Parasyte: The Grey

As someone who saw the anime almost a decade ago, which was an adaptation of a manga by the same name, I was very curious how this story could possibly be adapted into live action without looking very silly (see the Japanese live adaptation films).

Without spoiling anything, The Grey is not another live-adaptation of the manga, nor is it a sequel to it. It's more like a spin-off. The events that happen in Parasyte, in the original material, we only saw what happened in Japan. The Grey looks at what happens when the parasytes affects a different country. In this sense, you don't have to read the manga or watch the anime, as the TV series cover the worldbuilding fairly well.

Now, the big question is, did it end up looking as silly as the films? No. I'd say the special effects in The Grey were awesome. Probably the best parts of the show. It will no doubt look a bit cartoonish still but I was very impressed. How much of it was practical effects? How much was it VFX? They have blended it very well.

However, the shaky cam definitely didn't do the show any favours. Maybe it was a necessary evil to make the VFX looks as real as it did, but I rather have the camera stationary so we can focus on the fights, because some of the fights were pretty insane. But again, it might be because the cuts and shaky cams hid a lot of glaring issues and is why it was used.

Still, Parasyte was and still is an interesting series just because it asks some interesting questions about humanity, survival, and morality. I don't think the philosophy was as in-depth as the manga or anime, given there were only 6 episodes, but there is enough to ponder here and definitely makes me want to watch the anime again (highly recommended but also has its fair share of flaws). For those who knew the source material, the last couple minutes in this show was super cool to see.

In summary, Parasyte has an interesting premise and the TV series did an excellent job adapting it as a live action. Slowly, I think Netflix is producing more and more quality live adaptations which had been known for a long time to be a joke (Cowboy Bebop and Death Note is still a joke but Alice in Wonderland and One Piece was very good).

I have an understandable fear when it comes to anime live action adaptation, especially when we talk about shows where CGI is required, but this was executed relatively well.

The story is good, but not perfect. It can be seen that it uses similar topics compared to the original, when the series elaborate on what being a human means, but the series definitely made those topics its own with its own plot points. Pacing-wise - because the story tries to be a bit more complex at certain points - the first half can feel a bit slow.

For the characters, the main cast is much more unique personality-wise. Like from acting you could tell who has a bigger role in the series. I wouldn't call it bad and it made the characters interesting and less boring, but sometimes it was like that the main cast are the players in a game and everyone else is an NPC. The main cast was good and their characters felt real and developed with the story.

About the technical aspects, the sound directing and OST were good. Nothing exceptional, but worked perfectly.

Directing and editing, again it was good overall, nothing exceptional. There was one really good chase scene without a single cut.

About the CGI and effects, errr... it look good, there was maybe one scene where it looked a bit funny, but even in daylight it looked okay. One little complaint maybe about the blood. They surprisingly low amount of blood. I mean people got beheaded and there wasn't a lot of blood there.

And I would say the weakest part was the choreography. When it comes to normal hand to hand or weapon to weapon combat there are some really good scene out there. We spent decades on creating good looking fights, but here they should have developed a new fight, because the parasites head could shapeshift into a tentacle monster. I believe they failed to do that.

In many cases, while the tentacle fights look cool in a close up, but from a bit afar it looks like they are tied to bodies and their bodies don't do anything just stand there. Imagine a rock with a tentacle, the rock sits in one place while the tentacle fight.

They could have came up with some more unique or interesting fights.

All in all, good to watch, at least once. It is not as good as the original anime, but not as bad as I was expected to be.

Plot

A group of humans wage war against the rising evil of unidentified parasitic life-forms that live off of human hosts and strive to grow their power

Cast

Written by Hotishi Iwaaki (As it should have been) and starring various folks who you'll recognize from various comparable shows and movies.

Verdict

We've had quite a bit of Parasyte, from animated series to live action movies and not one bit of it has been bad despite it not being a fan of the Manga. You know what else has consistently been great over the last few years? All things South Korea, I don't know what's happened but they've been on form for quite a while now and therefore a Korean Parasyte most certainly got my attention as soon as it dropped on Netflix.

Initially you notice it looks great, as it needs to being Parasyte. It needs fantastic gory visuals and it delivers, though arguably the gore is quite light here. It tells a story revolving around a person comparable with Shinichi but delivers a very different bigger scale story. The trouble is we only have 6 episodes so is it able to deliver?

Well, mostly but I still found it lacking. It looks solid, it has decent characters and the plot is passable but as with any 6 episode tv show it's difficult to really pace it correctly and get much character development done.

The Grey is enjoyable and a welcome addition to the Parasyte universe, I'm also looking forward to season 2. But something is missing, and it feels pretty integral.

Rants

I feel as though we need a Parasyte horror movie, no real depth, no real connection to the canon universe but a 90 minute movie that grabs hold of the horror elements of Parasyte with both hands and really delivers. Can you imagine how genuinely unnerving, creepy and intense it could be? Seriously, if they can do a horror movie with Bambi, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh I'm pretty sure we could get a Parasyte one!

The Good

Looks great Solid character

The Bad

Plot could be better Feels rushed.

Filled with action and cliffhangers.

It's not often I watch these sort of gore fest action show. This show was engaging from start to finish, it's common for shows to have lows and highs but this is a stable high show that exceeded my expectations. The designs of the characters and their surroundings is unique and plays a role throughout the show. Everything in the show is intertwined and in the end the plot is naturally engaging without any over the top elements. However there's nothing to really analyse, there's no deeper meaning and overall it's more of a time crunch than a movie you learn something from.

Considered to be a sequel to the famous Anime, Parasyte: The maxim, this show has a very different plot then the original anime itself. Maybe that is what makes it unique in the way, it tells a science-fiction story in such a normalised way. The VFX work is really excellent and it is good to see Korean shows coming with much better stories and beautiful background music. What I felt was that, it was missing the emotional touch, which they tried by exploring some of the relations, but still could not touch at that level. Overall, it is a decent watch for a weekend and I am excited for the next season as it has a hidden surprise for all us anime fans.