Parasite Eve is a science fiction/romance-y book written by Hideaki Sena that was published in 1995. It was adapted into a movie and strangely, both have been released in America, the movie in 2001 by ADV Films and the novel in 2005 by Vertical.
In it, Kiyomi Nagishima, wife of Toshiaki Nagishima, crashes her car. Kiyomi survives but is brain dead. Toshiaki and Kiyomi's doctor transplant her kidneys into the teenage girl Mariko Anzai as an organ donation. What they didn't know was that Kiyomi's mitochondria had undergone an evolution, granting them special powers and a will of their own. Toshiaki is compelled to culture Kiyomi's liver cells (with help from lab assistant Sachiko Asakura), which he refers to as Eve, and the mitochondria in Mariko's new kidney start transforming her into something suitable for giving birth to the next step on the evolutionary ladder. The story then goes rather haywire as Eve takes on a form of her own, kidnaps Mariko, starts setting people on fire, and acquires a sperm sample from Toshiaki to create the Ultimate Being.
Oh, did you come here for the video games? You can find the first in the trilogy here.
For now, the character sheet mostly pertains to the games.
This novel provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream: Kiyomi's almost literal description when Eve took over her body.
- Author Avatar: The author, Hideaki Sena is a Ph.D. in Pharmacology, so is the main character.
- Beige Prose: In the course of demonstrating his research, Hideaki Sena doesn't always do a good job of writing a good story. The first fifty pages are a mind-numbingly detailed description of a kidney transplant that does little to actually advance the plot.
- Body Horror: General descriptions of Eve, and the whenever Eve transforms, and anything Eve does.
- The Bully: The reason why Mariko stopped taking her medication the first time she got a transplant.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The sounds Mariko dream/hallucinate and the comic book mentioned earlier.
- The lecture about mitochondria.
- The other kidney recipient going into accelerated rejection.
- Description Porn: See Shown Their Work.
- Didn't See That Coming: Type 5. Eve-1 assumed male sperm was just a convenient way of reproduction, but never expected the male mitochondria to come in conflict with female mitochondria in her Ultimate Eve.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Mariko. With a twist. She assumed the donor would come to take the kidney from her. Instead she came to implant an embryo into her.
- Evil Is Hammy: No part of Eve's plan needs her to tell a lecture hall full of scientists while possessing Asakura that the time of humans is over and mitochondria are going to be in charge, but she does it anyway.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Mariko believes that getting an organ from another person makes her one because school bullies mocked her with it.
- Gambit Roulette: Kiyomi's mitochondria have played with their limited control over her body to get her together with Toshiaki, as well as to enroll her on the list of kidney donors and to kill her in hopes of getting her kidney into a female recipient. They also influenced Toshiaki to cultivate Kiyomi's liver cells. This is all part of the plan to give birth to Ultimate Eve.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Inverted with Toshiaki, who goes sane from the revelation just before his first My God, What Have I Done?.
- Grand Theft Me: When Eve-1 took control of Kiyomi.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Asakura's childhood complex.
- The Igor: Asakura to Toshiaki, though unknowingly. She only knows that she's working on miraculous liver cells, not that they came form Toshiaki's dead wife, or that they are sentient and evil.
- Infodump: Sena wants you to know every last aspect of the history and process of organ transplantation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Done twice with the same character in something little less than 20 pages. Also done with a minor character a bit earlier.
- Playing with Fire: Mitochondria produce cellular energy. Eve presumably uses this to induce intense heat and even produce flames.
- Rape as Drama: Toshiaki is raped by Eve in the form of his wife. Extra squick when she also rapes Mariko, forming a penis to implant the fertilized egg into her womb.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Asakura, but actually because she is under Eve's influence.
- Shown Their Work: Oh god, where to start? The novel actually have a glossary with the difficult terms and a bibliography for all the medical description on transplants, rejection, antibiotics, dialysis, the psychology of organ replacement patients, and hospital stuff in general. The novel could be classified as Medical Porn.
- This Cannot Be!: Eve-1 as Ultimate Eve goes haywire.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Kiyomi's childhood friend and her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Averted with Eve-2, Eve-3 and other Eve cultures. Played straight with Kiyomi's childhood friend.
- Yandere: Eve to Toshiaki, as she views him as the only man who understands her.
