Anime Review: Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Man hit me in a way I didn’t expect. You know how most shonen shows give you that clean-cut hero with this big noble dream? Denji isn’t that. His dream is as raw and human as it gets—he just wants the basics: food, shelter, maybe a touch of affection. It’s so messy and almost pathetic on the surface, but that’s exactly why it gets under your skin. Because haven’t we all, at some point, wanted something so simple it almost feels embarrassing to admit out loud? That part of Denji stuck to me like gum on the sole of a shoe.

And then there is this gut-punch beat the show goes through--one minute you are laughing at Denji being an utter fool, the next minute the show cuts to something so bleak and sorrowful that you feel like your stomach has just dropped. That scene with [spoiler redacted unless you desire not to be spoiled]--I tell you I sat there and watched the screen silent after it was over--not simply because it was a shock, but because it was grief--and you could almost hear the silence in the room after. MAPPA did not pull any punches and you can question yourself why you ever believed that this would be another cool action anime.

But it’s not all bleak. Power—god, Power cracked me up. She is an anarchy with a human face, though also one of the few who provides Denji with something approaching a real relationship. I laughed outright at them because they were ridiculous in their sibling-like bickering. Even these little bits, such as a fight over food or making dumb promises, struck me more than even some of the bloody fight scenes because it was, after all, human. Dishevelled, noisy and oddly gentle.

Even the chainsaws or the gore, what lingers with me more is how the anime puts you in this predicament as you watch it: what does it take to live not to survive? Denji does not speak eloquently of it, he is not a philosopher, but you can feel that desire to live that hunger in him in every decision he makes, every offer he accepts. And it returns that question to yourself.

What I remember most is not even the chainsaws or the gore, it is how the anime makes you sit and ask yourself this question: what does it mean to really live, not just to survive? Denji is not eloquent about it, he is no philosopher and you feel that he has that hunger to live in all his decisions, all his deals. And it has you turn the same question on yourself.

Chainsaw Man was not a clean or comfortable movie to watch, it was jagged, funny, depressing, thrilling, and sometimes all of that at the same time in ten minutes. It was more like viewing an anime than like banging your head against the skull of a child who is desperately trying to find some bits of happiness in a cruel world. And that is why I will never get it out of my head.

Thumbnail is designed by me on pixelLab and other images are screenshot from the movie