Chainsaw Man

Review:

Recommended by my coworker, and found thru the hype behind it. 

Once again, we sit here, with a top 1 qualifier. I knew Chainsaw man was supposed to be good, but holy shit. That was insane. Like, dude, I've never seen a show that takes my TOP 2 ANIMES and combines their best qualities. Chainsaw Man simultaneously has Makima using Death Note powers and having people sacrifice their lifespan for powers AND has a world with devils who kill people and devil hunters in a show with great visuals. Literally Death Note and Demon Slayer's baby. 

Obviously, this show isn't finished. I CANNOT wait for season 2, and I have such high expectations for it. Because there are only 12 episodes, I can't put it above Demon Slayer. I think both of these shows will get insanely better as they air together, but at the moment Demon Slayer is better (and quite frankly I think it will stay that way with the release of Season 4).

Anyways, Chainsaw Man. 12 Episodes. Amazing concepts, amazing characters, funny characters, sad moments, INSANE music, like seriously. The music. Its not even funny how good the soundtrack is. Easily up there with Demon Slayer's. The visuals are also insane, with great use of perspective and 3D like scenery, it just blew me away. The visuals aren't quite up there with Demon Slayer's, but they're still pretty damn good.

Now for the story. I feel like its very similar to Demon Slayer in a lot of ways, yet its also different. The main thing about Chainsaw Man is the main character's motivation and wants. He is a simply, childish, little fool who wants nothing more than a woman and some food. He really is like a dog. But this basic character design makes for some of the funniest, most epic, and most complex shows I've seen. The fight scenes are actually more epic because of how unique of a character he is. Tanjiro goes into battle, tryharding his way through demons, while Denji just says the fucking most absurd shit and chainsaws his way to victory, not to avenge anyone, not to really save anyone, but just because hes ordered to with a seemingly foolish reward behind it. Now, I will say, while this is absurd and unique, I feel like it does take away from the show at some points in my personal opinion. The way I feel about fighting animes is very concrete. I feel that they should give an atmosphere and just be as epic as possible. Chainsaw Man does this, but sometimes it tries to go a bit too far out of reach as an outlier and just doesn't really work as a concept. I feel like there would be a lot more to it if Denji REALLY had something to fight for. Yet he really doesn't in the viewers mind. I will say that this shows uniqueness is not an overally negative. I never wanted to give that impression. I think the uniqueness of the story, characters, visuals, music, and concepts is outstanding. But, I don't think its perfect for ME. When a show tries to be different, it casts a smaller audience net. Those in that net will greatly appreciate the uniqueness. I was mostly in that net, until I wasn't. The entire motivation behind Denji even fighting wasn't for me. From a love interest, to simply getting a kiss and then partaking in 2 girls 1 cup, it was just weird and out of place to me. It didn't fit, and even affected the pacing and coherence of the show for me. The mix of comedy or whatever you call this, with the fighting, it just didn't agree in my mind. 

Other than that, the new ideas that were thrown around were awesome. I really can't get enough of the concepts in this show. They are RIGHT up my ally. Evil creatures vs hunters who have vengance (for the most part) in mind. Denji can almost be seen as taking the role of both Nezuko AND Tanjiro in this show, as he is a human and a devil at the same time. The last thing I want to say, is that Himeno's death was kind of sudden to me. I think the point of her death was more for Aki's and Denji's character developments, but we didn't get enough time for her I feel like, so I didn't really care at first. I will say though that the cliffhangers and mystery this show brings is amazing and makes the pacing feel insane. During episode 8, it felt like a fever dream, seeing everyone seemingly die. Some even did, but it was amazing seeing this much work in only 12 episodes. I would put the pacing at 10/10 in most cases, but the random story bits with Denji, Makima, Power, and Himeno touching breasts and kissing just felt really really strange to me and I didn't feel like it fit. Perfect show otherwise, can't wait for season 2!