Review of Chainsaw Man
I love Cyberpunk 2077, its a great story about a young boy who has lost a loved one,as a result he receives a weird body modification that he can use to fight. And his new powers capture the attention of a beautiful woman who works with a group of misfits from a seedy organization but little does the main character realize that people are after his strange power for some reason. Oops did I say Cyberpunk 2077? I meant CSM i just mistyped. STORY I just need to say this. If the author of this anime is reading this. Good job, buddy.The writing is pretty solid. Lorewise, it does take elements from other anime, but puts its own twist on it. Instead of demons its devils, and the whole making a contract with the devil motif is here as well.It has many intense crazy moments offset by peaceful and docile moments with sprinkles of comedy to spice things up.It reminds me of FMA and Black Clover in a way. Its like the law of exchange 2.0. Also, I didn't know it, but this anime is actually a period piece taking place before the 2000s I believe, I guess the modern look made CSM look current time,but when you pay attention to the scenery and technology, you can see that it is older looking. The world of CSM gives this very icy and sterile view on city life,and it contrasts really well with the other elements like the devils. And speaking of actual events in the show, CSM does not give you time to breathe, you're either holding your breath for the very sensitive moments or gasping at the intense action. And it has that perfect amount of progression that justifies its 12 episode runtime, unlike other shounen that take at least 20 episodes just to even get its story going.
I swear, there are many scenes in Chainsaw Man that will be burned in my mind for a long time.Even ignoring the shocking ones, there are just really hair raising fight scenes that use
a combination of things like animation, music, direction, and sound mixing that makes everything feel demented.Instead of hype, I felt fear, instead of adrenaline rushes I got rushes of anxiety.I swear this anime is one of the closes experiences I have had to seeing what the hell actually looks like,and its not as cool as thought it was, Its horrifying.This anime is just nightmare fuel in general to be honest.
ANIMATION(addressing the controversy)
This part is gonna be me addressing the criticism,because a lot of things I liked about this anime are things that others have been vocal about disliking.So if you have these opinions, just know you're opinion is wrong and mine is factual lol.jk
“The art style is way too clean and does not fit the tone of the manga”
This is the most prelavent criticism,and one that I cannot wrap my head around, i guess they favor a more wild and rough artstyle but I am fine with the style they are going for. Its hard to put into words but bear with me. Lets look at another anime , Dorohedoro. The art style for that anime is extremely grimy,gritty, and gross cacophony ,but it fits the show. Dorohedoro is not a thought provoking show, its just chaotic absurdity in its pure form. But CSM has more to it. On the surface, it may be all Battles,Boobs, and Blood, but on the inside handles intense poignant themes and important character dynamics, and those things are handled with the right amount of sensitivity and maturity. the visuals make the themes resonate more.And even if the anime were to be more loyal to the art style. I basically don’t see any other way it would go about doing that. No shade,but I’ve been in this community long enough to know that the anime community is never satisfied.If Trigger did it, people would complain that it looks too cartoonish, if Yuasa did it people would complain that it looks too experimental for a shounen. I could see the staff behind Kizumonogatari doing it, but could you even imagine Shaft deciding to animate a shounen jump anime? Thats like getting Ari Aster to direct a Pixar Movie, sounds wonderful but highly implausible. MAPPA showed with Dorohedoro that they could make a grittier style, but they didn’t because that's not their intention, you can tell their intention through the movie references in the op. They’re trying to make the world of CSM a theatrical spectacle with homages to horror films. And I think they did a great job of that. The great cinematography, and the use of color contrast with the gray cityscape and pops of color coming from the characters and the gore. The ambient lighting in scenes adds to the unsettling factor. This anime does an amazing job of juggling all of these tonally different scenes while still being cohesive. MAPPA could've decided to just merge all these episodes into a film and put it in theaters, and I wouldn't know the difference.
“The 3D sucks”
I thought we were past the whole “3d in anime=bad animation” phase after Attack on Titan s4p1,but no.i said it once and will say it again. if you think this is bad cgi, you have not seen bad cgi. The only problem i do have is how ambitious they are with the 3d in fight scenes, the only time it looks jarring is when the characters are standing around talking full in 3d.Buuuuuuuuuut, i will mention the 3d in this anime is honestly a remarkable achievement in animation. Its combination of both 2d and 3d has never harmonized so well. CSM animation is like making passionate sex, there is a twinge of pain occasionally but the rest of it is pure ecstasy.Oh, i almost forgot about the use of texture and it makes the animation look so alive.The scratches and the glossiness of Denji’s carburetor box,the fleshiness of the organs,its wild. I'm not gonna say that the 3d in this anime is perfect all the time, it looks wonky in spots, but I have seen way worse from mappa in the past. And for people saying the CSM animation is bad because of the cgi use, I gonna piss myself because that's just blatant overlooking of all of the amazing mind-bending 2D animated moments that do more than makeup for the one or two scenes of questionable 3D.Probably the most impressive feat of animation I have seen in 2022 was seeing The Eternity Devil for the first time. How in the hell is it even possible to animate something like that in full 2D.CSM loves to take risks and I appreciate it.
SOUND
Okay Kensuke Ushio is an absolute legend. He gave us the iconic Devilman Crybaby ost, he composed the soundtrack to Boogiepop 2019 and that was the best thing about the show.I just like the way he companies electronica and atmosphere.This ost is his most experimental,some parts of the ost sound like he played with kitchen instruments, and other parts literally sound like his audio was corrupted and he just rolled with it. And it still sounds good. It sounds like something 100 geccs or death dynamic shroud would make.The opening is indescribable. I can’t say enough great things about it. It fits the anime to a goddamn T. Even in the song, Kenshi Yourezu sounds like a chainsmoker, and his raspy voice really compliments the chainsaw motif. There is the sick ass bass in the background,the dark and weird lyrics,the descending notes,and a catchy chorus.This song feels like you are on a party elevator thats plummeting into hell.And the visuals as well, I appreciate how the op incorporates just about everything that makes CSM so devilishly fun. The characters arent super serious or walking around, they are having a fun time at the bowling alley,the beach, and so much more.And as for the endings. ALL 12 of them, each of them are really well created and each of them do a good job of echoing the tone of the episode and gives you something to think about before you tune in next week.But who cares, you probably want a definitive ranking. So 2>6>11>7>1>12>5>4>9>10>8>3. And #3 was one of my favorite endings of the year.I don't even wanna comment on the dub, its almost perfect in a way. Literally, look up all the dub memes to see what I mean.
CHARACTERS
The characters in chainsaw man happen to be way more layered than I expected. Its an odd moment where the character interactions happen to be more interesting than the characters themselves and those dynamics are portrayed impressively on screen.I can’t really make an overview of them all so lemme go down the list.
Denji(aka the Chainsaw Man)
He’s a piece of work. I can see why some people dislike him as an MC. He’s very crass,rude,and,obnoxious. A dog is the perfect description for him,because his only goals in life are eating food and having sex with girls.But hear me out,this dude happens to be one of the more interesting shounen protagonists i’ve come across.Denji is a perfect example on how to write unlikeable characters really well. I don’t necessarily like him but I relate to him and appreciate how he develops. Even when we’re first introduced to him,you can tell he’s been in a shitty situation for a majority of his life.He’s not just some regular school kid or tragic hero who’s family was killed. He was forced to pay back a debt that was forced on him, as a result, he barely had control of his own life since everything he does to live is for the sake of the mafia. And as a young school student drowning in debt and money situations, I could relate. I mean, im not hunting devils or anything. The closest thing I have done thats similar to Denji was eat out of a dumpster. But when he meets Makima for the first time, he grows from just a man and into a human,he enjoys the good sides of life and those privileges give him more motivation to reach his true goals: have one night with Makima. I will admit, he wears his character goals on his sleeve so obnoxiously its like a tomato soup stain on a dresshirt.And him reminding me over and over that he wants to grab some tata’s got annoying for a bit.Usually a winning formula with character writing is introducing a character’s goal, their fear, and how they challenge that fear to reach their goal. In Denji’s case, his fear develops after he reaches his goals. This brought up a question on if achieving our goal matters more than the pursuit to achieve it.This is something that resonates with me a lot,I’ve faced disappointment so much in my life that I hesitate trying something in fears of being dissatisfied with my goal,but what Denji taught me is that you should embrace the work you put in instead of the reward because thats where you learn more as a person. Also there are other things I appreciate about him.He self reflects on things like grief and empathy later in the series, and it felt almost shocking how a psychotic blood hungry and bluntheaded pig like him had so much insight for a main character.
Power(aka the crazy cat lady)
Do I even need to explain who she is. Power is a legend,she is an icon,and she is the moment. What so special about her is that she is unappoligetically the most abhorrent thing ever to exist, but in a good way. She literally has no care for humans and only sees them as food providers.I was expecting her to be a one dimensional side girl who was there for fanservice,but she’s not that at all,she’s a fucking neanderthal.She jokes about killing her teammates constantly, she makes fun of their trauma,and she doesn’t flush the toilet.Her giving cats more consideration than humans is pretty based.But despite her being a shithead. She had some very funny one liners and her “gives no fucks” attitude really gives this show the edge it really needed to balance the tone out.I need to call her out though for disappearing during one of the most climatic scenes in the show. WTF was she even doing at that time?
Aki(aka the grumpy gum guy)
I think most of his intriguing parts of his character come from his dynamic with Himeno. He has straightforward motivations for being a devil hunter,but a cool thing that the story does is show what Aki is destined to lose,which honestly isn't much,he has lost so much already,that its perfectly understandable why he risks his own life to at least get revenge. And just like someone his age would be, he's persistent, blunt, and acts like he has his emotions under control,but he doesn't.
Makima(aka the true gaslight gatekeep girlboss)
The lion,the witch, and the audacity of this bitch. Makima is such a snake dude oh my god. I didn't see it at first but its the little actions that show her fakeness. When she's in the car with Denji, she acts interested in him but when she turns away and looks out the window,her face is deadpan like she couldn't care less about the dude.Half of her team doesn't even trust her.Another character even admitted to sensing her phoniness, and shes basically sitting there like "😏" the whole time.And the fact she stoops so low as to even use her sex appeal to get Denji to do anything she wants shows how she has no chill. The dynamic of her being a pet owner and Denji being a dog is sooooo accurate. Just like normal pet owners, she hand feeds Denji, she pets him and gives him kisses, when the poor boy gets sick,she buys him stomach medicine, and promises him with treats in exchange for him fetching the gun devil. I think this was what Classroom of the Elite was going for but failed since unlike that show,the manipulator has much more of an aura that makes her alluringly dangerous. Shit, I would argue she's the villain of the show, everytime she gets the squad to do something,it almost never goes well.Chainsaw Man female characters are horrifying,man.
Pochita(the cute devil dog)
Pochita, he is cute ngl, i feel like there's more to him that the show teases at the end but still, he's cute.I would buy a plushie of him.
Himeno(aka the one eyed bandit)
Himeno's character is responsible for the more stomach turning moments of the anime,but her character overall is a very tragic one.She feels so realistic.She acts aloof and carefree to keep spirits up,but when she panics, it doesn't take much for her to snap. As seen from the montage of her house in Episode 8, you can tell that she is a very very lonely person.She has experienced so much loss that when she develops a bond,she wants to protect this bond at all costs even if it means putting everyone else including herself in danger to do so,she copes with her situation by smoking and drinking.And her life is really sad,that's why i defended the art style because it really made these themes resonate strongly and subtly.
Kobeni(aka….kawaii richard nixon)
Might as well mention Arai here because why not. A lot of characters in anime are known for having tragic pasts, Kobeni is going through her tragic past right now. Apparently people hate her…IDK, shes like an Asuka situation where she makes extreme decisions,but honestly can you even blame her? She’s hit a dead end in life and only being a devil hunter will help support her and her family. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut she’s finally realizing the catch to it all. A cool thing they do with her character is make the audience,at least me, empathize with Kobeni’s and Arai’s intense fear.The fact that most newbie devil hunters immediately die, not only do they feel it, but you feel it as well.I just wanna jump into the screen and save Kobeni from this scary life,but I can’t ;__;
Villains
I will admit the villains are cool as well,even if they don’t have much to their character. Most of their motivations are shrouded in mystery,and one has some beef with Denji.What's great is that these villains feel just as if not stronger than the main characters and it feels as if there isn't as much plot armor.They feel balanced.
ENJOYMENT
Looking back on the show as a whole,i was close to giving it a 9,but looking back on the other elements of the anime like the spectacular animation,the super in depth character writing, the experimental soundtrack,amazing voice acting ,and even other things like the cinematography and masterful direction . This anime is the definition of a masterpiece.Merriam defines a masterpiece as " a work done with extraordinary skill". And yea i would agree that Chainsaw Man along with Bocchi is "extraordinary". Both for extremely different reasons.And as for my enjoyment, this anime hits pretty much every genre I love, and sensitively touches on very heavy themes that makes me think more of my fleeting life. I mean, fuck man, i could die next year,next week, tomorrow, or even in a few minutes after I upload this review and not even know it. So I gotta cherish all the little things in life like Denji does.Whether its my friends or a piece of toast with jam.My favorite feeling i like to have is that feeling of finishing an anime and thinking "wow, i felt like i went on a journey through hell, i wanna do it again". And this anime gave me that feeling.