Review of Chainsaw Man

Let’s start with the elephant in the room when it comes to the Chainsaw Man adaptation of the masterpiece manga by Fujimoto – the tone of the anime is almost a complete 180 difference from the manga. I think when we all saw that first CSM trailer drop last year, we knew MAPPA was going to bring a cinematic quality to this anime in particular, that you see absolutely nowhere else in the industry. That’s pretty much what we got, a movie grade anime series with production quality similar to the likes of movies from Shinkai Makoto. What MAPPA did not do with CSM iscapture it’s chaotic “chainsaw man pacing” that the series is so famous for. Is that a detriment to the anime or does it take away from the original material? In my opinion, no, instead MAPPA has delivered one of the best, first 12 episode run of a shounen of all time.

If you don’t know what CSM is about at this point because you refuse to accept peak fiction, or you’ve been living under a rock – then allow me to introduce you into the world of Fujimoto’s deranged brain. CSM source material borrows lots of traits from your traditional shounen, even going so far as to clone the main trio’s personality to that of the classic Naruto’s main cast, albeit to elevating results. What follows beyond this, however, is a wonderful blend of worldbuilding, pacing, and characters. There is a quality to this anime that even goes beyond its cinematic flair, almost like it’s a time capsule for the future. We’ll look back on this show and be able to pinpoint it as the place where anime took a turning point to the next “stage” if you will.

I know what some will say, CGI. In my assessment of most anime, none will ever come close to the quality and resourcefulness of utilizing CGI as MAPPA has done with CSM. Even going so far as to do such a good job of masking the CGI with 2D that people online where confusing inbetweener frames for CGI in the first episode when they were in fact, 2D drawn. I don’t know what MAPPA is feeding the animators at the studios, or NOT feeding them, but they went god mode on the animation for the fights in this show. It’s not just the fact that they were able to faithfully adapt the fights and do one for one shots from the manga, but they took creative liberties with how they stretched or shortened time in some of these fights. I think this gives the anime its own identity that is different from the manga, and if those want a full CSM universe experience, anime only watchers should go and read the manga to compare because each have their own expression when it comes to telling the story that Fujimoto has crafted.

There’s not much more I can say about this anime that hasn’t already been said. CSM is awesome, its beyond spectacularly produced and if the quality remains for the coming seasons – whenever they release – then CSM is bound to reach goat status of any anime *ever*. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be Fujimoto right now, seeing the popularity of his flagship manga reach all-time highs, combined with the flexibility his publisher gives him to right one shots, plus the pristine quality of his manga adaptation that happens to be even more of a celebration of Fujimoto then he probably ever imagined. It’s no secret Fujimoto loves films, but the fact that he was able to work alongside the production staff in story boarding, script writing, key framing – it just seems like Fujimoto has a bright future ahead of him at this point in his career, just as Satoshi Kon did when he wrote OPUS.

Long live chainsaw man, the best anime this year and perhaps one of the all-time greats, only time will tell. Also, they made Kobeni 10x cuter, Himeno 100x badder and Makima 1000x more mommy. Power is still best girl though.