• Anime Title: Chainsaw Man
• Episodes: 12
• Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
• Publisher: MAPPA

This anime came out alongside the newest season of Bleach, so obviously I placed this on our anime watchlist. And after hearing a lot of people giving this anime such good words, my hun and I finally decided to pick it up.

This anime follows the protagonist, Denji, an impoverished boy and an unofficial devil hunter to pay his father’s debts. One incident happened that made him form a contract with a cute dog-like devil, Pochita. The contract basically fused their bodies in turn giving Denji the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. He later joined the Public Safety Devil Hunters, which was a government group focused on killing devils.

Pretty interesting premise, and it delivered. Denji was a different sort of main character compared to a lot of the Shonen main characters we experienced before. He did not have a clear-cut goal. No big dreams of being a leader of something. No big goals of revenge. Nothing like that. And to me, that was refreshing to see. He only had one simple dream – to live a good, comfortable life. And he reached that goal the moment he joined the Public Safety group. So for the rest of this first season, it was just about maintaining it. He did have some mini-goals in the series – to hold breasts, and to kiss someone. Some people might argue that those were pretty shallow goals and I argue back, he already reached his dream, and now he could focus on what matters for a kid his age. I couldn’t hate him and wouldn’t criticize him for it. Those were fair goals for a 16-year-old boy.

The thing that made this anime stand out for me was how female characters were portrayed. We’ve all seen how female characters were portrayed in some of the popular Shonen anime. I don’t need to reiterate that. But this anime showed some strong female characters that did not fall in the token female category.

Let’s talk about Himeno for a quick second here. She was hot. Let’s not make this any more complicated than that. It was so easy to just put her there for fan service. They did not do that. Sure, you see her in a tank top and a pair of underwear in her own apartment. You saw her undressing to take a shower and even then it was not explicit. This was something that you would do at your own apartment. She was the leader of a group of devil hunters. A LEADER and very capable at that. A role that would normally be given to a male character. But on top of that, she has flaws. She could be considered promiscuous. A playboy, as you may. Having kissed most of the team members apparently. She has depth. Carrying the guilt that she had multiple partners die on her watch. That was a heavy burden to carry and she even visits their graves regularly.

How about that scared girl who wanted to kill Denji to survive? Kobeni. This character I had to marinate in my brain first. Sure I found her annoying the first time she was introduced. She was scared shitless and she was not thinking straight. But now that I had some time to think about it, being scared was the normal reaction for someone who was in this business. The only way for them to survive that situation was to sacrifice Denji. And she tried to do that because that was the logical thing to do to save the other members of the team. But you know what? She overcame her fears to even save Denji later on and we were shown how capable she really was.

How about Power? The fan favorite. The manic pixie dream girl character. She was not my favorite, to be honest, but I saw the appeal. She was feral. Because she was. She was fun. She does what she wants. She does not care. And for all the trios that we saw in anime, this female character did not blend in the background. She did not have any romantic attachments to either Aki or Denji. She was not useless. And for the most part, she was on equal footing with his partners. She has her faults, she is not the strongest, and she fucks up, but she does not care. She would still say that she was the best out of all of them.

Makima, I mean, the boss. A female boss. We have not seen enough of her yet, but all I know, just from watching the anime, was the fact that she is one scary bitch. And I would not want to mess with her, EVER. Because her contract with whatever devil makes her that powerful.

Overall, I found this anime enjoyable. It did not give me the chills compared to some of my favorite Shonen anime. But it did the job. The animations were good. At least I think so. I enjoyed how the fight scenes were carried out. The execution overall was great. And I would like to watch the second season when it comes out. Because I want to see what happens next. Do I think it was overrated? Do I think it was overhyped? Sure. But I see the appeal of the anime. The bottom line is enjoyment is preferential. Some people will give this an S rating and some will put it in A. I will put it in the A rank category.