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SILENT INVASION

They arrive in silence and darkness. They descend from the skies. They have a hunger for human flesh. They are everywhere. They are parasites, alien creatures who must invade - and take control of - a human host to survive. And once they have infected their victims, they can assume any deadly form they choose: monsters with giant teeth, winged demons, creatures with blades for hands. But most have chosen to conceal their lethal purpose behind ordinary human faces. So no one knows their secret - except an ordinary high school student. Shin is battling for control of his own body against an alien parasite, but can he find a way to warn humanity of the horrors to come?

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 1990

683 people are currently reading
9007 people want to read

About the author

Hitoshi Iwaaki

159 books191 followers
Hitoshi Iwaaki (Japanese: 岩明均 Hepburn: Iwaaki Hitoshi, born July 28, 1960) is a Japanese manga artist, whose works include the science-fiction/horror series Parasyte. The Mixx editions of Parasyte romanize his name as "Hitosi Iwaaki", while the Del Rey Manga editions use "Hitoshi Iwaaki".

In 1993, he received the Kodansha Manga Award for Parasyte. He was a finalist for the 2005 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Grand Prize for Historie. In 2010 Historie took the grand prize in the manga division of the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival.

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5 stars
6,174 (48%)
4 stars
4,585 (35%)
3 stars
1,697 (13%)
2 stars
283 (2%)
1 star
81 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 862 reviews
Profile Image for daph pink ♡ .
1,234 reviews3,241 followers
December 24, 2021
So what is Parasyte a manga? Ofc. horror? Def. Comedy ? Migi❤ sci-fi ?? Yayyy. Slice of life? Maybe. A good read? 100% .

It's about a boy named Shinichi who one night gets a parasite ( Migi) accidentally stuck in his arm. Parasites take over the human brain and then try to kill other humans. Shinichi decides to try and stop them. It's tough coz parasites morph and are powerful.

Intersting fact is that Parasyte are clueless as to their purpose, their reason of being, or even where they come from. It’s a journey of discovery for the protagonist and the monsters he faces.

This manga makes no qualms about blood and gore. Its disgustingly beautiful. The illustrations stood out most for me they are bizzare , off-putting , different. attention. It can seem a little weird at first, but it’s still fairly accessible and the weirdness wears off pretty fast.

Migi is exceptionally good . It adds a great volume to Shinichi character and it can be funny sometimes.

The greatest flaw of the series is side characters , they weren't good or bad they weren't fleshed out properly. They were there just to add character to Shinichi which I disliked a bit.

Well that's it it's sweet and funny in disturbing sort of way full of blood , gore and parasites.

I have warned you.

Open your mouth


Ha Ha Ha


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pre review :-

Vol 1 :- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vol 2:- ⭐⭐⭐
Vol 3:- ⭐⭐⭐
Vol 4:- ⭐⭐⭐
Vol 5:- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vol 6:- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vol 7:-⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vol 8:-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


All the new young adult, contemporaries, new may releases , pending April releases, ARCs

OR

   This 10 volume long manga which I know will wreck my shit and will not let me sleep for days 


My choices are clear
Profile Image for Nataliya.
964 reviews15.7k followers
July 4, 2022
So, being very much a comic book newbie I was not yet supposed to be ready or worthy to graduate to manga. But then *somebody* forgot the comic book we were supposed to be reading, and this was available, and after an explanation that you read manga right-to-left I stopped uselessly trying to flip the pages the wrong way and the rest is history.

This is supposed to be a body horror story about alien body snatchers until one of them messes up just a bit and becomes more of a right hand symbiote. Blood is splattering, guts are flailing around, faces are splitting tentacularly and spirally.

But yet somehow it actually becomes hilarious after a while as it develops into wacky body-horror buddy comedy of a boy and his possessed right hand and their adventures.

(Reading an excellent comic book adaptation of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in parallel also helped underscore the ridiculous but awesome grotesque silliness of this one as opposed to Kurt’s understated absurdist gravity).

I mean, just look at this body horror cuteness!

I mean, when your alien-infested right hand is so into reading that you can barely make it go with you to dinner, what’s not to like? Migi is hilariously adorable and morbidly funny, and its bickering with Shinichi is super-cute.

I’ll definitely read on. I’m curious.

3.5 stars.

Also, I’m terrible at right-to-left reading. My eyes don’t want to obey me. Hmmm, maybe they have a parasYte in them? Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

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(Accidental) Buddy read with Dennis (his review).

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Also posted on my blog.

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Recommended by: Dennis
Profile Image for Baba.
4,005 reviews1,446 followers
July 9, 2025
They came from outer space, and took over some individuals' bodies, but in the case of Izumi an unforeseen symbiosis occurs when the alien life form only manages to control his right hand. So, a not bad premise, but where does it all lead?

In this, first volume of this series, it's very much ground setting Izumi's everyday life and the initial (light) impact of the almost subversive invasion on the human race. It was nice to have clean art and storytelling after the dire to me Deadman Wonderland. The characters all lack depth at the moment but the potential is there. There's an almost eerie sparse feel to the series even in scenes with groups of pupil, which I find quite interesting. So far a starter Two Stars, 5 out of 12 read.

2025 read
Profile Image for NickReads.
461 reviews1,422 followers
May 24, 2020
yo I hope they don't include intimate scenes on the other volumes cuz I am not sure how that will go.
Profile Image for Dennis.
663 reviews321 followers
April 24, 2022
This was some whacky fun.

Alien parasites are taking over human bodies. Except, our main character's parasyte botches it and ends up as Shinichi's right hand.

description

While Migi (the parasyte) is eager to learn as much as possible about the human race and Shinichi would much rather go about his teenage business without having to talk to his hand, Migi's compadres leave behind dead bodies left and right.

description

The result is a weird mix of sci-fi thriller, body horror, whacky humor and unexpected cuteness (Migi is adorable). And it works.

The villain in this volume is super creepy, Shinichi's teenage life is suitably embarrassing, his fusion with Migi is interesting, the fights are cool, the girls are hot ...

description
(That's some very specific information there. Lol.)

Honestly, it was just super entertaining. And the ending even added a bit if seriousness to it.

Looking forward to volume 2.

description

Accidental buddy read with Nataliya.
Profile Image for Tina Haigler.
327 reviews120 followers
November 20, 2018
So this had a very interesting premise. Apparently there are too many humans and the population needs to be culled. Normally it's a virus or a natural disaster that wipes people out. In this it's a parasitic alien race that eats the brain of the target species and then turns it's host cannibal. A small pod hatches, enters your body, eats your brain, matures, takes over your body and eats other humans. Oh and the head can change shape and become anything, including a razor sharp weapon. Cool, right? I thought so. Fortunately for our main character, his parasite doesn't make it to his brain before it matures so it controls his right arm instead. At first very alarming, they work things out and become symbiotic.

My favorite thing about this series is the parasite in the main character. He tries hard to act human but is very animalistic in his lack of empathy and his survival instinct. I also like the main characters reaction to the whole thing and how he panics a lot of the time. The contrast between the two characters is very interesting and made me laugh a lot. The art is also excellent and very imaginative. This kept my interest and I'm looking forward to Volume 2! I would recommend this to anyone who likes sci-fi and fantasy.
Profile Image for Nnedi.
Author 154 books17.6k followers
June 28, 2009
This was super violent and normally I wouldn't read this kind of thing because of that. However, the story pulled me in. It had moments that made me laugh out loud. There was strange and interesting, yet subtle commentary on global overpopulation (the alien that infested his hand was by far my favorite character. It was cute and violent and terribly logical and bizarre). Oddly thought provoking.

Aside from the violence (which I GUESS you could say served a purpose in the story), my only gripe is the lack of development of any true female characters. I mean...this is something I've noticed in the manga I tend to pick up. The girls/women are almost always girlfriends or sisters or really lenient mothers, kind of empty, air headed, fragile, supporting, always kind of to the side. It was this way in Parasyte. I'm sensitive to that kind of thing.

Anyway, I definitely plan to continue with the series. I like, I like. :-)

Profile Image for Mir.
4,955 reviews5,307 followers
September 7, 2019
This is a shape-changing alien parasite's worst nightmare! You're supposed to eat a person's head and replace it, taking over their body, but instead you MISS and end up doomed to life as a teen-age boys's hand. Soooo humiliating.
Profile Image for Michael Sorbello.
Author 1 book314 followers
June 13, 2022
A classic sci-fi horror manga that I’m re-reading for the first time in about a decade. It takes a lot of inspiration from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and John Carpenter’s The Thing. It handles classic 80’s drama and strange alien body horror very well.

Someone once asked, what would happen to Earth if the majority of the human population disappeared? Would crime, pollution and environmental degradation drop significantly? Would most of the world’s problems disappear? One fateful night, spores containing intellectual parasites (adequately named Parasytes) fall from the heavens and they begin their hostile takeover of human hosts. As they quickly work their way up the food chain and invert human society from the inside-out, will they provide the answers to this certain someone’s questions for better or worse?

Shinichi Izumi was just a regular high school boy until a wormlike entity burrowed into his right hand in the middle of the night and took over a portion of his body. Now he’s forced to share his bodily functions with a coldblooded insect-like parasyte with advanced extraterrestrial intelligence and physical capabilities to ensure their mutual survival against the rising threat of the cannibalistic parasytes and the growing panic of scared humans looking to fight back.

One of the most interesting factors of the story is that the parasytes don’t seem to have a goal and they don’t know where they came from. They’re just as clueless toward the meanings of the universe and the purpose behind their existence as the humans are. So Shinichi and his parasyte pal Migi confront the conflicts and mysteries of their struggles together, even if they drive each other nuts and want to kill each other sometimes.

Parasyte does show its age every once in a while with some awkward phrasing, odd character reactions and its reliance on familiar cliches, but it’s important to remember that this is one of the pioneers of sci-fi horror manga so many of those familiar tropes originated from this series and others like it from this same time period.

The story gets much better and more original in later volumes, but the funny interactions between Shinichi and Migi paired with the fascinatingly grotesque body horror going on during the gory action scenes makes it easy to get hooked into the narrative.

Parasyte: Vol. 1
My Rating: 4/5

***

If you're looking for ambient music that's perfect for reading fantasy, horror, sci-fi, comics, manga and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
Profile Image for destiny ♡ howling libraries.
1,989 reviews6,168 followers
June 18, 2023
This was a pretty interesting concept! I love alien body-snatcher types of stories anyways, as they've freaked me out ever since I was a kid, but I don't think I've ever read one where the alien could only take over a specific body part like this. I did find myself getting a little bored from time to time between the more action-heavy scenes, but I was into it enough that I'll probably continue the series!

Content warnings for:

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twitter | booktok | bookstagram | blog
Profile Image for Jan Agaton.
1,310 reviews1,507 followers
July 12, 2025
this was one of the most hilariously entertaining books I've ever read in my life! I was CRY-LAUGHING 😂
Profile Image for Luthfi Ferizqi.
400 reviews13 followers
May 19, 2024
Good pilot!

This is one of the few manga that's in full-color. It's quite strange to read it since it differs from the color palette of American graphic novels. The full-color version actually enhances its retro (80s) manga feel.
Profile Image for Ruben (BooksVlogs) Arauz.
118 reviews61 followers
September 7, 2017
Final: 3.65

Los de los mangas si que saben crear mundos diferentes, en esta ocasión fue pasadísimo, me encantó, fue realmente entretenido.

Los argumentos, las escenas, la trama, todo me parece hecho para que lo disfrutes.

Hay algunas cosas que no me quedan claras, pero, y qué, para eso están los que siguen ¿no? , ES ASQUEROSAMENTE ADICTIVO!!!!!
Profile Image for Lisa.
1,442 reviews11 followers
May 20, 2018
This was a fun but gross and violent manga. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next one!

Profile Image for Paloma orejuda (Pevima).
593 reviews66 followers
May 10, 2021
Pues... a ver, se lee bastante rápido. El primer capítulo me gustó más que el resto. Me reí mucho con lo pervertido que era Migi XD
Pero no sé... el resto de capítulos del volumen me parecieron flojos. Y el dibujo no es de los mejores. Aun así no ha estado mal del todo. Y quedó a medias así que te obliga a seguir con el segundo.

En fin, 2,5 estrellas sobre 5 que se quedan en 3 porque el arranque no estuvo mal y me dejó con la curiosidad de ver como sigue el volumen 2
Profile Image for Emi.acg.
667 reviews218 followers
May 9, 2021
Está interesante pero no me gustó como está narrado, es un poco lento y le falta algo no sé xd.
Pero como termino a la mitad de algo voy leer el segundo a ver como sigue.
Profile Image for Ignacio.
1,391 reviews299 followers
November 3, 2016
Como escribió Alfonso García en C, Parasyte es "una curiosa combinación de folletín de horror gore, el Amos de títeres de Heinlein, las obsesiones de Cronenberg y el tebeo japonés de estudiantes de instituto". Y cumple todas y cada una de las promesas de este blurb. Me lo he pasado cañón con esta locura

http://www.ccyberdark.net/3094/parasy...
Profile Image for Beatriz.
176 reviews21 followers
November 26, 2023
Tenía muchas ganas de leer este manga. Hace muchos años que vi el anime y, si bien recuerdo que me gustó muchísimo, prácticamente no recuerdo mucho de la parte final de la historia.

Sobre el manga: Pues me ha gustado mucho, la crítica que hace a la humanidad es aplastante. Verdades como templos se dicen en este manga sobre la doble moral que tenemos los humanos en según qué aspectos de la vida. No quiero desvelar nada de la historia.

Lo que sí que puedo decir es que es adictivo y que no tardaré en leer el segundo tomo. Muy recomendable ☺️
Profile Image for Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎.
1,251 reviews182 followers
April 23, 2023
Didn't even notice that it's lengthy. It's that engaging.

Parasyte series was published during the 90s, and I loved how the manga style did not feel that way; it actually contains gorgeous art style. The art sequence is not too hard to follow. I've been a delicate reader ever since, that is why I only choose to read moe, since my imaginations tend to run wild and acquiring information about disgusting things is an open invitation to nightmares and projected creatures after dark. But I've changed, I guess I've matured a little in reading, so now, I also enjoy the splatter genre. The thing that made me steer clear from this series before, though, is the thought of parasyte itself. I thought this one would contain a lot of worms and diagusting insects, so I had to protect my fragile self. But it was actually a decent splatter read. There are bloods and disgusting deaths, sure, but more decent than others, and I love this!
Profile Image for Krysta ꕤ.
909 reviews727 followers
August 31, 2023
4.5 ✮

the idea of these alien parasites invading human hosts in order to survive is not a new concept but I liked how it was done here. there’s a lot of body horror and gore and I was in my element reading this lol. the mc Shinichi has a different dynamic with the parasite who’s attached to his body that I found so weird and interesting. I loved the art and it was so nice seeing the panels in full color.
Profile Image for Kynthos-the-Archer (Kyn).
684 reviews393 followers
July 29, 2015

Click here for larger picture.

THE EXCITING BLURB:
SILENT INVASION

They arrive in silence and darkness. They descend from the skies. They have a hunger for human flesh. They are everywhere. They are parasites, alien creatures who must invade - and take control of - a human host to survive. And once they have infected their victims, they can assume any deadly form they choose: monsters with giant teeth, winged demons, creatures with blades for hands. But most have chosen to conceal their lethal purpose behind ordinary human faces. So no one knows their secret - except an ordinary high school student. Shin is battling for control of his own body against an alien parasite, but can he find a way to warn humanity of the horrors to come?



Disturbing shits! Be warned. DO NOT click the spoiler below until you are ready.


Seems like this manga has a drama/movie adaptation. I didn't know about that till I found the above Gif.

I am not too sure if I am brave enough to read this manga or even watch that film. Let's see how things goes from here.


Categories:
Aliens, Award-winning Work, Body Horror, Character Growth, Gore, Romantic Subplot, Special Abilities, Strategic Minds, Sudden Strength Gain, Unique Infected Protagonist (taken from Mangaupdates.com)
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books177 followers
July 23, 2019
This was okay, and I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but it was a little too weird for me. I realize most horror manga tends to fall on the weird side, but the last few I've read have been even weirder than expected.

"Parasytes" fall to earth and infect humans, possessing their heads and turning them into something out of John Carpenter's The Thing. But one of them doesn't possess the head and instead possesses a teenage boys hand. So the hand starts talking to him and allowing him to do unusual things.

The talking hand is what threw me, plus the fact this would go from really dark graphic horror to humor very quickly. Or that's how it seemed to me, maybe it's my sense of humor that's the issue.

In any case I'm going to try out volume two, but I don't think I'll be in this one for the long haul.
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,196 followers
January 2, 2023
Still damn good all these years later.

Reading it in full color is a nice way to relive this series. I loved the original. Love the anime. And now re-reading it in color just adds a extra flare. The way it looks, especially the faces and deaths are more expressive in color. The story is still great with a alien messing up and instead of taking over his host completely only takes over his hand. This means the alien has to work with the human to survive while meeting other aliens in the process who are eating and killing humans.

It's a ton of fun, some great character study, and brutal moments make this series stay entertaining throughout. I also forgot the comedy in this series is pretty solid too. Overall a great start to one of my favorite series of all time.
Profile Image for Ligia Moisa.
305 reviews31 followers
June 23, 2025
Mi-a plăcut atât de mult încât știu sigur că o să cumpăr toată seria. Bugetul meu nu e prea fericit😭
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