Chainsaw Man – 2 [Arrival in Tokyo]

Enter week two of Chainsaw Tuesdays and we have a quieter episode this week with the primary focus being the introduction of our main cast. We are near the end of volume 1 of the manga though that did resort in the cutting of a scene. But before getting to that I would give an overall impression of this episode being good. We got some laughs and it set up things for the next. It did the job it was meant to do though that may not wow people still looking for Chainsaw Man to deliver the answer to the hype it’s gotten. I think crunchyroll’s translation continues to muck up a bit thus making jokes land not as well or muddy certain lines with greater implications. CGI haters can relax as we have a fully 2D episode…I think. I will go into that but my confidence in telling the difference has been put down a notch. Also for those interested Crunchyroll has announced that the English Dub of Chainsaw Man will be debuting next week on the 25th. Which kinda shoots my plans of covering it weekly with the two episode delay but I am curious as to whether this could lead to grabbing a more mainstream audience. Chainsaw Man so far has landed pretty well but I think it has an appeal that could extend even to non anime watchers, with the only detriment at the moment being its subtitle only release.

As this is a slower episode I believe I will take this time to go over something regarding the animation of the last episode. As it is now the CGI implementation in this show has pretty much become the primary talking point for detractors. And if you were to ask me about it after my first watch of that episode I would be inclined to agree though not to an extreme extent. But something odd happened. See I rewatched the first episode and I don’t know if it was the difference of switching to a different quality video(Went from a gig encode to just watching crunchyroll) but frankly, it was better. Now I don’t know if it’s some sort of acclimatation or removal of expectation but the parts that bothered me before just didn’t anymore. I have seen many make remarks about how people mistook 2D for CGI and vice versa though there was misinformation. Like a twitter user claimed that due to smears that it was 2D but seems smears can be applied over a 3D model. At this point my confidence over recognising CGI has been shot. For an honest to god breakdown, I found this video to be the best. He’s hyperbolic when it comes to his praise but his eye and information is legitimate. Learned a thing or two from him. Like I didn’t even know there were parts where Denji was half CGI and half 2D. Also spotting that moment in the first ten seconds of the opening where Makima’s gaze slides over to Denji. On that opening as well, boy has it grown on me. I had someone say to me “I really hope the OP isn’t indicative of the rest of the show, for your sake” and I say I hope it is. Things sitting at 18 million views, gets better with each view and I can’t stop rewatching it. My current theory is this, this mix of 2D/3D may be something that is jarring at first but as you watch becomes more natural. Of course I will have to say that the ball can still be dropped but I will be a bit more discerning in my judgment.

So let’s talk about that Muscle devil exclusion. Yes in the Manga when Denji was traveling with Makima she sent him off to kill a Muscle devil. Was it a bad cut? I would say it wasn’t. The Muscle devil is one of the weaker designs of the series and the “fight” basically consisted of Denji going Chainsaw and chopping it in half. It also suffers from the same exposition bug that the Zombie devil had. The only thing we lost was a cool shot of Denji pulling his Chainsaw cord with his teeth. Everything else was more or less in the episode and presentation wise it may be for the better. I think the pacing has slowed down quite a bit due to the anime transition so having things move along faster benfits. Though if I had a criticism for this episode it would be that I believe Fujimoto’s artwork was better at conveying emotion. The art of Chainsaw Man may not be as refined as others but Fujimoto has always been fantastic at telling a lot with just character expression. In the scene where Power bursts into the room and Denji just decides on the spot to work with her because she has boobs, Aki just has a dead look in his eyes that says “Oh god, not another one” in the manga which is hilarious. In the anime there isn’t anything like that, Aki just looks normal. His art has a lot of thoughtful details and while the anime does have its moments of that(I like the extra original bit of Makima fixing Denji’s tie and the painting) there is a degree of adaptation decay nonetheless.

So we get the famous or infamous scene where Denji declares his goal is boobs. This is why I was really not fond of the translation in the previous episode and even here it’s not doing Denji any favors. Denji is supposed to consider having sex with a girl so far out of his reach to be unrealistic to even suppose the possibtity of it. Even here in the manga he thinks that getting with a girl is too much for him but with max determination he just might get to feel a boob. In the first episode Denji thought he would never get a hug or jam on bread but now he has it and is beginning to want more. It’s dumb but the point is this kid is so used to the bare minimum that beyond is excess that he doesn’t think he deserves. He’s also showing more of his subversive aspects as a shounen protagonist. Whereupon killing a devil he tells Aki some half assed altruism about pity for devils that any other shonen protagonist would likely say sincerely. Only to reveal his true reason was just that he didn’t want to get blood on the porn on the floor. Without a doubt Denji’s a creature driven by libido but there are aspects to him that are understandable and relatable. Makima likens him to a dog and in a number of ways that does suit Denji. He’s a creature of instinct whose mood can change on a dime. One moment he’s saying Makima’s just as cruel as anyone else to him only to be straight up in love the moment she shows a small bit of kindness. Much like Kaguya’s sudden mood swings in Love is War. Let me just say that if you find his quest for boobs to be a bit too cringeworthy then don’t worry, it’s not going to last for long.

Then we have Aki and Power. With Aki I know exactly what you are thinking because I thought exactly the same. His design practically begs to be compared to a certain ninja from the hidden leaf village with even his motivation being a mirror. I can understand if you look at Aki as generic at this point in time as many often do. Aki pretty much ticks all the boxes for the shounen rival at the moment but give it time and I think you will find he doesn’t quite fit the mold so perfectly. For one I don’t think the usual rival characters would be beaten so thoroughly in the first episode featured. My condolences Aki, that did look painful. And Power, where do I even begin? Ok, Fujimoto has outright admitted that his inspirations for her personality is Eric Cartman from South Park and Walter from the Big Lebowski.(Appropriate for it to be referenced in the opening) Now what you take from that I don’t know but in an age where anime girls are spotless perfect madonna’s without negative traits that haven’t been dereised, Power is a massive bundle of genuine negative traits that miraculously becomes endearing. We didn’t see a lot of her this episode but she’s a big part of the story to come. And it’s just going to be so fun to see her be such a loose cannon that Denji needs to be the voice of reason.