JAPANAMERICA reader Fintan, 17, on what makes "Chainsaw Man" unique and the genius of MAPPA director Kikunosuke Toya

Hello everyone, I’m Fintan. I’m a high schooler in NYC and Roland was nice enough to let me make a contribution to the blog! This is a big topic and will take more than one posting, so I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts in future posts.

Anime and Manga have become increasingly popular in recent years, predominantly outside of Japan. From the perspective of an American teenager, I want to write about what I think it is that makes the medium so widely consumed. 

With "Chainsaw Man" having recently been adapted into its own anime, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about what makes it stand out from other shonen series. I often see people comparing "Chainsaw Man" to "Jujutsu Kaisen," as both are the most recently produced projects from MAPPA. "Chainsaw Man" has its fair share of classic shonen tropes: the main character being half human, half devil, a timid and “emo” best friend, and a sort of training arc at the beginning of the series. 

However, "Chainsaw Man" is much more unique than viewers may assume based on the 11 episodes we have so far. Without spoilers, I can say that "Chainsaw Man" is one nonstop ride of almost constant stimulation. Something is always going on that will keep your attention, and you barely have time to process what’s happening before the plot moves onto the next important moment. 

All "Chainsaw Man" manga can be read in almost a day, having many double page spreads and few words of dialogue across chapters. If you want to get ahead in the series before season 1 wraps up, I completely support the idea, but fair warning: be prepared to have a LOT thrown at you with little to no time to process. 

Personally, I'm happy with how MAPPA has been adapting "Chainsaw Man." We need to take into consideration how many other projects they're working on at the moment, and appreciate that we're even getting a "Chainsaw Man" anime at all. 

As far as the directing choices go, I'm also satisfied. It's hard to capture the story's fast-paced nature and turn it into 22-minute long episodes, but MAPPA has done a good job at moving it along at a reasonably comparable pace. The criticism of Kikunosuke Toya is also unjust in my opinion. He does an excellent job capturing Denji's unhinged personality, especially in scenes where he cackles and screams during a fight. 

While I agree that some of the comedy from the manga gets lost in the anime, I feel that the overall nature and themes of "Chainsaw Man" have been well adapted, and that Tatsuki Fujimoto's intentions with the series haven't been lost.