These days, most people seem to know Parasyte from its 2014 anime adaptation Parasyte - the maxim-, which updated the 1989 body horror manga tby Hitoshih Iwaaki o a modern-day setting, but was otherwise fairly faithful to the source material. There was also an iffy Japanese live-action movie that same year with a sequel that rushed to the ending the next year. Now it's getting a new live-action series that has some pretty big changes.
Parasyte: The Grey's biggest differences are that it's a South Korean adaptation, and it has a female lead. Her name's Jeong Su-in, and like the original protagonist, she merges with an alien Parasite who fails to possess her. This time around, though, there's also a a task force called "Team Grey" who are fighting against the Parasites, and a man who hunts for Parasites to find his missing sister. Already sounds like it's taking the franchisenew direction, but from what we can see so far (which for now is just the above poster) visually looks in-line with the original, at least.
Original author Hitoshi Iwaaki said:
“I am most excited that this is ‘a new story’; while I am the author of the original manga, I could also be a member of the audience that experiences thrill and awe. Thinking back to when the original manga was adapted in Japan, “Parasyte” the manga is like a ‘child’ to me, born from my own work in a small room, while the animation and live action film were like ‘grandchildren’, born from my child going out in the world and meeting many people and their wisdom, experience, and technology. I am overjoyed that another ‘grandchild’ is being born in Korea. I believe that this ‘new story’ taking place in a different location will lead us into a world beyond my imagination.”
If you're unfamiliar, Parasyte can be best summed up as Devilman crossed with The Thing. The original series is about a high school student named Shinichi Izumi, who gets unsuccessfully possessed by a parasitic alien that takes control of his right hand. He calls the alien in his hand Migi (Japanese for right), and they learn to co-operate as Migi helps Shinichi fight against people who've been fully possessed by Parasites that aren't as nice as Migi. How Su-in compares to Shinichi and whether her Parasite is anything like Migi remains to be seen.
Parasyte: The Grey debuts on Netflix on April 5. Will you guys check it out? Have you seen The Maxim or read the manga? Let us know below!
