Review: Chainsaw Man Is A Visual Tour De Force

So it happened. The chainsaws arrived and they roared. There was loads and loads of blood, and obviously an utter disregard for it. MAPPA seems to have pulled out all the stops for Chainsaw Man, as if they were born to do this.

I went into the show expecting nothing. I was aware of the extraordinary hype for Chainsaw Man I found plastered all over anime forums. I was also familiar with Makima — it's hard not to be if you've watched anime.

But I haven't read the manga and knew better than counting on mainstream appeal in a medium lately populated by the same damn regurgitated shounen tropes and devices that make it hard to view them as anything but shadows of the classics that came before.

Chainsaw Man ended up pleasantly surprising me.

Plot

Chainsaw Man is about a teenager called Denji who kills devils to earn money and pay off his father’s debt. He’s got a small pet he names Pochita – a chainsaw devil. Following Yakuza’s betrayal, Denji ends up dead and Pochita enters a contract with him, reviving Denji and giving him the power to transform his body parts into chainsaws.

As he’s a hazard to the society, the devil hunter Makima offers him a job at the Public Safety Bureau and tells him he will be allowed to live as long as he’s loyal to her. Thus follows Denji’s transition from poverty to luxury and a shot at having a real girlfriend, but all at the cost of incredible danger that his new profession brings.

Characters

The instant pleaser is the protagonist himself. Denji is the antithesis of shonen protagonists, Although he follows the same family-dead-now-revenge prototype, and he does give those Naruto-esque delinquent vibes, and can be equally annoying, but Denji's disregard for any dignified goals displaces him from the usual canon of action protagonists.

In a world filled with monsters and persistent danger, he's practically the opposite of someone like Tanjiro from Demon Slayer. Instead of saving the world from devils or whatever, he's only invested in small goals like having good food, getting kisses and touching boobs. I'd say Denji's apathetic character is as radical as a depressed Shinji was in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I didn't find the other characters as charming. The distant and cool Aki Hayakawa felt like every other distant and cool anime character, though his devil pact was a treat to watch on screen! Power, too, reminded too much of other characters, and sometimes felt like the more idiotic version of Denji.

Makima was definitely a highlight. You could tell she's hiding something terrible, while simultaneously having a terrific on-screen presence. Kobeni's character was also well-done, and what happened to her was definitely unexpected.

The Gun Devil, however, was solely the most intriguing aspect throughout the anime. I mean it wasn't even there. The presence (or the absence) of this villain in the show kept making me wait for the next episode. The idea of bullets getting drawn to his actual body felt truly unique.

Soundtrack

The clash, clatter, the chuck-chuck-chuck and the grinding of chainsaws made for an extremely pleasurable experience. It’s satisfying to hear the fight sequences to the very minutest detail.

The sound team clearly did an equally fantastic job as the animation team, which is a feat in and of itself. KICK BACK is surely the aptest opening theme for the anime. Each of the 12 episodes has a different ending theme, which I personally don’t find pathbreaking, but it was nice to see something new happen. The soundtrack is definitely one of the stronger aspects of this anime.

Visuals

To say that the visuals are impressive is an understatement. Every frame is meticulously animated. Nothing feels choppy, despite a pervasive commitment towards CGI. The animation is easily the most delicious bearing of Chainsaw Man.

From emotive banter to fast-paced action scenes, the animation team went all out to match the hype that the news of a MAPPA adaption of the manga had brought to the table. Wherever the story lacked in passion, the visuals instantly makes up for it, setting the bar too high for the future shonens to come.