Parasyte vol 1 by Hitoshi Iwaaki

Humans are destroying the planet and putting a strain on natural resources. Perhaps in answer to that, strange, parasitic alien lifeforms begin a slow invasion to infect Earth lifeforms and bring down the population. Some infect human hosts, others infect animal hosts. One attacks high schooler Shinichi Izumi, but he manages to keep it inside his arm rather than let it worm its way into his brain. The parasite completely devours and replaces Shinichi's right arm and becomes sentient. It feeds off of Shinichi's systems and protects him out of self-preservation. The parasite, who Shinichi starts calling “Migi”, which means “right”, can sense others of his kind, and they are mostly not in favor of allowing Shinichi and Migi to continue their symbiotic relationship.

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This storyline is enjoyable and not supremely predictable despite it being out in the world long enough for other storylines to riff on it. There was plenty of comedy to break up the horror, which also had lots of action involved. The horror in this story is mostly body horror as the parasites can break themselves up and become weapons. Since the parasites usually infect heads, this means the heads of people and animals become slice-and-dicey weapons. There is a pretty problematic moment when Migi tries to be helpful for Shinichi as he’s flirting with a girl. Migi morphs into a giant penis because he believes Shinichi is being too subtle about his desire to mate. Migi and other parasites are also interested on multiple occasions in human mating or procreation as topics of conversation.

This was originally released by Tokyopop, then Del Rey, but now has a printing from Kodansha that might be easier to find. Kodansha rates this for 16+ and it definitely is because of the violence, body horror, and giant penis.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 11-12

Publisher: Kodansha
Publication Date: December 1, 2015 
ISBN: 9781612620732 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Horror, Humor, Kodansha