https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/b346df77d9d8f5f3ebf60b4c1f2451cc.mp4 In a way MAPPA had taken on the ultimate challenge adapt the unadaptable. I do not necessarily mean this in terms of character design backgrounds or any of the things that art textbooks teach you. Rather I refer to reputation. Chainsaw Man barring perhaps one or two other recent examples might have been the most keenlyanticipated anime of recent years. I cannot remember the last time the community so feverishly held its breath either ready to praise unabashedly or cut to size the splitsecond it fell below their expectations. With such a crushing weight forced upon it it seemed highly unlikely that Chainsaw Man would ever actually reach the mangas plateau whatever that plateau was or meant to whomever was watching. In that sense MAPPA was doomed to a Sisyphean punishment especially its animators who probably collectively lost about twohundred pounds from the stress alone forever pushing a rock up against the anime communitys monolithic mountain where any one single slipup would leave it tumbling back down. But if there is any story suited to such a grind Chainsaw Man might be it and it does not take long for the series to make this point clear. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/a23b1c0a6862aafb6b1baabb1cf54857.mp4 During our first substantial encounter with Denji he remarks that he has had to do some ratherunsavory things to make money even selling off one of his testicles. With nothing but his friend Pochita helping him slay some Devils for extra dough the uneducated and simpleminded Denji learned early on that nothing will be handed to him. If he is to have any future especially once hes finally outside the clutches of the yakuza boss hounding him to pay off his debts left by his late father itll be by his own making. But Denjis chance is snuffed out as he and Pochita are left to perish at the hands of the boss too impatient to let him live any longer. Then in a moment of absurdity that Denji could never put a price on Pochita merges with him and chainsaws sprout from his arms and his nowdemonic face. Becoming the titular Chainsaw Man he carves up the zombie goons sent to kill him. Denjis first step into a new future is bathed in bloodstained metal and thrust into the arms of the mysterious Makima who seems only too willing to accept him Chainsaw Man wastes no time with its exposition both in terms of worldbuilding and its visual aesthetic. Everything we see is awash with neutral bloodless colors. Ushio Kensukes music is often atonal and bassladen relying on heavy expanses of sound to throw everything into a dismal swirl its a world that for all intents and purposes does not care one iota about Denji or anyone else in it. Yet hidden within all this misery is a flicker of quirky humanity and what develops slowly throughout the episodes is the sense that despite the crushing weight of this world there is indeed a wholesomeness that lies underneath its exterior. In the midst of all the tumult his life has endured Denji aspires to be at least somewhatnormal and feel someones breasts while hes at it. Pochita perfectly embodies this wholesomeness a demon deliberately given brighter colors and adorable mannerisms like a housepetso long as you conveniently ignore that theres a chainsaw sticking out of its head. The juxtaposition within Pochitas visual design and Denjis lessthanheroic motivation works both for sincere character and comedic contrast. And Chainsaw Mans comedy is much like everything else colored with layers of crazed irony. It is not always funny in the sense of trying to make you laugh but rather works in the sense that you find something attractivelyweird. This is partially accomplished by Fujimotos material not being afraid to be crude juvenile bloody and at times flagrantly disgusting. In part because Denji is a largelyuneducated and horny teenager the material adopts that similar kind of unbridled teenage hutzpah. Denjis inability to sometimes grasp the bigger picture and rely on swagger borders on being completely stupid. Even the shows violence is likewise funny but again not in the way of how we normally assume comedy to work. Because of the sheer preposterousness of its world every battle is tinged with an anything goes attitude which makes not only for creative setups but also creative executions. Director Nakayama Ryuu and action director Yoshihara Tatsuya evidently took great strides in making Chainsaw Mans battles and sequences evolve beyond convention and into the realm of morecinematic approaches. The OPs numerous nods to previous films which have been pointed out by people with far more knowledge of cinema trivia than I have made it clear that this was not supposed to be framed as just another shonen. The freedom the camera has to move throughout the space makes the actual battlegrounds themselves feel more like places rather than mere backdrops. The actual success of these executions does vary from battle to battle sometimes the marriage between the camera movement and the actual fight choreography isnt at its most harmonious. Besides a handful of moments where it somewhat shirks away from really divulging in its carnage by getting close the drabness of the color palette whether it be because of a filter MAPPA used or otherwise does sometimes make the crunchiness of the violence lesscrunchy or more plain than it might have been. But counter to that brutality are the sizable number of times that the material decides to calm itself down to dwell on something more intimate and simplistic rather than grandiose in the absurd. It is easy to remark on the beautiful bloody spectacle of a shonens bloody violence and indulgence in the more Rrated. But some of Chainsaw Mans mostsplendid animations come in the small things the tiny mundane movements where a characters clothes move in a believable way or when Aki is doing something as simple as preparing his morning with coffee and the newspaper. Every explosion must have a quiet aftermath which is something the production staff and animators understand quite well. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/fa33da1112635d1b4dad7875868b71e2.mp4 The creativity in the series doesnt merely stop at the action but also expands to include its cast. Pochita is only one Devil in a sea of many grotesque creatures and each character has a design power or personality that feels just as odd as the next. Makimas mysterious air is both alluring in its enigmaticness and slightly offputting as though she was likewise trying to convince the viewer along with Denji that she can be trusted and has their best interests at heart thumbbiting included. Akis serious demeanor clashes with the aloof and brusque Denji and Power especially when Power steadfastly refuses to flush the toilet. Much like the various parts of the Gun Devil that are dropped around the world the casts overall chemistry is a bunch of loose parts. They are at times barely holding themselves together because they keep getting on each others nerves for one reason or another. Its improbableness is a part of the draw as each character gradually tries to piece together the mystery that is pressing them at any given moment. How successfully they manage to do that of course varies wildly but goodness knows that Power will get that Pulitzer Prize somehow Even so it does not matter necessarily what mystery is hanging over the narrative because the answer feels inevitably the same no matter what gets revealed or who has to battle who someone is going to die and it is going to be brutal. Devil Hunting is terrifying as poor Kobeni learns for herself rather early on and an underlying dread tinges the entire series. Denji Power Aki Himeno and the entire team may have a lot of strength on their side but it is not true that they are impregnable. Dialogue insinuates that death is quite common in Public Safety. As a Devil Hunter death is never far away and as Chainsaw Mans world of Devils gets bigger the threats are everpresent and ever real. The shows greatest threat though is not within its Devils but in its very existence as an anime. When I talked about adapting the unadaptable earlier I was not speaking to an exaggerative degree. A Tweethttps://twitter.com/sarcataclysmal/status/1606361126429528064 about the series needing a slew of outsourced inbetween animators for the final installment shows the sheer scope of the forces needed to put this series together. When MAPPA took on the property and in the short amount of time that they did assuming about seven months of production there was always a part of the material that was going to be held back and unrealized. The reckless abandon that the manga prides itself upon could only be captured so much which is perhaps why even when the series seemed to be flying it never quite felt like it could get as high as it wanted to. The fact that Chainsaw Man is as good as it is can be thought of as something of a miracle and it should be celebrated by virtue of that alone. Every animator sound engineer editor and colorist who worked on this project from the backgrounds to the CGI which is frankly not anywhere close to being as bad as we know CGI can get in anime deserves nothing less than admiration for somehow making this work. It will never be a perfect adaptation of the material but for what it is let us not lie to ourselves the final result could have been infinitely worse. One can only imagine what even one more month of time could have done for this But in the meanwhile Denji and Power live to dance in the OP for another day. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/020b5bb9c6ed7127f28f8bdc62c3f3f3.mp4