Parasyte

Parasyte is a Japanese literary work  that has many adaptations. Iwaaki Hitoshi's manga (Japanese comic) has made its way to becoming an anime (Japanese animations or "cartoons"), and into a live action film.

As you can guess from observing the photo above, the film Parasyte is about.... parasites...

The story revolves around Shinichi, a Japanese high school student living with his single mother, and the human host of Migi, the extra terrestrial parasite that resides in his right hand since it was not able to succeed to his brain and take control of the body from there. Later on as the story develops, this pair would not only be partners in survival, but also the best of friends, as two different ideals, and two different cultures collide.

Due to the Earth's unhealthy living conditions with garbage and pollution destroying the habitats and the environment everywhere, extra terrestrial life forms, or "parasites" descend from the sky in a mission to change the world by hosting to human beings and eradicating the race itself. Sleeping soundly in bed, literally soundly in bed as he listens to music, earphones plugged tightly in, a parasite failed to penetrate through Shinichi's ear and nose. As he woke up and got up to a wild panic, the parasite quickly leaped and burrowed itself into Shinichi's arm, making its way to his brain, their main destination. Acting swiftly and wisely, Shinichi tightly ties his arm with his earphones, making use of them as if they were a tourniquet to prevent the parasite to move up any further.

The following day, Shinichi would then discover the foreign body living in his arm. He would later realize that the alien was his hand itself! Creepy and trippy, right? Now, these parasites are quite intelligent. They have the ability to gather a lot of information with very short periods of time and in with this, the host and the parasite have been communicating with eachother ever since, exchanging information and knowledge essential not only to satisfying their curiosity, but also helping themselves to survive.

Why did I mention survive? Well again, the main objective of the parasites is to take over a human being's body and eradicate all human beings in the world, replacing them as the superior creature, or the "alpha dog". Migi, Shinichi's parasite residing in his right hand, also in ethymology, literally means "right hand" in Japanese, cannot kill Shinichi for he requires Shinichi's living cells and nutrients to survive. When it comes to survival, these parasites know what's best for them and just like every other creature, they are only interested in their own survival. Other parasites that they encounter find their pairing or tandem as a threat to their general objective, hence, everybody tries to kill poor Shinichi and Migi. 

But that's not the only thing that should be taken notice. As one of the parasites attempt to kill Shinichi and Migi, Shinichi lands a fatal blow to the parasite, leaving him bleeding on the floor and left him for dead, so as they thought. In a series of unfortunate events, Shinichi's mom happen to pass by and encounter the dying body and was killed by the parasite in the necessity of transfering to a new host. Being shell shocked, Shinichi was attacked by the parasite, almost killing him if Migi didn't go out his way to save him. Once fully recovered, Shinichi made a promise to himself to eradicate all parasites in existence, bringing forth an opposing party to the dominating force.

The anime Parasyte or Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu, has no major differences with the original plot and story sequence of both the manga and the live action film. Aside from some minor events and fillers, which are required to fill in with content a 24-minute episode of thirteen, the story outline, setting and character portrayals have been quite accurate. It may be more gorish and more detailed, but hey, I wouldn't want to see a 2-hour film filled with actual human blood and intestines scattered all over the pavement now, would I? 

Shinichi and Migi in the cover of the anime adaptation of Parasyte, Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu; "Parasyte: The Maxim"

There are many lessons and messages that the sotry wants its readers and viewers to grasp. One of them depicts the true love and maternal instinct of a mother. When fighting the parasite in the form of his mother, as Shinichi was about to be struck by a fatal blow, part of the mother's body was still there and defelcted the blow, saving him. This may also showcase the idea that no matter what you become, you will always be youself. Another is taking responsibility and having a sense of duty for the welfare of not only yourself, but of many as well. This was shown when Shinichi decided to hunt down every parasite and eliminate them.

If you have watched this excellent movie, you would know why is "happiness" spelled that way.

You see, it spelled with a "y" instead of an "i" because Chris Gardner once said that "happiness" is something that can never be achieved but will always be possible to pursue, and the pursuit of this is what makes life more interesting. I believe that it is true that absolute nirvana cannot be achieved, but "happiness" is such a vague and wide concept. It is something that is limited by perspective but unrestricted by reason. In your pursuit of happiness, one must know what his (own) happiness really is, the true meaning of it. Just like the title Parasyte. Parasite refers to an organism that utilizes a host and resides in it, benefiting from the host's cells and nutrients, while the hosts are harmed. It is commonly used nowadays to a connotative meaning, depicting free loaders or home bums. "We take and take, receive and receive, yet we do not give anything in return". With that simple statement, we can now ask ourselves or engage ourselves in the pursuit of the true defenition of a "parasite". In this context, between the human hosts and the extra terrestrials, which is real "parasite"? Just thinking out loud.