LMAO, well yeah, few things are THAT brutal in such short fashion. Though at least we know Chainsaw Man will eventually get fully adapted.
Whereas with the Gantz anime, they literally cut off from there to give us a bullshit filler ending. Ah yes, it’s not like the following arc in the manga is where Kurono’s character development finally kicks in or anything…
LMAO, well yeah, few things are THAT brutal in such short fashion. Though at least we know Chainsaw Man will eventually get fully adapted.
Whereas with the Gantz anime, they literally cut off from there to give us a bullshit filler ending. Ah yes, it’s not like the following arc in the manga is where Kurono’s character development finally kicks in or anything…
And now we get a taste of Makima’s power. Doing…something to the attackers on the train, and then killing all of the gunmen with nothing they can do to save themselves despite her being nearly 300 miles away. After injuring Aki and leading to Himeno’s death, it’s so satisfying seeing the “oh shit!” faces on Katana Man and Akane.
But when asked if she anticipated the attack, Makima avoids the question through a technicality. What is truly going on?
But aside from Makima’s “bullshit” (as Akane called it, LOL, way to be salty, girl), the MVP of this episode was Kobeni! Killing that old bitch without hesitation, and then outmaneuvering Akane’s snake, damn! I mean, considering she never wanted this life, and her parents are abusive assholes who practically forced her into this job, I think we can all appreciate-
Denji and Power begin their training arc! Their REALLY brutal training arc. But it’s okay, everyone knows when you put on glasses you become smarter, and as we found out at the restaurant, Power already has a 1000 IQ, so surely they’ll beat Himeno’s mentor eventually, right…..right?
I do just love the hype music playing as Denji and Power over enthusiastically declare their plans to win as they walk along the long highway. For as much as they bicker, they really do sync well a lot of the time.
Pretty much everything with Aki this episode was depressing. He only has two years left to live. Himeno was truly trying to get him to quit Public Safety, and if they both had, she would likely still be with him. And now he stands before the Future Devil whose price for forming a contract with Aki is about to be determined. How much left does this poor guy have to give?!
This is giving me Gantz vibes. Denji and Kurono are basically the same person under the same circumstances, and it's hitting a lot of the same plot beats. I'm liking this a lot more though. Thankfully, because this is a shonen, it'll hit a ceiling as far as the depravity goes, whereas Gantz had no ceiling because it was a seinen. Gantz relied solely on how shocking it could be, to the point where it became desensitizing. Chainsaw Man tries to shock you, but it also tries to be humorous and have an engaging story as well.
This is giving me Gantz vibes. Denji and Kurono are basically the same person under the same circumstances, and it's hitting a lot of the same plot beats. I'm liking this a lot more though. Thankfully, because this is a shonen, it'll hit a ceiling as far as the depravity goes, whereas Gantz had no ceiling because it was a seinen. Gantz relied solely on how shocking it could be, to the point where it became desensitizing. Chainsaw Man tries to shock you, but it also tries to be humorous and have an engaging story as well.
Well, I’ll just say this without entering spoiler territory: these first 12 episodes are adapting the first half of Part 1 of the manga (11 volumes). The second half of Part 1, while not quite Gantz territory, still manages to spawn two memes:
”Fujimoto has blackmail on some of the people in Shonen Jump” (fans joking that some of the later moments that go FAR harder in dark storytelling and one particular panel of borderline nudity, plus the downright fucked up way one major problem has to be dealt with that virtually most seinen probably wouldn’t even do, than anything seen in the physical Jump magazine, and so the mangaka must have dirt on the Jump staff to be allowed to go this hard)
”…..well, at least it wasn’t Fire Punch, right guys?” (the mangaka’s previous work, Fire Punch, is often described as genuinely narcissistic, so Chainsaw Man fans coped by saying it could have been worse…)
As a man once famously sang: “you ain’t seen nothing yet!” We‘re still in safer territory with CM at this point in the anime.
Also, I would say Kurono and Denji are separated by nature vs. nurture. IIRC, Kurono seemed to mostly be an asshole at the start due to that just being how he was. His growth had to be triggered by a catastrophic level of loss and hitting so rock bottom it allowed him to change to try to prevent such extreme loss from happening again. Denji is who he was at the start due to the people around him: a useless father who chose death over helping him, the yakuza who treated him like their property, him only knowing a devil dog as a friend, etc. His dreams and reactions to things are all clearly a product of the uniquely fucked up way he grew up, rather than him simply being that way naturally.
Quite a heavy mood this episode. Denji lost two apples and his manga, and for what? It says something about the futility of sacrifice how those apples were not even properly enjoyed.
Well, I’ll just say this without entering spoiler territory: these first 12 episodes are adapting the first half of Part 1 of the manga (11 volumes). The second half of Part 1, while not quite Gantz territory, still manages to spawn two memes:
”Fujimoto has blackmail on some of the people in Shonen Jump” (fans joking that some of the later moments that go FAR harder in dark storytelling and one particular panel of borderline nudity, plus the downright fucked up way one major problem has to be dealt with that virtually most seinen probably wouldn’t even do, than anything seen in the physical Jump magazine, and so the mangaka must have dirt on the Jump staff to be allowed to go this hard)
”…..well, at least it wasn’t Fire Punch, right guys?” (the mangaka’s previous work, Fire Punch, is often described as genuinely narcissistic, so Chainsaw Man fans coped by saying it could have been worse…)
As a man once famously sang: “you ain’t seen nothing yet!” We‘re still in safer territory with CM at this point in the anime.
Also, I would say Kurono and Denji are separated by nature vs. nurture. IIRC, Kurono seemed to mostly be an asshole at the start due to that just being how he was. His growth had to be triggered by a catastrophic level of loss and hitting so rock bottom it allowed him to change to try to prevent such extreme loss from happening again. Denji is who he was at the start due to the people around him: a useless father who chose death over helping him, the yakuza who treated him like their property, him only knowing a devil dog as a friend, etc. His dreams and reactions to things are all clearly a product of the uniquely fucked up way he grew up, rather than him simply being that way naturally.
Those are some good points about Kurono and Denji. I'm really happy to hear that it doesn't ever go full Gantz though. I enjoy being shocked by stuff, especially when it's done humorously like in Chainsaw Man, but Gantz went full-blown incel with it. The shocking stuff in Gantz was done in bad taste, with a lot of the violence and depravity being targeted at women in particular.
Those are some good points about Kurono and Denji. I'm really happy to hear that it doesn't ever go full Gantz though. I enjoy being shocked by stuff, especially when it's done humorously like in Chainsaw Man, but Gantz went full-blown incel with it. The shocking stuff in Gantz was done in bad taste, with a lot of the violence and depravity being targeted at women in particular.
I mean, I don’t know if I would judge Gantz that harshly. Its female characters were pretty one-note, but the series did look down upon shallow men who only show interest in a woman for their looks. When Kurono matures, he chooses to stay with his girlfriend Tae despite Reika being more conventionally attractive*. Likewise, the horny dumbass who thought it was a good idea to sleep with “Reika” right in the middle of a mission paid for it dearly.
There are definitely some “bruh, really?” moments in the manga in terms of wondering what the hell the writer was thinking. Like Izumi putting on blackface to commit his mass shooting. Like, I get A) Izumi’s a piece of complete shit, and B) he didn’t want his identity exposed, but a simple, good mask would have accomplished the same thing and been quicker to do, it was clear the author did it for no reason but to be shocking. Also, the only LGBT character that I remember was a rapist. [sarcasm]Classy[/sarcasm].
I still like the manga (though I never got around to reading the final arc, which I hear even most fans didn’t like), but it is VERY flawed in some aspects.
*although apparently in an interview the mangaka called Tae a “terrible girlfriend”. So weirdly enough, the mangaka almost sounds like he’s shallow towards women as well, yet he criticizes such behavior in his story? I dunno, some writers be weird like that
After episode 10 I think this show is really starting to hit it's stride. I really like the current set-up with Denji and Power trying to kill their mentor to avoid getting killed over and over again and I am excited to see what Aki's new contract is capable of.
man.. im so glad they did the manga justice. Seen the train scene and Makimas powers animated give me hope for the future fight scenes.
great translation from the manga.
And so Aki gets a contract with the Future Devil with seemingly no cost. Pretty sweet, though a tad ominous. Just what sort of death awaits Aki in two years?
Denji and Power manage to get a single scratch on their teacher. Clearly they’ve come a long way, but will it be enough to win this upcoming battle?
Thinking you’re in control when Makima is in the room is hazardous to your health according to 10 out of 10 health experts. Yakuza guys should really take care of their health better.
Four new Fiends/Devils join the team! Shark is crazy fun, I love that guy. And Angel, wow, I know he’s a dude, but…
Yeah, it might feel odd introducing four new characters in the penultimate episode of Season 1, but obviously the manga has no breaks between arcs, so it felt more natural there. Same thing happened in the anime Land of the Lustrous, where a new Gem was introduced in the last episode but obviously it didn’t feel jarring in the manga.
Aki has found Akane! But she has seemingly managed to get control of the Ghost Devil! Uh oh…
One more episode to go, and then the wait for Season 2 begins! Though I suspect they’ll do a Demon Slayer: Mugen Train move, and make the next arc a film. Then Season 2 will be that film split into episodes, and the remaining arcs of Part 1 of the manga will be 12 episodes. Like they might do the second half of Part 1 all in one 12 episode season but given it gets more plot and character heavy in future arcs, I doubt MAPPA will rush it.
Regardless, I both want MAPPA to take their time, of course, and lord knows their animators deserve a chance to breathe, but even so I know I’ll be counting the days when the S2 release date drops.
Actually, I can’t commit to one from this series. Power, Kobeni, and Angel all have strong points. Himeno is pretty great as well. Makima, err, too much for me, LOL. And definitely no to anyone with actual spider legs. Akane, yeah, that’s a no, she knows what she did. The girl introduced in the arc following this one is pretty great as well.
Man this series is really starting to pick up. The new characters already look very interesting and I can't wait to see how the fight with Aki and Snake devil concludes next episode.
So I missed this, apparently a day after it aired, they fixed a pretty significant mistranslation of something the Future Devil said. The mistranslation had it telling Aki, “your death in the future will fucking rule” but has now been fixed to “your death in the future will be the fucking worst.” Just a heads up as it is a case of the mangaka Fujimoto’s clever setups he does and the original mistranslation would have fucked up the foreshadowing.
Anyway, on to…
Episode 12: Katana vs. Chainsaw
”Easy revenge!”
Himeno speaks to Aki one last time beyond the grave. It’s admittedly not 100% clear what happened with the Ghost Devil. I assume Akane lost control of it briefly due to the Ghost Devil’s bond with Himeno, and Aki killed it while he had the chance before Akane regained control. The mangaka Fujimoto follows a more cinematic approach to his storytelling than a lot of manga in that he won’t kill the pacing on overexplaining specific things at times and seem to prefer the reader to put the pieces together as best they can. He gives you enough info to follow the essential basics but doesn’t dump a ton of exposition when it can be avoided.
And of course, Kobeni just continues to be great.
Yeah, nobody gives a shit about your grandpa, Mr. Katana Man. I will admit, I do wish the concept of Denji being able to grow a chainsaw from his legs had been set up earlier, Fujimoto is so great at setting up things for later on that this did feel random. But whatever, the important part is of course: the ball kicking contest! And hell yes, they perfectly captured that moment. Seeing Denji cheering and Aki with a true smile on his face warms my heart.
Also, god that was a pretty shot with Angel looking out into the sky. Also loved the few seconds of Denji and Katana fighting on top of the train as the camera 360’d around them. Great stuff.
Makima discusses with the government about how they may be able to start narrowing down Gun Devil’s location. Yet the one with the most info, Akane, is dead. What is truly going on, and why does the Gun Devil have an interest in Denji and/or Pochita?
And at long last: “Denji. You can’t open that door.” I thought the dream appeared earlier than this, but I must have been mistaken. However, those who remember episode 1 will remember a POV shot of Denji walking towards the same closed door...
And finally, in the last thirty seconds, hell yes! (very mild spoilers for the beginning of the next arc in the manga):
My personal Best Girl Reze is heard! She sounds great!
And so concludes Season 1 of Chainsaw Man. I truly want to applaud MAPPA in showing so much love and hard work to this manga. I know apparently at least a few manga readers (particularly in Japan) have criticized two elements of the anime: 1) it feeling more cinematic than “anime”, to which feels absurd to me as Fujimoto is a huge cinema fan (hence the homages in the OP) so of course it’s fitting the anime feel that way, and B) the Japanese voice cast. They seem to be criticizing them SOLELY for being lesser known VAs. Well, I’m sorry, this is IMHO one of the best cast in an anime of recent times, not that recent series have bad casts by any means, but just this series nailed capturing the feel of each character to me. Denji’s VA is brand new to the business, but he nailed both the goofy and serious moments of the character. Aki sounded exactly as one would expect him to sound. The VA for Power was clearly having a blast in the role, as she should. Kishibe (the mentor) sounds AWESOME. And my favorite performance, Kobeni, like how can anyone say she didn’t nail it? It sounded like the seiyuu was having a legit panic attack in the recording booth at times, like god damn, she killed it!
So I say, MAPPA, please, don’t let these complaints get you down. I feel with beloved manga sometimes, no anime of any kind will satisfy a certain type of person. But you definitely made the vast majority of fans happy as well as bringing in lots of new ones, and so:
And now I just wait for that Season 2. Or maybe they’ll do the next arc into a film, and then the rest will be Season 2, like how Demon Slayer did. They’ll likely do something like that, as Season 1 adapted roughly 4 1/2 volumes and Part 1 of the manga is 11 volumes long. We‘ll just have to wait and see. And one last warning, if you thought, “okay, this was somewhat dark, but not that bad”, oh, this is just a mild taste of what’s to come… In the meantime, I’m hoping it won’t take too long for the English volumes of Part 2 of the manga to start coming out.
Goodbye for now, Denji and friends. I know we’ll see each other again soon.
Great episode for the cour/season finale, however they're handling it. Probably my favorite ep of the season. I really respect how they let scenes properly breathe to give them additional weight. It's definitely one of the show's strengths. I wasn't a fan of Aki at first, but he grew on me throughout the season, and now I like all of the main "trio".
I still don't get the wild popularity of this show. It's good but not like a tour-de-force of the medium. Still, for those that think that anime is mostly shounen stuff like MHA/Demon Slayer, I guess it's a pretty stark contrast to those.
Season 1 essentially adapted what many manga readers would consider a great part of the manga, but yes nothing that revolutionary.
The following arc is where it’s considered to get even better. The arc after that continues to do the same…
…and then the remaining two arcs of Part 1, without specifying what, essentially throw a ton of the Shonen Jump rulebook out the window. It helped contribute to the meme that the mangaka Fujimoto has blackmail on a higher up in the Shonen Jump offices.
For a comparison, think Neon Genesis Evangelion to what mecha was before. Now, Chainsaw Man does not go a mind screw direction like Evangelion. Nor am I saying many will consider it one of the best anime ever like Eva. But in terms of subverting many of the conventions of its usual shonen genre, the comparison to Eva is fair IMHO.
And keep in mind Evangelion‘s first 12 episodes weren’t that unordinary for the genre either…..
Season 1 essentially adapted what many manga readers would consider a great part of the manga, but yes nothing that revolutionary.
The following arc is where it’s considered to get even better. The arc after that continues to do the same…
…and then the remaining two arcs of Part 1, without specifying what, essentially throw a ton of the Shonen Jump rulebook out the window. It helped contribute to the meme that the mangaka Fujimoto has blackmail on a higher up in the Shonen Jump offices.
For a comparison, think Neon Genesis Evangelion to what mecha was before. Now, Chainsaw Man does not go a mind screw direction like Evangelion. Nor am I saying many will consider it one of the best anime ever like Eva. But in terms of subverting many of the conventions of its usual shonen genre, the comparison to Eva is fair IMHO.
And keep in mind Evangelion‘s first 12 episodes weren’t that unordinary for the genre either…..
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a nice departure from the usual seasonal fluff that gets released. You can tell it's built with artistry in mind and not just aiming for that quick hook to get you to pick up and buy the manga. Without reading the manga it's based off of though (which I haven't), it's a pretty solid show with fun and unique characters and occasionally nice action scenes.
I think a lot of what's going on is that as you say, it must get crazy/better in later chapters. That means, however, that there must be a fair amount of manga readers subconsciously boosting the show as something that it isn't (at least yet.)
My biggest problem with the show, standalone as it was presented to me, is that the pacing is weird. It seems a lot happens off of camera that I would like to see, and characters are introduced and then..uh... de-introduced very quickly. It feels like the exact same content we saw could have been filled out a bit and made into a 24 ep season. But maybe that's the manga's pace too, and later I'll find out that a lot of this stuff is unimportant and was just a vehicle to get to the "good stuff".
Like I could have watched 3 episodes of Denji suffering through adolescence with Pochi, and the adventures they had together leading up to him working with the yakuza. That kind of thing that they blow past in half an episode.
My biggest problem with the show, standalone as it was presented to me, is that the pacing is weird. It seems a lot happens off of camera that I would like to see, and characters are introduced and then..uh... de-introduced very quickly. It feels like the exact same content we saw could have been filled out a bit and made into a 24 ep season. But maybe that's the manga's pace too, and later I'll find out that a lot of this stuff is unimportant and was just a vehicle to get to the "good stuff".
It is a Shonen Jump manga which is more focussed on the action. If anything, manga fans are saying anime is too slow around certain things and the manga has a better flow. I think the recent restart of the manga after hiatus might be a bit slower. The thing is that the creator is a classically trained artist, not a novelist. A lot of work goes into the symbolism and nuance of the panels, rather than conversation, if you follow. I would say the manga is faster, but it hits harder. If he thinks he needs two full page drawings of a man's face after being kicked in the balls, then that is what is in this week's chapter.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a nice departure from the usual seasonal fluff that gets released. You can tell it's built with artistry in mind and not just aiming for that quick hook to get you to pick up and buy the manga. Without reading the manga it's based off of though (which I haven't), it's a pretty solid show with fun and unique characters and occasionally nice action scenes.
I think a lot of what's going on is that as you say, it must get crazy/better in later chapters. That means, however, that there must be a fair amount of manga readers subconsciously boosting the show as something that it isn't (at least yet.)
My biggest problem with the show, standalone as it was presented to me, is that the pacing is weird. It seems a lot happens off of camera that I would like to see, and characters are introduced and then..uh... de-introduced very quickly. It feels like the exact same content we saw could have been filled out a bit and made into a 24 ep season. But maybe that's the manga's pace too, and later I'll find out that a lot of this stuff is unimportant and was just a vehicle to get to the "good stuff".
Like I could have watched 3 episodes of Denji suffering through adolescence with Pochi, and the adventures they had together leading up to him working with the yakuza. That kind of thing that they blow past in half an episode.
Funny enough, the anime actually slows down certain points I think to build the characters a bit more. A few of the manga readers gripped about this, but I saw it as a nice bonus. That scene where it showed Aki’s morning routine? Not in the manga IIRC, but it was a nice little way to reinforce how relatively normal and precise he is…..and cue Power’s arrival and announcement as Aki and Denji’s new roommate and showing how chaotic she is in contrast.
Also, just a reminder, Denji met Pochita on the day his father killed himself and the yakuza demanded he pay his dad’s monthly amount by tomorrow. There wouldn’t really be much to elaborate on from their first meeting to deciding to becoming a Devil hunter for the yakuza. Besides, I think one episode more than sufficed to establish Denji’s life pre-Public Safety and how it shaped him. It gets reinforced plenty later like when he goes on his first Devil hunt with Aki:
(after Denji asks something people would generally know about Devils) Aki: Didn’t you go to school?
Denji: No, man.
(Aki looks slightly surprised)
Aki: If you’re hunting them, drop the sympathy. My entire family was killed by a Devil right in front of me. I’ve had drinks with the cops down below. They’re risking their lives to protect their wives and kids. Everyone is serious about this but you. I’d rather make any Devil I kill suffer as much as possible. What are you trying to do? Make friends with them?
Denji: If there‘s a Devil I could be friends with, then yeah, I would. Cuz I don’t have any friends.
Aki: …I’ll remember that.
It‘s also what I love about Aki. He’s set up to come off as the standard overly serious rival character, but unlike a lot of those, he‘s more willing to not beat down Denji when he understands Denji came from a very different life than most people. I also love we realize later his initial beating Denji up and saying he was doing this out of kindness to prevent Denji from dying due to his seemingly not taking things seriously was legit since Himeno revealed in her final moments that Aki cried anytime a rookie under his care died.
But yeah, I think the one episode sufficed in establishing Denji as his characterization from that time of his life is constantly relevant for episodes to come in why he acts how he does. I don’t think too much time had to be spent developing his bond with Pochita as most people can quickly connect with the idea of a person caring for their dog, and their didn’t need to be much time spent on Denji’s relationship with the yakuza given how simply toxic it obviously was. Katana Man acting like Denji should feel bad on some level for killing Katana’s grandpa seemed to come off as Katana’s true ignorance of how shitty his grandpa treated Denji rather than an implication that there was anything complicated about Denji’s relationship with his grandpa. Nope, pretty basic, the grandpa and his men were assholes.
Yeah I was initially put off by the horny teen vibe and stopped watching, however I went back over the weekend and finished up the remaining episodes and I'm glad I did, this show really goes places, by the end those first couple episodes feel like they were from a different show entirely.
Fuck yes, I always knew based on the following arcs’ lengths in Part 1 of the manga that a movie was the most logical step to adapt this arc. Season 2 should be able to then adapt the remainder of Part 1.
Brace yourselves, because man the material Season 2 will adapt, this is the shit of why most of the manga community thinks so insanely highly of the series.
So good.