(Image from Wallpaper Access)
How I came across Chainsaw Man?
One day, back in January of 2024 (or probably 2023), I was bored and could not find anything good on YouTube or Netflix, so I went on Crunchyroll, to see what was on there. Once I logged onto the site, I saw the list of new/popular anime at the time to watch. One of the anime that showed up as the top three shows to watch at the time, was Chainsaw Man. I heard about the anime, awhile ago, from a YouTube channel called, Bonsai Pop: which is ran by two people, Michael ‘Mike’ Pixley and Tyler Baron, where they do reviews, analysis, and have discussions on anime, Japanese culture, philosophy, and whatever topics that they want to cover. Give them a watch, if you are interested.
Anyhow, I clicked on it, because I was excited and was waiting on when the series was going to be released. I decided to watch it back when there were 2 or 3 episodes on it, in subtitles. Having to finish the rest of the series, when all the episodes finally were on Crunchyroll. So, after watching Chainsaw Man, all I can say is there is a lot of blood and slaughter, which is a no brainer. Along with a teenage boy going through his hormones and understanding of the world, where I can see how this series would be great for male adolescence; the violence from a teen boy’s perspective. Oh, how lovely. But a part of me is thinking about doing a video breakdown on the anime and the manga, because of the deeper message in the series that I took from it, especially from one of the characters in the series that drives home the deeper point in the series. Anyway, let us get into the breakdown of the series.
Who is Chainsaw Man?
Chainsaw Man (チェンソーマン Chensōman) is an anime adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga, Chainsaw Man (Chainsaw Man (Anime), n.d.). It was produced and animated by MAPPA (on Wikipedia, MAPPA (acronym for Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association) is a Japanese animation studio, where they are headquartered in Suginami, Tokyo (Chainsaw Man (Anime), n.d.). It was founded in 2011 by Madhouse co-founder and producer Masao Maruyama, check out his work on here.) studios and premiered on October 11, 2022 (Chainsaw Man (Anime), n.d.).
The story starts off with our protagonist, Denji, is an adolescent living in poverty, who is fighting these “Devils” to pay off the huge debt left from his deceased father to the yakuza. His job is to fight Devils (Akuma) that are demons born from human fears. After his battle with the Devil tomato (I know an odd fear to have), he encounters a Devil dog who he saved from doing his odd job, named Pochita. Pochita is a small orange canine-like Devil with a chainsaw protruding from the center of his head, a handle that emerges out of his body, and a tail that acts like a pull cord to start up a chainsaw. Denji and Pochita both become close and have a strong bond with each other, to the point to where Pochita could be helpful for Denji when he goes on his missions to kill Devils to pay off the yakuza.
On one of Denji jobs, he had to kill off these Zombie Devils, where he later finds out the yakuza betrayed him and set him up to be killed by the zombies. Pochita sacrifice himself to save his former master, causing Denji to be reborn as some kind of weird Devil-Human hybrid, known as the title on top, Chainsaw Man (Chainsaw Man (Anime), n.d.)!
After his transformation, he pulled the cord from his chest, becoming the iconic Chainsaw Man appearance, he massacres the Zombie Devil and the yakuza. After the massacres, a team of governmental Devil Hunters called, the Public Safety Division, led by a woman, named Makima. She recruits Denji, where he under threats of extermination, since he became a Devil. Denji now living in a comfortable life for the first time in his life, now his new struggles are to know what his dreams are, what a meaningful relationship, and working alongside other eccentric Devil Hunters while killing Devils in his new body. Wow, so complicated!
The Reviews
Chainsaw Man has an average rating of 4.9 (345.7K, when this was written up) on Crunchyroll. Here are the reviews of people who watched Chainsaw Man on Crunchyroll. I would say “Here are the comments” but I cannot do it moving forward if I react to any anime on Crunchyroll. IGN is a platform that covers the latest news, reviews, and walkthroughs for video games, movies, TV, and tech. They released an article stating: “Crunchyroll announced it has disabled the comment section from its anime and news posts, saying it has axed the comment section for its anime episodes and news posts” (Colbert, 2024). Crunchyroll also stated wrote, “At Crunchyroll, we prioritize creating a safe and respectful community environment. To maintain this standard, we are hiding all existing user-generated content, including comments and reviews, across our platforms and experiences,” (Colbert, 2024). The post from a user’s Crunchyroll Support conversation was posted on Reddit: r/Crunchyroll subreddit (the hyperlink didn’t work, just so you know), elaborating the features removal with, “This decision was made to ensure a safer, more respectful, and higher-quality environment for all users,” and the other statement from the representative, “This change helps us reduce harmful content, prevent misinformation, and improve overall user experience.” (Colbert, 2024). Check out more of the article on IGN about the Crunchyroll announcing removing the comments from their platform.
Allegedly, some users are posting ‘harmful’ comment around a particular anime called Twilight out of Focus, accusing the user of leaving homophobic comments under the anime, while allegedly, other people on other platforms like Reddit, having a different take on the matter, believing that the viewers are not ‘amused’ by the new anime content that are being used out this year. If anyone has any opinions on it or wants me to react to this anime, let me know in the comments
I was upset about it until I came across the My Anime List, and it showed three comments where they either recommend the audience to watch the anime, or do not recommend you watch it, or have mixed feelings about the anime. Out of 405 comments, 259 recommend you watch it, 95 have mixed feelings about the anime, and 51 does not recommend you watch it (data at the time this was written up). Here are the comments, and it is up to you to make that decision:
(If you want to read the full comments, go on to My Anime Net, and chick on the link and check it out)
My Thoughts
After watching Chainsaw Man, I can saw that it is very action pack, blood shed at perfect levels, and the gross factor, is I guess at a suitable level for a teenage boy, I guess. I like how the author shows Denji trying to navigate on living life as I guess close to a normal ‘teenage boy’, when it comes to girls, relations, experiencing eating a comfort meal, and having gross embarrassing moments, things that we kind of take for granted; not walking around as a “Devil Human’ with a cord on our chest that one pull; if not several pulls, will make a chainsaw appear on our heads, to kill other Devils. Talk about self-hatred much? Moving on.
Remembering his previous situation, it is understandable that he could wish for more, but to him, this is considered big for him. I like how he represents that bit naïve, curiosity aura, that we had when we were young adolescents, and having certain encounters with people that shaped our perspective and views on people and how life works; to some extents. Trying to find a way to build and understand this crazy, wicked, and misleading reality called life. In this series, hearing more from Bonsai Pop, I am kind of leaning more into doing a video breakdown of this series after making my first video breakdown on a particular literature. I want to do this, because Denji is a likeable character, in a loving your baby sibling, even though they spit up on you, you still love them, but there is one character in this series that I kind of like, or more so intrigued by them. I feel like having them in the series, does drive home the whole conservation of Denji trying to go through life and life has an interesting way of “challenging” us. Just be ready for that video to pop up, in the future.
Where to Find Chainsaw Man?
If you are interested in watching Chainsaw Man, you can watch them on these streaming platforms, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. Other platforms, depending on your regions: Netflix, Ani-One Asia, Animax Korea, Bahamut Anime Crazy, Bilibili, Bilibili Global, CatchPlay, and Laftel. If you want to read the manga, you can read it online on Viz, to read the first three and the last three chapters for free, the rest you would have to pay, hopefully a subscription (I tried to hyperlink in, but my computer said it wasn’t valid, so sadly, you would have to look it up yourself. If you want to buy the manga set online, you can go to Amazon, to buy the set manga right now.
(Gif from Tenor)
In Conclusion
Chainsaw Man is an interesting watch. It is not really for everyone, so if you like gore, bloodshed, and random immature and gross moments, this might be for you. If not, it’s understandable. I hope you enjoyed the breakdown on Chainsaw Man, and hope that you may be interested in watching or reading the series. Again, if you want me to make a video breakdown on the series and comparing the anime to the manga, let me know down in the comment section.
Works Cited
Chainsaw Man. (n.d.). Retrieved from MyAnimeList: https://myanimelist.net/anime/44511/Chainsaw_Man
Chainsaw Man (Anime). (n.d.). Retrieved from Fandom: https://chainsaw-man.fandom.com/wiki/Chainsaw_Man_(Anime)#Character_Designs_
Colbert, I. (2024, July 8). Crunchyroll Announces the Removal of Its Comments Section Across All Platforms To ‘Reduce Harmful Content’. Retrieved from IGN: https://www.ign.com/articles/crunchyroll-announces-the-removal-of-its-comment-section-across-all-platforms-to-reduce-harmful-content
