Review of Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Man is expected to be on the front line of the anime industry but now that the anime is out, I have to disagree with this matter for various reasons including my own. First of all, the story is great since it is not like your typical shonen series due to how unpredictable it can get from time to time. It is just something that struck many hearts especially the younger audience because it is gore, horny, action packed and dark. So, did the anime did justice to the Chainsaw Man fandom? Well.... yes and no. Initial thought after watching episode 1 : The reason whyChainsaw Man is loved by many is not simply because of the story itself, but it is the ability of the creator of Chainsaw Man, Fujimoto Tatsuki. His ability as a mangaka or a visual storyteller in general is great and it is proven by his past works like Fire Punch, Sayonara Eri and Look Back. "A picture is worth a thousand words" can describe the medium of manga and comic perfectly because a single panel of image needs to be able to cultivate the reader's imagination to give movement and extra details to that panel for them to immerse in the story. This ability of Fujimoto Tatsuki allows him to introduce a lot of characters and make the readers to be invested in those characters within a limited amount of time given to them in the story.

The story of Chainsaw Man in a nutshell is like playing Doki Doki Literature Club where every single route leads back to Makima except for Kobeni's route because of how natural the plot armor looks in the series. (I read the manga twice prior the anime and both of them gave a different feels to it. The first read was quite action packed and fast paced while the second read was surprisingly slow paced after reading other works from Fujimoto Tatsuki (Will talk more about this in the final thought)).

Continuing with the production itself, I personally think it is over the top to the point that it sets a new level of average for each episode. It is nice to have different endings for each episode as a fan service and multiple sakuga moments in a single episode. Because of that, having minor flaws can look like a major thing because the standard of average has been raised. The first impression from the first episode is quite.... interesting. For this matter, all I can say is it depends on perspective. Since Chainsaw Man will ended up as one of the mainstream anime just from its hype from the fans, it is to be expected that more people are going to be interested in anime. If you have been a while in the anime community, seeing CGIs here and there are not exactly surprising since studios can cut corners to focus on other parts or add a little touch to it to give certain scenes more oof or oomph and it is actually praiseworthy IF they are implemented nicely in the show.(This is just my personal opinion but if you watch Dorohedoro, it looks more like a testing ground for Chainsaw Man)

Final thought :

Now that the first part of the anime is over, we can see that MAPPA has chosen the slow paced route which I think is an interesting option since MAPPA can stretch out the story as much as possible before the next part of the manga is finished. As I said earlier, Fujimoto Tatsuki is a great visual storyteller because he manages to convey the story by using the environment and subtle expressions to tell the story which can seen clearly in Fire Punch and Sayonara Eri. Initially, most people will think that the story is about Denji fighting for his everyday life and for Makima's attention but the story is more about Denji ̶c̶o̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶t̶t̶i̶e̶s̶ coping with life and I guess MAPPA did a great job with that part. Since MAPPA chose to convey the story in a visual manner aka the slow paced route as opposed to the fast paced route (If you only focus on the actions and the dialogues), they manage to fully utilise the subtle expressions and the environment shots to give the anime a melancholic vibe to it which is great but it can impose a problem on the future arc like the international incident arc where the story is really fast paced (I hope I can be proven wrong for this).

For the animation, MAPPA did a great display of both the cinematography and the animations but it would have been nicer if they can balance out the 3D and the 2D animations ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶U̶f̶o̶t̶a̶b̶l̶e̶. Furthermore, being the only anime (if I'm correct) that has a different ending for each episode truly makes Chainsaw Man a force to be reckon with but then again, it would have been nicer if they can focus more on balancing out the 3D and the 2D animations.

Next, Chainsaw Man has a very interesting choice of OSTs (idk whether to like it or not but it definitely passes the vibe check) but the sound effects are not that phenomenal (For example, Denji vs Katana Devil final fight scene seems a little dull due to lack of hype from the sounds) but it is enough to give the audience the immersive experience especially during the slow moments in the anime. Giving the voice acting roles of the main casts to underrated and new talents are a surprise at first but not a bad decision since they are great at it.

In conclusion, go watch it