Parasyte (Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu) has been a provocative series. On a surface level, it weaves together grotesque, hyper-violence with humor and a gentle protagonist, while combining modern anime style with 80’s sensibility. On a deeper level, it also calls forth significant topics – in episode two, we are introduced to a heavy environmentalist theme, as well as something more philosophical.
The Claim
Shinichi, as you’d expect, is having a hard time getting used to alien living on his hand. He calls it all sorts of names (other than the one it gives itself – Migi), including “demon.” But Migi has an interesting response to being called this:
Shinichi, upon researching the concept of demons, I believe that, among all life, humans are the closest thing to it.
The rest of the episode, it seems, does a lot to support Migi’s assertion.
Fact Check
Migi is basically comparing demons to “living things,” which we can divide into humans, this new alien species, and everything else. And his understanding of demons is related, probably, to the Japanese idea of demons. But for our purposes – especially since I believe Christianity to be true – we’ll focus on approaching this quote from a biblical perspective.
Demonology from a “Christian” or western points of view mixes legend and apocrypha with biblical writings. So a lot of what we accept isn’t necessarily true. However, with all the myth and fact that surrounds demons, one thing we can focus on is this – they believe in God and yet oppose Him (James 2:19).
God is love. God is holy. God is just. The demons, and the prince of demons, oppose these ideals. They worship things other than God, believing their way to be higher than His. They choose themselves over God.
Sound familiar?
Not only do humans fail to worship God, following their own ways, they also fail in comparison to creation – another living thing that Migi compares demons to. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, creation does a better job of worshiping God than we do, for it does what it was meant to do, while humans do not.
So, Migi is pretty on track with his claim – although I don’t think his (so far) selfish self is any closer to being angelic than humans are, so perhaps he should count his cannibalistic kind as demonic as well.
The Grade
Migi’s claim receives an 8 out of 10.
Humans choose their own way, which is in opposition to God, very much like demons (and unlike other created things). Migi, though, seems to be just the same way.
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Check out previous post in this series, about Claymore.
The look of the aliens when mixed with the humans is disturbing. I don’t think I’ll be watching that one.
Just a warning, after checking tvtropes, it seems that not only features gore and body horror, that series also goes into other disturbing territories, maybe you’ll (and the readers) can check the article.
It’s not for everyone. In fact, it might not even be for me. I’m still tuning in because, while it contains a lot of dark imagery and other negative content that I’ve seen in similar series and movies (Gantz comes to mind), Parasyte has so far actually kept it surprisingly toned down and, as you can see from this article, has some surprising depth to it. This is all “so far” – who knows where it’ll go as the season wears on (well, manga readers will know, but I haven’t read this series).
I’m really loving Parasyte, I had been planning to read the manga for a long time, but forgot about it, then the anime came out, I watched one episode and HAD to read the manga, which I basically read through the entire thing in a day because it instantly hooked me, and thankfully the anime is keeping pretty close to the manga although it is a bit censored (fortunately or unfortunately depending on how much gore you can handle.)
I even got a little Migi pencil holder on Amazon since it was pretty cheap, so cute!
Migi pencil holder? Sounds cute indeed!
Also I wanted to mention on “Christian themes” in Parasyte, well I think you’d have to look pretty hard for anything, but (MANGA SPOILERS!!!!)
Later in the manga the Parasyte who had taken over a woman’s body sacrifices her life for her baby, because apparently she grew to have emotions and motherly love after awhile, and then later at the end of the series Migi nearly sacrifices himself to save Shinichi, and Migi talks to himself about how he was glad that he didn’t manage to take Shinichi’s head because it allowed them to become friends.
“And his understanding of demons is related, probably, to the Japanese idea of demons. But for our purposes – especially since I believe Christianity to be true – we’ll focus on approaching this quote from a biblical perspective.”
Why arbitrarily change the context like that?
This article’s purpose is not to explain authorial intent – that’s never true of posts in this series. Instead, we take a famous or interesting quote from a series and ask an absurd question – does it hold weight in a Christian worldview? Whether it does it not had no bearing on the quality of what was said – we can’t apply that standard across all these many boundaries – but it instead presents us with a unique way to look at Christian belief. But hopefully more substantial than that, it helps readers consider biblical ideas in places they normally wouldn’t expect to find them (and where they were never intended), which has significance if you’re a Christian, for you believe both that a) we hope to let Christ reign above and through everything in our lives and b) Christianity is truth, and it is truth regardless of culture. And if you’re not a Christian, these posts hopefully serve as an interesting way to learn more about Christian thought.
[…] In the anime, Parasyte: The Maxim, a small parasite named “Migi” becomes attached to Shinichi’s right hand. Shinichi calls the parasite a demon, but according to Migi’s internet research humans are closer to demons than even he. [See: Fact Check Migi’s Claim] […]