Episode 1

The Metamorphosis (変身, Henshin) is the 1st episode of the Parasyte -the maxim- (寄生獣 セイの格率 Kiseijuu Sei no Kakuritsu), anime series.

Overview
''Shinichi Izumi's life takes a turn to the bizarre when a mysterious life form attempts to infiltrate his body in order to snatch it, but it ends up stuck on where his right hand used to be and both are forced to cooperate. Meanwhile, similar incidents with gruesome outcomes start occurring in other locations around the world.''

Summary
Late at night an older couple is seen standing in their living room staring at each other. Suddenly the man's head splits open revealing sharp teeth, tentacles and eyes. The woman watches in shock as the creature clamps down on her head devouring it.

Shinichi is first seen laying in bed. A voice states that it was unfortunate that it failed. Shinichi lazily asks what's unfortunate, and the voice tells him to shut up. Shocked, Shinichi gets up, puts on his glasses and looks around his room to find nothing. Shinichi assumes that he was dreaming. He gets dressed and heads downstairs for breakfast, where his father, Kazuyuki and his mother, Nobuko are at. Kazuyuki asks if Shinichi found the "snake". Shinichi states that his right hand feels numb. Nobuko replies that it feels numb due to Shinichi tying his earphone cord around it while half-asleep. Nobuko hands Shinichi his bacon and eggs, though Shinichi states that he would just like some toast. About to have a cup of coffee, Shinichi sees a spider on the table and accidentally boils his tongue. Nobuko asks when he's going to get over his fear of insects.

On the way to school, a friend of Shinichi's, Murano, attempts to suprise him from behind. Shinichi grabs her hand without even knowing she was behind him. Shinichi turns around and is shocked to see Murano. Murano tells him that he knew she was there all along. Shinichi denies the fact and accidentally squeezes Murano's breast, receiving a slap to the face. A friend of Shinichi's, Yuko, picks his glasses up for him. She asks Shinichi if something's wrong with his right hand, who tells her that it's nothing.

In class, Shinichi is seen using his smartphone under his desk, which doesn't go unnoticed by Yuko. In a flashback, Shinichi is listening to music with his earphones in bed. An organism attempts to enter his ear, but is obstructed by the earphones. It enters Shinichi's nose, causing him to sneeze it out. Shinichi mistakes the organism for a snake and grabs a book to defend himself. He turns around and sees it on his computer, and it enters him through his hand. The organism goes up his arm, and Shinichi ties his earphones around his arm to stop it. Shinichi's parents are woken up and they head to his room. When asked what's wrong, Shinichi states that a snake made a hole in his hand and it tried to burrow up his arm. Kazuyuki inspects Shinichi's hand, but finds no hole on it. In the present, Shinichi wonders if the "snake" is still in his hand. Yuko calls him, and Shinichi finds his teacher right beside him. His smartphone ends up being confiscated.

During recess, Shinichi tries to apologize to Murano, but is ignored. Yuko offers to help apologize to Murano in Shinichi's place. Yuko states that he was acting strange all day and Shinichi decides to go home early. On his way home, Shinichi sees a girl chasing after her ball which bounced out to the street. The girl gets in the way of a speeding car. Shinichi saves the girl and manages to stop the car with his right hand. Shinichi rushes home after seeing an eyeball form on his right hand.

In his room, Shinichi takes out a knife and attempts to stab his right hand. His right hand transforms into something with eyeballs on the middle and index fingers and a mouth on the centre of the hand. The organism begins talking inaudibly. Shinichi asks what it had done to his hand, and it replies that it ate it. Shinichi laughs, and attempts to stab it. The organism breaks the blade in half and throws it to the ceiling. The organism asks Shinichi to teach it how to talk, who quickly closes the window curtains. The organism falls asleep and Shinichi tells his mother to not enter his room. Shinichi searches the Internet for "talking right hand weird snake" and "burrow into human" but finds nothing revelant. Shinichi heads down to have dinner.

Back in his room, Shinichi decides to keep what happened earlier a secret. Shinichi wakes up the next morning and finds that the organism, which divided into two, studying about fish. The organism states that it had no mention in bilogy books and that it doesn't know its origin. It also feels ashamed that it was unable to enter Shinichi's brain, which alarms him. The organism states that it can't enter Shinichi's brain now that it has matured in his hand and that he would have become an organism with the body of a human and a head that morphs if it had managed to enter his brain. The organism tells him that amputating his hand would be a bad idea, as it would die and Shinichi would lose his right hand. The organism strikes up an offer, that Shinichi could control his hand just like before when it is asleep and that the two should cooperate.

The next day, Shinichi asks his mother for some bacon and eggs, which suprises her. Shinichi learns from his father that murders have been occurring lately. A spider appears on the table and Shinichi gets rid of it, which suprises his parents. On his way to school, Shinichi decides to talk to the police, the organism talks him out of it and that he would be an experimental subject if he did so. The organism tells Shinichi that it senses one of its kind, a Parasyte, and it leads him to it. Shinichi tries to turn back, but the organism latches itself to a post, wanting to know what it is exactly. Shinichi finds the Parasite, a dog, eating another dog. The dog transforms and flies after Shinichi. The organism manages to extract the dog's heart, killing it. Shinichi washes the blood off his right hand.

The episode ends with a flashback to two days prior, where a man is seen murdering a woman by stabbing a knife into her chest. The man begins laughing maniacally while looking up at the sky. At the same time at Shinichi's home, an "egg" carrying a parasite lands on a satellite dish outside his window. The egg then opens and the snake-like creature crawls towards him.

Trivia

 * The title of this episode is from literary work "The Metamorphosis", along with all the episode titles, are from famous literary works.

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