Beyond Justice Without Understanding... I Want to Share the Appeal of 'Parasyte: Reversi'!

Are there times in your daily life when you feel down or unmotivated because of painful, unpleasant, or difficult things?

At such times, I sometimes find myself wishing for a spark to help me feel a little more positive.

And when I'm reading manga, I sometimes come across words that make me re-examine myself, thinking, 'I've never thought about it that way before...'

This time, as a manga lover, I would like to carefully select and introduce some words from 'Parasyte: Reversi' that struck a chord with me through my own values and experiences!

As of August 2026, this work is complete with a total of eight volumes, and it is an official spin-off of 'Parasyte,' which I introduced previously.

The article I introduced last time is here!

Parasyte: Reversi - Overview and Impressions

'Parasyte: Reversi' is an official spin-off that depicts the world of Hitoshi Iwaaki's masterpiece 'Parasyte' from a different perspective, telling another battle from the viewpoint of Tatsuki Hirokawa, the son of Mayor Hirokawa, who worked behind the scenes as the leader of the parasites in the original story.

Proceeding along the same timeline as the original, the behind-the-scenes story of those confronting the parasites in places unknown to Shinichi and Migi provides supreme content that allows for a deeper understanding of the background of 'Parasyte'.

The story begins when three high school students are brutally murdered in an underground parking lot, and Tatsuki, the only witness to the scene, begins to reflect on it.

Having seen the parasite Kohei Ebisawa slaughter his friends without any hesitation, Tatsuki realizes that the police are no match for such an opponent. He reports it to the police but hides Ebisawa's name, deciding to take revenge on his friends' killer with his own hands.

Meanwhile, veteran detective Juzo Fukami, who is in charge of the case, also lost his partner to a parasite in the past. Sensing something strange about Tatsuki's statement, he begins to secretly follow him.

Detective Fukami, who followed Tatsuki as he headed back to the crime scene, witnesses Tatsuki, his father Takeshi Hirokawa, and the parasite Reiko Tamura interacting there.

Tatsuki himself wonders why his father, who appeared at the scene, is working with parasites, and Detective Fukami suspects what Tatsuki might know. Both realize that something beyond their imagination is lurking behind this case.

Eventually, Tatsuki and Detective Fukami are attacked by someone while on the move. Masuda, a police officer who was working with Detective Fukami, loses his life, and Detective Fukami is once again painfully reminded that his opponent is not human.

However, Tatsuki suggests that the one he truly cannot forgive is not the monster that eats people, but the human who enjoys murder solely for their own desires, referring to Ebisawa, who killed his friends. Tatsuki harbors a strong desire for revenge against this abnormal existence that uses the power of parasites solely for its own pleasure and desires.

The incidents continue, and even Mako Minami, a classmate who had feelings for Tatsuki, becomes a victim of Ebisawa, making the case even more gruesome...

The police are bewildered by the lack of distinguishing features of the culprit, but they obtain the only clue—a witness account of 'a man wearing a wristwatch on his right arm'—and begin their investigation. Detective Ichinose, who was a contemporary of the late officer Masuda, also joins the investigation.

Detective Fukami presses Tatsuki about the case, and Tatsuki confesses that he knows about the existence of parasites and that he has the ability to identify them, yet he insists that the culprit is not a parasite, but a human.

Seeing Tatsuki's strong resolve, Detective Fukami decides to fight alongside him as an individual rather than as a police officer, and thus an unusual buddy duo of a high school student and a detective is born.

Around that time, a change was also coming over Ebisawa; by using drugs to suppress the parasite residing in his left arm, he gained complete control over its power, and furthermore, he began to kill drug dealers and even parasites who viewed him as an enemy one after another.

Noda, a new parasite who appeared before Ebisawa, was an existence that had inherited Ryoko Tamiya's philosophy and was trying to find possibilities for the future of humans and parasites.

He became interested in the heretical existence of Ebisawa and began to act alongside him, and thus, the worst kind of enemy, neither human nor parasite, was born...

The police also gradually closed in on Ebisawa, and when Detective Ichinose happened to spot Ebisawa wearing a wristwatch on his right hand in the city, he successfully managed to collect fingerprints and cornered the culprit.

However, as a result of challenging him alone without waiting for backup, Detective Ichinose lost his life to Noda and Ebisawa, but the evidence he left behind at the cost of his life reached the police, and the investigation moved forward significantly.

Meanwhile, Detective Fukami went out into the city to verify whether Tatsuki's ability was real, and when Tatsuki instantly identified a parasite named Hideo Shimada who happened to pass by, Shimada revealed his true form, convincing Detective Fukami that Tatsuki's ability was genuine.

Things did not escalate with Shimada, but when Ebisawa was about to leave the city to escape the eyes of the police, he happened to reunite with Tatsuki, and Ebisawa, calling it a "greeting," lured Tatsuki to an unpopular place, stabbed him mercilessly, and left the scene.

Fortunately, his life was saved, but Tatsuki keenly felt his own helplessness, and after being discharged from the hospital, he joined the archery club to fight Ebisawa and began to train his own body.

Tatsuki's heart, which had been dominated only by revenge, gradually regained its composure by facing archery, and on the other hand, Detective Fukami also felt strongly after Detective Ichinose's death that he "did not want to cause any more victims."

The two reunited at Detective Ichinose's grave and swore once again to stop Ebisawa, but behind the scenes, Mayor Hirokawa, also known as Takeshi Hirokawa, was also making major moves.

Having become mayor, he brought together parasites from various places and was promoting the "Colony Project" to share locations and information for preying on humans.

However, following the death of Ryoko Tamiya, changes began to emerge among the parasites—those who wanted to live as individuals, those who wanted to coexist with humans, and those who just wanted to survive—and the group began to collapse little by little.

In the midst of this, the police and the Self-Defense Forces planned an operation to annihilate the Hirokawa group, and when Assistant Inspector Hirama called Detective Fukami, he brought up the possibility that Takeshi Hirokawa was extremely likely to have already been taken over by a parasite.

Tatsuki, who happened to be there, heard that, and his heart wavered greatly as he could not let go of his desire to believe in his father, wondering if his father was truly not human, or if he was still his father.

Furthermore, behind the scenes, Ebisawa was executing his final plan to set up poison gas generators in multiple locations, including the city hall, to kill everyone regardless of whether they were human or parasite.

And so, all forces—the police, the Self-Defense Forces, the parasites, and Tatsuki and Detective Fukami—gathered in Higashifukuyama City, and the final battle where their respective intentions intersected began.

Ebisawa cornered Tatsuki and Detective Fukami with his overwhelming combat ability, but Detective Fukami created an opening with a clever strategy using a flashbang, and in the end, he carried out a head-on collision with his car.

While suffering from serious injuries, he entrusted the end to Tatsuki, and Ebisawa continued to question Tatsuki's justice until the very end, but Tatsuki was still pushed by Detective Fukami's voice and pulled the trigger with trembling hands, and the long revenge drama finally came to an end.

At the same time, at the city hall, the battle between the Self-Defense Forces and the Hirokawa group also reached its conclusion, and Takeshi Hirokawa argued until the end that parasites were also necessary beings to protect humanity and the global environment.

However, his words did not reach anyone, and he fell to the bullets of the squad members, and that day, Tatsuki lost three important people at once: his father, his target of revenge, and Detective Fukami, whom he could call his benefactor.

If only I had understood my father sooner, if only I had tried to understand people more, could there have been a different future... Only that regret remains in Tatsuki's heart.

A year has passed since the incident, and with Ebisawa's accomplices arrested, organized incidents involving Parasites have almost disappeared in Japan, but only Noda, who survived, begins to search for a new path.

Tatsuki also returns to his daily life, and while living a normal high school life in the archery club, he reunites with Detective Fukami, who miraculously survived, and tells him that he kept looking away out of fear, and that many lives were lost while he was lost in hesitation.

To Tatsuki, who carries the regret that he truly wanted to understand his father and his friends more, and that perhaps he judged things only by his own sense of justice, Detective Fukami said, "All we can do is not forget."

With these words, Tatsuki begins to walk toward the future while carrying the past, and as another 'Parasyte' story, 'Parasyte: Reversi' comes to an end.

Reading this work, I didn't feel it was a sequel or side story to my beloved 'Parasyte' depicting battles against Parasites, but rather a story deeply etched into the reader's heart that questions the difficulty of trying to understand people, the difference between justice and revenge, and the bonds between parent and child and the weight of life.

And I thought that while the original 'Parasyte' depicted 'what it means to be human' through Shinichi Izumi and Migi, 'Parasyte: Reversi' depicts 'what it means to understand people,' making it a contrast as well.

The grand theme of 'Parasyte' is what it means to be human, what life is, and what it means to live, as humans and Parasites, beings that should never be able to understand each other, live together and change each other's values in the process.

The protagonist, Tatsuki Hirokawa, is a human who can identify Parasites, so he knows of the 'enemy' from the beginning, and 'Parasyte: Reversi' has the theme of what it means to understand people, not from the fear of the unknown, but from the regret of not being able to understand despite knowing.

I felt that such a relationship was the greatest appeal of this work, and the fun deepened when I considered the various contrasts.

In 'Parasyte,' Shinichi Izumi's values are shaken again and again by living with an alien being called Migi.

At first, he thought Parasites that eat humans were absolute evil, but while interacting with Ryoko Tamiya and Migi, he begins to understand the logic of Parasites, which is 'to eat in order to live.'

Of course, I'm not justifying the act of eating humans, but Shinichi continued to try to understand the other party, and because he understood, he himself changed.

On the other hand, Tatsuki in 'Parasyte: Reversi' knows about Parasites, but the one he had to face was not a Parasite, but Kohei Ebisawa, who was human yet more cruel than a Parasite.

This composition is very ironic; understanding a non-human being and a being that is human but cannot be understood are each the greatest enemies, which is why Tatsuki says, 'What is truly terrifying is not the Parasites.'

I think these words resonate more heavily with those who have read the original work; Parasites eat people by instinct, but Ebisawa kills people for pleasure.

This contrast, which taught me that there is malice born precisely because there is humanity, struck my heart, and I felt that the theme of the entire 'Parasyte' work was further deepened.

And the character whose impression changed the most in this work is Mayor Takeshi Hirokawa; in the original work, he was depicted as an eerie and mysterious existence who used his position as mayor to organize the Parasites, so his true intentions were never seen until the end.

But in this work, he is not depicted as an enemy human, but his figure as a father is carefully drawn, and when Tatsuki tells him, 'There is something I want to do,' Takeshi does not stop him.

He said that it is up to oneself to decide what is good and evil, and by respecting his son's will, he did not interfere more than necessary or force his own values on him.

A character who seemed like nothing more than an 'enemy leader' in the original series transforms into an 'incomprehensible father' in this work, and just as Tatsuki says at the end that he 'wanted to understand his father,' the impression changes drastically just by shifting the perspective, even though it is the same person.

And in reality, I think people, myself included, tend to judge others based on only one position.

A strict boss at work might be a gentle father at home, and politicians we see on the news likely have families too; we tend to look at only one side and decide 'this person is like this,' and this work quietly taught me about such dangers.

Also, the existence of Reiko Tamura is indispensable when talking about this work, as she was the parasite who came closest to being human in the original 'Parasyte' series.

Initially acting only on rationality, she gradually learned the emotion of 'love' while raising her child, and in the end, she even sacrificed her own life to protect her baby.

She is an important character who showed the possibility that 'even parasites can change,' and that philosophy is certainly inherited in this work, with Noda exploring a new relationship between humans and parasites influenced by Reiko Tamura's ideas.

Takeshi Hirokawa also tried to position parasites not merely as predators, but as beings that consider the environment of the entire Earth, and the question Reiko Tamura posed did not end with her death...

I strongly felt the significance of this work being an official spin-off, as that philosophy is passed on to another person and depicted as a new story.

And personally, the contrast between Detective Fukami, Shinichi, and Tatsuki that struck me is the common point that appears at the end of this work as a message that concludes the entire 'Parasyte' series: 'All we can do is not forget.'

Detective Fukami does not have special abilities like Shinichi and Migi, nor the power to identify parasites like Tatsuki, but he still fought to the end as a human.

Even after his partner was killed, his subordinates were lost, and he himself was seriously injured, he did not act on emotion alone; he protected and guided Tatsuki, and in the end, became someone who taught him about life itself.

Shinichi also lost his family, struggled with his relationship with Murano, killed many parasites, and lost many lives, and Tatsuki also lost his father, friends, and benefactors.

Because no one can erase the past, the ending, which leaves room for the idea that only the choice of 'not forgetting' leads to the future, is deeply moving, and there are feelings that can only be savored because I read both 'Parasyte' and 'Parasyte: Reversi'.

The work 'Parasyte' poses the question 'What is a human?' to us readers, and the work 'Parasyte: Reversi' takes it a step further by posing a new question: 'What does it mean to understand a person?'

And while asking what it means to understand a person, it confronts us with the reality of what justice is, what remains after revenge, and that the time spent facing loved ones is not eternal...

Tatsuki, who wanted to understand his father; Reiko Tamura, who tried to understand humans; Shinichi Izumi, who tried to understand parasites; and Detective Fukami, who accepted Tatsuki's regrets and taught him to 'not forget'...

Because each of them faced 'understanding' from different positions, it naturally makes you think after finishing it, 'If it were me, would I be able to try to understand the other person?' and you can more deeply savor the 'difficulty of understanding' and the 'preciousness of trying to understand.'

It is a spin-off work that allows you to enjoy Parasyte more deeply by keeping the question of understanding others alive and letting you linger on the aftertaste of this question, which likely has no immediate answer, so I think it is definitely worth reading for those who are interested!

Parasyte: Reversi - 10 Selected Quotes & Empathy Points

This article cites the content of 'Parasyte: Reversi' © Moare Ohta / Kodansha.

Through the lines I picked up this time, I felt the depth of emotion that comes from realizing that a 'correct answer' and 'justice' are different, and from thinking about understanding things from that perspective.

The conflict embedded in the line spoken by Tatsuki, who is shaken by revenge, 'The answer I wanted wasn't logic, but justice that follows one's own beliefs,' is impressive. When we are lost, we want to search for an answer that says 'this is correct,' but in reality, there is no correct answer that everyone agrees on...

That is precisely why we have no choice but to live by relying on our own beliefs, and I think what Tatsuki was seeking was not an answer given by others, but the resolve of 'how I will live my life.'

And the line spoken by Takeshi Hirokawa, who views humans as enemies, saying 'The "coexistence with nature" that humans sing about is just one-sided exploitation while maintaining superiority,' is an extreme ideology at first glance, but I found myself unable to completely deny his argument.

If positions differ, justice also changes, and this structure where conflict is born precisely because everyone believes in their own justice applies to the real world as well, and it is because these justices clash that conflict never disappears...

That is why I think Tatsuki regretted it at the end, saying 'I wanted to understand,' and I felt that unless there is an attitude of trying to know the other party, even if it is a sentiment that is hard to agree with, true dialogue cannot begin.

Rather than showing an answer as to who was right, this work is packed with depictions of continuing to ask 'how do we live while facing things we cannot understand' and accumulating an attitude of trying to understand rather than justice, so I hope you will try to find words that resonate with your own heart.

Summary

How was it?

Did the appeal of 'Parasyte Reversi' and the words that might become a trigger for re-examining yourself come across?

When you belong to schools, companies, various organizations, groups, etc., you get exhausted, depressed, and worried, don't you...

And, when you are pushing forward toward your dreams, when a wall appears, or when you are overcoming a wall, isn't there a time when you want to cling to something...

At such times, I would be happy if you could find changes in your feelings or hints through this article.

Well then, that is all for this time.

It would be encouraging if you could give a like or follow, and comments with your impressions of the article or requests for works you want me to introduce are also very welcome!

Thank you for reading until the end.