Chainsaw man First Episode Review

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chainsaw man shonen jump cover

Emma Newcomb, Reporter

The animated adaption of the highly popular 2018 shōnen jump manga, chainsaw man, came out with its first episode last Tuesday on the popular streaming site, Crunchyroll as well as airing in Japan mere hours before it was able to be streamed by Crunchyroll.

Chainsaw man was a characteristically very violent yet emotional manga that first appeared in December of 2018 on the popular Japanese manga anthology known as shōnen jump. This series follows the main protagonist, Denji, an impoverished young man, who after making a contract with a devil-like dog named Pochita, fuses with Denji, granting him the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Denji eventually joins what is known as the public safety devil hunters, a government agency focused on fighting against devils whenever they become a threat to the world. The series proves to be fairly gory and violent but matches that gore and violence with both comedy and emotional depth.

The manga series finally came out with its animated adaptation two years later since the last chapter of Chainsaw man was published, the company responsible for this is MAPPA who is responsible for another very popular anime,  Jujutsu Kaisen and the last season for Attack on Titan. This adaptation comes with an absolutely amazing intro with beautiful animation, then immediately dives into the story, introducing the main character and why he is doing what he is doing as well as introduces his animal friend Pochita, the devil-dog, it almost fully matches the same energy the manga really captured and almost looks like it too. The backstory for the main character is extremely emotional and does a great job with making viewers sympathize with the main character and really makes fans root for him.

The first episode does not shy away from the absolute violence and gore the manga seemed to capture, as well as the absolute sheer terrifying monsters the manga gave its readers originally. Again, it creates a good mix of emotion, violence and gore.

I would definitely give the start of this series a 10/10 and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of that mix of gore, violence and emotion. However if fans are at all squeamish and are adverse to any form of gore, I would suggest skipping this series.