’s group targeting her when she doubted their plans. Now considered an enemy, Reiko kills most of them in Takeshi’s group after escaping, believing that Parasites can peacefully co-exist with humanity.
Gotou
Hosting five parasites in his body (Miki being his main Parasite and four others), Gotou is considered the strongest Parasite that invaded Earth. With the aid of Miki, Gotou can freely control the other four Parasites in his body, transforming most of his body mass into Parasite tissue. That makes him the strongest and most violent of all the aliens, despite being the most intelligent host.
He hunts humans merely for sport and is initially Takeshi’s right-hand man and easily overpowers Shinichi and Migi in their first encounter. Despite being a cold-blooded killer, he has somewhat of a code of honor as he wants to exact vengeance against Shinichi for killing Miki’s kind earlier in the series.
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