Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Parasyte
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Nadare Xizos
 Posts: 115 Location: The Heero Hole |
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I loved the article! I discovered Parasyte back when TOKYOPOP published it, and I liked the series enough to buy it again when Del Ray put out their editions. It's one of my favorite sci-fi manga, and I'm glad to see other people talking (and thinking) about it.
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PipingHotTea
 Posts: 150 |
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One of my favorite sci-fi manga series and I hope to get my hands on the Del Rey editions.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Man, this was one of the first Del Rey series I ever bought! The cover struck me as awesome, and after manga-cow reading it in Borders, I bought vol 1. But man, the delay between vols 1 and 2 and 2 and 3 were just ridiculous, thankfully they got on an actual release schedule for the last 5 volumes, but the wait was just painful! I think there was at least 9 months between each of those first 3 volumes!
I don't usually like anything remotely environmental in nature, but Parasyte knows how to play it without sounding preachy. As long as it doesn't sound preachy about it, I am there (like with Please Save My Earth, wherein the most preachy part of the series was its name) |
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster
Posts: 357 Location: San Francisco |
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A few more things about Parasyte:
(1) The fight scenes are really good. (Well, not at the very beginning, when the enemies are dumb and aren't expecting them, but later.) Normally, it's surprisingly hard to make exciting fight scenes between, basically, blobs, since they can do anything so it's hard to imagine WHAT they would do, but in Parasyte, there's all kinds of cool battles. (2) Carl Horn mentioned to me in an email: "I guess to the extent Parasyte is meant to be a logical SF story, it actually makes more sense for them to be from Earth, since that would make it easier for them to infect Earth creatures than if they evolved on an alien world. To me one of the most interesting things about the writing is the way Iwaaki inverts the old cliche of the collectivist or hive-mind alien; the Parasytes are *more* individualistic than us, and it's only our limited ability to cooperate that gives us what chance we have against them. " |
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Aynslesa
Posts: 199 |
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Parasyte ended up being one of the first non-shoujo manga series I ever read, and I've read both versions - the localized left-to-right format of Tokyopop, and the more recent authentic translation right-to-left by Del Rey. It's one of those stories that really makes you *think*.
The first time I read it I remember being slightly displeased that the Parasyte's origins are never explained, or that there's no clear resolution to whether or not they get defeated. It wasn't until I read it the second time, when I purchased the Del Rey release, that I realized that none of that actually matters. Parasyte isn't about the Parasytes - it's about Shinichi, and Migi, and Satomi, and Ryoka. It's about the characters, and this period in their lives. The ending is particularly poignant to me as Shinichi finally appears to fully accept who and what he has become - and I think it's particularly telling that the final challenge he has to face spoiler[comes not from a parasyte, but from a human]. This article is exactly right when it calls Parasyte a coming-of-age story - it just also happens to have a lot of decapitation and disembowelment to go with it. If you're a fan of stories that make you think, and have a fairly strong stomach (Iwaaki isn't gratuitous with his artwork, but he is fairly numerous), then I would definitely recommend Parasyte. |
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Asterisk-CGY
 Posts: 398 |
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And like anything there's a porn comic the guy wrote about some a parasyte couple and their family. Ends with a bit where the wife parasyte refuses to age her face even after 16 years.
Random things on the internet. |
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oriana3k
Posts: 94 |
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I just went on Amazon to check prices for the volumes, and it looks like Kodansha Comics did a stealth rerelease of the first four volumes a year ago, with the next three scheduled for next August (I don't see a new listing for volume 8). It's great news for anyone needing the OOP volume 7, but wow. I'm feeling kinda blindsided - I hadn't seen or heard any publicity for those releases at all. They aren't even listed on the Kodansha Comics site.
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_Emi_
 Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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From the way everyone's talking (typing?), I take it that Del Ray's release is from what the encyclopedia lists as the complete edition?
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Daimao Raki
 Posts: 593 Location: Dark Side of the Moon |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Thank you for revealing the origins of Parasytes in the article! I must have missed that note when I read the series, and the lack of resolution has bothered me for years. I chalked it up to author laziness (quite a few fantastical stories have a "where did it come from? You decide!" type ending), and just tried to ignore the environmental messages while I enjoyed the increasingly touching and exciting story of A Boy and His Alien.
The idea that the Parasytes were created on Earth by somebody in order to decrease the population makes a lot of sense, fitting in with the naturalistic, survival of the fittest food chain theme (If humans are on the top of the food chain, create a smarter creature that will eat them in order to take 'em down a notch). It's too bad that Parasyte origins were never explored in a sequel or side story. Eh, chances are whoever created the Parasytes either became one or was eaten by one, anyway. 
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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Hahaha......... I remember a bygone scene where a little girl and her young mom bought Mixxzine for Sailor Moon............ We were gonna say something................. but we ended up not saying............
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RAmmsoldat
 Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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oh man you just made my day, i really wanted to get parasyte but saw vol.7 was so OOP that i wasnt going to bother but if kodansha have been sneaking it out i'll pick it up. I dont know why they keep suff like that secret, If i asked em about it I rekkon they wouldnt reply. vols 5-8 august 21 2012 according to the random house page. yeeehaw |
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cloud8100
Posts: 550 |
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Think i'll pick up the kodansha ones
 . Number 8 is listed for the same time as the next 3 in August on amazon uk. There are 8 volumes in all, right?
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RAmmsoldat
Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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Yeah 8 total, well spotted on the amazon ones btw, I emailed em about those books earlier and they told me to go buy the £50 ones off the marketplace, needless to say when i got asked for feedback i told em they were crap. So basically you just did the amazon reps job 100% better and you wernt even asked to lol. I ordered vols 1-4 in light of this new info today and am made up as i thought id never get another chance to own these books. |
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster
Posts: 357 Location: San Francisco |
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No. WAY. Tweet/DM me a link! @khyungbird |
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