By Clay Thompson | Arts and Life Intern
Anime fans have been waiting forever, or at least since December of 2018, which is when the manga began, for “Chainsaw Man” to get an anime adaptation. Now, with the first two episodes of MAPPA studio’s animated out of the titular “Chainsaw Man,” what does this anime fan think of the anime adaptation so far?
I love it, but I’ve got to say more. Really, I need to say more. There are so many parts to this anime that I already love, that have done the manga so much justice and more, even in just the first two episodes of the supposed 12-episode first season.
First, the animation style. I was not expecting MAPPA to go a more muted and subdued color palette for this anime, but it works shockingly well. The shadowed and darker backgrounds and scenery, really help to play up the colorfulness of the characters and important moments, as well as all the beautiful gory carnage that Chainsaw Man enacts on his enemies.
The animation quality of the anime is phenomenal. MAPPA really threw in its entire budget for this project and it shows. Fight scenes are sickeningly smooth and awesome to watch.
The gore is abundant and yet surprisingly tasteful. What I am still a bit unsure about, is MAPPA’s decision to anime Chainsaw Man himself as CG, but for now, at least with only the first episode as my exposure to it, the CG seemed to work well and it didn’t take away from the awesome animation in my opinion. Let’s hope MAPPA lets its animators have some fresh air now and then, since they are still working on the final season of “Attack on Titan,” as well as an upcoming anime “Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku.”
The voice acting for the anime is certainly top-notch so far as well. Special shout-outs to the voice actors of Aki Hayakawa and Power. All the actors, but these two in particular, have already set their characters apart as favorites just through their dialogue and delivery. I can’t wait to see more of how they portray these popular characters on screen.
MAPPA has certainly kept true to the writing of the manga in this adaptation. I was nearly brought to tears in the first episode just by how emotional and sweet the connections between the characters were, and I was splitting my sides with laughter at some of the exchanges in episode two. Tatsuki Fujimoto definitely created a manga masterpiece of storytelling and tone, with a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings both the characters and the audience go through as the story progresses.
It is nice to see that MAPPA has so far held true to the quality of writing the manga possesses and successfully brought it to the anime as well.
Even after just two episodes, I can confidently claim that “Chainsaw Man” will be the anime of the year. MAPPA has done a stellar job so far in terms of animation, voice acting and writing in just the first two episodes alone. If nothing changes or goes downhill, I think “Chainsaw Man,” in all its crazy, gory and emotional wonderfulness, will become most people’s favorite anime of the year, if not all time.
