The Fall 2017 Manga Guide

Neo Parasyte M

What's It About? 

This collection of stories inspired by the original Parasyte manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki plumbs the depths of a world where parasites are taking over humanity at an alarming rate. Sometimes dark, sometimes comedic, the far-reaching effect of the invasion changes humanity's landscape into one fraught with danger and the one you trust the most could eat you when you least expect it.

Neo Parasyte m features stories from 12 different shonen and seinen artists including Moto Hagio, Peach-Pit, Riichi Ueshiba, and Hiro Mashima. Kodansha Comics will release the single volume collection on November 14 for US$14.99.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Lynzee Loveridge

Rating: 4

One of two Parasyte side-story compilations, Neo Parasyte m includes 12 stories by shonen and seinen manga creators (the 'm' here denotes 'male,' while the other collection has 'f' for 'female'). Acclaimed sci-fi manga creator Moto Hagio, Fairy Tail's Hiro Mashima, and Peach Pit are just a few of the contributors of what I'd characterize as a very eclectic blend of tales in the Parasyte universe.

Each creator put their own spin on Hitoshi Iwaaki's original concept, sometimes tying into the story directly like Moto Hagio's chapter or just mentioning a prominent character from the original in passing. Reiko Tamura, the parasite that mothers a child in the series, by far appears the most with the fate of her baby being the focus of one the stories. Mostly the tales are unrelated to the canon timeline, instead focusing on completely unique parasites in other parts of the world or cross-over chapters with the creators' original work.

The former are the most successful. Moare Ohta's story about a health-food obsessed parasite living out his awkward days as a husband and grandfather is surprisingly poignant. Takatoshi Kumakura's “The Strange One” about a parasite in denial of his paternal instincts in the name of “raising hosts” is dark and thought provoking. Perhaps the chapter that will bristle the most readers is “Perfect Solider,” where America has hired out parasites to be frontline killing machines to further their wars in the Middle East and beyond. The story is nakedly critical of American war efforts and holds no punches when it comes to painting the country as warmongering imperialists.

The entire collection isn't all wanton alien destruction, though. Several contributors found the humor in Migi's design and his particular location on Shinichi's boy. Peach Pit goes into full shipping mode in “Teach Me, Ryoko Tamiya Sensei!” and Yukari Takinami invents a parasite named “Vaggy” whose location is exactly where it sounds. Akira Hiramoto extrapolates the theme out further where the alien parasites are merely a backdrop to motivate two very human parasites. That story has its fair share of implied grandma sex, which somehow is the strangest thing in the whole volume.

Neo Parasyte m works like a highlight reel for what made the original so intriguing philosophically and comedic despite all the carnage. Fans of the original will want to pick up this collection despite (or because of) a few outstandingly strange stories.

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Amy McNulty

Rating:

As with any anthology, Neo Parasyte M showcases a variety of talents and a mishmash of tones and genres, but as a whole, this collection thoroughly entertains. Some stories are stronger than others, but an individual reader's preferences will play a part in determining which stories work best for them. There are a few fully dramatic pieces, but most of the stories contain at least a touch of comedy and many are outright comedic the entire way through. Among the highlights are the ones that balance both comedy and the seriousness of a world where parasitical aliens take over human bodies and feed on human prey, including Moare Ohta's “Eat It Tonight, Too” and Peach-Pit's “Teach Me! Ryoko Tamiya-sensei.” The stories that examine the conflicting emotions of the parasytes who start human families, such as the aforementioned Ohta story and Takatoshi Kumakura's “The Strange One,” prove fascinating, although it's a shame that the short story format ensures that their human loved ones' reactions to being related to people who act a bit “off” aren't fully given room to breathe. Among the comedic highlights are Hiro Mashima's “Lucy & Migi” (set in his Fairy Tail universe of all things) and Yukari Takinami's bizarre strips about Vaggy, a parasite in a woman's vagina. The most successfully horrific are Ryouji Minagawa's “Perfect Soldier,” Hiroki Endo's “Edible,” and Moto Hagio's “Through Yura's Gate,” although the former two are reminiscent of uninspired action films and the latter is often overdramatic. Takayuki Takeya's “Granny's Regrets” is quite short but extra grotesque since it uses photos of real people.

There isn't a truly weak piece in the volume, although Riichi Ueshiba's “Migi's Journey” is probably simultaneously the highlight of the piece on an artistic front while proving among the least interesting narratively because of its surrealistic, confusing vibe. The art, like the stories, varies throughout the volume, but despite the distinctly different art styles, every story is presented visually in a skilled and suitable way. It's stimulating to see such disparate styles presenting some of the same themes. Perhaps most intriguingly at odds with the Parasyte world is Hagio's piece, which is reminiscent of classic shojo style.

One area where this volume fails is in the Translation Notes at the back of the book, which are numerous and may add good insight to each piece, but they're printed in small size in white ink on black paper and are difficult to decipher. Fortunately, reading them isn't necessary to enjoy the volume.

Neo Parasyte M is a varying romp through the world created by Hitoshi Iwaaki that's sure to leave every Parasyte fan satisfied. Even readers new to the series may enjoy this volume, although obviously, they'll better understand the rules governing the parasytes and be able to recognize the characters from the main series who appear if they start with the original work.

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Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Only minimal knowledge of the original Parasyte manga (or anime) is really needed to enjoy this book – basically what parasytes are. While the protagonist of Hitoshi Iwaaki's manga does show up in a few of the short stories, the majority simply take the idea of his tale's world in order to create new stories which range from the bizarre to the poignant, with a few stops in experimental fables along the way.

While it's always hard to top Moto Hagio, who created the first story in the anthology about the daughter of a parasite-infected woman, my actual favorite piece in the collection is Moare Ohta's “Eat it Tonight, Too,” the first of a couple of stories to explore the idea of parasytes becoming attached to the humans they infect. The main character of Ohta's tale marries a woman who cooks healthy food, and while he never outwardly learns to show affection for his wife or offspring, as his body ages, he comes to realize that he would rather die than eat his grandson. It isn't precisely touching – Takatoshi Kumamura's “The Strange One” is written on the same theme and achieves more emotional weight – but it makes its point without ever losing the basic inhuman nature of its protagonist. It's a blend of worlds and themes that just really works.

The other stand-out story is Ryouji Minagawa's “Perfect Soldier,” which chronicles the war adventures of a parasite who has taken over the body of an American soldier named Max. The government is perfectly aware of this, and is using Max to more effectively fight in the Middle East. But as an enemy parasite tells Max, rather than the humans using him, he's really using the humans – a commanding officer assures Max that he'll always have work as long as “top brass keep ordering weapons.” Essentially, humans are perpetuating the system that allows Max to help the humans destroy themselves.

While other stories, such as Hiro Mashima's almost too-cute Lucy and Happy and Parasyte adventure and another featuring “Vaggy,” a parasite that infects a woman's vagina, don't quite hit the mark, overall this is an interesting, varied anthology. The art runs the gamut from gorgeous to deliberately unattractive, and the stories, while most effective when they're serious, also take a number of different approaches to playing in Iwaaki's world. The white-on-black choice for the cultural notes was a poor choice on Kodansha's part, as it's difficult to read, but on the whole, this is just a good collection of variations on a theme.

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Austin Price

Rating:

I read Neo Parasyte F the day it dropped last year, eager to see how some of the most famous names name in manga approached one of my all-time favorite series, and promptly forgot about it. What else could I do when it proved difficult to remember the bulk of stories minutes after I read them? They seemed completely uninterested in the thematic elements and atmosphere that had made Iwaaki's manga a classic, more like creative-writing exercises or thrown-away pilot chapters the parasites – or, in the worst of cases, Migi and Shinichi – had been pasted into to meet criteria for inclusion.

Neo Parasyte M, by contrast, feels on the whole better realized. Some of the tales collected here are rotten, no doubt: Hiro Mashima's mishmashing of his Fairy Tail and the early chapters of Parasyte is pointless; he takes no pains to find interesting contrast in the stories, doesn't even bother to modulate his style of humor or sense of pacing or writing to match. Akira Hiramoto's “Chinless Gen and I are Parasites” feels like an undeveloped joke made even less intelligible by botched translation.

Other authors and artists know the source material better, though, and have labored to write sincere letters of love to a story that evidently marked their development as readers and artists both. No other story gets the wry comedy of Iwaaki's original quite so right as Takeyuki Takeya's “Granny Regrets”, though Moare Ohta's “Eat it Tonight, Too” better nails its ability to marry that rare sense of humor to the quiet observations of human habits and quirks that so often unfurled into touching insight under Iwaaki's guidance. “The Strange One” treads similar ground, and though it belabors its point a bit, the haunting pace and tone arrive at the collection's most unsettling moment.

Better still is Riichi Ueshiba's “Migi's Journey.” A visual marvel, it stands not just as a chance for Ueshiba to show off his knack for gorgeous, overpacked and hyperdetailed pop-art page, but more importantly as a moving coda to the series proper. Migi was always Parasyte's most interesting and lovable character, and so his unceremonious passing one of its most devastating moments. Though this does nothing to correct that – as if it needed to be corrected by some tearful reunion between old friends – it allows a rare insight into his internal world and a beautiful interpretation of his often-hid feelings that puts a perfectly melancholy cap on his arc.

It's only a shame that the legendary Moto Hagio's look into the life Yura, the child Ryoko and A left behind, was less ambitious. Though then only newly born, Yura presented one of Parasyte's most interesting philosophical challenges and potential mysteries; she deserved a more thoughtful story than this overwrought remixing of a storyline the original series already explored to similarly absurd effect.

Disappointment shouldn't be enough to discourage the interested reader, though. While likely impenetrable and off-putting to the curious neophyte, Neo Parasyte M offers readers familiar with the original a deepening of those same elements that made Iwaaki's original a classic.