Chainsaw Man

“You’re gonna go out in the worst possible way.” So, I was very wrong about the show. While the direction isn’t as strong as in Reze Arc, the first season is a fun adaptation of Fujimoto’s manga. I think I understand my frustration on the first go round better now too. In the intervening time since it first aired and I watched along week to week, where I slowly grew to hate it, I have read most of Shuzo Oshimi’s work. If you’re unfamiliar with Oshimi’s manga, I highly recommend checking out any of his series from The Flowers of Evil onward. But all you need to know right now is that his work is hard to put down, it’s kinetic and drags you along for whatever odd ride they want to take you on, never letting go until you reach the end. This probably seems like an odd thing to bring up but what Oshimi’s work has shown me is that some things very much thrive when read in quick succession. This is Chainsaw Man’s greatest strength, not only in the manga where I read Part 1 in the span of a couple of days, but also here in the anime too. What was originally a challenging slog with detestably annoying characters, is now a breezy run with oddball characters and bizarre (no not you JoJo) shock moments. While I like what this first season decided to expand upon in order to tap into Fujimoto’s insane sense of cinematique (go read Goodbye, Eri), I do think it loses some points by not capturing the the sheer intensity and savagery Fujimoto puts into Denji’s fight scenes. I’m not someone who hates CG within anime, I’m actually a pretty big fan of CG when it’s done right and while I understand from a production standpoint, I get the decision to render Denji’s chainsaw form in CG. It does have the side effect of sanitising that part of the adaptation.