CATDOLL: The super popular animation "Parasyte" will be officially completed this week. The main creators talk about the whole production process

What is coming will eventually come. The animated version of "Parasyte: The Rule of Life", adapted from the popular manga "Parasyte" by Hitoshi Iwaaki, officially ended this week. As a popular work, the advance screening of the last episode was held in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Facing many fans who came to support the show, the director of this work, Kenichi Shimizu, and the character designer, Masafumi Hiramatsu, told the behind-the-scenes story of the production.

Since the animated version of "Parasyte" has moved the stage to the modern era of the 21st century, the character design has also undergone a refreshing change from the original work. This work has become the "most recorded work" for three consecutive months, so it has also caused a lot of discussion.

At the event, Anno Kiyono, who voiced the protagonist Shinichi's classmate Tachikawa Yuko, and Maeda Rena, who voiced Suzuki AKIHO, served as hosts, and before the last episode was broadcast, the most crucial episode in the first half of the work, the twelfth episode "Heart", was also shown. Director Shimizu and four others also gave on-site commentary.

Director Shimizu started working with Hiramatsu on the 1988 animated film AKIRA. He said with emotion: "We haven't met for more than ten years, but I follow him on Facebook."

As for why he chose a character design that was different from the original style, Hiramatsu also explained: "The original Satomi (Shinichi's girlfriend) used an idol-style hairstyle at the time. However, there are already a wide variety of hairstyles for girls like her, so we used a design that exposes the forehead. In fact, if the forehead is painted black, it will not be much different from the original setting."

According to Director Shimizu, there are many loyal fans of the original work among the production staff: when some lines were cut, there would be staff members who would come to complain, saying, "Why is that line gone?" Hiramatsu also agreed with this: "The whole production process was a battle between myself as a fan and myself as a worker."

"Parasyte" is a SF manga that was serialized in the January 1990 issue of "Monthly Afternoon" (published by Kodansha) to the February 1995 issue. The cumulative number of single-volume editions has exceeded 11 million, and it is deeply loved by readers. Although the serialization has ended for nearly 20 years, it still has a large number of fans. In the work, an unknown creature "Parasyte" that fell from the sky one day came to the earth. They invaded the human brain through the nose and ears, and parasitized on the brain to control the human body. The protagonist, high school student Izumi Shinichi, has a parasitic beast "You" on his right hand, so his fate has become ups and downs. His battles and separations with other parasitic beasts have also become the biggest highlight of the work. At the same time, Hirano Aya, who is known as the "captain", plays an important role in this work "You", which is also her rare main role in recent years, so it has also caused a lot of topics.

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