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Chainsaw Man Review

Chainsaw Man is an action comedy horror anime series that premiered its first season consisting of 12 episodes in 2022. It’s a disappointing show.

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“I’ll turn you into the baddest of the badasses“

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Chainsaw Man follows the story of Denji, an impoverished young man who makes a contract that fuses his body with that of a dog-like devil named Pochita, granting him the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Denji eventually joins the Public Safety Devil Hunters, a government agency focused on fighting against devils whenever they become a threat to Japan.

I loved the opening episode. It was a great initial hook as the world building and mythology were both terrific. However, the season quickly lost its momentum from around the sixth episode onward, resulting in a middling series that never quite met its promise unfortunately.

The main issue I’ve had with it is the overt emphasis on sex humor. It’s one of those anime shows that are so reliant on appealing to the teenage and young adult audiences that they fail to reach adult viewers. The comedic elements should have been entirely tossed aside.

As for the horror of it all, it’s fine, but too gory and grotesque without being truly creepy. Some of the fight action scenes were pretty good, but the second half of the season became repetitive in the similarly repeated monster scenarios throughout.

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The characterization in Chainsaw Man is only serviceable with the protagonist being well developed, but everybody else suffering in comparison. The animation is stellar and the character designs are terrific. The score, sound and directing are all pretty good too. The dialogue is also solid. But I just wished for stronger, more complex storytelling in its second half.