Taylor

I've said it once, I've said it 1000 times. Anime is FULLY back and if you needed anymore proof, one of the most hype anime of the past few years now has a certified SAVING ANIME adaptation. Chainsaw Man is one of those animes that just has across the board appeal. Normies on Twitter debating about Lebron James are rocking Makima avs these days and Power of course does numbers on the lewd side of things. Naturally then I was hyped myself for this to come out, mainly because I had zero idea what this show was about outside of maybe one blurb and one of my friends explaining it poorly.

So here's the basic gestalt: Objects and things can be “devils”. For instance, the first devil we are introduced to is a “tomato devil” which I think is what African savages called Irish people the first time they saw them. Our main character, Denji, kills these devils with his own dog like thing with a chainsaw. Its real stupid, I'm gonna admit. The chainsaw thing looks out of place, it has that retarded but cute look to it but then its a chainsaw? Like with an actual chainsaw blade sticking out of his dumb face. And it works too, puts Stihl to SHAME. So our boy Denji is paying back some Yakuza types by cutting down trees, selling his organs, and then of course killing Devils to pay back his fathers debt who necked himself years ago. Kind of a bitch move but I get it. So at the end, shocker, the Yakuza turn on him, he dies, we have a touching moment where the chainsaw dog is absorbed by Denji or something? Anyways now ya boy is a living chainsaw, just literally mowing people down. Then at the VERY end we’re introduced to Makima and finally Denji gets to eat bread with jam (his dream, no really, that was his dream).

It sounds stupid when I spell it out like that, and maybe it IS a little stupid, but it works. The fight sequences were so kino. Mappa is really pulling that 2010s Trigger “saving anime” thing. Clean art, great composition, some of the shots made it feel like a David Fincher film, just absolute kino. Even without the interesting story this would slap, just how how GOOD it looks. The one demerit I will give is that fight choreography and use of CG. Obviously Im always extremely critical of CG even when used well, but with how beautiful the rest of the show was, the CG stood out only that much more. I understand why it’s done, but I still don’t like it. The characters are decent as well, although limited in the first episode. I love Denjis retarded puppy energy he has and Makima in her brief appearance was TOTAL mommy tier, which is always an added bonus for us Mommy GF respecters. The Yakuza angle of the story felt, I don’t know how to describe it, useless? The Yakuza guys were evil for the sake of being evil and that was about it, but I suppose it was just a very brief origin story arc so it can be excused. Watching Denji cut them down as he fought the Zombie Devil was extremely satisfying though.

Now, here’s the bad news. It’s looking like the show is 1 cour, 12 episodes. I don’t think thats going to be enough, although as all out as they are going with the show, maybe for the sake of the animators health and sanity, keeping it to 12 was a good call. Maybe more gets announced later, I don’t know. Im not familiar with the source material enough to even know if there’s even enough to adapt past that. All in all though, Chainsaw Man is a great anime, probably maybe even a contender for Anime of the Year, even without recency bias affecting it. This is a CONFIRMED much watch, lads.