Denji is robbed of a normal teenage life, left with nothing but his deadbeat father’s overwhelming debt. His only companion is his pet, the chainsaw devil Pochita, with whom he slays devils for money that inevitably ends up in the yakuza’s pockets. All Denji can do is dream of a good, simple life: one with delicious food and a beautiful girlfriend by his side. But an act of greedy betrayal by the yakuza leads to Denji’s brutal, untimely death, crushing all hope of him ever achieving happiness.
Remarkably, an old contract allows Pochita to merge with the deceased Denji and bestow devil powers on him, changing him into a hybrid able to transform his body parts into chainsaws. Because Denji’s new abilities pose a significant risk to society, the Public Safety Bureau’s elite devil hunter Makima takes him in, letting him live as long as he obeys her command. Guided by the promise of a content life alongside an attractive woman, Denji devotes everything and fights with all his might to make his naive dreams a reality. – MAL Synopsis
Years ago, I had to see what all the hype was about, so I read all of Chainsaw Man (which, at the time, was just part 1/ The Public Safety Arc) in a few days, and I absolutely loved it. The characters, the world, the themes, the art. I loved everything about it. In my eyes, it is almost perfect. It had already been announced that MAPPA would be the studio to produce the adaptation. So I was even more excited because MAPPA has produced some of the best anime in the industry since its inception in 2012. With the Reze movie out now, it was time for me to sit down and watch this anime in its entirety, and this is one of the best/fun adaptations I’ve ever watched.
This season covers Half of the Public Safety Saga. In my manga review, I spoke about how fast-paced the story was, but how it worked really well, and I’m glad they kept up that pace for the anime, and it works just as well. It is almost constantly go, go, go, but it’s fitting for the world and characters, and it makes the downtime even more precious to everyone. Story-wise, these covered arcs are really good, still amazing, just not my favorites when it comes to the saga. We’re constantly introduced to new characters, themes, and events. This is just the beginning of what becomes something truly amazing. What we have here, though, is interesting. This world, where fears manifest into accompanying devils that pose a major threat to public safety, where devil hunters make contracts with other devils to slay their targets. A world that’s constantly in fear of the most powerful devil threat they’ve known yet, the Gun Devil, reappearing. It is a very bleak and depressing world to be in. With that being the case, the biggest question that season asks and constantly returns to is whether it is even worth it to have dreams in this world in this line of work of being a devil hunter, and if so, what is a worthwhile dream?
And that brings me to the characters. Denji, in particular, is one of the most interesting characters in all of media to me. An uneducated, untaught, homeless child. Who goes around with his weird devil dog thing (Poochita is the best), slaying devils and selling body parts because he’s being extorted by the mob to pay off his dead father’s debts. He, of all people, should really have nothing to live for, yet he finds himself under the control of Maki and a new member of the Public Safety team.
He realizes what his dreams are, what he really wants. The things that he would lay his life on the line for. He’s not a hero; he wants to live a life that he wasn’t able to for 16 years. He’s not a bad person, but at the end of the day, he just wants to cop a feel and kiss a girl or woman because he is a teenage boy. Which, as a man who was formerly a teenage boy, yeah, that tracks. But what would usually be a character joke about a pervy man/kid is here tied into the whole theme of control. Denji is so naive that the women around him have no issue or pushback controlling him (like a dog in Makima’s case) and dangling these sexual pleasures in front of him to make him do what they want or to even take out frustrations that they have in their own lives. It’s a sad reality that Denji is experiencing that he hasn’t woken up to yet, but there is some really good character building that comes with this, on top of the fact that Denji is just great. He’s a funny, immature goofball who is ultimately a solid guy. Which makes him even more fun to root for.
The three other main cast members are great, too. Aki is one of my goats. I love him as a character. He is of the Sasuke ilk of emo sad boys who want revenge (just to put it simply, it’s definitely not a 1 to 1), but we actually see a lot of his lighthearted side and him warming up to Denji and Power. He is the big brother that they definitely didn’t ask for but they needed. And his backstory is just as tragic as the story he lives through this season. Speaking of Power, she is just amazingly chaotic. The blood fiend that we see in real time becomes more human than fiend and I loved seeing her relationship with Denji grow.
Then there’s Makima. There’s just something about her from frame 1 when she’s introduced in the show. There is always this, not so much a sinister vibe, but more so a powerful and calculated vibe that allows her to constantly be calm at all times and talk and treat people like she owns them, or like in Denji’s case, like a dog that she makes go roof (literally). To me, Makima is the great mystery of this season, especially after the cool stuff that she does in the later episodes. I’m excited to see more of her character.
Okay, let me preface this next part. It doesnt fully sit right with me calling this a fun adaptation, knowing that this was produced in the midst of MAPPA’s horrendous scheduling and working conditions becoming more of a known thing. I’m not tapped into the anime news community or anything at all anymore, so I hope things have gotten better. So when I say this is a fun adaptation, I mean it in the sense that the English voice cast was clearly having the time of their lives recording this. From the localized lines that almost feel too natural to not have been improved, to the laughs and screams. This is one of, if not the best, dubs ever. I loved every second of it, and their energy just oozed every episode.
Also, the animation is amazing. MAPPA is the king of 3D modeling, rotoscoping, and camera usage in anime, to me. It makes the fights feel very dynamic, it gives a different feeling of movement to some characters and creatures, and all in all, the animation and direction were amazing. I especially loved the bleak color palette used. It makes the world almost constantly depressing, which it is. It just works. And finally, the music is so on point. That intro and opening animation is chef’s kiss. Not only is it a bop, but pay attention to the lyrics, and they thematically fit this entire series to a tee. And having unique outros every episode to fit the vibe was very, very cool and well done.
So yeah, I loved this adaptation. This is all I could ask for when it comes to adapting one of my favorite stories ever. It was done justice and I have complete faith in the rest of this story being faithfully adapted. The level of quality put into this first season has me excited about everything coming in the future, because, as fun and insane as this season was, things are only going to get crazier.
Chainsaw Man – 9/10
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