Parasyte -The Maxim- ~Episode 21 [At long last]

Okay! I’ve been waiting the whole series to bring this screen cap back. So just bare with me here for a second, like I’ve wanted this for a long time now.

WELL, it took 21 episodes but at last Migi! There is no point to be disappointed anymore, we get to see it at last or, as much as they could show without upping the rating. Which was their naked upper halves and them kissing. So, there’s that. IT’S STILL SOMETHING RIGHT? God i’ve been waiting for this moment pretty much since Migi said this quote.

So I guess I should talk about you know, the stuff that led up to Shinichi making it with Murano at long last. So, we start off with Mayor Hirokawa giving the riot squad that cornered him. He speaks to them about the weapons they hold and how they should be used for the more noble cause of culling out the excess humans. That we should be thanking our predators for keeping us from growing out of control.
That humans are the true parasitic beast on this planet. They shoot him, they find that. He’s human. He was never a parasite. He was only siding with the parasites.

Alright, let’s stop here and talk about Hirokawa. From what we’ve seen of him in this entire series, he’s been completely emotionless. So much so that one would mistake him for a Parasite. While that was necessary for the author to make us believe he was a parasite up to this point, you could read it with this meaning.  He’s quite obviously a sociopath with the makings of a dictator with his belief in the culling of the human race. He might actually be one of the scariest characters in this series, because he is someone you could meet in real life. He’s not a monster in the terms that he’s like Gotou who can shift his body and do impossible things. He’s someone who could be integrated into society with no problem.
He became a mayor, who’s to say he couldn’t of moved up the chain and become an even more political figure with those kinds of ideologies. I recall thinking back earlier in the series that it was silly that they never checked if he was human before letting him into office, but the thing is, he WAS human. So even if they did check, which i’m sure now that they did. There is no way they would of been able to tell that he was siding with the parasites.

ah, he just freaks me out. Well anyway, Gotou comes in. Murders the whole riot squad, even the leader when they are up on the roof. The leaders head drops down into some bushes. Gotou comes down and spots Shinichi and tells him that soon, soon he’ll be coming for him. I felt it worthy to mention the guys head falling in the bushes because of the scene used to transition between Shinichi with the riot force and him back in his house.
As Gotou threatens him, it melds together with the detective insisting that Shinichi is hiding something. Then he hears the men saying that there is a head in the bushes and he walks over to the bushes and looks and the head that’s there is his.

He jerks awake from the nightmare.

This part of the episode is really cool. I’ve seen anime depict mental breakdowns, I’ve seen it tackle social anxiety and what it looks like. This episode had the most beautiful representation of a psychotic break with massive paranoia that I can imagine. As Shinichi realizes that Migi is asleep while he’s outside, he begins seeing Gotou everywhere and in everyone. The coloring, the slowly building music is tailored to make you feel the paranoia that Shinichi is feeling.

When some people bully him into apologizing for bumping into him. He is so freaked out, he does it and they persist and he beats them up. Eventually he evens out the paranoia but he’s still scared half to death. Thus why when he first goes to Murano, he hugs her so tightly. That he hurts her.

He goes and sits in a park and talks with Migi about going far, far away. Migi asks if his senses have been dulled, because Murano is standing right there and Shinichi didn’t notice.
They have a talk and then she asks if he would like to come over her house, there’s nobody home. It’s funny, when you think you’re going to die, what you will do. They have intercourse [WHOOT, AT LAST] and he confesses that he loves her. She says, that they’ve been through a lot together and that she’s sure that they can get through anything together. It’s really romantic actually, the episode ends with them laying together in bed and still kissing. Round 2 maybe?

This episode was a VAST improvement over the last one. So much more human emotion and things to connect with, though I am sad that the police officer with Uragami got shot. I was kind of digging on him, but you put a serial killer, without cuffs in a room full of dead riot squad members. Of course he’s gonna pick up a gun and shoot the guy guarding him.
I am looking forward to the battle between Gotou and Shinichi. It’ll make for an epic series conclusion!

~Midnight