#parasaito

[qaantar-japanese]

Oh. Absolutely my favorite chapter so far of this series.

[qaantar-japanese]

On to volume 8 of Parasyte (寄生獣, Kiseijuu), featuring Tamura Reiko on the front.

Well, I had a feeling she was going to die, but this image of her in a white dress would seem to foreshadow it... I kinda hoped she would make closer to the end, though (there’s still 2 volumes after this one).

[qaantar-japanese]

And... She's gone. Ah well. But she left an important gift, and I'm not talking about the baby. It felt a little abrupt, though, but so be it. The end of Volume 8. The back cover yet again featured Shinichi looking off into the distance.

[qaantar-japanese]

The English scanlation has to deviate big time here, and it causes further problems. Uda Mamoru (right) notes that Shinichi’s parasite speaks very nicely. But he uses the word パラサイト (parasaito). And in the Japanese version, he asks what that word means. Uda (on the left panel) says that パラサイト is the English word for 寄生動物 (kiseidoubutsu, parasite animals). It’s easier to say, so that’s why he uses that word. The scanlation stays away from talking about it, I guess because the translation is in English and it wouldn’t make much sense to say “parasite is the English word for parasite.”

However. This causes problems a page later when Mamoru goes to name is parasite:

So in the original, Mamoru decides to call his parasite by that English word, and so he names it パラサイト (again, parasaito). The scanlation, having already avoided the parasaito discussion, goes with “parasa” and adds a note that hey, “parasa” sounds like “parasite” -- well, that’s odd because “parasite” also sounds like “parasite.”  (And yes, continuing the tradition of incorrect name translations, the scanlation gets Mamoru’s name wrong).

[qaantar-japanese]

On to volume 7 of 寄生獣, Kiseijuu, or, Parasyte. A foreshadowing perhaps, Shinichi looks bloody and a bit furtive... And in the woods?

[vk-quotes]

[bebe-dora]

Delacroix - parasaito