*Spoilers*

Parasyte -the maxim is a solid 7/10. The story is not particularly new or groundbreaking, but it’s well executed.

Parasyte follows Shinichi Izumi. He’s an initially dorky high school kid, who gets semi-taken over by a mysterious parasite he names Migi.

Unlike most parasites, who take over the brain and then go on a human-eating rampage, Migi fails to accomplish this due to Shinichi strangling his own arm and preventing Migi from reaching his head. #kingbehavior

The main characters (Migi/Shinichi) have proper character arcs and are generally likable; there are some interesting side characters too. But the female characters are awful.

Like, I know it’s anime and the bar is low for women in general, but how hard is it to write female characters with common sense?

Anyway, because I’m bored and still can’t hike, I’m going to rate them.

Murano Satomi

Alternatively known as In Love With Shinichi. I would write more about her, but that’s basically all there is to know.

Rating: 3.5/10. She served her purpose as a solid love interest and at least she didn’t get in Shinichi’s way, nor did he have to rescue her before the final battle.

Yuko Tachikawa

I give her some credit for having a semi plan when confronting Shimada Hideo (instead of, ya know, just telling her brother she suspects her crush is a parasite) because at least she had a weapon (paint thinner) and an escape plan.

Still, her lack of common sense here is somewhat astounding. Like sure, let’s have a one-on-one meeting with some dude you think is a blood-thirsty parasite. Whatever could go wrong?

Rating: 4.7/10: Poor writing. It’s obvious she’s just a catalyst for Shimada to kill a bunch of folks, which there are dozens of ways that could’ve happened without having people make poor decisions. Any sane person who witnesses someone’s head bounce back from being dented would’ve 100% assumed that person was not human.

Kimishima Kana 

A big theme of Parasyte, other than the ecology stuff, is that being in love turns you into a dimwit.

Enter Kana.

Kana was a bit tragic. While I never liked her, at first she was bossy and mean, which is a personality trait. And she could sense parasites, so I figured she’d be useful in some way.

However, after falling in love with Shinichi, everything goes downhill for her at the speed of light. Despite Shinichi showing no interest in her, she becomes obsessed with him and then (despite her power to detect Shinichi not always actually detecting him), runs into an abandoned building to meet him.

She ends up meeting Death instead.

Rating: 5.5/10. Stupidity personified. Also, taking her out of the story wouldn’t really change the plot significantly, so she was pretty useless on all fronts.

Reiko Tamura

My only issue with her was that her heel face turn happened too soon. I needed one or two more episodes of her having  general existential crisis, before I’d believe she’d willingly sacrifice herself for her kid.

Rating: 7/10.

Shinichi’s Mom Nobuko Izumi

She’s nothing but angst fuel. But she was pretty vital to the plot and Shinichi’s transformation.

Rating: 0/10.