by: Gen/Esis
Episode 1 of Chainsaw Man, unlike with most, didn’t resonate much with me. I felt like it was simple and there just wasn’t much going on overall—nothing that we hadn’t seen before. But let me tell you, if you have a good fight scene, great character interactions, well-done development, cats, and Power (as in the character), then you have a great third episode.
As I said in my last review, Power is one of my favorite characters in Chainsaw Man. Her personality and interactions with Denji are great, and this episode was especially filled with that kind of thing. Her preference for cats over humans very much adds to that sentiment (And I’m totally not biased as a cat owner myself).
And like the prior episode with Aki and Denji, we are quickly given Power’s motivation for being a Devil Hunter. That is, rescuing her cat from a Devil. A valiant motivation in my opinion and a pretty standard one compared to Denji’s “touch boobs” motivation. A motivation that in this episode is used to drag Denji into helping Power.
This episode really served to add to what we already know about Denji—he will do anything to achieve his goal. But that in itself carries a lot more weight, especially seeing that he has already achieved his first main goal of being well off.
Although touching boobs is the motivation in the foreground, the bigger deal here is his relationship with Makima. Apart from the fact she’s threatened Denji with death if he were to leave the force, it’s the fact that she knows she has him wrapped around her finger that makes her more menacing, and especially tragic for Denji.
But anyway, within this Power centric episode we were also given an interesting piece of information about the world. It is revealed that a devil’s strength is based on the fear people have over their name. Like the example Makima gave, people wouldn’t be too scared of a devil named the coffee devil, so they probably wouldn’t be too strong.
That brings into question, what about a chainsaw. Chainsaws can be pretty scary, and Denji is exactly that.
I think that the existence of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” alone, which I’m assuming exists in this universe, is enough to make Denji about as strong as one could hope him to be. And it seems like that is a correct assessment (Not necessarily because of the movie though…)
The last few minutes of the episode revolve around Denji vs the bat devil. Now really pissed off, the reason of which I will leave out due to spoilers, Denji goes all out against the bat devil.
What’s interesting here is how Denji is shown to have sympathy toward Power and her cat. Obviously, having lost Pochita in episode one, Denji knows what it feels like to love a pet so much, then have it ripped away.
It seems that as long as he can relate to a person’s feelings, he feels sympathy toward them. Which really gives his reaction toward Aki’s story, or more accurately how he blew it off, make more sense.
Just a little more character added to Denji.
Once again, the CGI comes out after taking a break last episode.
This time, it is much better.
Granted, I’m still not a big fan of it (and probably never will) but the integration of it in this episode, and the fact they mixed In a few 2d stuff as well, made this fight scene a whole lot more enjoyable. Certain parts are still a little wonky, but it’s a clear improvement over episode 1 where it felt really stiff.
MAPPA obviously know what they’re doing. The art is phenomenal every episode and it really captures the magic of the manga and even elevates it in many parts. No complaints in the voice acting department and the adaptation continued to be as faithful as it can be—always a huge positive from me!
The ending theme this week was pretty solid too. I really wonder why I didn’t enjoy the first one. I might have to go back and relisten to it. At this point, I feel like I might’ve missed something.
Overall Score: 8
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