Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu

While listening to music, Izumi Shinichi feels a strange creature creep up his hands. It seems like a worm has burrowed in his hand and is creeping slowly up his arms. With seconds only to spare and no idea what to do, Shinichi coils the cord of his headphones around his arm to stop the worm from getting further. To his horror, the worm took over that arm when it failed.

The creature which he later called Migi, has eaten part of that hand and is partly attached to Shinichi's body, the latter being its host. Migi reveals that he originally planned to enter Shinichi's ear and take over his brain. Failing that, he settled in taking over the right arm.

Migi seems like an intelligent creature and gradually the two got along just fine, except when the matters turn to the issue of parasytes feeding on humans. The two will need to work together however as it seems that they are always targeted by other parasytes.

Migi and Shinichi in their first few days together

The series showed a lot of promise and it did not disappoint throughout most of the 24 episodes. The conclusion however was anticlimactic and its attempt at showing the normal humans versus the "monsters" argument seemed so weak it completely destroyed the series for me. Not that it was a terrible series overall, but it could have been handled better with a different tactic. The theme I mentioned is not new so I can't help but compare. I think the series could have done without the romance towards the end or maybe improved that part a bit. All that did was distract the me as an audience.

It was exciting from start to climax however, so it was still a good series for me. Migi's characterization as the opposite of what Shinichi stands for was done effectively. If this was meant to be an argument of sorts, I think Shinichi's got weaker as he physically got stronger.

The animation isn't bad and there's no shortage of gore, although this is mild compared to other series of the horror genre. I love the action scenes though. I especially looked forward to Migi's strategies. The anticipation of a fight with other parasytes kept me interested despite some issues I mentioned above. 

Rating: 9 out of 10

Migi and a changed Shinichi in the later part of the series