There’s a charm to anime that can’t be transferred over to other formats. One tragic example of this would be the 2009 Dragon Ball Evolution . People criticized the film for its confusing plot, the bad dialogue, bad acting, and a lot more. The movie was so bad, the director issued an apology for the film.

Artists have liberty to portray character’s expressions in a multitude of ways in anime. While there are actors who portray facial expressions with ease, it’s not easy to imitate one from a fictional character. This is where the transition from anime to film breaks.

While the trend with live action adaptation is staying close to the source material, most adaptations still fall flat. Aside from the more animated facial expressions, we can attribute the difficulty in emulating fiction to the fantastical nature of anime.

In this case, it’s the directors’ and writers’ job to custom fit a plot to ensure it’s appropriate for a live action adaptation. How the creators of  Parasyte The Grey wrote it is an example of a custom fit.

It’s worth noting that this Netflix live action series isn’t the first to adapt the Parasyte anime. However, what sets it apart from the previous films is its entirely new plot. While the main plot device still focuses on the parasites, the series differs in that the main focus is not of a singular character.

In the original source material, Shinichi’s conflicts drive the plot forward. He has to come to terms with the fact that he is something more than a high school student. Shinichi has to survive by eliminating other parasites. In this new spin-off, the plot focuses on how the parasites systematically take over humanity in the form of an organization. This central conflict affects multiple characters, and the series does a good job in magnifying individual conflicts in the larger frame of the story.

While the series may not be a frame-by-frame adaptation, Parasyte the Grey still pays homage to how exposition is used in anime. Spoiler alert: There’s this one scene where the main character explains something about transportation methods reducing combat potential. And this one scene was done just right. Not excessive, but in passing. 

Director Yeon Sang-ho did a good job with the series. Parasyte the Grey’s themes show influence from his past work, The Fake(2013), where the plot revolves around organized religion. Sang-ho’s audience tends to lean towards adults, hence the lack of excessive slasher-action cutscenes in the adaptation.

What the 2024 series did was develop an entirely new plot while staying thematically similar to the original source material. The anime did show lots of visceral fights, and the upfront violence of the murderous aliens. The show did a good job of reflecting this and includes how humanity is similarly capable of such violence.

Building on thematic similarities may be the best step forward in terms of live anime adaptations. There are other techniques that make an adaptation successful. An example would be the 2017 Ghost in the Shell’s world building and environment. The setting was a successful recreation of the original’s dystopian sci-fi theme. 

In short, Parasyte the Grey’s success may have been a combination of the right director, the right plot devices, a perfect casting, and overall, a well-written piece of fiction. Our suggestion? Go watch the series now.

You can stream season 1 of the Parasyte – The Grey on Netflix.