Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Parasite, Parasitic Beasts, Parasyte
Japanese: ๅฏ็็ฃ ใปใคใฎๆ ผ็
English: Parasyte: The Maxim
German: Parasyte -the maxim-
Spanish: Parasyte -the maxim-
French: Parasite -la maxime-
Information
Episodes:
24
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Oct 9, 2014 to Mar 26, 2015
Broadcast:
Thursdays at 01:29 (JST)
Duration:
23 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Score:
8.321 (scored by 12490251,249,025 users)
Ranked:
#301 2
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#43
Members:
2,033,846
Favorites:
36,700
Available AtResources
Streaming Platforms
May be unavailable in your region.
|
Ranked #301Popularity #43Members 2,033,846 All of a sudden, they arrived: parasitic aliens that descended upon Earth and quickly infiltrated humanity by burrowing into the brains of vulnerable targets. These insatiable beings acquire full control of their host and are able to morph into a variety of forms in order to feed on unsuspecting prey.
Sixteen-year-old high school student Shinichi Izumi falls victim to one of these parasites, but it fails to take over his brain, ending up in his right hand instead. Unable to relocate, the parasite, now named Migi, has no choice but to rely on Shinichi in order to stay alive. Thus, the pair is forced into an uneasy coexistence and must defend themselves from hostile parasites that hope to eradicate this new threat to their species.
[Written by MAL Rewrite] The anime was simulcast by Crunchyroll outside of Asia.
Aside from the manga and anime, the series also has two live-action film adaptations.
The Chinese Ministry of Culture blacklisted Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu as well as 37 other works on June 9, 2015. | |
|
MALxJapan -More than just anime-
| Characters & Voice Actors
Reviews
Apr 8, 2026
This seinen title impressed me in middle-school. Revisiting this as an an adult is an entirely different story. Don't get me wrong, Parasyte the Maxim is still, by all means, a good alien action-drama. Brain-eating Parasyte comes down to earth, fails to seize the brain, then matures in a high-schooler's right-arm. Overtime the two learn to coexist together, and they learn to fight other parasytes to protect humanity. To be honest, a lot of the problems I have with this show relates to the romance plot, and how Shinichi behaves across the season. You have a high-schooler dealing with grief and identity, a half-baked love
...
triangle, and a mishmash of different story arcs spread across 24 episodes. To start off, Murano has to be the worst romance interest of all time. She's not even a romance interest. She's just... there. Not only does she refuse to help Shinichi deal with his emotions, she continually berates him for behaving "differently" than her ideal version of him. All she does is confront him about how "he changed." She ignores him for an episode then comes back and berates him again. This repeats throughout the season. The man is going through an identity crisis and she keeps bitching about how "you've changed, " and "I never want to talk to you again" (even though she continues to do so). Honestly, Kana was ten times better. Then there's Shinichi. Ever since Migi dispersed himself inside Shinichi's body, he starts acting less human than before. It's basically the plot of Spiderman 3. We're supposed to see Shinigchi gradually turn into this apathetic alien. However, it just comes off as Shinichi having these bipolar mood swings and random outbursts. He's like that Bully Maguire meme where Peter flip flops between douchebag and nice guy throughout the movie. A lot of Shinichi's personality swings felt more like "forced dialogue" just to add conflict between him and Murano. It's really just your typical Peter Parker and Mary Jane type of relationship. Also, a lot of the motivating factors behind Tamiya Ryoko and Goto's organization were barely explained. Tamiya Ryoko was a great antagonist; however, her arc just dragged on for too long. I can't, in good conscience, give this an 8 given all those issues I pointed out. Nevertheless, Parasyte the Maxim is still a decent story with hype action. If you ignore the Spiderman 3 romance plot and focus on Shinichi and Migi's relationship, the show can be very enjoyable. This anime applies concepts of Darwinism, sociology, and ecological science from different ethical viewpoints. Plus, Madhouse really cooked with the animation, so that's one thing to look forward to.
Reviewerโs Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Jun 5, 2025
Kiseijuu or Parasyte is an anime with a title that ironically enough does not unambiguously refer to the parasites that the anime is about. Good luck figuring that one out (episode 21 4:10).
Parasyte has a pretty interesting story about parasitic aliens appearing on the world. The story takes place over a relatively long period of time (more than a year) which gives the situation a lot of time to develop which makes the story way more interesting. It does however lead to a slightly jarring switch in pacing near the end when a lot of events happen in a single day. A problem with the
...
story is how it's situated in the rest of the world. In Hollywood movies aliens always invade New York or some other US city, it is then unsurprising that in this Japanese work the main place the story takes place is in the mid-sized Japanese city of Fukuyama. What is surprising however is that in the story the events that take place in Fukuyama have a disproportionally huge effect on the rest of the world while they really shouldn't which detracts from the story a bit. There are quite a few nice philosophical and horror elements in this story.
The characters are quite good. They are well written, have believable personalities and I often enjoyed just watching them interact. The anime does, however, enjoy putting them in situations that are annoying to watch or lead to poor outcomes. Personally I found these situations painful to watch and lamented some of the characters decisions but it's not like this is objectively bad.
The animation not amazing. There were quite a lot of cgi crowds with a crowd sometimes constituting of only 3 people. They're never present for long though and are easily ignored. Overall the animation was adequate for the story and managed to portray the parasites well enough but it's not an animation that you'll watch for the story. The music was pretty good and the main OST was very suitable.
Overall this is a pretty good anime with a nice story and interesting philosophical elements. It has good characters and adequate animation. If the idea of extra-terrestrial parasites infecting and killing people sounds remotely interesting to you then this is probably worth a shot.
Reviewerโs Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nov 23, 2024
TLDR: overrated and underwhelming anime. It's not terrible per se, it's just extremely uninteresting.
Sadly this anime is very overrated, to a point I don't get why people were hyped at all.
The best description for me is "underwhelming". Nothing is actually interesting past the first 2 episodes. Most fights in the second half involve characters you just met and have not attachment to, whatsoever.
The most tensed episode is the last one... And it's just extra, unnecessary drama that brings nothing new to the story.
The rest is either predictable, unnecessary or underwhelming. When a major death happens, the animation and direction makes it look like a slice
...
of life anime.
The fights themselves are the best part, but are still unoriginal.
Reviewerโs Rating: 2
What did you think of this review?
50 Entries ยท 73 Restacks
Poll: Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
Stark700 - Feb 11, 2015 |
387 replies | by Lucas1017_ ยปยป
Apr 2, 4:09 PM |
Poll: Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu Episode 14 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
Stark700 - Jan 14, 2015 |
281 replies | by Lucas1017_ ยปยป
Mar 29, 2:38 PM |
Poll: Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
bastek66 - Mar 25, 2015 |
678 replies | by TheDeep007 ยปยป
Mar 27, 12:38 PM |
Poll: Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
Stark700 - Jan 7, 2015 |
320 replies | by TheDeep007 ยปยป
Mar 26, 6:49 PM |
Poll: Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )
Stark700 - Dec 24, 2014 |
651 replies | by Lucas1017_ ยปยป
Mar 26, 4:03 PM |
|
|
