Review of Chainsaw Man

First off the animation looks great and the fight scenes looked pretty badass. Almost everything else though.. I did not enjoy. Denji is probably the worst mc I have ever seen in an anime. He has no charisma whatsoever. He is not an endearing character we want to protect because of his bad life until the point the story starts. For that to happen he would have to be a better person with a good heart, which clearly isn't the case here. He also isn't a very funny or inspiring character that we enjoy to see because he is amusing or makes us want toroot for him to fulfill his dreams. And he also isn't a badass cool character every boy dreams to be. No, Denji is just a plain boring character that in most shows would be some side character because he is a little edgy and maybe gets a short spotlight for a cool fight or something.

All those attributes that would make a main character are completely absent in the Chainsaw Man. I often read that he is a very relatable character because of his realistic dreams. Which is utter rubbish! Denji's dream is to have sex with a girl he has somewhat of a crush on. I'm sorry to break this to some people, but that is a side quest. If this is your main goal in life you should think about some changes in your life. That is a fun side activity, not something your life should revolve around. But it is for this mc, which is as mundane as it can get.

This mc has no agency whatsoever, he is just dragged along by his "supporting cast". But I couldn't get into any of those side characters either, because they are either boring or just straight up horrible people, or both and I couldn't care less when any of them died, fake deaths included. In a decent show Aki would have been the protagonist and to be perfectly honest I am more or less convinced that he actually is. He still lacks a bit of emotional depth for that, but he would have definitely been the better choice, since he actually has a goal beyond touching a boob or getting a girl to kiss him. But that's the next thing about the show, almost all of the cast show very little to no emotion. Yeah I get it, "they live in a world with demons around, they had very hard lives and death is only a step away for them at all..." Aah will you shut up?! Yes, they have hard lives, but guess what, so do many others, in the real world and in anime, yet they still possess human emotions. It's like the Katana guy said, Denji has no conscience left, is he even human anymore? Who knows, if he is, he sure as hell isn't showing it.

I really tried to give this anime a chance, considering how hyped it was, hell after the trailer I was actually fired up, but things kept on dragging and just got worse over time. The last couple episodes were probably the best of the anime, which isn't saying much since I was bored out of my mind for most of the show. I cannot comprehend why this show is getting the spotlight it is getting. Not even the setting is very original, they are hunting demons, yeah.. haven't heard of that one before... Everything about this show up to this point just screams average at you. That's already including the good animation, if it wasn't for those this would be far below average.

Overall I think this show has a terrible and unoriginal story with one of the worst, if not the worst mc in anime history. The animation is great, I will give Mappa that but that can't save the boring and lackluster story as well as characters. Chainsaw Man is actually very well represented by it's mc who is a giant simping unlikeable disappointment of a main character with no agency whatsoever. 4/10