Narrative Analysis of Parasyte: A Panoramic Portrait of Humanity
Parasyte's setting is interesting: almost identical to our reality, with enough narrative pressure to force out familiar visions of love, grief, and connection in a different context. The slight distance allows readers to feel echoes of their own life, which makes the narrative both more skilled and meaningful in the careful and nuanced way it explores such close-to-home themes.
Whether it was intentionally placed by Hitoshi Iwaaki or emerged as a result of the story, the pattern remains. The characters interact in a broad web which combines into a singular picture: a portrait of humanity and the many ways connection and survival affect life.
(This post is a collection of various thoughts I've added to the Parasyte wiki.)
Shinichi Izumi
As the protagonist, Shinichi goes through many traumatic events. The question of whether the trauma caused his changes or Migi's repairs did it isn't explicitly answered, though Migi doesn't think his cells are capable of invading Shinichi's brain. Throughout the course of Shinichi's journey, he changes from normal human warmth to coldness, then back to warmth after Reiko Tamura's death.
On one narrative level, Shinichi fluctuates between his status of human to inhuman. Shinichi's reactions during the worst of his arc cause concern in both Murano and Migi, who are the logical endpoints of each side. Shinichi as a combination of both species is something more than either species were individually, and it comes out in multiple ways; his physical capability, the strength of his emotions, his resolve to live, and his defense of Murano.
On another narrative level, Shinichi is both a portrait of the human capacity to survive and the sacrifices needed. Shinichi's scar directly over his heart is symbolic of the emotional hardening that often happens in response to trauma. The Parasite who stole his mother's body directly damaged his relationship with his mother both literally and psychologically. Based on the recurring motif of Shinichi painfully feeling his chest wound reopen without actual damage, Shinichi can't grieve his mother's death because that requires purposely re-opening the wound that caused it. His protective instincts previously expressed to his mother instead reorient around Murano's safety. The strong emotions find catharsis in attacking the same species that killed his mother, but it takes Tamura's sacrifice while mimicking her face to create a safe path for Shinichi's grief. The total of Shinichi's journey illustrates different ways humans deal with adversity in both physical and mental damage.
Satomi Murano
As a supporting protagonist, Satomi Murano goes through similar events as Shinichi but with a different point of view. She is unaware of Shinichi's traumas and can only see where he changed in response to them.
On one narrative level, Murano's questions and existence are a reminder of Shinichi's humanity. She clings to him and draws him back from the edges of his worst character arc, affirming his resolve in life when he fears Gotou will pursue him. Shinichi protects her fiercely and motivates himself to fight Parasites in defense of her.
On another narrative level, Murano parallels Shinichi's trauma while expressing it in different ways, expanding on Parasyte's portrait of the human capacity to survive and the sacrifices involved. Like Shinichi, Murano barely survived a dangerous event. Unlike Shinichi who has Migi, Murano doesn't have any way to make life safer for herself; she was rescued by Shinichi. Similar to Shinichi becoming more understanding to Migi after Migi saves Shinichi's life, Murano's resulting attachment happens because Shinichi rescued her at the worst time of her life. Murano and Shinichi's relationship illustrates the connections humans make when faced with adversity.
Kana
While Satomi Murano is the narrative anchor of Shinichi's humanity, Kana exists on the other side. Her contribution to Parasyte's portrait of humanity is dual-purpose: the allure of leaving familiar humanity and its messy emotions behind in favor of the exotic (even when, or perhaps because, the human nature itself is messy and emotional); and the quieter fact that emotions and beliefs can eclipse logic and reality entirely.
On her end, Kana is intrigued by and attracted to Shinichi's inhumanity, both in metaphorical "feral energy" sense and the literal ability to sense Migi attached to Shinichi, as well as other Parasites. She ends up rejecting Mitsuo's feelings in favor of the mistaken belief that Shinichi's Parasite signal is the Red String of her soulmate, becoming innocently obsessed with him. Her attraction becomes so strong that she repeatedly follows the signal and ignores Shinichi's own warning of the genuine danger of it.
On Shinichi's side, he oscillates between protecting her, pushing her away, and telling her about the truth of what he is. Her tragic death causes Shinichi to understand what it would mean to fall into unfeeling completely; he would end up losing what little human attachments he has left. He begins to struggle both against Parasites as a whole in order to protect Satomi, and, when he realizes he cannot even cry at Kana's funeral while Mitsuo is visibly, "humanly" grieving, against the emotional numbness that his maternal grief has imposed.
Like Takeshi Hirokawa, Kana dies because she refuses or is unable to see differently, still chasing the dream of romance she had fallen fully into. While other characters like Detective Kuramori and Shinichi himself are injured by unresolved negative connections--namely, grief--Kana is injured and killed by unresolved positive connection--a simple desire for love. She helps illustrate how human attachments can be stronger than even self-preservation.
Detective Kuramori
Kuramori is another facet of human nature versus adversity. Much like Shinichi still has Murano's existence to protect, Kuramori was initially reluctant to get involved in Parasite investigation. However, after his family was killed, Kuramori's character arc becomes one of personal revenge with no self-preservation. He has already lost everything, and can only use what power he still holds to fight back against the very forces that hurt him and his loved ones. Kuramori in particular is a snapshot of the natural human reaction against a visible, contestable force, combined with a lack of attachments to hold one back.
Shinichi's Father
Kazuyuki is another facet of human nature versus adversity. Like Shinichi, Kazuyuki is a direct survivor of an event that killed one of his loved ones. Unlike Shinichi, Kazuyuki has no personal power to make things better; directly told by the government to stay quiet, no inhuman capability for combat. At the same time, Kazuyuki cannot separate himself from the situation; Shinichi still relies on his existence as an adult and a father. Unable to find goals or a target, Kazuyuki's grief manifests as depression, unlike Shirou Kuramori's grief turned revenge. Kazuyuki in particular is a snapshot of the natural human reaction of helplessness against an uncontestable force.
Mayor Hirokawa
As one of two recurring villains, Hirokawa is the main narrative foil to Shinichi. Unlike Shinichi who became friends with Migi due to Migi being physically attached to him without eating humans, Hirokawa deliberately chose to ally with the Parasite species because they eat humans; in both first and last appearance, he claims that humans are inherently harmful and Parasites are needed as a solution. Hirokawa shows the "something between human and inhuman" motif from the reverse side; moving away from humanity towards Parasites in rejection of his own species rather than Shinichi's attachment to it.
He is also a dark mirror of Shinichi's capability to express compassion through willingness to cause harm. Shinichi targets Parasites because he sees them as enemies who have and can continue to hurt his loved ones; every person Shinichi defends and Parasite Shinichi fights he does so with knowledge of them as individuals. Hirokawa has compassion for the environment, but used that compassion to hurt humans distantly and systematically by inviting Parasites in and becoming their shield. Shinichi's character arc ends when he realizes that human compassion isn't separate from human selfishness, killing Gotou in defense of his own humanity and his loved ones despite understanding that it was Gotou's nature as a Parasite to kill and eat humans. On the other hand, Hirokawa never evolves from his initial stance that humans are a poison and Parasites are the cure, choosing instead to stand and die while announcing his beliefs.
Reiko Tamura
Reiko Tamura is an inversion of the whole portrait. Humans begin with pre-existing connections to family or friends; she begins with none. Instead, she gradually develops connections through curiosity and analysis, understanding humanity from the outside. She warns the others who kill Shirou Kuramori's family that he has become an enemy, indicating she understands that humans become volatile when protecting or avenging familial bonds. However, she fails to realize she holds the same bond with her child until it is threatened by Kuramori, meaning she could have only understood the human pattern through observation.
Through these observations, she eventually concludes that humans and Parasites are family. Intriguingly, family, although treated positively in Parasyte, still displays side effects. Shinichi's love for his mother prevents himself from defending himself against an impostor even when warned she plans to kill him. Likewise, between Shinichi, Shinichi's father, and Kuramori, their unclosed grief for lost family members damage them. Tamura has likely looked into familial relations and viewed the entire range of what humans can do to fellow family members and still call them family because the connection is biological. In this light, Tamura's conclusion makes sense; even though Parasites and humans harm each other, they are biologically connected in a way neither of them can break. This sort of viewpoint can only be synthesized without the emotional supposition that family is an inherent good.
Tamura also refuses connections that humans and society assume are required. She has sex with A solely to see whether she can get pregnant, and kills him once he becomes a problem. When her supervisors put pressure on her to explain who the father of her baby is, she simply decides to quit. Tamura entirely refuses the nuclear family concept that a household includes two parents who love each other, instead staying single and raising the child with the help of human babysitters.
Reiko Tamura inverts the portrait of humanity by looking at its bonds from outside without pre-existing emotional investment, choosing some connections and severing others. These kept connections range from her species, to the human species, to her child, to Shinichi himself.
Migi
Migi is not a variation of a human being faced with adversity, but pure survival instinct itself. He defends Shinichi and is willing to kill at the beginning even when Shinichi still has morals against killing Parasites. He prevents Shinichi from talking with other people about him on the basis that the government would abduct and experiment on them. Shinichi fights back against Migi when they have to decide whether to attack the Parasite who impersonated Shinichi's mother, but after Migi is proven right and Shinichi has to intentionally use Migi's blade against the Parasite mother, Shinichi becomes more self-sacrificing in his determination to take down Parasites for good.
All of Shinichi's moral fears and drive to protect others comes from Shinichi's relationship with humanity; Migi cares simply about Shinichi's survival, no more, no less. This includes at the end when Shinichi and Satomi Murano have become so attached that her death would destroy Shinichi from within, based on him finding new resolve for life after meeting her while terrified of being hunted by Gotou.
Gotou
As an inversion of Parasyte's portrait of humans and adversity, Gotou is the adversity. He attempts to actively reject humanity itself.
Gotou never becomes human. He never shows attachment or care or even protection of another, only a cold, intellectual interest in his cohorts. He asks about Tamura Reiko and Hirokawa after their deaths without apparent grief, and when both City Hall and the Parasite's plans have been destroyed, he goes to hunt down Shinichi in order to conclude "unfinished business". Once Migi is absorbed and Gotou can no longer find Shinichi, he turns into a feral monster in the woods.
The metamorphosis from a perfect mask of human civility (including classical piano playing) to a monster who hunts humans (and yet stays perfectly intelligent and tactically interested) is striking. Gotou could easily have continued on in human civilization. He had the power to ignore consequences, the ability to infiltrate, and the desire to eat humans. Instead he sheds both human clothing and human form entirely in favor of ambush hunting in the forest like an animal, with no more explanation than "the air feels better out here".
And yet, Gotou's feral form and his (manga) death suggest a lingering biological or psychological connection to humanity. His face and body are still humanoid albeit deformed, complete with the same hairstyle of his human disguise. When he could have killed Shinichi, instead he becomes fixated on a minor conflict far away, where police arrest an illegal trash dumper, allowing Shinichi to stab him with poison and eventually kill him.
In the end, Gotou's death proves Tamura's point that Parasites and humans are inevitably connected. He and Takeshi Hirokawa echo each other; both are actively hostile to human life in a way that ends up orbiting their enemy. Hirokawa grandstands, making a final speech about his human hatred of human nature to human soldiers who don't care about his cause. Gotou leaves all the trappings of humanity behind, only to become blindly enraged when a mere human, Shinichi, is still able to injure him. His wrath and injured pride ignore self-preservation entirely in a futile attempt to wipe out the last human who can oppose him.
Conclusion
The depth of thought and characterization Iwaaki put into this singular work invites many readers and watchers to find their own meaning through the characters and relationships. This essay is missing multiple characters who are unexplored facets, but every character and relationship feels unique and three-dimensional. Whether a major character like Shinichi, a minor role like Uda, or even a tiny, momentary relationship like the injured puppy, Parasyte repeatedly builds on itself through the broad theme of connection.
Parasyte does not simply ask, "What does it mean to be human?" Instead, it depicts the human species at numerous angles. We see humanity at its best and at its worst (such as serial killer Uragami), forming a three-dimensional portrait, complete with multiple inhuman inversions who nevertheless find connection or choose to reject it.
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