Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw man is the fulfilment of shonen, the zenith of the medium, the apex of creativity…. At least that’s what you thought I’d say, right? In reality, chainsaw man is nothing more than a cheap gimmicky shonen that plays on the horniness of teenaged males, relies on shock value and uses flashy animation to make people overlook the mediocre plot. For the past 2.5 years now, I’ve heard nothing but incessant hype from CSM stans on twitter and Reddit about how this series is so peak and so gas etc etc., and like most of the things these kids hype up these days, this was overblown.It seems like all MAPPA have to do is give kids some sakuga and nice designs and people lose their minds. The whole idea of a dude getting manipulated by women into doing their bidding simply by being promised sexual favours or a boob grab is so painfully stupid and dull that I genuinely wanted to throw my remote at the tv at points. I love fanservice in anime, but this wasn’t just that. It was something way worse. Throwing up in a dude’s mouth during a kiss, grabbing titties while on a literal shitty toilet, etc. etc. it’s like the show relies on shock value consistently to keep it going. That didn’t resonate with me at all. Then there’s the makima simps. As I said earlier I’ve seen people hype up this series for years like it was the second coming of Christ and a massive part of that hype was the Makima dog walking memes/cosplays and just general thirsting over her character in general. Of course when we finally got to the anime and got to see her I was underwhelmed. She’s a conniving manipulative obviously evil character that has really no redeeming qualities. For the life of me I can’t see how people fell for her. Even her design is OK at best. This really extends to all the girls in this series too. It’s almost like just how Denji gets manipulated, so too were readers/viewers of this series into falling for these toxic women. The first half of my review makes me seem like a hater.. well I am. But I still will always give credit where credit is due. There are some scenes in this show that will absolutely knock your socks off and leave your jaw on the floor with how beautifully rendered and animated they are. Some fight scenes in Chainsaw man are just exquisite works of art. We’ve come to expect this from MAPPA and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the production levels are top notch. The CGI is pretty wonky at times, but for the most part I think it worked well. The 2D animation and art is obviously incredible. Voice acting castings were good with the exception of Makima who for me had a voice that didn’t really fit her. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but it just doesn’t sound right. Chainsaw Man is one of the most popular anime in recent years and truthfully I can’t understand why. Other than the MAPPA sakuga and Fujimoto twisted fetishes, I don’t see much to speak of from the anime. The story feels like an early 2000s generic shonen rip off that relies on shock value and gore as its primary tools. I know this won’t be a popular opinion or one that receives a lot of backing, but I just don’t think this show is very good. It’s not even top 5 of this season, nonetheless the year. Chainsaw man gets 6 out of 10.

Chainsaw Man is the latest dark shounen manga adaptation to take the internet by storm, and for once, I get the hype. It is a grim, action-packed series that follows an orphaned street punk desperate to make ends meet. After an encounter with a devil, Denji is transformed into a human-devil hybrid with the ability to manipulate chainsaws to fight devils. He is then recruited by the Public Safety Devil Hunters, an organization that makes contracts with helpful devils to hunt devils that threaten the world. In exchange for fighting devils, he'll receive food, housing, and possibly romance with the high-ranking devil hunter who tookhim in as her so-called pet, Makima. There are a lot of characters here, but the leading players are easy to keep track of because of their distinctive character designs, vibrant personalities, and the devil they've contracted. Denji and his first partner, Power, bounce off one another hilariously—as a devil and fiend, respectively, they have a lot in common as outcasts fueled by blood and gluttony. Denji's chemistry with Aki, his superior and constantly annoyed roommate, is also quite funny. They never seem to agree on anything but slowly develop a quite rewarding friendship. Other side relationships flesh out the cast members, so you know who you're rooting for while watching. A few of the dark-suit devil hunters were a bit forgettable, so their minimal involvement in the season felt underutilized. Kobeni, uniquely, was a tertiary comic-relief character until one scene that attempts to make her more unique. Makima is nearly the antagonist of the season, with how she manipulates Denji from the beginning so effortlessly that everyone but him can see through her. Denji looks up to her, but she controls his inceldom and naivete to use his Chainsaw Devil. She is overpowered, which can be countered later in the series if she has a weakness. Various intriguing relationship dynamics are presented through Makima's involvement, such as codependency, manipulation, girl bossing and gaslighting, some deep, some less so. The story has some plot contrivances, but overall it's a good vehicle for the action. Plenty of the fanservice makes sense, and it usually fits within the story. Denji being offered some kind of sexual reward for fighting and nearly dying highlights the insanity of the premise. Showing fanservice from Denji's perspective ties into his motivation, and it wouldn't be very believable without it. The pacing here is fine, a couple of thoroughly engaging episodes, then the shifts between arcs can sometimes seem jarring as the show shifts gears suddenly, and the occasional exposition-heavy scenes slow it down. Though there's a fair bit of world-building, it leaves you wanting more, but since explanations aren't the show's strong suit, it is best left for the next season. With its intense action scenes, compelling plot twists, and, most importantly, thought-provoking themes, it's no surprise it has become such a sensation. The themes are not the deepest or most intricate, but they give you plenty to ponder; Grief, pursuits, death, and further hidden recesses of humanity. These are the most consistent themes throughout because of how expected death is in the world of Chainsaw Man. Denji struggles with grief in naturalistic ways, which goes a long way in humanizing him. The score during these melancholy scenes aids our compassion for the characters. The music for the series is composed by Kensuke Ushio and merits praise for its unique blend of styles and ability to capture the gritty mood of the series. The opening's visual is loaded with homages to iconic scenes from classic cinema, including The Big Lebowski and one of the best horror films ever, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The OP shows respect for the classics and a boldly modern approach to the genres. Every episode has a different ending song and visuals from various musicians and genres, including rock, metal, punk, and hip-hop. The ED visuals reflect a theme or highlight a key devil hunter from the episode. Chainsaw Man's adaptation deserves every bit of praise it's gotten for its stellar soundtrack. Visually, it is just as, if not more, praiseworthy. The series is animated by MAPPA, the studio behind popular anime series like Attack on Titan, Yuri!!! On Ice, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more. MAPPA's animation style is unique and stands out amongst other shounen series. The fighting sequences in Chainsaw Man are incredibly detailed and fluid. The disturbing devil creatures have grotesque, deformed bodies and move at an inhuman speed only achievable with animation. The humanoid character designs are highly expressive and dynamic. Utilizing CGI models for Denji's transformation allows for more dynamic direction and gives the scenes more sense of speed. The solid lighting and shading make the CGI appear more natural. Almost every frame feels poured over by a vast committee of artists and animators, to the point that it is sometimes 'overly' polished but impressive nonetheless. The blood and gore visuals and realistic sound effects are very compelling, both enough to disgust horror fans but also over-the-top in a ridiculous way that it doesn't come off as gratuitous. Chainsaw Man has gained much popularity since its release and will be considered one of the best manga adaptations of this generation. It boasts some of the best animation on television, intense action sequences, unpredictable twists, memorable characters, and dark subject matter, such as death, grief, and violence. Its unique take on the traditional hero/monster story sets it far apart from its peers. An absorbing blend of comedy, horror and the supernatural makes Chainsaw Man a thrilling and consistently entertaining experience.

The anime has an overreliance on CGI, though it's fortunately passable, but loses some marks due to bad CG messing with immersion with sudden quality changes in how things are animated. As far as the plot goes, it start out strong in the first two episodes, then drops off a cliff. Episode 6, for example, could be completely cut from the series without anyone except those who read the source material noticing. The anime does somewhat "redeem" itself in the final 3 episodes, although two of them are basically just a training montage. Still, it's not nearly enough to pull a season that'smostly garbage out of the trash bin for me. The majority of the characters are garbage-tier, and the majority of the decent characters get killed off. In no particular order: Denji (the MC) is basically a hobo without ties to anything. He's an okay character, but not terribly interesting. He has no real motivation throughout the entire season other than "existing", which is just bland and disinteresting. Aki is one of the few passable side characters of the series, but even his well-rounded "leader" personality is pretty vanilla/bland. Power is just an annoying and largely incompetent narcissist. It's really a shame that she's so underpowered for all of her talk. Himeno is one of the few decent side characters, giving out strong Misato (EVA) vibes. Ultimately though, we don't see enough of her. Kobeni is the absolute worst characters of the series. She's simultaneously a whiny, useless crybaby in 90% of the series, but then randomly becomes competent when the writers need to insert a character in and can't think of anyone else to use. Later on in the season, when they randomly decide to kill off a ton of people, the "main" characters fight two people who wipe the floor with them, utterly decimating a group of them, only for them to do a 2-episode training montage for two of the survivors. One of them proceeds to 1v1 one of the people who literally just killed an entire squad (including them) earlier on, and win without anywhere near as much difficulty as we saw literally just a few episodes ago. The other BBEG goes up against one of the weaker ones and doesn't even use the power that decimated the entire squad earlier, and is instead overpowered without a fight. The writing of this series is garbage. The characters are almost all annoying or disinteresting, and the entire season feels like a filler season of an sub-par anime.

Did it live up to the hype? Short Answer: No Longer Answer: Chainsaw Man or CSM for short is undoubtedly the biggest anime this year with over 500k people having it in their PTW before its release. With many claiming it to be one of the of the best anime this year but in reality CSM isn’t anything special, it's just another action Shonen and is no better than anything we’ve had in recent years.Story (spoilers for 1st episode): CSM is about Denji a teenage boy so broke he had to sell his left nut working as a devil hunter with his pet chainsaw dog for the mafia to pay of his deceased father’s debt. Until one day his boss calls him for a job but it turns out it was a trap, shit happens and now Denji got his pet chainsaw dog for a heart and is fighting the zombie devil. And from then on, it’s your typical action Shonen. Now as for the plot in CSM there ain’t really much to say apart from the fact that it’s average and a bit more ruthless in some areas than most shows. As for the most part, CSM is just Denji killing devils or some plain dialogue and maybe some progression towards the main antagonist the “Gun devil.” Animation: Generally I’d say the animation in CSM is fairly good, however I was surprised to see CGI in a project as big as this and whilst it’s not the worst I've seen it doesn’t make it any better with most of the fights just looking janky, goofier and overall, just less satisfying and it doesn’t help when the main character’s “fighting form” or “chainsaw mode” as I like to call it probably has the worst CGI. Although this does improve considerably after the 1st episode with the exceptions of episodes 8 and 9. Now outside the fights the animation is infinitely better with a much more detailed approach to the animation style than most anime. Which I think was generally well done besides a few moments when the shading looked off. Characters (easily one of if not the worst part of this show): Denji - Around the time of CSM’s airing I started a thread about people’s most hated protagonists and was surprised to see Denji pop up fairly frequently although it didn’t take me long to see why. Denji isn’t like most Shonen protagonists, no he’s in it for the oppai. His character pretty much consists of being either horny or stupid which can a nice change for some people who are tired of the same old protagonist, or he can just be an immature twat you’d hope dies in a ditch, but I digress. Either way I'd say altogether he’s a pretty weak main character which I'd say is made arguably clear after the first several episodes as it’s not even evident he’s the protagonist half the time. Makima - Easily one of the blandest characters in the show, I mean all she does is tease Denji or in other words treat him like a dog, order people around or start some plain dialogue and be ominous in the most uninterestingly way possible. But maybe some people find her ominosity and dead personality interesting or maybe they just want to be stepped on, who knows. Power – Basically the female version Denji but instead of horny is overconfident and not gonna lie there’s not much else to say as all she does is either goof off with Denji or tend to whoever got injured. Aki - Probably a close 2nd to Makima when it comes to bland characters in this show but still the best out of these 4. Aki is probably the sanest character in this show which is nice since most of the cast lacks any intellect and is generally alright for the most part despite his rather dull personality. Conclusion: All in all, CSM is just your average action Shonen that got hyped like crazy with your pretty stereotypical plotline, animation that’s only good when they’re not fighting, awfully designed characters with an atmosphere so dull you might as well watch paint dry. At the end of the day this all subjective so if you like action Shonen or you're bored of the same old protagonist I'd say CSM is worth a try but if you don’t typically like Shonen or came here for the action prepare to be disappointed. If you made it this far through my rant I just want to say thanks for reading! Additional Notes: - Don’t tell me to read manga/it gets better or whatever as after the 3rd episode I read all of the manga and personally I don’t think it is or gets any better and so I will not watch the anime beyond this season - Feel free to critique my review - Also, I was never the best at English so please tell me if there are any grammatical errors