Spoilers ahead for Parasyte AKA Kiseijuu, including mild spoilers to external Anime like AoT and SAO.
Many writers use common concepts as a crutch in their writing, e.g. school setting, to deliver a cheap sense of connection between the audience and the characters without proper build up to make them a masterpiece. Kiseijuu, it's emotional, unflinching, brutal, and never feels contrived. Death, and danger are common in this world. It grabs you and drags you to its deepest pits of hell.
Plot:Kiseijuu delivers everything that it teases and the result is a show having multiple finale quality episodes that leaves you in tears. It doesn't hold its bag and keeps you chasing over it just so they can advertise for the next season only to find out that there's no substance in it. The parasites here don't just kill people, and when confronted go "Huh! Trolled you! Did you really expect in depth writing from this show?" like SAO did with Kayaba Akihiko. People you and Shinichi, The Main Character, care about will die and there's no easy cop out here.
The parasites never stop being a danger, no matter how farther you are in the story. They're not like Titans, who are used as a mechanic to add a random level of threat in the story. Parasites are intelligent, and are very thorough. They can stretch their heads and make their skin hard enough to cut through humans with ease. They eat the remains of the humans they kill, leaving no traces behind. They can change the shapes of their heads, making it very easy for them to blend in, and the person that makes out what they are die soon after. They're driven by the sole purpose of survival unlike the dumb Zombies or Titans, who are low keys in their stories and only want to eat and puke humans.
Parasites are consistantly a threat to Shinichi and his loved ones, the people who are in grave peril. It shows you why you should care about them, it explores them and their motivations. It shows you the character's sacrifices. For example, Shinichi's mother sacrifices her hand protecting her child, permenantly scarring her. Every time Shinichilooks at this scar, he remembers the guilt he feels causing his mother so much pain. It's a symbol of the unconditional love and sacrifice his parent feels for him and the show uses it to a great effect to help save him from the emotional despair he later feels in the story.
Characters:What makes the lead character so great here is his moral progression. The people that could be affected here have a strong connection to Shinichi. They're his parents, his crush Murano, his Parasitic Hand Migi, and his friends. His love for them drives him to become a "hero", and the choices he makes in this story are that much more impactful. The lives of his loved ones is in his hands, and a lapse of judgement will cost him the life of one. When he finally loses one, his trust in his Parasitic Hand Migi weigned, and the facade of a hero broke. He delved into depression, and his crush would constantly ask him "Are you really Shinichi" affecting him negatively forcing him to reflect on what has become of his remaining humanity as a breed between a parasite and a human. Ultimately, getting saved from this by Reiko, a parasite, using the symbol of love, the scar.
Kiseijuu has some memorable dialogue and fun banter between Migi and Shinichi, "Stupid? That's something you say to someone who's less intelligent than you are" Or when Migi stood on Shinichi's head and said "I think I'll win by having the better mount". Some Parasites represent a certain aspect of humanity. Migi and Reiko are curiosity, A-san is impulsiveness and pride, and Joe is carelessness. Parasites have no interest in the concept of names, Joe here for example is a pun for "jaw" which means he's occupying that area, Migi means right hand.
Attention to detail:The OST is absolutely wonderful, sometimes comical. I found one scene particularly hilarious as an inmate in a contained area started masturbating, and the score that was playing in the background is called "Ceam Soda." Or Tamura Reiko, who's a math teacher and a parasite which enforces the idea that Math is indeed synonymous with evil. It tells some jokes, mostly through Migi's curiosity and lack of understanding of human nature. But it weaves them into the story so nicely that it enriches Migi's as a character. The music is so rich, that it amplifies your emotions and makes it so much easier to get invested in this already emotional journey. Every episode's title is a reference to a book or a form of literature. There's just so many things that this show does right and they all add up.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0SPLYUr2HY&index=3[1]
Kiseijuu is not a story about a chosen one by some prophecy, who writes those prophecies anyway. It has shown respect to both its characters and the viewer, and the first episode sets the tone to what this show is and what it isn't.
There are many examples where this Anime sets itself apart from other shows. The first thing that happens in the first 5 minutes is main character's Parasitic hands grab a Murano's chest, and she pimp slaps him. His friends shamed him for it, he apologized. Where in other Anime his female friends would say "You touched her boobs, how dare you?! What about me, touch this!". The second thing is when the Shinichi himself asks his parasite why he chose him and he tells him "Hey @sshole, it just happened to be you. You're not special."
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