Hey there! I just changed my blogskin :) It's a little user-unfriendly because you can't navigate my past posts by headings or hashtags. So i'm gonna update the codings, stay tuned! (The font's kinda hard to read too..other than these 3 peeves, i'm quite satisfied) Follow me on the links below! :) 29/4/2015.
Started this blog during the last few weeks of SEM1(AY2014/15) cos' i regained interest in blogging. I blog about anything - news, social issues, music - but mostly about my university life :) Hope my posts will help you to make better life (and module) choices! Currently a Sociology Major. Still fresh. xD
The Week I've been waiting for has finally arrived! Sigh, i always get damn restless during week 5/6. Needed this break, been working non-stop and i'm burning out.
Recently caught this anime called Parasyte:
Haven't been watching anime for a long time, but this one is pretty good and short (18eps)! Its great because if you look beyond its actually pretty deep and philosophical!
“Parasyte” revolves around the idea of what happens if intellectual
aliens try to take over the earth and eat humans—and draws parallels from how
we human beings treat animals and each other. It made me re-look what defines
humanity. Parasytes are cells that takes over the human’s brain to adopt the
human’s physical appearance. Apparently, this parasyte, named Migi, has failed
to take over Shinichi’s (Protagonist) brain resulting a maturation of the cells
only in his right hand (thus he named it Migi
which means right hand in Japanese), and
this enables his right hand to be able to morph into anything, a weapon as well
as an armour. As the anime progresses, we see a distinction between the
mindsets of Migi and Shinich. Migi kills anything which threatens its host,
Shinichi, and mainly fights for its own survival. Shinichi, after discovering
the series of mincemeat murders, tries to stop parasytes from killing more
humans by working with Migi.
------------------I suggest you to stop reading if you're gonna watch it-------------------
Parasytes arrived on earth in a protective shell, in which they will find a host. As the shell cracks, a cell-like creature begins to find its host, usually the nearest human around. It will then take over the human brain if its attempt is successful, taking over its identity and look, and feed on humans to survive. They can detect one another within 300 metres. Usually when they attack, the head will morph into a bunch of tentacle-looking muscles with sharp knife-like objects at the edge, in which it will slice up its victim:- Their level of intelligence and agility is similar to that of its hosts, ie. if it choose a bad host, like a fat one, it will be relatively weaker.
Meet the main lead, shinichi, a high school student: whom the parasyte failed to takeover. The parasyte only managed to take over his right hand, resulting in 2 beings in one body. This is especially interesting as we see the parallels of how Parasytes treat humans like mere food and puppets, just like how humans treat animals as food and kill them without much thought, or without any emotions. Parasytes have no concept of empathy or altruism, or emotions. They kill to protect themselves and their hosts.
Meet Migi! His right hand can morph into anything. and pretty smart. It does research and talks like a normal person. Some even become politicians to plan their food-murders more sustainably. Because they are in a position of power to manipulate people easily.
Shinichi is shy, caring and warm, your typical teenage student and a dutiful son. In the beginning, he listens and follows Migi's instructions, for he is just a kid and still trying to comprehend what has happened. The neighbourhood gets plagued by a series of meat-eating murderers, and Shinichi grows to be more resilient and skilled in combat to save humanity. Migi has no feelings even though he has killed his own kind, because like i said, they are emotionless and they think allowing emotions to get into your head is a waste of time. Migi kills parasytes for its own survival, to protect its host.
ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT NO. 2 ! Don't read on if you're gonna watch!
Shinichi's mum then got killed by a parasyte, and he could not bring himself to kill the monster who looks exactly like his mum. This weakness gave the parasyte an opportunity to kill him. He got stabbed by the parasyte, but Migi heals and nurses him using 30% of its body mass. This resulted in acute recovering and enhanced senses and agility as Migi is now distributed all over his bloodstream. Which explains why he doesn't needa wear specs anymore--he now has perfect vision.
After the transformation, we see Migi becoming more human like, and Shinichi lacking in emotions he could not cry and recovered from his emotions fast. Though he saved a severely injured dog by the roadside which it eventually died due to heavy injuries, he then threw the dog into the dustbin and left his girlfriend, Satomi, in shock and sadness. He said that it's not a dog, just a bunch of dead meat---which was something Migi was likely to say instead.
Does it seem like how we humans treat factory-farmed animals though? Grilled beef and chicken wings are 'just a bunch of dead meat' and food, yummy.
Throughout the anime she keeps questioning him, "You are Shinichi, right?" "Your eyes have become so...empty." She is someone who anchors the humanity in him, someone who allows him to retain the humanity that is left over all the hardship he has been through.
The anime also explains altruism very well: "Altruism is behaviour undertaken for the benefit of another. It is the opposite of selfishness. At first glance, Altruism may give no benefits to oneself, rather, it is behaviour that helps others despite posing a distinct disadvantage to oneself. It is not so rare among humans, but it has also been observed in a number of animal species. (...examples..) However there exists a type of behaviour that does not serve to protect one's own species: infanticide. Why do animals kill off their own offspring? The prevailing theory in recent years is the 'selfish gene'. In a nutshell, the body of an animal is merely its DNA's puppet. What matters is not its species, but itself, and its own offspring who will inherit its DNA. If we apply this theory more broadly, it can explain a wide variety of altruistic behaviour, familial love, marital love and even maternal love. This would mean that there is no such thing as compassion and altruism, that all behaviour that appears to stem from love is, in fact, merely behaviour to better the transmission of an individual's DNA. But this theory is not without problems. There are multiple cases in nature where animals help others who will have no impact in transmission of their own DNA and even those of an entirely different species. In addition, it will be interesting to consider humans in the realm of environmental and nature conservation are altruistic or selfish in nature." (Oh mai tian can't believe i transcripted this chunk)
“Rights are a concept specific to only the
species itself,” says Migi, who explains why it does not understand the concept
of human rights, why Shinichi does so many things for humans and people around
him despite putting himself in grave situations. Interestingly, the last battle
involves his fight with a human serial killer, leaving viewers to think that
can a man have his humanity revoked if he stoops low enough? Also, in the last
few chapters of the manga, we see that Migi has sacrificed itself to save
Shinichi, which leaves us to think that can an animal obtain humanity if it
tries hard enough?
What are human and animal rights? Don't we see animals like how Migi sees humans? And is that morally right? The act of parasyte killing humans is like how we confine veal calves into such a small space they can barely move, killing them before they mature to preserve that soft, tender meat that gives you nothing but only pleasure. Pleasure to the consumer and only pain and suffering to the victim.
Towards the end of the anime, our main parasyte "antagonist" actually revealed that through research, they need not eat humans to survive, and can actually coexist peacefully. That in fact, parasytes are fragile despite their ferocity. They understand the need for interdependency for their survival. They are beginning to gain emotions as they understand humanity, dying to protect her human baby even though she could have killed everyone at the field. Shinichi cries at the death of the parasyte, regaining the human touch in him, "you're back," Satomi says in tears. A great anime to give yourself a break and at the same time, learn more about fundamentals in humanity HAHA. Watch it here: http://watchparasyte.com/parasyte-episode-01/ Do leave comments on how you feel about this anime! I'm interested in what y'all have to say haha.
Till then, tata~~ Love how Jap animes are just plain awesome. They haven't lost that shine haha. I lost touch with it for a moment, back to anime again!! You can never look at plain cartoons the same way after studying Sociology and Philosophy, same with any almost any discipline haha. Interesting lenses..and as the saying goes, the more you learn, the less you know.. // The anime covers till chapter 50, the manga ends at chpt 64!
*its not in chronological order, just some parts of the manga i find interesting
The Week I've been waiting for has finally arrived! Sigh, i always get damn restless during week 5/6. Needed this break, been working non-stop and i'm burning out.
Recently caught this anime called Parasyte:
Haven't been watching anime for a long time, but this one is pretty good and short (18eps)! Its great because if you look beyond its actually pretty deep and philosophical!
“Parasyte” revolves around the idea of what happens if intellectual
aliens try to take over the earth and eat humans—and draws parallels from how
we human beings treat animals and each other. It made me re-look what defines
humanity. Parasytes are cells that takes over the human’s brain to adopt the
human’s physical appearance. Apparently, this parasyte, named Migi, has failed
to take over Shinichi’s (Protagonist) brain resulting a maturation of the cells
only in his right hand (thus he named it Migi
which means right hand in Japanese), and
this enables his right hand to be able to morph into anything, a weapon as well
as an armour. As the anime progresses, we see a distinction between the
mindsets of Migi and Shinich. Migi kills anything which threatens its host,
Shinichi, and mainly fights for its own survival. Shinichi, after discovering
the series of mincemeat murders, tries to stop parasytes from killing more
humans by working with Migi.
------------------I suggest you to stop reading if you're gonna watch it-------------------
Parasytes arrived on earth in a protective shell, in which they will find a host. As the shell cracks, a cell-like creature begins to find its host, usually the nearest human around. It will then take over the human brain if its attempt is successful, taking over its identity and look, and feed on humans to survive. They can detect one another within 300 metres. Usually when they attack, the head will morph into a bunch of tentacle-looking muscles with sharp knife-like objects at the edge, in which it will slice up its victim:- Their level of intelligence and agility is similar to that of its hosts, ie. if it choose a bad host, like a fat one, it will be relatively weaker.
Meet the main lead, shinichi, a high school student: whom the parasyte failed to takeover. The parasyte only managed to take over his right hand, resulting in 2 beings in one body. This is especially interesting as we see the parallels of how Parasytes treat humans like mere food and puppets, just like how humans treat animals as food and kill them without much thought, or without any emotions. Parasytes have no concept of empathy or altruism, or emotions. They kill to protect themselves and their hosts.
Meet Migi! His right hand can morph into anything. and pretty smart. It does research and talks like a normal person. Some even become politicians to plan their food-murders more sustainably. Because they are in a position of power to manipulate people easily.
Shinichi is shy, caring and warm, your typical teenage student and a dutiful son. In the beginning, he listens and follows Migi's instructions, for he is just a kid and still trying to comprehend what has happened. The neighbourhood gets plagued by a series of meat-eating murderers, and Shinichi grows to be more resilient and skilled in combat to save humanity. Migi has no feelings even though he has killed his own kind, because like i said, they are emotionless and they think allowing emotions to get into your head is a waste of time. Migi kills parasytes for its own survival, to protect its host.
ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT NO. 2 ! Don't read on if you're gonna watch!
Shinichi's mum then got killed by a parasyte, and he could not bring himself to kill the monster who looks exactly like his mum. This weakness gave the parasyte an opportunity to kill him. He got stabbed by the parasyte, but Migi heals and nurses him using 30% of its body mass. This resulted in acute recovering and enhanced senses and agility as Migi is now distributed all over his bloodstream. Which explains why he doesn't needa wear specs anymore--he now has perfect vision.
After the transformation, we see Migi becoming more human like, and Shinichi lacking in emotions he could not cry and recovered from his emotions fast. Though he saved a severely injured dog by the roadside which it eventually died due to heavy injuries, he then threw the dog into the dustbin and left his girlfriend, Satomi, in shock and sadness. He said that it's not a dog, just a bunch of dead meat---which was something Migi was likely to say instead.
Does it seem like how we humans treat factory-farmed animals though? Grilled beef and chicken wings are 'just a bunch of dead meat' and food, yummy.
Throughout the anime she keeps questioning him, "You are Shinichi, right?" "Your eyes have become so...empty." She is someone who anchors the humanity in him, someone who allows him to retain the humanity that is left over all the hardship he has been through.
The anime also explains altruism very well: "Altruism is behaviour undertaken for the benefit of another. It is the opposite of selfishness. At first glance, Altruism may give no benefits to oneself, rather, it is behaviour that helps others despite posing a distinct disadvantage to oneself. It is not so rare among humans, but it has also been observed in a number of animal species. (...examples..) However there exists a type of behaviour that does not serve to protect one's own species: infanticide. Why do animals kill off their own offspring? The prevailing theory in recent years is the 'selfish gene'. In a nutshell, the body of an animal is merely its DNA's puppet. What matters is not its species, but itself, and its own offspring who will inherit its DNA. If we apply this theory more broadly, it can explain a wide variety of altruistic behaviour, familial love, marital love and even maternal love. This would mean that there is no such thing as compassion and altruism, that all behaviour that appears to stem from love is, in fact, merely behaviour to better the transmission of an individual's DNA. But this theory is not without problems. There are multiple cases in nature where animals help others who will have no impact in transmission of their own DNA and even those of an entirely different species. In addition, it will be interesting to consider humans in the realm of environmental and nature conservation are altruistic or selfish in nature." (Oh mai tian can't believe i transcripted this chunk)
“Rights are a concept specific to only the
species itself,” says Migi, who explains why it does not understand the concept
of human rights, why Shinichi does so many things for humans and people around
him despite putting himself in grave situations. Interestingly, the last battle
involves his fight with a human serial killer, leaving viewers to think that
can a man have his humanity revoked if he stoops low enough? Also, in the last
few chapters of the manga, we see that Migi has sacrificed itself to save
Shinichi, which leaves us to think that can an animal obtain humanity if it
tries hard enough?
What are human and animal rights? Don't we see animals like how Migi sees humans? And is that morally right? The act of parasyte killing humans is like how we confine veal calves into such a small space they can barely move, killing them before they mature to preserve that soft, tender meat that gives you nothing but only pleasure. Pleasure to the consumer and only pain and suffering to the victim.
Towards the end of the anime, our main parasyte "antagonist" actually revealed that through research, they need not eat humans to survive, and can actually coexist peacefully. That in fact, parasytes are fragile despite their ferocity. They understand the need for interdependency for their survival. They are beginning to gain emotions as they understand humanity, dying to protect her human baby even though she could have killed everyone at the field. Shinichi cries at the death of the parasyte, regaining the human touch in him, "you're back," Satomi says in tears. A great anime to give yourself a break and at the same time, learn more about fundamentals in humanity HAHA. Watch it here: http://watchparasyte.com/parasyte-episode-01/ Do leave comments on how you feel about this anime! I'm interested in what y'all have to say haha.
Till then, tata~~ Love how Jap animes are just plain awesome. They haven't lost that shine haha. I lost touch with it for a moment, back to anime again!! You can never look at plain cartoons the same way after studying Sociology and Philosophy, same with any almost any discipline haha. Interesting lenses..and as the saying goes, the more you learn, the less you know.. // The anime covers till chapter 50, the manga ends at chpt 64!
*its not in chronological order, just some parts of the manga i find interesting
“To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.”
- James Allen Quotes
Sometimes I wonder how people see me and what they think of me. It scares me a bit, honestly. I am sure though, that what they think of me,
what they think my life is, is a complete misperception. I have always tried to show myself as a carefree person, as someone who wont get bothered
because of public judgements. I am sure my friend and family think there is nothing going wrong in my life, that I do not worry enough, that
I am always happy. And I am sure they probably somewhat hate me for it because, lets admit it, there is nothing worse than seeing someone
who is life seems so perfect while yours is a complete mess. Truth is, I have become an expert at pretending. I think we are all experts
or at least we are getting there.
my projects
links exchanged opened! just tag me but link me first
: Amelia Lim, 20 October.
Shinichi is shy, caring and warm, your typical teenage student and a dutiful son. In the beginning, he listens and follows Migi's instructions, for he is just a kid and still trying to comprehend what has happened. The neighbourhood gets plagued by a series of meat-eating murderers, and Shinichi grows to be more resilient and skilled in combat to save humanity. Migi has no feelings even though he has killed his own kind, because like i said, they are emotionless and they think allowing emotions to get into your head is a waste of time. Migi kills parasytes for its own survival, to protect its host.
