Chainsaw Man – 3 [Meowy’s Whereabouts]

Chainsaw Tuesday has come and gone again and these week long waits are really starting to drag. Feels especially frustrating with an episode like this where the action just makes the minutes feel like seconds. It also makes my job difficult as episode content is sparse and straightforward with little for me to add. Still I can try and see how far I go with this post. Haters of CGI may be relieved to know that this action scene had considerably less of it but once again I reiterate that I am having a hard time distinguishing which from which. Also those concerned about source loyalty can rejoice as this is pretty much as loyal as you can get. Though I still have issues with Crunchyrolls translator using phases that make understanding the situation harder. I understand that you are underpaid but I would think it wouldn’t be too hard to consult maybe the manga translation to make your job easier. As another piece of advice for crunchyroll, maybe consider upgrading your servers? The third week in a row that Chainsaw Man managed to bring the site down which yeah, taking that into account this show might be doing rather well.

If we have a focus this episode it would be on Power as in a single episode we get a look at a lot of her aspects. For one she’s a liar both to Makima and to Denji which does make her condemnation of Denji believing her rather on point. She fooled you once already Denji so shame on you. Though Denji did catch on right at the end which does bring me to that translation gripe. Originally Power was caught out when Denji reminded her of her statement about the Bat using Meowy as a hostage when seeing her, Power then remarking “Oh was that the setting?” which alerted Denji that he had been lied to. Even in the Japanese it feels like you can distinctly hear the word “Setting” so not sure why that was changed. Though if we are talking translation I might as well bring up the name of the cat. In Japanese as you likely heard, the name is Nyanko which is an obvious reference to how cats say Nyan to Japanese ears. This is translated even in official translations as “Meowy” so no fault of the translator here but there are those that disagree with this. I admit that Nyanko is a better sounding name but the point to get across is that Power literally named this cat after the sound it makes. So Meowy is fine. Then there is the matter of Power being very scared of Makima which is fascinating. One thing I did notice is the way that both Denji and Power disregarded each other’s feelings for their pets. Denji called concern for a cat stupid while Power brushed off Denji’s claim of Pochita being in his heart as cheap sophistry.(Despite Denji not speaking metaphorically) These two are more alike than they would care to admit.

We have a bit of an insight into the workings of the world as well with Makima remarking how we have two organizations to eliminate devils. One being the Public safety office and the other being Civilian devil hunters. Looks like Denji wasn’t the only one to resort to hunting devils for cash as it’s an outright occupation with both professional and independent sectors. Likewise we also have Makima’s superiors remarking how their main concern isn’t the literal hellspawn running about but instead America and Russia. It’s a strange thing for the main enemy of humanity to still be humanity itself despite the situation. I would say the information most would latch onto in this episode though would be Makima’s talk of how devils are made from humanities fears. And the more that thing is feared, the stronger the devil is. So far we have devils of Bat, Zombie and blood with the second example of human fear creating a devil out of something fictional. When one takes this into account you would think the greatest risk to humanity isn’t nations or devils, but instead horror movie creators. This is an aspect of Chainsaw Man that has yet to be addressed, even manga wise but if I was to take a crack at it I would say that considering that there are literal organizations dedicated to their destruction, Devils may be lucrative to business. Alongside their obvious capability to be weaponized.

So animation, I think the Bat devil was 2D for the entirety of his screen time which considering the detail of his character model this is honestly impressive. Almost to the degree of loving care put into Makima’s ten second ass shot which the animators clearly knew what they were doing.(I do wonder if Makima’s leg crossing motion was a Basic Instinct reference…with Fujimoto working with the studio that’s a possibility.) Honestly trying to poke holes into any of this episode’s animation feels petty as I could say that the episodes earlier scenes were not as impressive but considering the standard of animation throughout that’s being disappointed that the animation was a bit closer to standard which is fairly entitled. If I was to level some actual flaws here, I would say the cut from Power getting grabbed and swallowed felt like it was missing some in between frames. And while it matches the manga, it would have been good to get an idea of how Denji managed to make it from the bottom of the house, to clinging on the bat devils leg that was on the roof in a matter of seconds. And the ending music is very much an acquired taste, for Maximum the hormone makes the kind of music which has 10 seconds of nice melody surrounded by a lot of noise. If you are to label these critiques as petty I say I completely agree. The only thing to actually disappoint me regarding this episode is when it ended suddenly and let me know I needed another week to see it continue.

Well this is long overdue but I am now going to discuss the English dub of episode 1 that premiered today. I was originally going to cover both dub and sub simultaneously but this two week delay really messed up that plan. To those that don’t know me you may be surprised to learn that I like dubs. Matter of fact it’s my preferred way to watch anime, heresy be that to admit. Look I know the face you are making but the fact is that despite getting used to it, I just don’t get immersed into a show as well when I need to dart my eyes down every five seconds. I am also fairly forgiving of deviations and if anything I like a dub to have a different character from the sub. Look for subtitle watchers, the Japanese will always exist and for those that need it, the dub exists. And for those willing to try both you got two different ways to experience your favorite show in which your preference could slide from one to the other. You likely doubt but look if you don’t play Xenoblade dubbed you just don’t want fun and Kaguya’s dub is like a completely different beast that it’s worthwhile to watch even if you have watched it subbed. But enough of the justification, how is the Chainsaw Man dub? Based on this first episode I would say quite promising, much like the Japanese though it’s difficult to tell the long run due to Denji being more somber here and Makima only appearing briefly. Ryan Colt Levy does make Denji sound older but other than that I honestly may prefer him as a voice for Denji. It all depends on how he handles his more goofy side but he’s definitely putting his heart into it. Those screams when he was getting stabbed, bone chilling. The zombie devil is such a weird one that I just have to mention it, in Japanese they went with a delinquent style of voice which kind of gave the impression of him being a young devil. But in English they went completely to the other side of the spectrum with the zombie devil sounding like a grandmother. This threw me off completely, I did not expect that voice coming from that creature. But I guess you could say it made the zombie devil more unsettling in how disjointed it was. It’s a vastly different take. Makima funny enough has the voice that Japanese fans and most fans likely expected of her. Definitely dommy mommy vibes to this one and I do admit it’s playing to a stereotype a bit. The Japanese voice is certainly not what you expect but a soft voice can add to Makima’s nature while the English voice is pretty much what you heard while reading the manga. She may need more time to sell me on this but other than that I would say this dub isn’t pulling punches. I also like the little flourishes in the dialogue like Denji saying “Would you please…hug me” to Makima instead of just “Hug me”. Or Denji saying “My back” after getting slammed into a grider cause yes, weird to walk that off. Also yes they said contract instead of deal for the Pochita meeting Denji. But that other line is still “Get with a girl” instead of a hug but can’t win them all. All and all an excellent start, going to be following this for sure.