by: Gen/Esis
Chainsaw Man is one of those series that is pretty out there. There’re quite a few series where the main character’s motivation is something as simple as getting together with someone, that’s nothing new. How does Chainsaw Man get around that? Well, Denji’s goal isn’t to get together with a girl necessarily—he just wants to touch boobs…
A heartstring-tugging motivation if I do say so myself.
In all seriousness, that’s something I always felt was Chainsaw Man’s strength, its weirdness mixed with genuine character. There’re a few series that can pull it off, maybe something like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure or DanDaDan, but Chainsaw Man does so almost seamlessly.
In episode two we get a better look at the mysterious woman that appeared in front of Denji at the end of episode one—Makima. Now, the more distrustful of you might see her personality as odd and a bright, glowing, red flag. And something tells me that her treating Denji as a dog really doesn’t help her in that department, but…well…I got nothing to say about that.
I’d keep an eye out for her too if I was in Denji’s situation, not that he could. Getting everything he ever wanted after having practically nothing blinds him from reality—or it’s more like he’s okay with ignoring it.
Through Denji’s interactions with Makima, we are shown more of Denji’s personality. Thinking about entirely different things while Makima is giving useful information, acting like a dog so she would feed him, among other things, really give him more character that, although it wasn’t entirely missing from the first episode, this one made him relatable (?) and at the very least makes you care for him.
Also, I guess I have Makima to thank for the countless people barking in comment sections of anything Chainsaw Man related. It’s…interesting to witness if anything else.
Anyway, the next character this episode focuses on is Aki Hayakawa, a Devil Hunter who’s been on the force for three years. The chemistry between him and Denji is made apparent almost immediately. They’re like brothers who are constantly fighting over small things—except their fights are over slightly bigger topics. Like the fact Hayakawa had to watch his entire family die in front of him.
Hayakawa’s motivation is evident even to Denji, who then proceeds to dismiss it. In this man’s mind, he was one priority—touching boobs. The deaths of the family of a guy he just met, and the revenge he wants, are secondary to that.
The last character introduced, and my personal favorite, is Power. She’s a boisterous rational devil who joins Denji as his partner for hunting devils.
A devil and a half-devil hunting devils is just great if you ask me. Fight fire with fire and whatnot.
She was only shown near the end so there wasn’t much else for her character, but her personality is more than clear right off the bat. Having her and Denji together makes for an interesting dynamic. While both have a bit of chaos to them, Denji is still the calmer of the two, but not by much. The short interactions were already fun, one could only imagine what other shenanigans they will get themselves in (I don’t really have to imagine since I’ve read the manga, but you get the point).
The plot is a little stagnant here, but it’s obvious that this episode was meant more for introductions than actual plot, and I’m all for that.
The animation is smooth, and the art is phenomenal. There’s really not much else you could ask for a series like this one. The few small fight scenes were well made and there was no bad CGI to be seen. I even enjoyed this new ending theme.
Not that the first one was bad, it just wasn’t clicking with me.
Either way, today’s episode was much better than the first. Less action and more character is right up my alley (Although if you could do both at the same time I’d say that’s pretty good too)
Overall Score: 8
Source by allagesofgeek.com
