What can go wrong? A chainsaw and a man. Specifically a boy, a boy who prefers to act as the pet dog of his quite large-breasted female crush; Makima. In this Chainsaw Man review, you will meet Denji, the protagonist of the widely talked about and fawned over show that makes you question whether or not to trust a kiss from a tipsy girl ever again. This boy is cheaper than my 24/7 Dollar Tree shopping self, my Goodwill made wardrobe, and my all day peanut butter from a jar special diet. His old man left him with a massive debt in the hundreds of millions as fathers and old men tend to do in anime. Due to that, this 17 year-old boy has to scrimp every penny and live off of slices of stale bread while he tried to recoup some of his late father’s failures. If we’re being real there’s no way in hell that Denji’s going to be able to make that much money. But, maybe there is a way?
Enter the crusty old mob boss who sees the perfect tool and useful puppet that Denji appears to be. WAIT, before all that. In came a cute orange little doggo with a chainsaw attached to his face. If that doesn’t sound very cute to you, trust me, it is. Denji discovered pretty quickly that Pochita (that’s the dog’s name) could be wielded like a physical chainsaw and used to saw things to shreds. Our main character used Pochita on a tomato devil causing a ruckus in town and subsequently became the closest of friends with this small furry devil.
The crusty old mob boss actually isn’t that important to you. But something happens which is the catalyst for Denji to transform into the Chainsaw Man. That scene was really well done in how he begins murdering all of these devils brutally some epic usage of CGI during all of it. There’s quite a bit of CGI scenes in the anime but there’s nothing wrong with them as they look great. At the time of Denji’s transformation all of money problems disappear in an instant; though new problems arise, which are mostly btches.
Anime waifus aside, Chainsaw Man is not a harem anime but a shounen anime that gets quite dark later on in the series, especially if you continue reading the manga after the anime. It could be seen as a seinen manga by some because of its violence and dark themes, but it did run in Shounen Jump so I’d just call it a shounen manga. Don’t let your 12 year old cousin watch it unless they’ve been causing you some sort of intense hardship in your life recently.
Denji’s powers are really sick, like he’s got some of the best abilities in the show. The best part about him in my opinion is that he’s immortal. Immortality in anime or media in general is the freaking best. Don’t get me started on the Vampire Chronicles lest this article become a 5,000+ word rant about how much of a stud the Vampire Lestat is.
You can cut off Denji’s head or put his torso through a woodchipper and he’ll come out brand new. When he gained the abilities to go sprout chainsaws from each of his limbs and forehead, his body became superhuman. He can lift a car like it’s a dominos pizza and punch holes through sheet metal quite easily. All around he’s just a beast who fights in an extremely disturbing and bloodthirsty way.
The actual storyline of Chainsaw Man is fantastic, it hits a solid 9 out of 10 for me. Though Denji himself doesn’t really have an ultimate goal or anything other than touching some anime balloons. That in itself is part of his charm, he’s just floating along figuring out a purpose in life. He’s got his hands full anyways with everyone trying to erase him from existence because of the fact that he’s the chainsaw devil. Makima gave Denji the goal of killing the Gun Devil, who at this point is like the Ganondolf of the series; he’s the insanely powerful final boss.
The Gun Devil is introduced in a way that makes you think “oh yeah, this guy’s on another level freaking unbeatable and our attacks wouldn’t even be a bug bite to him”. So that’s cool, it gives us something difficult to work for. The lack of chill that this show has at some moments is what really sets it apart from simply “great” shows in recent times such as Demon Slayer. It’s on the level of Parasyte which is on a higher level than great.
What it comes down to is that I really enjoyed Chainsaw Man and each episode tickles your taint for the next one. You find yourself unable to predict the future so you just stop trying to guess and let the show take you for a ride. All of the characters are good in their own way and there really are no useless or annoying characters. The only couple annoying characters are still important to the show. I’m winding down with this Chainsaw Man review as my eyes are becoming heavy. You have to give it a shot and you’ll have a blast. It’s not like the other anime (flips hair). That’s all for now weebs, keep up your reclusive lifestyle and immersing yourself in the amazing world of anime.
~ Overall rating: 8.8 ~
– Mr. Weeb