Now here’s an interesting trend that I would like to point out– one that Kiseijū handles incredibly well for itself.  Character designs.  Zankyou no Terror, Samurai Flamenco, Shingeki no Bahamut, Aku no Hana, Space Dandy and even Sailor Moon Crystal use more realistic character designs than most of the shows we’ve had these past two years.  Reminds me of the earlier days of Boogiepop Phantom, Serial Experiments Lain, Gungrave and some of the earlier 2000’s anime seasons which had Wolf’s Rain and Licensed by Royal with their mature approach at drawing characters.  As fun and creative animation studios can be [for example Uchoten Kazoku one of my favorites of 2013] it is refreshing to see some anime series incorporate a realistic angle towards the portrayal of its people.  Some series utilize this level of detail perfectly:  Aku no Hana would not have been as captivating to me if it were not for the rotoscoping method they used whereas Shiki had a grainy and sometimes colorful pattern to its characters that gave off an extremely eerie approach to the inclusive story it was trying to tell to its viewer.  As for Kiseijū, it follows up its practical designs with the story of horrifying parasites that invade Earth in this series resulting in one very large theme: the connections in life that make us human which we can see strongly in this episode with Shinichi and Satomi’s progressive relationship.

We could have gone without the recap and gone straight to the start of this show here, but oh well, I guess I can understand why.  So much happened last time yet the writers handled the pacing of this body-horror series amazingly well.  I am really glad that the manga has ended so that Madhouse can adapt this correctly, unlike so many series we’ve had in the past.

Kiseijū is a wonderfully written series and and has been faithful to the manga and this episode pointed this out to me as the animators and the director handled Migi’s transformation during the scene with Satomi’s date invitation really well!  This show has done fantastic with its build up and this was a great episode that used that to its full potential.  The fight with Nagai, Migi saving Shinichi from his own kind and the kids throwing rocks at the cat provided this underlining aspect to this show:  Shinichi is slowly losing his humanity.  Satomi even poses the question to him, and towards the end there when she switches hands with him illustrates the point even further that there is some part of Shinichi that isn’t human.

Migi is probably the most interesting character of this entire series so far–  the desire to learn and live through Shinichi’s hand allows for quite a lot of development between the two of them.  Migi’s lack of empathy is a constant struggle for Shinichi to understand and it wasn’t until that fight with the other parasite in this episode that there is this conflicting adjustment towards it.  Shinichi has the awkward behavior here, where he gives the look of “you are food” to the people at the park, and classmate Nagai.  It is with certainty that what has heavily influenced this is Migi’s logical reasoning.  A daunting situation that Shinichi is in that will continue to hang over them as they fight off other parasites.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 9/10

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