When I first started watching Inuyashiki: The Last Hero during the Fall of 2017, Parasyte the Last Maxim immediately came up to mind. With other people comparing the two as well, I wanted to give my own piece of mind in the matter.
Spoilers ahead.
_____
Starting with the resemblance of the two, both had characters who got their bodies altered. While Shinichi can still live normally minus his right arm (since Migi failed to take over his brain ending up as his right arm) he decided to form a mutual relationship with Migi to survive against the other parasytes.
Inuyashiki on the other hand had his entire body replaced with machinery, a weapon at that. The two has a very different scenario since Shinichi isn’t the only one who owns his body anymore and Inuyashiki still does. Inuyashiki also has to deal with the fact that he has no confirmation of any kind that he is still himself and not just a clone.
Both were not aware or at least consented on being changed, the difference is that Inuyashiki would’ve died if that didn’t happen because of his terminal illness and Shinichi would not. Both didn’t use their new abilities to advance themselves in society. Shinichi and Migi only protected themselves and those they can and want to protect and Inuyashiki only used his abilities to save others as an act of gratefulness for getting a second chance at life or at least that’s what it was in the beginning.
Parasyte explores our established humanity while Inuyashiki explores how far we can push that humanity for our beliefs.
Migi being new to humanity becomes a perfect character to study our human tendencies like altruism or emotions like love. There were characters in the show that were human but acts otherwise and the reverse applies as well. This reverse parasytes exist because they need humans; more specifically their body, not only to survive but also to advance their kind. And because of that, their whole being gets to know our kind better without even realizing why. Because of these elements, the anime expands on what a human is, not just by appearances and how they act. Drawing a line on the differences and similarities of what makes a human are blurred in the end. Being human is not enough to be human. Every fight in the show highlights a certain aspect of humanity like being able to cry when someone dies rather than the fight itself.
In Inuyashiki however, there’s not a character who really isn’t human. While Shishigami can be compared to a pure parasyte who can’t connect with people, the difference is that he is in fact human. Although a stranger’s life has no value to him, he still cries at a manga character’s death while parasytes doesn’t really have emotions at all. He’s just a sociopath.
In episode 2 when Shishigami was introduced, he shows his friend about his new abilities. He killed a crow with his hand held like a gun and changed the television displays with porn just by touching it. Now compare this with parasytes who only kill when they needed to. They also wouldn’t understand why it’s funny to change the TV displays with porn because it’s irrational. They won’t gain anything by doing so, which makes it clear that Shishigami is human with the lack of empathy the only thing he shares with the parasytes.
Because of this, he becomes an antagonist. He’s just a regular dude with psychopathic tendencies that was given superpowers and that makes him a threat. Inuyashiki then comes in to punish people like him. But the problem is that violence is always used as the solution and whether it was right for Inuyashiki to pass judgement to this people as he; like Shishigami, is just a pathetic dude who was given superpowers randomly. They’re not some kind of “chosen” individuals. So unlike Parasyte, the result of the fights is paramount. Basically, a bad guy is presented, and it doesn’t matter why they do bad things to others. They are there because there are people like them in our world.
In Episode 4, Inuyashiki blinds all the Yakuza members and paralyzes them to repent for what they did. Would we go as far as that to protect others? Is that a human thing to do?
Thinking about it, Tokyo Ghoul also shares some similarities with these two series and I’m sure a lot more series do, but in any case, I just found this two very interesting on a whim.
Yozora 