Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Man
I have been watching Chainsaw Man, the manga adaptation airing on Crunchyroll/Hulu every week for 11 weeks now. This is the first time I’m even going to attempt to talk about it, given how utterly bonkers this show is, even in the grand scheme of all the weirdness anime can offer.
Every single week this show does something that leaves me floored. I’ve struggled writing about it at all because I mean what even is this show, which stars a man who can only be described as “too horny to die,” who also happens to possess a devil heart that makes chainsaws erupt from has arms…and face, when he needs to do battle. I’m not sure you could have expected any less from a show called “Chainsaw Man,” after all.
The plot of Chainsaw Man is that Denji becomes fused with his pet Chainsaw Devil after it dies, and this has transformed him into an immortal killing machine. He joins a special government division meant to hunt down Devils, sometimes using humans like Aki, a subdued hunter trying to seek revenge on a specific Devil, or Power, a part-demon fiend who is entirely unstable and just enjoys killing things with blood-based abilities.
Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Man
Denji’s motivations are…simplistic, at best. He joins the Devil Hunters because they will give him food and a place to stay, which in his transient life before, he did not have. But soon his motivation turns to goals relating to sex. First, he wants to touch a breast. Then, he wants to sleep with his boss, Makima. It’s kind of gross, but it makes him a weirdly unique character in that I’ve never seen a protagonist who truly just did not care that he was a protagonist and not bothered with a specific redemption arc or revenge fantasy. Aki plays that role instead, and most other characters we meet, Makima, Kobeni, are odd mysteries that the show will expand on in time.
I thought Demon Slayer was doing interesting things with its enemy design, but the Devils here in Chainsaw Man are something else entirely. Some are human adjacent and rather tame, like the Angel Devil who’s only power is shortening human lifespan if you touch them. But then there are Devils like Snake and Ghost, which demand bodily sacrifices each time they’re summoned in combat. An eye, a fingernail. In one case, the entirety of a person.
There seems to be some sort of social commentary lurking in the shadows of this truly bizarre series, as the Big Bad antagonist of this season is the Gun Devil, a massive Devil responsible for a huge-scale terrorist attack in America, and its followers are armed with guns and ammo, a big no-no in mostly gun-free Japan. The Gun Devil is what’s motivating both Aki and Denji. Aki, because it killed people he loved, Denji, because Makima has promised herself to him if he kills it.
Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Man
The thing is, I’m told by Chainsaw Man manga fans that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and things are going to get way, way weirder from here. I just watched a woman remotely squish entire human beings by reading their name off a piece of paper, and things are going to get weirder? Well, suffice to say I am certainly going to stick around for that.
Chainsaw Man is a unique weird and wild anime series that’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. I don’t know if I can recommend it to everyone, but I’ve never had a show make my jaw drop each episode like this one has. A truly one-of-a-kind experience.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.