Parasyte, Number 8

Rating:
Summary: not quite back into full gear, but gettin' there
Review: The last volume was kind of a low point in the series in my opinion. It seemed to focus to much on Kuramori (The private eye) and the Parasyte's underground organization and not so much on the characters that I've come to love (Shin, Sara, Lefty). In short, it was a plot builder. While this volume isn't one of the best, it's a bit better than the last one, and makes me extremely eager to pick up the next volume. Anyway, onto the content. Sar makes some much needed appearances (c'mon, you didn't really think she was gone, didja?) which I appreciated. The series would lose a lot of its edge if it didn't have any romance, and I think Hitosi Iwaaki knows this (Notice how there's always a female love interest for Shin around somewhere, even when he was away from home). Shin and Lefty's relationship continues to remain almost hostile, which always keeps things from getting stale. The only real problem I had with this book is the 110 page (!) fight scene. Don't get me wrong, I like the fight scene's in Parasyte, but not when they take up 70% of the book. We only get about 1 volume of Parasyte every 4-5 months, so to have that much space dedicated to 1 fight (which didn't even have a winner) leaves me feeling like I've been cheated out of something. Anyway, Parasyte's still my favorite ongoing manga series, and I recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind a bit of gore, and wants to read something new and fresh. There's truly nothing quite like it.