For the past couple of months, I've heard a lot about this show from the hype of the trailers to the animation that was teased from Mappa. I was really surprised to see how much hype it gained from the jump, seeing that the trailers were doing numbers that even the Attack On Titan Final Season we're doing. I assumed there were many fans of the Manga and that was what possibly originated the hype as well. So I decided to watch a YouTube video on the author, Tatsuki Fujimoto, and get a better look at some of his other work. (Credit to YouTuber Gigguk on the video, I highly recommend his channel if you like Anime) And after seeing a hint of Fujimoto's work in the manga Fire Punch, I was immediately sold on him & his potential with this show.
Episode 1 gives you the bare necessities of the main character, Denji, and his Chainsaw devil dog, Pochita. After the death of Denji's father, he is forced to find a way to make up for his fathers unpaid debts or else he will die. After saving his devil dog by giving it some of his blood, he decides to make a deal with the devil to team up and work together to try and survive and pay off his debts. But Denji would continue to struggle, having to even sell parts of himself to try and stay afloat in this world. Wanting to accomplish his dream of simply having a normal life, he looks to be very far from it. Denji would then be called to hunt down a devil in the middle of the night, when he's then caught with the revelation that the man he was working for made a deal with a devil himself, wanting demonic power. Denji would get stabbed in the back, along with his dog Pochita, and he's left trying to run away from the zombies chasing him. As the zombies were given a small amount of demonic power from the man who is the zombie devil himself, a bleeding out Denji is eventually caught and viciously murdered by these zombies, as well as Pochita, and both are thrown into a dumpster. In the dumpster, we see Denji's blood slowly flow down into Pochita's mouth. Knowing that he could die someday, Denji told Pochita that in the event that he dies, he wants Pochita to have his body and carry out his own dream of living a normal life. Instead, Pochita's heart is given to Denji, as Pochita tells him to show them both the dream that he wanted to live. Pochita then becomes one with Denji, creating Chainsaw man. The Chainsaw man then goes on to murder the Zombie Devil as well as all of the zombies that were in the building in an epic climax to the episode that showed some of the amazing animation expected from Mappa. The closing scene shows the aftermath of these events, and gave us a small introduction to the characters that are expected to be present for the rest of the season, as Denji is offered a deal to live.
Overall Thoughts on the first episode, I really enjoyed the introduction to Denji's character and how he would become Chainsaw Man. Even though it is a formula we've seen in many anime's before (being on near rock bottom in the world and trying to climb up and survive) I think it's done well in this instance, and him becoming one with his Chainsaw Devil Dog I think was done very well. Making yet another deal with a devil, but finding out that the devil he formed a bond with didn't take over his body, but instead gave him a heart to go and live out his dream of living a normal life. What really stole the show for me in this first episode though was the animation. I think it's really unique and showed potential for a lot of amazing fight scenes that are expected to come in the near future. I bet a lot of people will find a way to complain about CGI (as many did with AOT and other shows) but personally I don't have a problem with it. Yes there are Anime's that try to use CGI and it doesn't turn out well, but I don't think it's a problem at all here and I don't intend to find a way to complain about it as people try to do. My one worry though in the long run is that Mappa might be overworked due to the large workload they might be getting with AOT, Jujutsu Kaisen, Vinland Saga & maybe even others. I remember that there were workers at Mappa being forced to stay at work for days for AOT and I hope that with all of these anime's coming there way that it won't become too much for them to the point where they can't give it their best on a particular show, including Chainsaw Man.
But nonetheless, great opening episode, and I'm excited to see what this anime brings in the long run.
Final Episode Rating - 9.0.
17 out of 19 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
