Review of Chainsaw Man

What else to say other than it being a pretty solid show? Coming off the manga, I came with certain expectations, but the anime can't necessarily replicate the magic that Fujimoto works on paper. His panelling and art style makes use of the manga pages like few other series can. The anime had high expectations, and for the most part, it delivered. Be it in terms of animation quality and the art design incorporated into the show. I was genuinely impressed with how seamlessly the CGI blended into the 2D art, with very few janky moments, and it actually enhanced the depth and the perceptionof certain shots.

This is probably the first anime other than the Monogatari series that had completely unique ending songs for each episode, and the songs were mostly really well produced, and 3-4 of the ending cinematics were really stellar, even as good as the opening.
The voice actors did an incredible job in the show, especially Makima and Denji. Giving Makima a girlish innocent voice made it stand out a bit, adding to the mystery that looms behind her, almost making me subconsciously underestimate her despite knowing all that happens in the manga. Denji's VA, on the other hand, made him way less insufferable than how I thought it would turn out, and in some scenes, even made me laugh due to his performance.

My two qualms with the show are the length of this season and the forgettable soundtrack. Compared to its contemporaries, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, both of which had 25+ episodes in their first season, 12 episodes of CSM felt a little too short for viewers to be completely gripped by the plot twists and the story. The first 3/4ths of the season was almost generic shounen formula, and only around episode 8 did its true nature slowly manage to peek through the veil that it presents. I would assume that since the show was fully funded by MAPPA themselves, not under a separate production committee, they might not have had the resources to push through the intense work that was required to produce 24 or 25 episodes of this quality. Moving to an easier project like Vinland Saga's S2 would be an ideal breather for many of the staff involved.

The soundtrack was not bad, it was just not memorable. I only distinctly remember that ending #4's starting metal guitar was used during the last bits of episodes 7 and 8; otherwise, it just perfectly blends into the show. This is not bad per se; just a nitpick on my end.

TL;DR - I think this is a very well produced show with a lot of passion from the animators, and I believe most people would find it interesting