Review of Chainsaw Man

When I first watched this show as it aired back in 2022, I was disappointed by it. Most of that was because I strongly hated fanservice in anime and Denji's boob obsession felt just like fanservice. Re-watching it almost 3 years later to prepare for the Reze movie, I definitely appreciate it a lot more now that I'm a bit older. First of all, now the story isn't just about some teenager's boob obsession for the sake of fanservice, but instead about it is about him being groomed into doing others' bidding. Sure there may be some scenes that are in there partially for thesake of fanservice, but every time Denji gets to feel some boobs or kiss a woman in the show, they allowed him to purely so that he does what they want him to. This is obviously grooming and the anime does a pretty great job at subtly criticising it. Understanding that now makes the scenes still uncomfortable to sit through, but with an actual point to the uncomfortableness.

The animation is absolutely amazing as per MAPPA's standards and the CGI also looks pretty great. Maybe there could've been a bit more detail on some of the CGI monsters, but even then they still look great on a TV budget. The writing is also really strong in this show, especially in the second half. Don't get me wrong, the first half still had some great writing, but it didn't really find its footing until episode 8. The characters were all really good and bounce off of each other pretty well, I don't think there's a real stand-out character yet but every one has a lot of potential. The soundtrack was also pretty great, and it worked really well with the fight scenes. I would have to say that one thing that I didn't like was that some important characters are killed off way too soon. They were definitely killed off to develop the story a bit quicker, but it definitely left some wasted potential.

Overall, this show is great and the story so far has a lot of potential for the future.