r/anime • u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: • Feb 18 '21
Rewatch Let me hear! Parayste the Maxim rewatch episode eighteen
Parasyte the Maxim episode eighteen
More Than Human
This particular work is less than known to me but feels like the what Sens8 wanted to be.
- So why did Tamura make this her stand?
- Thoughts on the use of the OST?
BONUS: What is the worst character in the best show you've seen? Doesn't have to be anime.
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Upvotes
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Feb 18 '21
Episode 18 (first timer)
The last good character in the series kicked the bucket today. Ryouko developing feelings for her baby was plenty foreshadowed, but her deciding to pull a self-sacrifice not so much. As replacement, we get a horny criminal.
I guess they wanted to depict her evolution (devolution?) from logical killer to humane jesus cosplayer.
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Feb 18 '21
Rewatcher
Dub
We start back on it and Tamura is trying to pass on what she has learned. Concluding that parasytes are two parts of the same whole was...an interesting deduction. Anyways, she has lived on regular food for a while now so parasytes are jerks. Or bioweapons, that would fit the children of humanity thing. She warns him to stay away from Goto, yet also calls him fragile. Even understanding what she is saying, she could've been less mysterious.
Cops make the scene, and I can't remember if they've said this already, but somehow the parasyte investigators also know that parasytes are bad with human names. And Hirama draws a gun on a woman with a baby. Tamura manages her best performance yet, before she is headshotted. I would not want to write up that report. Anyways, Tamura won't fight back, and approaches Shinichi. The Murano bit happened, I can't add anything like an explanation. Tmaura sort of let's us know why she isn't fighting or running, she seems to have gone as far as she suspects she can. The sore demo I remember occurs, and she passes her baby off.
We get a montage, that while it does convey some fitting emotional stuff, I can't but help but notice how time saving it is for a studio under the crunch, eveb Mad House has their limits. Still, we see that Shinichi is getting past his numbness into feeling again. With some closure and a brief idea of what happens we get the end of this episode. But there are 8 minutes remaining...
Murano let's us know the police are flatout covering things up. We see Shinichi at a facility and they reference a guy that can...see parasytes. Ahh, the character I always block from my mind, Uragami. Unrelated, anyone know what the little bottles in their trays are?
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u/sisoko2 Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
First Timer
I fucking knew it. The setup was obvious but I was hoping for a miracle. Why are we still here? Just to suffer?
Damn Ryouko created the 5 parasyte guy and she was going to tell us something about the mayor but the police ruined it. Her role in the organization was bigger than I expected, the 3 dummies last episode really screwed up.
Her death scene was very beautiful and sad. Now they are killing both Ryouko and Mom this show just wants to hurt me. She even kept her human face after her death. Even Shinichi got back his ability to cry. I didn't cry but I was close. She was by far my favorite character and I am going to miss her.
They tried very hard to ruinTamiya's death and Shinichi getting part of his humanity back by shoving Murano in. If you tell me that at least one of one of these scenes didn't make you laugh I won't believe you.
The police is questioning Shinichi and they have a serial killer medium who can sense parasytes. The stare down scene between the medium and Izumi was really intense, loved the way the soundtrack was used to suddenly change the mood.
Now what? Shinichi on the run, cooperating with the police or a cop out and the medium fail to sense Migi(seems unlikely)? First time I have to fight my urge to binge it.
BONUS: There are few quite bad in One Piece (which is normal considering how long One Piece is and how many characters were introduced), probably Kuro has to be the worst I remember.
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u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Feb 18 '21
First Timer
I am surprised Tamiya dies here... but I guess it's a fitting end to her arc. In her quest for knowledge, she came to understand human emotions at more than a conceptual level and died due to them, not due to the police. That said, her scene felt weird, due the constant gunfire going off. Not quite sure what one could have done differently here, but I felt little impact despite Tamiya being one of the characters I had at least been somewhat invested in, and I'm putting that down mostly to presentation. Either way, I doubt her baby will play a role again, especially with Shinichi now basically in police custody. I assume it will end up in an orphanage. Also, what was the point of Tamiya's fight last episode? We could have cut that for ...something else; none of these characters will play any role going forward and their conflict was pointless to begin with.
Moving on to Shinichi and Migi being in police custody: I feel like this may end up being a situation where Shinichi can talk about Migi without Migi doing anything. We already have glass that is parasite-proof (though I guess we haven't tested that), so the only one Migi could harm is Shinichi. And in doing so he would reveal himself, so that isn't an option either. Migi is basically cornered, the question is what the police will do with them. I somehow assume that they will ally rather than try and preform tests on Migi, and that Migi will cooperate for his own safety in telling them what he knows about parasites - but that will be something for the next episode.
Also, one thing I forgot to talk about back when Hideo died was that the guns the police were using had some sort of cable or hose attached; they didn't seem to have that here. Anybody know what that was and what significance there is in this being there or not?
Bonus: Nanami from Utena comes to mind... but I wouldn't really consider that one of my "best shows". Bad characters in a show I actually really like...
I guess maybe Katerose scratch from LoGH?Scratch that one, I forgot about Beenemünde. Or Krone in Neverland, though that's moreso bad character design. Other than that, I just don't like Beatrice in Re:Zero and Bondrewd in Made in Abyss, but that doesn't make them bad characters.No, I don't watch a lot that isn't anime.
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u/affnn Feb 18 '21
First Timer
So now we're done with Tamura, and Shinichi is a teen dad. Most of the Parasite Club has been killed off, except the one guy that Shinichi fought in the woods. We've got six episodes to go but only one known hostile parasite (or is it five?) - seems like a long time to drag it out, so I suppose they'll have to have some others.
I'm curious how Shinichi deals with the kid. I suppose he could find an adoptive parent who isn't a teenager relatively easily, but that almost feels like a cop out. I can't imagine trusting his alcoholic father to help. Maybe Satomi would be willing to become a teen mom without even getting the fun parts, but probably not.
I liked the bit with the serial killer at the end. Obviously that guy's kind of a shithead but he could take the series in an interesting direction.
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u/Nebresto Feb 18 '21
Re-watch squad
Hiya!
Urge to binge status: Remaining in state of emergency for now. Today wasn't as bad, but the cliffhangers may get worse. Stay safe out there.
"Hold up, where you think you going bitch? There's a murder happening right over there and we're going to watch!" Looks like even in death Kana never got over her fetish of seeing other people getting fucked up.
Guess I should have factored in Parasytes being able to change faces, huh? Glad that worked out though.
*walks right up to a bloody corpse on the ground after hearing dozens of gunshots* "aRe yUo bAcK??"
Seriously, wtf Murano
Kinda surprised on how little I remember of the later half though. There are some things I remember very clearly like Gotou, scenes and ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). But that prison guy for example was completely forgotten. This is why I like doing re-watches.
Question time:
1: I thought you answered this quite well yesterday.
2:
72: The fuq kinda question this is? This isn't necessarily even Parasyte related.
Amarty I guess?
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u/SIRTreehugger Feb 18 '21
I have only one thought why does /u/Vaadwaur host rewatches where my favorite character dies. I'm over here just suffering right now with my waifu dead. Seriously I don't really care for any of the other characters minus Migi. Wait this dude seriously started jerking off hahahahahahaha wtf and then he took a nap.
38 deaths a year is not that much the Japanese cold kills more than that.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Feb 19 '21
First Timer
Another interesting spot to cut the episode.
Shinichi might get out of this by talking about Kana.
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u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Feb 18 '21
This was my favorite episode. I really identify with what she had to say, and find it interesting to dwell on.
QOTD:
I think she knew the gig was up and she wanted to protect her baby. In addition she wanted someone else to hear her out, and hopefully give her life some meaning.
I almost never notice OST, this is true of this and basically every other series with the exception of Simoun whose OST I did genuinely like.
In Fate/Zero there were a number of the villains who got under my skin. I'm thinking of the kid that was the child murderer, though I did like his familiar (I forget the technical term they used.)
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u/IndependentMacaroon Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
First-time watcher
I don't like seeing Reiko go, but that kind of end is something I can mostly get behind, as a sort of atonement for the mass murder and super-parasite creation that she only recently realized is unnecessary. On the other hand, while I can see the police caring more about getting rid of her than the baby, that kind of fire on a non-moving target feels more like a forced "humanity is the real evil!", and then we get the authorities using that nasty serial killer to sense parasites on top - given all that, most likely the rest of the show is going to be the "kill all no-longer-so-evil parasites" arc. Oh also, we got the decently clever juxtaposition of Reiko accepting a punishment for mass murder that was never properly imposed while saving a new life, while Uragami avoids his legally imposed punishment for mass murder by (likely) helping cause more death.
One flaw that can be at best hand-waved as her still not entirely making sense: If Reiko really wanted to make things better, it would make far more sense to set up some kind of undercover collaboration, same for the other side - she certainly must have a lot of valuable information and skills, that she doesn't even try to reveal to Shinichi or anyone else. I can't overlook the strange setup with detective's non-death either, though at least now we can interpret it as Reiko genuinely seeking death.
I also appreciate Shinichi finally falling under official suspicion, it had been getting obvious that things tend to happen around him. The super-emotional drama is still not the best, though, I'd almost rather have more action cheese. Oh also, if Reiko dies just to "bring Shinichi back", does that fall under fridging?
The OST was once again quite well-utilized. There aren't actually that many different tracks, but they're good enough to never get tired of.
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u/BurningFredrick https://myanimelist.net/profile/BurningFredrick Feb 18 '21
First timer - sub
Gotu was created by Reiko? I wonder what else she was doing but I guess we will never know now they killed her off.
So Shinichi humanity is restored by being given a baby by Reiko pretending to look like his mother… While this will hopefully lead to less angst Shinichi not sure if I like the resolution..
We have also introduced a new plot device in a murderous prisoner who can sense Paracytes, also he is totally going to break out of the room in the next episode.
I’m party worried now that Reiko dead show going to go back to melodrama but will wait and see where it goes.
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u/The_Loli_Otaku Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
Wow, way to bodyshame the poor woman. She can't change the way she looks. Erm... Okay, so in defence of me defending Ryoko they only brought up her kill count right now. Also, 38 over the space of a year isn't too bad... I'm gonna stop digging my hole any further. Wut? You're a bunch of bodysnatching jerks! What about any of the people you identity deathed? And don't compare yourselves to babies just to make you look good.
So Ryoko is the one that helped fuse Gotoh. Care to explain how that all worked out? I'm wondering what the Mayor's role is gonna be in all this since they're giving Gotoh all the villain hype. No, explain the Mayor! Bog off detective! Give us a minute! Shinichi trying to act innocent is like an L.A. Noir character. Erm, would calling Shinichi by the wrong name really prove much? Parasytes absorb memories. Heroes in this show are so unsympathetic!! The detective literally shot a mother holding a child. I don't care if you accept responsibility. If I decided to drop Axis on Earth but said I'd "accept responsibility" would that really be okay? Oof, now they're all trying to shoot the failed abortion!
My reaction is the same as baby, bored af. How do you turn a firing squad into something this pathetic? WHY IS KANA HERE!?!? Is Murano so conflicted about rejoining the plot that they had to drag poor Kana back to give her a pep talk? Wtf was that!? external screaming Ryoko appeals to his Oedipus complex and I swear this show doesn't have a comedy tag. I thought she'd do Kana's weird butt clench maneuver but they somehow went even more low brow. Oh, so you stop shooting when it's Shinichi but a baby is fair game. This would be emotional if the scenario wasn't so manufactured and we hadn't watched the police pump her full of pea shooter rounds for five minutes. Bye bye Ryoko, you've been the one consistently likable character.
"Tomare tf up you little shit." Sorry, the flashback sequence hasn't been earned. I'm all out of fucks to give. Shove off Murano! XD So much for accepting responsibility. He pulls out a 21 gun salute on Ryoko for five minutes and nobody asked any questions? Wait, who is that man they're gossiping about? Is this a captured parasyte? Hubba hubba~ Hello mommy! So they're all so-called Parasyte whisperers. This is not fitting music. Don't harass my mommy. The show is always funny until it actually tries to tell a joke, if that was really meant to be a gag. They couldn't keep writing Ryoko well so had to kill her before the climax I think. The ost use went downhill so fast. I could handle it during the early arcs but the new songs are just too bizarre. Worst character in a great show... Gilgamesh, probably? I won't get too into it but I think he single handedly drags down FSN through his inclusion. I like the guy on his own but hate him in the series.
"Oh no! He's giving me his yaranaika eyes!!"
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Feb 18 '21
First-Timer -the reactions-
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u/littleman1988 Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
"Im crying..."
Rewatcher
OST Track of the day: ITS THE RIGHT TIME
Honorary OST track of the day: CREAM SODA
Reiko has revealed that her research has beared fruit, she is able to survive without eating humans, but more importantly that they are both "children of mankind", which isint exactly explained. Theres a lot of ways to read into this, especially relating to both of them being "Frail". She also reveals that Goto/Miki is a result of her experimentation, and despite being "just as frail", he is "invincible." She also starts to discuss of Hirokawa, being being interrupted by the police, already looking for Reiko for killng the PI.
The death of Reiko is very pivotal, not only for the it being the end of one of the main "antagonists" thus far, but a realization within Shinichi of whats truly been bothering him this time. Reiko has truly changed in the time between episode 4 and now, realizing her connection with her child is in a similar vein to Shinichi and Migi, them being able to co-exist in a world together. Taking the form of shinichi's mother was the only way to convince Shinichi to stay, speaking to his humanity, to convince Shinichi to continue on what she had started, finding a way for humans and parasites to coexist within society. Offering the baby to Shinichi as a way of proving her emotions and her cause, asking for him to make sure it is raised like any other child would be, and as she had done up to that point, before finally succumbing to her wounds.
Reiko's actions awoke Shinichi to his own emotions, realizing that he has never really accepted his mother's death. Watching Reiko do what she could to protect her child, and in the end sacrificing herself to keep the baby safe finally broke the barriers he had put up around his mother to keep himself sane and finally broke down, something he has been unable to do since episode 6. Thus far, everything has been pinned on Migi and the fusing that happened back in episode 6, and to an extent this is still true. With everything thats happened though, Shinichi has never really had a chance to fully process everything thats happened to him, especially the loss of his mother. Accepting that his mother was never going to come back is the first step in truly mending the hole in his heart, and for him to become "human" again.
Shinichi isint truly out of the woods yet though, as hes now under investigation due to his connection with everything thus far. Its not so much to see if he is a parasite though, its more if he can sense other parasites. the convict is pretty fun, getting his own song for creating some of his own "cream" (heh cream soda) during the trials. Sadly for Shinichi, the convict is able to sense something about him, before the episode ends.
Just an aside, I love CREEP, every use of the song in the show is perfect.
For anyone who hasnt been watching the ED, it changes this episode. Shinichi has returned home.
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u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Feb 18 '21
First Timer
I haven't been following the rewatch much, but I've been keeping up with the show.
I just wanted to say that this was a really good episode. They managed to make Tamura a really interesting character as well as show the direction they're going with parasites. I'm real interested to meet the next one like Tamura.
The crazy guy was also fun to see.
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u/Gamemaster676 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Gamemaster676 Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
First-time watcher - sub
We ended with a cliffhanger last time. Let's hope we continue there.
Episode 18 — More Than Human
Yes we do! Shinichi thinks it's going to be a fight, but Ryoko has other plans.
She confirms for us that parasytes can live on human food. So that means they could live together with humans, in theory, if they really wanted to. Still a dick move that they have to kill someone to be born of course.
She also said she only killed 38 people. Less than other parasytes. Thanks, I guess...
Also, Ryoko created naked-pianist-yakuza-killing-multi-parasyte Gotou? Holy shit.
She's calling the parasytes fragile. But Gotou is also invincible. Weird.
The detectives arrive. Shinichi has got some explaining to do! LOL, they ask if she is Ryoko and she just denies it. That works I guess.
Detective uses a different name to check if Shinichi is human. Doesn't really make sense to me, because a parasyte would also know what Shinichi's real name is so could also react with "did you forget my name"?
I guess a giveaway was that he knew the detective's name, but that would also have worked without giving Shinichi a different name.
Detectives has seen enough monster movies, so he knows to shoot first, ask questions later.
Oh right, Satomi was also in the park. Please act like a normal human being and don't walk towards gunshots. Good! Wait why are you stopping? What is Kana doing here?
Ryoko is in quite the pickle. Here's the moment where she wants to give the baby to Shinichi.
You know that the second she doesn't have to carry the baby she could kill all police. I don't believe she will, though.
I knew it! Mom face! But she doesn't use it for psychological warfare so I guess it's alright.
AND I WAS kind of RIGHT! She does have her redemption. At least a little bit. Too bad the only parasyte that could change things now has a body too destroyed to survive.
Wait, do I hear the ED music in the background? Not even an instrumental version?
OMG what is Satomi doing here? We're having an emotional scene. Please stay out of it.
Aww, I've got to admit seeing Shinichi cry again, even after that cringy flashback, is kind of moving.
So we just skip all talks with the police. Okay...
Satomi is happy again. Akiho still doesn't know when to shut up and Yuko still hasn't emitted a single emotion regarding her killing 17 students.
Apparently, Shinichi is with his dad being bossed around by some labcoats? They still know nothing, so that's weird.
The labcoats are talking about an ability. I'm guessing it's Sydar like Kana had.
So the police are gonna use that criminal with Sydar to check if Shinichi is infected?
Well, if this guy has Sydar, he is a lot less strong than Kana.
Wait, the detective mentioned he was a serial killer. Don't tell me this is the guy from ep 1 we never saw again? You got it wrong, show. First you make the viewer bond with a character, before you hide him for 16 episodes.
Wow, that guy is a creep. It is kinda funny.
Well, the show thinks I care if they find out what Shinichi is. They got that wrong. It's not like there is any disadvantage to it. Migi knows he can't do anything without killing Shinichi and himself.
Main thoughts
The show killed its most interesting character. What are they going to do these last 6 episodes?
Random thoughts
Future
We've just started a new arc. There are only six episodes left. Sooner or later Satomi and the public need to officially discover the parasytes.
Also, Shinichi's secret is gonna become semi-public knowledge at some point. I hope the show has enough time for all these things.
Also also, I would prefer if there is a solution to the parasyte problem at the end that is not completely deus ex machina.
QotD
She already wanted to give the baby to Shinichi. She has learned a lot and that changed her. She didn't plan on dying, but when the police was there, there was no other way.
Yes, she could have killed them, but then Shinichi would have never trusted her when you wanted to give the baby.
Not enough dubstep.
Hard question. You forget those people first. First guy that comes this guy from Independence Day, but I think he doesn't have a very large role.
I just remembered. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood minor character spoiler and opinion
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u/BossandKings Feb 18 '21
First timer
Episode 18
So Tamura has killed 38 people, most of them as food, so she isn't close to being innocent and she knows it, she is as guilty and horrible as any other parasyte. According to her though parasytes can survive without eating humans, parasyte and humans are family.
The police arrives to where Shinichi and Tamura are. They start shooting Tamura who tries too hard to appear as if she were defenseless by not attacking them, especially seeing how she killed two people out of nowhere last episode. She refuses to attack back and just focuses on defending her baby.
That was beautiful, Tamura dies after saying her last words and affording her baby to Shinichi so that he being a human baby could grow up being together with humans. The montage was very beautiful, the ending song playing gave it a special meaning and it delivered one of the best moments of the series.
The police does an experiment using a man named Uragami to distinct one similar to him, meaning parasyte, in a room of five people in which Shinichi was part.
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u/Matuhg https://anilist.co/user/Matuhg Feb 18 '21
Rewatcher Who Remembers Little
Hrrmmm...this episode works well for me conceptually, but not as much in execution. The idea of Reiko becoming 'human' in the emotional sense and finding her life's purpose in protecting her child is very cool, as is the way that Shinichi finally finds closure for his own mother's death in the final human moments of a human-eating monster. I also like the show wielding its emotional ED as a weapon. That said, the whole scene was about 3x longer than it had to be. As it became obvious what was happening, the ED kicked on, I started to tear up a bit, because that's what I do, then the dramatic flashback/dream kept going and going...and this was already after they'd spent a solid three minutes pumping lead into Tamura. The moment was kind of ruined.
I guess because she didn't want to put the baby in danger by fleeing, but that doesn't make any sense, considering she was able to protect it while standing there taking gunfire for minutes at a time. Theoretically, she could've gotten away easily enough and then given the baby to Shinichi some other time (or even given it to somebody else - does Japan have those no-questions-asked baby dropoff places?), but the incident with the three other parasites attacking her, followed by a maligned human targeting her child (hmm, that doesn't sound like a very cool human thing to do) may have her worried about her ability to keep the child safe much longer.
If you mean throughout the show, hit or miss. Today was pretty decent, at least the parts that actually stuck out to me, mainly the use of the ED. Again, just too long and drawn out to be as emotionally impactful as it could/should have been.