Chainsaw Man Review – It cuts like a knife and feels good

A man with chainsaws coming out of his arms and out of his face sounds like something extraordinarily horrifying, like some kind of failed 80’s horror movie with really memorable VHS cover art. However, in the realm of anime, it works perfectly. Coming October 11th at 9:00am PT on Crunchyroll, the first episode of Chainsaw Man is the perfect way to start the Halloween season.

The first episode of Chainsaw Man made available for review by GameSpot adapts Chapter 1 of Volume 1 of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga. The story follows the adventures of Denji, a young man trying to pay off his father’s debts and sometimes having to sell body parts to make ends meet. He befriends a little devil and becomes a devil hunter. From then on it’s an anime. You know where this is going: he’s going to fight some monstrous creatures.

Denji is that lovable loser you’ve seen over and over again, except he’s a victim of his environment, not just someone born an unfortunate chump and tripping over his own feet laughing. This is more of a serious character. He’s trying what he can to rid himself of his father’s flaws, and at times it seems like there’s something sinister hiding beneath the surface – later it absolutely is, and it’s awesome.

The premiere follows 55 pages of manga and is exceptionally close to the source material. However, the translation waters down the rather humorous elements of Chainsaw Man from the manga – which are few and far between – and the main tone of the series is straight-forward horror, which works exceptionally well. Toning down the humor – and again, there’s not much in the manga here – and really focusing on the body horror, the gore, the guts, and the bizarre is what makes this opening episode such a standout introduction.

And speaking of blood and guts, Chainsaw Man is full of it for the second half of Episode 1. Yes, it’s as over the top with blood geysers as you would think. Do we need blood gushing from every cut and wound of a monster? Of course we do. Chainsaw Man doesn’t hold back, and that’s half the fun: guessing how intense and wild the next action sequence is going to be.

The monsters in the show come to life better than expected. They sure are terrifying within the manga, but seeing them fully realized raised the bar and really helped drive the horror tone home. Without going into too much detail about these beasts, they worked great on the site but are so much better in the series.

MAPPA is the animation studio behind Chainsaw Man – the same production studio behind Attack on Titan: The Final Season and Jujutsu Kaisen. If you’re familiar with their work, you know you’re getting into it. It’s intense, has an exceptionally good pacing, and most importantly, the animation looks fantastic. MAPPA was obviously the best choice for this adaptation – especially if you’ve seen some of the demons in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Chainsaw Man has a lot to offer. Sure, the manga is another Devil Hunter series, but it’s so huge and bombastic that it’s slightly absurd – in the best possible way. Denji’s best friend is a devil dog with a chainsaw named Pochita. It’s such a weird moment to see Denji use Pochita as a chainsaw to cut down a tree, but that’s the show. They go from something slightly cute – but ultimately bizarre – to a tomato devil that’s horrifying and lying dead on the ground. It’s a show that keeps audiences jumping and upending expectations. That’s the exciting part. Will we see something heartwarming next, or will someone have their guts falling out?

The only problem with the premiere episode is that there are some 3D background effects here and there that look a bit awkward. It happens right at the beginning of the episode, and that’s about it. It’s a little jarring, but ultimately it’s not a big part of the series so you don’t need to delve into it very much.

Chainsaw Man’s opening episode won’t disappoint you whether you’ve read the manga or not. It’s a wildly entertaining experience. MAPPA delivers top-notch animation here, and with all the devil, gore, and guts, this is the perfect anime to watch on – or near – Halloween. Although we only got one episode to review, this is one of the best anime premiere experiences we’ve seen in quite a while.