We hit the halfway mark of Chainsaw Man and I wonder if my exclamation of “No!” at the moment the credits show is a good sign or a bad one. It’s good that this show can engage me to a level where I don’t want it to end with me even knowing how the story will go. However I also find these cliffhangers to be aggravating and I had thought that we would have time to see the fight between Denji and the Eternity Devil. On that, yes devils are not just limited to objects and animals but even abstract concepts. So things like heights or thalassophobia can indeed have devil representatives which I am honestly curious as to how they would look. But back to the topic of these cliffhangers, I haven’t been this bothered by them since Code Geass about…16 years ago(Oh my god. It’s been that long) and I do kind of feel they are a double edged sword. Without doubt they do ensure viewers will stick around to the next episode and they become a non-issue once the series is out in full. But for weekly viewers it can be annoying to be promised something only to have it suddenly taken away. Like reading a good book only for it to be yanked out of your hands with someone saying you can continue it in a week. Though being a manga reader and knowing what’s coming next makes this all the worse as I really was looking forward to that fight.
We have a slow paced episode this time which I am not sure it needed to be. It’s clear they wanted it to end with Denji throwing himself in the devil and some scenes may have carried on longer than needed. After having a bit of a slow episode before I am not sure following it up with another slow burn was optimal but for the series as a whole it is wise to give us more time with these characters. The quiet moments of Chainsaw Man are few and far between and it’s only gonna get crazier from here on out. Also it’s going to get better as we are going to be out of the weaker beginning arcs and more into the meat of this series that’s raved about. I believe in my primer I did say that by episode six or seven it would determine whether this show is for you and that remains true. This would be the turning point and if Mappa handles it as well as they have these past six episodes then I am not worried. I would like for the second cour of this series to not be too far away though as I previously said, that’s where the best of this series is. Some think it would require three seasons to fully cover Chainsaw Man Part 1 but I am fairly certain it can be done in two cours. We have been going at a rate of 3 to 4 chapters per episode and look to be ending at about chapter 39. There are 98 chapters but a lot more action scenes in the second half which could take an anime less time to cover. If Mappa is putting their full hand in this like it’s said I wouldn’t be surprised at the announcement of a second cour at series end followed by a movie to conclude it.
There’s a better look into our new characters Himeno and Kobeni with the latter being highlighted for her tendency to be a nervous wreck. Kobeni is an odd character as her popularity within the fandom is not necessarily due to her personality but rather the very nature of her existence. For she is basically the best example of schadenfreude with her tendency towards misfortune. You see Power basically laughing her ass off at her grief and that’s more or less the attitude you should take towards her as she’s a pretty big punching bag. To be fair, her actions in this episode do warrant a bit of payback. With Himeno we get a bit about her and Aki’s relationship and the firm fact that she cares about Aki, a lot. She also got him to take up smoking which makes this the first advertisement for smoking in about 50 years. I will say that the small character moments are really hitting hard here and I registered a lot of these as nothing all that noteworthy when blazing through the manga but with the addition of music and a slower pace it really does make these moments stand out. The same goes for the penultimate moment of the episode where Aki takes a knife to save Denji’s life. In the manga this is just two pages that you can read in the span of seconds where animewise it’s a full minute. Now a moment that most barely glanced over is a highly memorable aspect of their relationship. So this is why while I feel annoyed with the pacing, it is highly beneficial for developing an attachment to these characters.
There is something brought up which takes me back to my annoyance with the translation of the first episode. There are still translation choices happening that I don’t quite agree with though the dub at least seems to be more thought out with its dialogue. But what is talked about here regarding how much meaning the word “Contract” has to a devil is the reason why I disagree with Denji calling his agreement with Pochita to drink his blood a “Deal”. It’s small but I think it’s important for a number of reasons, like perhaps it’s why Pochita didn’t just end up killing Denji after drinking his blood, if Powers’ and Aki’s words about devils having an instinctive hatred of humans held any merit. It’s quite surprising that they decided to render the Eternity devil in 2D considering how much of a pain it likely was to animate but it paid off. That last shot of Denji jumping into its gaping mouth was enough to fill any viewer with a bout of vertigo. We didn’t get an action scene this week but the atmosphere was there with it being directed like a horror film. It clearly conveyed claustrophobia and the characters despair.(Well with Kobeni you didn’t need to as she is Kobeni) To see the slow breakdown of each character towards desperation till right at the end. Even Himeno’s cool exterior melted down and she lost her head. All the while Denji is taking it easy and Power’s antics are all the funnier. Humor actually was on point all episode, which is a major plus. As for production, the step down from previous looks to have stepped back up. I saw no real hurdles this episode so we are back to normal, in this case normal being an absurd level of animation quailty.
This is generally the point in this post where I discuss the dub but well I don’t really have anything to say. It’s covering the leech devil fight this time and I think the actors did a damn good job. Aki’s voice actor has a line that went too deep but otherwise this is great. Any dub watcher isn’t getting the short end of the stick by choosing to go dub and overall reception seems quite positive on it. So instead I will bring up a certain problem I have and it’s that I am having a hard time being a critic of this. Look I went into this with the intent to not be a hype man but give as fair a critique of this show that I possibly could. I do love this show but I think anyone who looks at my Fate reviews can attest, just because I love something doesn’t mean I go easy on it. But we are halfway into Chainsaw Man moving away from what I consider to be its weaker period of the story and it’s still so damn good. I gave up criticizing the animation after episode 1 as really after that we haven’t had anything slip up all that bad. Having watched animation breakdowns of the first few episodes I cannot deny that this is the best animated show of the season, potentially the year, maybe even in recent memory. I know there will be those to contest it but I just cannot see anyone in good faith look at the level of work that went into this show and declare anything above it. Mappa said this would be the best work they ever made and they kept that promise so even me saying the production dropped the last episode just makes me feel overscrupulous.
So I cannot criticize animation, what about adaptation and story? Well aside from the muscle devil omission, it’s been near a one to one conversion as far as dialogue is considered. I have been checking chapters as I go along and more or less finding the entire script of the episode. Anything I say about the story can be applied to the manga as well. The direction of the adaptation has certainly got criticism but it feels more in bad faith as it’s more a disagreement in stylistic presentation. They have clearly decided on a style and that style may not agree with all but it has its ups and downs much like the style of the manga. Music? Great and not much of a music critic. Voice acting? Don’t understand Japanese enough to give a good assessment and as said, perfectly happy with the English cast. All I can really level at this is mild criticism like maybe Kobeni annoyed people with her dialogue and the pacing is a little bit slow for me. It just makes me want to throw up my hands and say “It’s great. There’s nothing wrong with it. This adaptation is fire and go watch it” In an odd turn of phrase, this is just too bloody perfect. I don’t want to be a raving fanboy about this but even having watched these episodes not once or twice but thrice, I just can’t dig out a reason for one to not like this show outside of it just not aligning with their tastes. As a cynical person by nature, why is this show meeting all my expectations damn it! Well ok let’s not jinx it as we still have a good bit to go. By all accounts, this show hasn’t given me something real to complain about and if it never does then that’s a triumph. If that happens I will happily if not begrudgingly admit defeat.
