Review of Chainsaw Man

9/10

Recommended

January 07, 2023

2 min read

6 reactions

Let's get a couple criticisms out of the way: - The CG isn't perfect, although it's great compared to what we're used to in this medium. - It's raunchy and gory and crude, which is going to limit the target audience. As for praise, I'll first cover the adaptation and then the actual work of art: - This is an outstanding adaptation of a manga that is a little rough around the edges in terms of quality. You can draw the comparison to Demon Slayer in this sense. All the elements of the presentation direct the viewer to reflect on what the author wanted the reader to conside. -The soundtrack is top of the line, and really "sounds like the subject at hand" to put it vaguely.
- Mappa. Need I say more these days?

As for the source material:
- This show, as a work of art, is impactful to me because I am of the target audience. A recurring criticism I see of CSM is that the protagonist is not relatable. And you know what? They're probably right. I bet less than 75% of the population can actually relate to Denji even a little. But that's still a lot of people. I haven't gone through what Denji has and you'd better believe I'm not as depraved. But I sure have been poor enough to where certain common foods seemed luxurious, and you better believe I've been horny enough to seriously consider taking some decent risks! He's relatable because he's a hyperbole of what we feel, and that's how the author wants us to learn from the literature. Take some other hateable MCs from times past: Shinji Ikari, Subaru, and others in this vein. Most of us wouldn't act very much like them in the situations they were in. The point is to get us to think about the fact that we might be faced with analogous decisions, and maybe to scare us by thinking about the real odds that we make the wrong choice.

TLDR: I think the "unrelatable" card is invalid for too much of the population for it to be a valid criticism.

I don't think it's a masterpiece yet, but I'm excited that it could be one if future seasons build upon this one well. This is a good work of art.