Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
- Title: Parasyte –the maxim–
- Episodes: Season 1 – 24 episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
- Publisher: ntv
I always have misgivings about watching a well-loved anime. And Parasyte was up there. It was highly recommended. It has a 4.8 rating on Crunchyroll for crying out loud. The buzz was high when this anime came out. So there was an apprehension on my part. But my partner picked it so we watched it.
The premise is solid. We follow Shinichi Izumi who was partially infected by a Parasyte. However, these Parasytes that suddenly infect the world are also monsters that enjoy butchering and consuming humans to survive. We see Izumi navigate life in this as he learns to coexist with Migi so that he can survive in this messy world of carnage. For the most part, I loved the action sequences and enjoyed Izumi’s character development. It was good.
My favorite character, hands down, is Migi. There was a mishap when he tried to “consume” Izumi. Instead of entering Izumi’s ear to get to the brain, Migi had no choice but to burrow into Izumi’s arm instead. This led to an unsuccessful takeover of Izumi’s whole body. But he was able to control his right arm instead. From the beginning, Migi’s main focus was his survival. Nothing else. He was emotionless, logical, and smart. He learned the ways of the humans by reading and researching while Izumi slept at night. Migi’s character development was subtle. From just protecting Izumi to working with him to try and fight the cannibalistic humans taken over by his kind. This symbiosis between Migi and Izumi flourished when something happened that forced Migi to fully integrate into Izumi’s body.
Izumi’s change really happened after Migi’s full integration into his body. Where Migi’s changes were subtle, Izumi’s character development was pretty drastic. Complete 180. And I was there for it. I ate it up. It was so good. This boy has been through a lot so I was not surprised why the change in him was so severe and so palpable, visceral. I loved it. I enjoyed it.
There was also another character in this anime whose character development I appreciated so much. And that is Ryoko Tamiya. Oh she was heartless and calculating and scary. Again, these creatures’ main objective is to survive. She wanted to blend in with the humans. Studying their emotions, their patterns, their lives. And when she was introduced, yeah, she was murderous. I mean, they needed to consume humans to survive. But with her constant research, she found a way to coexist with the humans. She gained some humanity in the end. Also awakening Izumi’s humanity that he buried along the way.
There were storylines that I think are not needed. The love story for example. This could be attributed to the fact that I really think Satomi Murano is not a good character. I don’t understand why she was there. I honestly thought she was there to help Izumi to rediscover humanity but she didn’t even do that! All this character did was question Izumi’s changes. She didn’t like it when Izumi was cold and heartless. She didn’t like it when he changed back. I was very aggravated when she was on the screen. I almost wanted to drop the anime just because she was on the screen all the time. And don’t even get me started on the ending. To say that I was disappointed is a huge understatement.
Anyway, this anime was good. I mean, the execution for the most part was great and enjoyable. Like any other anime, there would always be characters and/or storylines that I would not like. Would I watch it again, no. I’m good to just say that I watched the anime.
- Title: Tomie
- Author: Junji Ito
- Genre: Manga, Horror
- Pages: 752
- Publisher: VIZ Media
- Published: 2016
I am not a horror reader. So picking this up for a read is out of character for me. What made me interested in it? My roommate and I went to a Japanese bookstore a while back and she bought this tome. She read it and liked it. And I wanted to see what this is all about. As I flipped through the pages of this chunker, I got hooked on the artwork. So I decided to read it.
Tomie was Junji Ito’s first published work which led to him winning a Kazuo Umezu award. This has been serialized in Monthly Halloween and ran from 1987 to 2000. This work has been adapted into film and television series. Let’s just say that this manga was (is) well-loved, gathered a following, and has been praised by fans as well as critics.
The titular character is Tomie Kawakami who acted like a succubus. She has the power to make any man fall in love with her. Of course, the power does not end there. This ability of hers drives men to violence oftentimes leading to her being killed and mutilated. Each body part regenerates to create multiple versions of Tomie across Japan. I mean, interesting right?
This manga is pretty graphic. I mean, one of the reasons why I decided to pick it up is the fact that the author did not shy away from the illustrations of violence. This manga definitely delivered some skin-crawling artwork that lives rent-free in my brain. There is a story in this collection that still makes me itchy just thinking about it.
It’s easy to complain about recurring themes in this manga. I mean, how many times can someone read and see Tomie being murdered and mutilated by the men who fall in love with her. However, Tomie showed a level of toxicity when someone is manipulative and narcissistic. It showed obsession and the desire to possess remarkably well. And jealousy too. These themes heavily reflected society – manipulation, humiliation, misogyny, violence, and sexism.
Bottom line, I liked this manga. It was a good read for sure. Some stories were better than the others of course. My favorite stories were Tomie (the first one, we got introduced to Tomie) and Hair (which involved two girls using Tomie’s hair to make themselves “beautiful”). If I could redo my first read of this collection, I wouldn’t have read the stories back to back. I personally think that the reader was not meant to read this back to back to begin with. However, that didn’t really minimize my reading experience. Just the symbolism found in this manga kept me reading. It almost made me want to read all of Junji Ito’s works (almost, I have not committed myself to them yet).
- Anime Title: Angels of Death
- Episodes: 1 Season – 16 Episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
My man suggested this anime for us to watch. I cannot remember why exactly, but I think we were watching this alongside a romance anime and we needed to watch something that has a little bit of edge to it. Yes, we tend to do this. We like mixing our fluffy anime with some edgy anime.
This anime was a trip. I enjoyed it a lot. It definitely has the concept of an escape room, but you know, unhinged. The anime started with Rachel waking up in the basement of an unfamiliar building. And there, she meets Zack – a scythe-wielding serial killer wrapped in bandages. Rachel wants to be killed by Zack, but Zack promises to do it after she helps him get out of the building.
This anime is in no way a romance – it shouldn’t be. Rachel was 13 and Zack was in what seems to be his 20s. But that promise they made to each other is what pretty much kept them alive and kept on moving through the floors of the building. That my friend is love in the most twisted way. And to be honest, it was one of the aspects of this anime that I loved the most. And the ending. THE ENDING! I mean, it was executed well. It definitely wrapped up this whole promise made between Rachel and Zack. Let’s just say that the ending fits perfectly with the premise.
The anime presented some uncomfortable scenes obviously. It has a dark premise after all. The building Rachel and Zack were in has 6 floors. And each floor has a floor master these two need to defeat to move on to the next floor and eventually get out of the building. Anyway, I was really uncomfortable with the floor master of B5. I cannot deal with that character. The level of obsession that this character showed, it was just difficult to watch. Don’t get me wrong, none of these floor masters was likable (each of them is either a sociopath or a psychopath). There were a couple of floor masters who were palatable and one of them I genuinely like.
My favorite character for sure is Zack Foster. There is a simplicity to him, a certain kind of innocence in a way that I just want to wrap him up in more blankets. I mean we got to see his backstory and how he turned out because of his experiences. It just made me feel like he needed to be protected is all.
Anyway, I just found out this anime was based on a game. Not sure if my boyfriend told me about that, but yeah, the anime was based on a game. Not sure if I would be able to find the game on PC but I might try to see if I can. This was classified as horror. The anime doesn’t feel like a horror anime, a thriller for sure, and a bit psychological.
Bottom line, we enjoyed the anime. And the soundtrack was not bad. I really like the opening and ending songs for sure. I might consider rewatching the anime just to experience the ending again.