Saturday June 13th: Parasite Universe

Roll Up!

 Ladies And Gents, Boys And Girls, Roll Up!

 See The Strange And Wonderful Creatures Of The Parasite Galaxy!

If the writers of Sailor Moon, Grimm and the X-Files got together to spitball ideas, they might just have come up with Parasite Galaxy. A crazy romp through space, time, dimensions and the school food court, it'll definitely make you laugh once or twice.
In short, this is the chronicle of the adventures of Hebiko, a sweet little chimera girl with a rather dark past. Walking a wobbly line between Anime goofiness, sci-fi, fantasy, action and parody (seriously, one of the villians is the Tempura Panda. The jokes are irresistible...), Parasite Galaxy proves its name aprops. Its universe takes in and uses ideas from any old place, to amusing results.
The creation of a team of five artists and writers, Parasite Galaxy can be found here

The Rating

You've got a ways to go, Parasite Galaxy. But just keep swimming!

The Raves

When a cartoon manages to blend magic and science, explore interior and exterior landscapes and still feel fairly lighthearted, you know it's got ambition. And its whimsically gross sense of humor keeps you snorting with laughter throughout, even during the important meta-plot moments.  A good example: the two main characters meet when Hebiko climbs into her new friend's burger, and he nearly gets chimera for lunch. Talk about having an issue with the school cafeteria!
Parasite Galaxy keeps things fun, short and sweet, with plenty of cute and lots of laughs.
Every once in a while it explores the bloodier side of anime style with flying limbs, blood and guts, but it never loses its rose colored glasses. The silly humor is one of the main reasons to keep reading. Need a sample? Read the page below.

The Razzes

Unfortunately, silly can only get you so far, and there's a fine line between innocent and clueless in characterization. Clueless isn't cute; it's irritating.

 In the story, the character of Hebiko is a little hard to believe: a creature trained from birth to be a weapon and is a highly trained and skillful fighter, while also having the persona of a fourteen year old girl...it doesn't mesh too well. Say what you will about the physiology of different species and the possibility of a different kind of maturation, but the writing doesn't gel, and at time the disconnect is painfully obvious. It breaks the thin thread suspending disbelief, and makes enjoying the story more work than it should have to be, despite the funny moments. Take this page, for example. When the creature in question is acting cute and mumbling about being sleepy like a little kid, it's really, really hard to understand why the other two characters are getting so worked up and shooting her. Basically, the emotional disconnect kills the moment.

Enjoying the story would also be easier if there were more effort put into the art. The penciller for the comic has a Deviantart page filled with gorgeous work, but by comparison, Parasite Galaxy appears jotted down. Poses are often stiff despite good anatomy, facial design is often oversimplified and  a lot of shortcuts have been taken on shading and backgrounds. Unfortunately, that's given Parasite Galaxy a lackadasical, amature-hour look that does the piece a disservice. If something's worth doing, creative team, it's worth doing right. I'd recommend putting out fewer pages and putting ALL your work and skill into the ones you do produce. 

The Revue

A fun jaunt through interstellar Crazytown. Give it a try!