Netflix Deserves Kudos For Successfully Adapting One Of The Best Anime Series Of The Century
Dhruv is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division. He has been consistently contributing to the website for over two years and has written thousands of articles covering streaming trends, movie/TV analysis, and pop culture breakdowns.
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Live-action anime adaptations are hit-or-miss. Arguably, they usually turn out to be "misses" instead of being "hits." Owing to this, fans of anime and manga cannot help but be skeptical when a new live-action anime adaptation comes out. Netflix's reputation with live-action anime, too, is marred by subpar creations like 2017's Death Note and 2021's Cowboy Bebop.
However, in recent years, Netflix has redeemed itself in more ways than one with manga/anime adaptations like One Piece and Alice in Borderland. While One Piece and Alice in Borderland are great live-action shows, Netflix's best anime adaptation is Parasyte: The Grey. Despite being derived from one of the greatest shōnen anime, Parasyte: The Grey proves to be an incredible 6-part series.
Serving as a spin-off to Hitoshi Iwaaki's manga series Parasyte, the Netflix live-action series is similar to both the original anime and manga in its opening moments. It features a haunting set of sequences in which parasitic alien creatures fall from the sky and gradually "invade" the human population. With what follows, however, it sets out to expand the anime and manga's original lore.
Parasyte: The Grey Brilliantly Expands The Original Canon Instead Of Re-enacting It
One of the biggest issues with live-action anime adaptations is that they try too hard to recreate their source material's visual flair and iconic moments. But the truth is that anime and manga, as mediums of storytelling, are too weird, exaggerated, and visually unrestrained to be translated directly into live-action. This is why direct live-action adaptations feel subpar compared to their original anime.
Netflix's Parasyte: The Grey cleverly overcomes this challenge by not attempting to directly translate its original anime or manga to the screen. Instead, it unfolds a parallel story that expands the original lore. By merely changing the original Japanese setting to South Korea, it brings a whole new cultural context to the original alien-invasion narrative.
In the original anime and manga, the main character, Shinichi, and his parasite alien, Migi, co-exist and engage in philosophical debates. The live-action show gives more of a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" dynamic to its main character, Jeong Su-in, and her parasite, Heidi. They do not share consciousness, and Heidi only has 15 minutes of control over Su-in each day.
A fun cameo scene in Parasyte: The Grey also features the live-action version of the anime's Shinichi Izumi and Migi.
This established dynamic and limited time period allows the show to limit its CGI use and also adds higher stakes to Su-in's story. To show the communication between Su-in and Heidi, the Netflix sci-fi show even relies on clever narrative devices instead of verbal exchange, which creates some intriguing tension and mystery between the two characters.
In a lot of ways, Netflix's Parasyte: The Grey also expands the original anime's vision. The anime, Parasyte: The Maxim, truly thrives when it focuses on Shinichi's isolation and personal existential battles. Even its commentary on environmentalism and human nature is incredibly compelling.
The Netflix show takes the social aspect a little future by exploring themes of co-dependency, institutional control, and humanity's illusion of free will.
It draws a clear parallel between the Saejin Church (the parasite collective) and "Team Grey" (a militarized government task force). By showing how similar both organizations can be, it highlights how humans can be as fanatical and self-consuming as literal parasites.
The primary parasitic antagonist in the Netflix series even attempts to hijack powerful political forces to be able to control the entire system. This serves as a powerful metaphor for how the most dangerous form of parasitism is the one that already controls societal structures from within.
Even the portrayal of body horror in Netflix's Parasyte: The Grey becomes a metaphor for trauma and mental health. With so much going on in the Netflix series, it easily establishes itself as one of the greatest live-action anime adaptations out there.
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"Parasyte: The Grey" imagines a world where alien parasites begin taking over human hosts, blending horror with psychological drama. The story follows a young man who forms a symbiotic relationship with his alien parasite, leading to a morally complex journey as they confront other parasites threatening humanity. This adaptation adds a unique twist, focusing on the grey areas of survival, identity, and the essence of being human.
- Writers
- Ryu Yong Jae, Yeon Sang Ho
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Creator(s)
- Yeon Sang Ho
- Seasons
- 1
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
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Parasyte: The Maxim
- Release Date
- 2014 - 2015-00-00
- Directors
- Ken'ichi Shimizu
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Adam Gibbs
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Luci Christian
- Writers
- Shoji Yonemura, Shinzô Fujita
- Main Genre
- Action
- Creator(s)
- Hitoshi Iwaaki
- Seasons
- 1
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Hulu
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.