Nov 13, 2020
I really dislike leaving reviews for things still in progress, but I do want to give an actual assessment of this, in hopes people will get a better idea of what's they'll be getting into. When it's done, I might edit this if any of my feelings change.
EDIT: While none of my feelings have really changed from when I originally posted this, I definitely get the impression that things will be better for future parts.
Your enjoyment of Chainsaw Man is going to hinge on how much you enjoy seeing (typically, large scale) balls to walls action with copious amounts of gore. Anything else is meant
...
to further the action, or at least getting there. If that sounds fun to you, then you'll enjoy Chainsaw Man. Otherwise, you're probably going to walk away thinking "Wow, that was the edgiest thing I have read in my life", especially considering it has a notable amount of raunchiness. This isn't to say that the other elements are bad, or even lacking, but it's really nothing that any other shounen aren't already doing on a same, or better level.
Art:
Chainsaw Man's art is really good. I think it does a good job with showing action, and I think the sketchier look helps with the monster design. I think Chainsaw Man's art best shines when it's in black and white pages-- not that the colored artwork is bad, but there's a few details I caught onto that don't translate too well to a colored space.
Don't really have much to say about the human designs, most just wear suits with a couple of accessories separating them from someone else, which might cause you to confuse characters with each others, but outside of that, the artist does a great job with expressions. Monster designs can range from kickass (Antagonist of the international assassins arc) to "Hahaha what the fuck, that's so stupid" (Gun Devil), but most tend to lean on the passable design side.
Story:
An easy Okay/10 from me. Not offensively bad, but nothing too stand out either. If you have read at least a few shounen before, you'll quickly pick up on story beats and how they'll play out. Things move at a breakneck pace, so props to Chainsaw Man for usually doing the minimal amount of dicking around, before getting right back into the action. There's a few tropes that irk me, but it's things to be expected from the genre as a whole, and isn't exclusive to Chainsaw Man (See: Asspulls save the day). Not sure where else to put this, but the raunchiness annoyed me more than I found it funny, which is usually used for comedy.
Again, the story definitely is more just a vehicle to get to the action rather than an actual story, so I think from that perspective, it works pretty well. Just nothing to seriously get invested in.
EDIT: Would like to take this moment as to say I liked the somber scene at the end. It doesn't change my general feelings on the writing, but I wanted to make mention of my favorite scene.
Characters:
I did not care for any of them, and I definitely consider this the weakest element of Chainsaw Man. Denji is our protagonist who is a hedonistic jackass: Understandable given his circumstances, but even then I really couldn't get behind him, seeing as it fucks him over a couple of times, yet he doesn't stop at any time to think "Hm, my hedonism causes problems for me". He doesn't really develop as a character, so much as his standards just change.
Makima just acts suspicious until you find out her deal, and until then she's there to cater to anyone with a femdom fetish. Really nothing to say here without spoilers, so just know my feelings are "Eh" when factoring in spoilers.
Power is literally just Zero Two from Darling in the Franxx with the personality of Harley Quinn. I don't need that in my life, but you might. No shame if you do.
Aki is your Sasuke. Or Todoroki if you didn't see Naruto. Emo dude that warms up to the protag.
Any other characters aren't there long enough for me to have any serious opinions on them.
Conclusion:
While I didn't enjoy Chainsaw Man, I'm also not the audience for Chainsaw Man. I enjoy more story/character focused manga, and I want my action more as a story element than the main thing, and I can enjoy a story without it. So if that sounds like you as well, you can consider this is an easy skip.
If you are someone who enjoys reading manga for bombastic action, or you just want something to turn your brain off to and see some action with cool demons, then yeah, definitely check this out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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