Parasyte - the maxim

[Buffalobiian]

That was bloody hilarious. All the better that the female staff member was took it in her stride.

I have a feeling that the telepath will let Shinichi off. If he really is a telepath, then he should know that things worth both ways. Shinishi's Fuck Off message may get to him as long as he stays calm instead of freaking out like he wants to there.

Reiko is probably tired at this point. Her kind is at odds with her (at least some of them) so she isn't in a position to direct their course of action anymore. She also discovered that she can't further their cause either because she refuses to experiment with the baby.

Not sure why Tamura had to die, though. Whatever message about humanity she intended to deliver to Shinichi must fall flat after the fact of 30times murder. lol

She did take 20+ rounds, but her fragility and "Thank you" certainly were not lost to Migi at least. Appreciation isn't an animal concept at least according to him. You should be confused about someone's altruism, then take advantage of it. Her time with the baby and thoughts have made her more human than Migi is. The latter converses with Shinichi, but never moved beyond the idea of helping his kind survive. That's understandable since his "kind" only barely extends to the other hybrid.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 19

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LOLOL, a filter for non-human material? That's the aspect of this show that's required the biggest suspension of disbelief so far. The hair-pulling trick was good. This is an ass-pull.

Shinichi should appear somewhat translucent in in that scan overall, but if they get his whole body they'd find his right arm to be completely see-through. However, Migi's also been gradually humanised as well. I wouldn't expect such behaviour if he was simply 70% of the original Migi.. so does that suggest he's actually 70/30 Parasyte/human tissue? Hard to say.

[shinta|hikari]

You know what's funny? A simple X-ray should have done the trick. The parasytes don't copy the bones and internal structures. They only mimic the surface, obvious when they split open their heads when attacking.

[Kraco]

Uhh... I thought it was a simple X-ray scan? What was it then? Surely the "filter for non-human material" was just a fancy name for the perfectly ordinary machine (the world of marketing is full of exquisite names for the same old shit)... Although I suppose it might be also some application of a different wavelength. It would hardly be the first fiction story to depict a scanner that could do what x-ray, infrared, MRI, and others could do combined. They were checking for the skeleton and almost immediately found a woman walking without a skull inside her head. Very plain and simple, no super filters needed. I'd expect the parasytes to actually be able to fake a skull if they knew it'd be necessary. It seems like even the military types didn't think of putting Shinichi through the scanner. Now that Migi knows of it, he'd probably build the bones when necessary.

[shinta|hikari]

I wanted to believe the same but rewatched it. I confirmed the Japanese script saying something along the lines of "a machine that filters out any material with human DNA."

[NeoCybercoin]

Just a fancy way of saying X-Ray scan.

[shinta|hikari]

Except it isn't?

They specifically mentioned human DNA. X-Ray doesn't give a shit if it's human or not.

[Kraco]

Except it isn't?

They specifically mentioned human DNA. X-Ray doesn't give a shit if it's human or not.

Did that look like a DNA scan to you? A DNA scan is either a pattern of lines for a comparative analysis, like a fingerprint, or ultimately a nucleotide sequence. A DNA scan doesn't show you a shape of a person and their skeleton. In the first place depending on the environment, diseases, and nutrition, the same DNA could produce two different kind of human shapes and skeletons. We probably won't have the kind of technology before a distant future that it could instantly predict the adult shape of an individual organism simply from the DNA.

Let's just say this was a minor error in an otherwise excellent series. Nothing to worry about. Especially when what we actually saw (the x-ray scan) made perfect sense. The machine was x-ray (or similar), the filter was the human operating it! When you saw the x-ray of a living, normal looking person without a skull inside their head, you can say at least the head portion probably doesn't have human DNA.

[shinta|hikari]

Kraco, that's what the guy said. I'm not making it up nor do I want it to be like that. It is what it is.

[MFauli]

Kraco, that's what the guy said. I'm not making it up nor do I want it to be like that. It is what it is.

Calm down. Maybe it was just the guy being fancy and he chose to say "hey, look, this awesome machine of ours filters out anything that is not human (because non-humans won´t display certain bone parties)".

I thought it was an excellent idea to identify parasites using realistic measures.

[shinta|hikari]

I have no idea where you got the impression that I wasn't calm.

I am actually the only person in this discussion who is speaking objectively because I am not even expressing an opinion. I am just restating what the guy said.

[neflight86]

Pretty slick using an x-ray to sniff out parasites (I suppose a little radiation is the worth the cause). Excellent cliff-hangar as well as we have no idea how they can stealthily eliminate/capture the positives without alerting the others, if thats the plan.

[Buffalobiian]

There's no way to do it since the parasytes will know as soon as one of their signal disappears.

[Kraco]

There's no way to do it since the parasytes will know as soon as one of their signal disappears.

Has Shinichi told the officials that, though? They could still proceed normally with the evacuation, as if nothing happened, to mark them all and then try to take them in one fell swoop. That way they would at least know, for the time being, who are parasytes and who are not. It would be a big risk for the normal civilians around, as they can't really separate the parasytes without alerting them.

Maybe they have installed a remote controlled mine in every seat of the busses and thus they can individually get rid of the parasytes, all at once! The bystanders would just get a really messy surprise!

[Kraco]

Episode 20 - HS




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That worked surprisingly well for the humans, at least until nothing but the real beasts made of multiple parasytes were left. It was largely due to Kiritsugu being so decisive. Hesitation would have meant a big failure, and they still might have lost some lives. Of course what happened to start the turmoil was a mistake, but there aren't really any existing troops trained to deal with alien monsters, so what can you do?

They need better ammo in the future, though.

[shinta|hikari]

That was a poorly directed episode. There were a lot of parts that leave the viewer questioning why the characters were acting that way. The worst part was when the soldiers shot a faker parasyte's arm, let it run away for some inexplicable reason, only to chase it two seconds later, shoot it like crazy, let it run off again without confirming the kill, and then allow it to meet with our big bad. Wow, that was horrid. It reminded me of the first episode of Seiken Tsukai, which I dropped after finishing.

The only other thing that made less sense was a bunch of soldiers following an obvious parasyte to an open room. Sure, it wouldn't have made a difference if they fought in the hallway, but they didn't know that. If anything, it reeked of a trap, but for some reason, they all just followed along like good little kids.

[Buffalobiian]

at was a poorly directed episode. There were a lot of parts that leave the viewer questioning why the characters were acting that way. The worst part was when the soldiers shot a faker parasyte's arm, let it run away for some inexplicable reason, only to chase it two seconds later, shoot it like crazy, let it run off again without confirming the kill, and then allow it to meet with our big bad. Wow, that was horrid. It reminded me of the first episode of Seiken Tsukai, which I dropped after finishing.

I sort of understood shooting the parasyte's arm. The police weren't entirely convinced so they tested the waters by shooting the arm. Giving chase was a little slow when you should have just shot though.

Following the parasyte into a larger room was a mistake in that it gives the other guy more room to run (not that he needed to use super-speed). Shotgun spammage down a hallway works wonders. These guys need to play more video games.

They need better ammo in the future, though.

They also need to watch Terminator 2 and do what Arnie did to T-1000 at the end. And more video games, because any FPS player will tell you all about noob tubes.

[Kraco]

Like I said earlier, with the exception of Kiritsugu, there were no pros among these troops. Furthermore, like Bill said, they couldn't trust the killer (quite understandable) nor themselves. Following the big boss instead of shooting right away was very dodgy, but I kind of could understand that well, following the same logic of being hesitant to shoot first, or being hesitant all over. They hardly had any alternatives, though. Japan doesn't have the same amounts of armed criminals as the USA, for example, and they haven't taken part in any war since WW2. They simply wouldn't have people with experience. They could perhaps handpick ruthless individuals one by one to form the unit, but that would cause different sort of troubles (the copulating couple would have been slaughtered, as an example).

[Xelbair]

At least they've chosen a good weapon to deal with Parasytes - AA-12 full automatic shotgun. sadly they've chosen wrong rounds..
They knew that fire, and generally speaking burning works great vs Parasytes - why they haven't used HE ammo - which would've obliterated the guy who shot their bullets back at them.

Heck, showmanship Dragonbreath rounds would work well too - but guns might get damaged by it.

[Buffalobiian]

They hardly had any alternatives, though. Japan doesn't have the same amounts of armed criminals as the USA, for example, and they haven't taken part in any war since WW2. They simply wouldn't have people with experience.

I don't think that's a good reason though. Special Tactics teams train to a standard, and also mingle with other teams internationally. Just because they haven't seen a real deal before shouldn't affect how they perform. At least, that's how it's supposed to work.

I just think that the rest of the squad have trouble aiming at people who aren't obviously criminally-pointing-guns-at-people's-head bad.

It doesn't seem like any of them were briefed that killing civilians was a secondary objective compared to wiping out the parasites. Had they known and agreed, they'd perform much more smoothly.