Review of Chainsaw Man

while i wouldn't call it a near-perfect anime, chainsaw man is certainly not overhyped and i enjoyed it a lot. you can really tell mappa put a lot of care and attention into making this a faithful adaptation bringing new life to its interesting world and story. characters are flawed, which i like. there are nuances to all of them as opposed to simple, 2D, easy to fall head-over-heels for personalities that i feel a lot of anime tends to be plagued with. the story is also fairly easy to get a hold of and has some killer moments thanks to the devils and theirpowers.

i have mixed feelings on the animation. i was impressed with it more often than not, but there are moments where i felt it was lacking. it can be dull to look at sometimes, which i wasn't totally bothered by given it's not the type of anime that needs colourful or vibrant visuals (the world here is far from the type), but it can make things look a little plain. again though, the animation impresses far more than it disappoints, and some of the action scenes or visually heavy moments were incredibly well put together.

all of this is supported by a really good soundtrack. each episode has its own ending song, some of which are decent tunes and a few of them have even become favourite songs of mine for the time being. it's hard not to like these credit sequences in general, they're some of the most unique moments of the anime visually and are a nice treat to finish each episode off with.

overall, the show is definitely best suited for a certain target audience and i can see why some may not like it for all manner of reasons, characters and animation style in particular. it's worth a watch though, and while i haven't read the manga beyond the point this season finishes off, i can tell there's going to be a lot of fun source material for mappa to work with.