Recap

Shinichi comes in contact with another Parasite in the form of Reiko Tamura, a new teacher at his school. Unlike other Parasites who just want him dead, Tamura is more than content to merely observe Shinichi and Migi’s strange symbiosis, all the while holding the lives of his friends and classmates hostage. However when a third Parasite comes directly to Shinichi’s school to silence him, he must team up with Migi and stop it before it’s too late.

Gee’s Thoughts

Parasyte begins to escalate as Shinicihi and Migi start to meet Parasites who aren’t interested in just killing him. The Parasyte anime does a great job of emulating the sense of tension and fear that pervades this part. Tamura feels more dangerous than any Parasite we’ve seen so far. Not only is she intelligent, but you know that her threat to kill all of Shinichi’s friends and peers is something she won’t be afraid to carry out. The Parasites have had no qualms with killing so far, and Shinichi knows this.

However, the biggest conflict this episode comes from when Tamura’s partner decides Shinichi is too much of a liability. So far the Parasites have stayed behind the scenes and it’s made it pretty easy for Shinichi to conceal his situation. With at least one Parasite going public though, it’s gonna be interesting to see where things go from here. This is also our first chance to see Shinichi taking the initiative. He’s talked about taking the fight to the Parasites, but now we’re finally going to see if he can pull it off or not.

Migi’s utilitarian ideology still serves as a great foil to Shinichi’s own emotional character, but with Shinichi coming into direct conflict with Migi’s, “kin,” it will be interesting to see how it reacts. After all, Migi needs Shinichi to survive, and to be fair, it seems the Parasites hold no particular loyalty to each other. But considering Migi’s primary goal is self-preservation, Shinichi’s actions come into direct conflict with that. Whether Migi is truly willing to work with Shinichi or not remains to be seen. Throw in the risk of escalating things to the point where other Parasites start paying attention and it’s clear that things are about to drastically change.